“Well, how was I to know that?” I grumbled. I glanced at my watch. “We’d better get moving—”
I’d barely said it when he stepped close, caught me in his arms, and whisked me through the glorious brightness that was his gray fields. We re-formed in the small dark chamber next to the feeding room. The smell of antiseptic was thick in the air, catching in my throat and making me cough. They’d obviously just cleaned up after a session. I closed my eyes for a moment, grateful to have at least missed that, then turned to face the camera and held up my watch.
“Here on time, as ordered,” I said, though I wasn’t sure if they would hear me or were even watching. I turned around and faced Azriel. “You’d better go release Jak, hadn’t you?”
“Will you be all right in this place alone?”
“I’m hardly alone. I have Amaya, remember.”
“True.” He still looked doubtful, however.
I sighed. “I’ll be fine. Just don’t forget to give Jak all the appropriate memories.”
“He will get what he requires.”
I snorted softly. “We were seen dancing, Azriel. Include that—all of that.”
He just gave me his inscrutable face. Which meant, I was beginning to suspect, Screw you. I’ll do what I want. “We still need his help, Azriel, whether you like it or not.”
He inclined his head slightly, but again, I couldn’t really tell whether it was agreement. “I won’t be long,” he said, and disappeared again.
I plopped down on the chair, and after a few minutes of twiddling my thumbs, dug out my phone and rang Ilianna.
“Do you know what fucking time it is?” she mumbled by way of hello.
“Yep,” I said cheerfully. “But I figure if I’m up, you should be, too.”
“Karma will bite your ass for this,” she muttered.
“Karma already has,” I said. “Trust me, sleep and I haven’t exactly been steady companions over the last couple of days. How’s Tao?”
“Improving,” she said. “His core temperature continues to come down, and he’s finally starting to put weight back on.”
“But he hasn’t woken yet?”
“No.” She paused, and soft steps echoed. I was being taken into the bathroom, I suspected. Guess that’s what I got for waking her at an ungodly hour. “But we don’t think it’ll be too long before he does.”
“Fabulous. But I didn’t only ring for that.”
“I’m glad,” she said dryly. “Or I would have had to clip you around the ears next time I see you.”
I grinned. “Even with the threefold rule?”
The threefold rule was a witch belief that whatever you put out into the world—be it positive or negative—would return to you threefold. Very few witches chanced doing the latter, and with good reason. I’d seen what happened to a witch who cast evil, and it hadn’t been pretty. Of course, I’d played a part in her downfall, but then, she had been trying to kill me, and it was thanks to one of her creatures that Tao lay unconscious.
“That rule doesn’t apply when it involves those who maliciously wake their friends in the wee hours of the morning.”
I laughed, but the sound died on my lips as the ghosts in the other room began to moan. I closed my eyes briefly. God, another session was about to start. I swallowed heavily, and somehow said, “Listen, can you give me Adeline Greenfield’s number?”
“Sure,” she said, worry suddenly in her tone. “But why?”
“Because she said last time I saw her that I had more of Mom’s talents than I suspected—”
“Which is something I’ve been saying for years.”
“And,” I continued, ignoring her, “I need her to teach me how to contact ghosts.”
“But you can already see ghosts. It’s part of the reason you hate hospitals.”