Relieved at not having to argue, Mikhail said, “If this is aimed at me, whoever is behind it might not know I now have a mate. But I won’t risk counting on that knowledge not being out yet. I need to know she is safe before I return to retrieve that Stone if I can. Would you invite Bird over, or think up some excuse to visit her?”
“I’d be glad to do that,” Joey said. “What do I tell her?”
“The truth, of course, but try not to make her worry. We’re still so new to one another—there has not been time enough to introduce her to everything in my past. I believe she thinks of me as a scholar. Though she saw me fight off the lava wyrms a while ago, I don’t think it has sunk in that what I do for the empress is often dangerous. I need to get this resolved fast. Time for me to be active, take the battle to the enemy, before they can form and execute another plan.”
“I’m glad to help,” Joey said, brow furrowed. To Mikhail’s vision, nine fox tails lashed in and out of the mythic realm. “But I confess I’d feel better coming as backup.”
“You’re good in a fight, but not a fighter. An Oracle Stone turning up after millennia really requires me to call on the Guardians.”
Joey grimaced.
Mikhail sighed. “Is this beyond personal? Has Cang done anything untoward? I haven’t heard anything to his detriment, and quite a bit in his favor since he was exiled here. If he hasn’t done anything wrong, I’d like to offer him this chance to retrieve his honor.”
“Very well,” Joey relented. “And your second favor?”
“To introduce me to someone whose profession it is to arrange the acquisition of a house.”
Joey’s smile was wicked. “You mean a real estate agent?”
“That.”
“Nothing easier. Unlike your mission—but you know how I feel about Cang. However, this is your task, and you know your personnel better than I do. Be fast, be well.” Joey poured out more Bai Jiu, and once again raised it. “To your endeavor. Gan bei!”
Clack! They emptied their cups.
Now, we hunt! bugled Mikhail’s dragon.
THIRTEEN
BIRD
Bird’s spirits soared.
At a time of life when she had given up the possibility of finding love, it had come to her, better and brighter and deeper than she had ever imagined, with a man she looked forward to spending a lifetime getting to know. She had found her children again. And now her daughter had come to her as someone who cared, whom she could talk to, whom she could trust. Her life, so parched for so long, overflowed with all the permutations of love, which filled her with wonder and gratitude.
She could not stop smiling as she poured out Mikhail’s excellent tea.
Bec drank it down as if it were water as she worked through her temper with wild talk of suing her father for those accounts. “It’ll be my last act before I give up the law!”
Bird listened with sympathy, knowing that Bec wouldn’t sue him. Though she hadn’t seen him for nearly thirty years, Bird had learned something of Bartholomew
third-hand through her children’s words these past few months. Once his own temper cooled, he would very likely cave in favor of his children, if pressed between his parents and what Skater and Bec wanted.
Bec’s mentions of her grandparents (“They still call me Rebecca, when I asked them to call me Bec when I was thirteen years old! I even legally changed it, but nooo, Rebecca is a proper name. It’s the same with Skater, who had to fight off being called Bart the Fart, and Bart Simpson, through every single year at that prep school . . .”) made it clear that Bird had guessed right. They were the ones pushing for an upscale lifestyle that neither of Bird’s children was interested in.
“We’ll find a way,” Bird said. “I’ve got a lot of friends in town. I can promise this, Skater will have a lovely wedding, even if it’s not fancy.”
“He doesn’t want fancy,” Bec mumbled, wiping her eyes. “He wants nice. He and Dalisay deserve nice.”
“I agree. As for the rest, give your father time to cool down.”
“Father,” Bec grumbled as she headed toward the door. “At least he didn’t insist we call him Pater, the way half the kids in that boarding school had to address their paternal units. Thanks for listening, Mom! I’ll tell Skater everything you said.”
With a kiss on the cheek and a wave, she was gone.
Bird began tidying the kitchen, wondering whom she could talk to about arranging pretty, but cheap, weddings. Doris would be the one to ask, she thought—
And her phone rang, this time the general ringtone. She let it go to voicemail in case it was a scam call. But the caller was Joey Hu, Mikhail’s friend from the university.