waved goodnight, I brushed my teeth in her small bathroom and sacked out on the purple couch in her “sitting room,” which turned out to be surprisingly comfortable despite its fancy appearance. Or maybe I was just so tired and achy that I didn’t notice otherwise.
The nightmare started as it always did: I was in the tunnel, alone this time, and the wraiths and remnants packed the walls, far more than there had been in real life. I wanted to turn and run, but an invisible force dragged me forward as the wraiths reached hungrily toward me and everything was on fire—
I jolted awake when Beau shook my shoulder. Usually the dream progressed a little further before I started screaming. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled, disoriented. I felt my cheeks redden. I knew I should have stayed awake.
“Lex.” Beau’s voice was heavy, and he hadn’t called me “Miss.”
I squinted up at him. Light was spilling into the room from the hallway, but it was still dark outside. A lot darker than it should have been, just before dawn. There was a bleakness to his face that I hadn’t seen before, and I finally realized that this wasn’t about my nightmare. “Beau? What happened? How long was I out?”
“About four hours.” That made it about an hour until dawn. “I’ve been checking in with my Horsemen,” Beau continued. “Hempstead stopped answering two hours ago. I’ve just returned from his house.”
Oh, no. “Was he . . .”
Beau’s eyes were desolate. “He’s gone.”
Chapter 31
Hempstead, Beau explained, owned a house just outside Atlanta. He’d cleared it of bottles after Beau’s call earlier, but he must have missed one. “As near as I can tell,” Beau said, “it was on a bookshelf, hidden behind the books.”
“I’m so sorry.”
He shook his head, sitting down next to me on the couch. I swung my legs down to make room for him. It was surprisingly intimate. I thought about putting a hand on his shoulder, but that seemed too far.
“Our attempts to defuse the situation didn’t work,” Beau said. “I’m getting Odessa and the other Horsemen out of town tonight. I can’t risk losing anyone else.” He gave me a direct look. “I think you and your friend should go home too.”
“Fuck no,” I said, standing up. “We’re close to figuring out who’s doing this.”
He gave me a sad smile. “Are we?”
“We’ve narrowed down the possibilities, and we’re getting protection against the spirit bottles,” I argued. “That’s a damned good start.”
He tilted his head, acknowledging the point. “But, Lex, I can’t risk you either. If something else happens to you, I’ll lose everything anyway.”
I made a face. “One more day,” I told him. “I’ll do some more asking around. Give us tonight to find whoever’s doing this, and we can go home tomorrow.”
He was still for a long moment, thinking it over, but then he bobbed his head. “I’ll have Maya get you and Tobias plane tickets for tomorrow,” he said. “But I’m still sending Odessa away. Before sunset, if I can manage it.”
That was probably a good idea anyway. “Deal.”
Despite this news, and the pain in my wrist, I fell asleep again after he left, positioned awkwardly on the couch. My body was just too exhausted to plague me.
The next thing I heard was an annoyingly cheerful chirp. “Hey, sleepyhead!”
“Mmph.” I cracked one eyelid open. Judging by the light, it was shortly after dawn, and Odessa was leaning over the back of the couch and grinning at me.
“It’s seven forty-five,” she said brightly. “Becca will be here pretty soon, and I need to go out and feed the horses.”
She was already dressed: jeans, a canvas work shirt that looked like it’d come from Neiman Marcus, and tall black boots that had more in common with galoshes than the cowboy boots she’d had on the other night. She wore the same silver and gold rings on her fingers as the night before, with simple diamond studs in her ears. It was awfully put together for this time of day.
“Ugh, you went to bed when I did,” I grumbled. “How are you this awake?”
She shrugged, still smiling. “What can I say? I’m the rare teenage morning person.”
“Basically a unicorn,” I said with a yawn. “Is there coffee?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t drink it,” she said, looking contrite. “Some of the maids do, but I wouldn’t know where they keep it. I can get you some tea? I was going to make a cup anyway.”