a puff of magic pushed Malcolm back a few feet. “Though it can be developed, given time. We don’t have time for unnecessary coddling or circumspection. If we’re going to the Underworld, we need to know each other’s skills and abilities—and limitations.”
“But apparently you’re not including yourself in that, are you?” Malcolm retorted. “You want to know everything about us, but you’re going to keep all your secrets. We’ve seen how good you are with that sword. Where’s the other one, Ronan?”
Ronan stilled.
“Yeah, we know about that.” Malcolm floated back and forth. “So, where’s your second sword?”
Expressionless, Ronan turned to me. “You could wander through the Underworld for a century without finding Edis while the Erinyes slaughter thousands here and in your own world.” His voice was colder and more remote than on the night we’d met at Hawthorne’s. “Either follow me to them now, or I’ll leave and you can make your own way.”
“Why are you willing to go with us?” I asked. “Because Daisy and Torryn said you should?”
A muscle moved in his jaw. “In a way, yes. I have no more desire to see my—the Erinyes kill those Mariela has identified as her enemies than you do.”
“And?” I prompted.
“I have unfinished business in Edis. Apparently, I’m meant to return and settle matters.” He jerked his head toward Lucy’s jeep. “We need to pack for the journey and hide our vehicles.”
“My jeep has a tracking device,” Lucy told him as we hurried back to the road. “We’ll have to disconnect it. If I don’t report in, they’ll come looking for me.”
“I’ll take care of the tracking device,” Ronan said.
“If the League, the Brotherhood, or anyone else finds that door before we make it back, they’ll shut it behind us,” she added. “And I don’t know about you all, but I don’t know how to open another one from that side.”
“I have a thought about that,” I said.
While Lucy and Ronan focused on hiding her jeep and his motorcycle, I took my backpack and returned to the clearing with Malcolm, Daisy, and my cat-dragon.
I set the strongest blood wards I could make on the doorway, using the ley line to keep them powered and hopefully impervious to the magic flares. The wards wouldn’t stop Mariela from coming through, or any of us, but at least no more shades or gravelings would escape topside.
When the wards were done, I got to my feet. No sense beating around the bush. “Malcolm, I need you to stay behind and guard the door.”
“No freaking way.” He flitted in place. “How the hell could you even ask me that?”
“Because we have no choice.” I touched his arm. “If someone manages to find this place and shuts that door, we’ll be trapped on the other side. Someone has to make sure that doesn’t happen. And if Mariela gets back to the door before we do, someone will have to be here to know about it and go for help to keep her from getting back to our world. It has to be you who stays. You are the last person I want to leave behind, but you’re the only person I trust in any world to do those things.”
He said nothing, but his fury scoured me.
“I can’t make this suck any less,” I told him. “I hate the thought of leaving you here—I hate it with every fiber of my being. You won’t be any safer than us. I have no idea what might come this way. If you can think of a different solution, tell me. I would love there to be another way, because the thought of going without you makes me want to throw up.”
His shoulders slumped. “Damn it, Alice.”
Despite everything, I had to smile. “If I had a quarter for every time you or Sean said that, I’d have a mountain of change.”
He smiled too. “It does seem to happen a lot.” The smile faded. “I will keep that door open, no matter what. If Mariela does come through it before you get back, what do I do?”
“Find the closest League outpost and tell them. We’ll find out from Lucy where that is.” I hesitated. “It wouldn’t be so bad for you to stay here. Your magic isn’t as disrupted by the natural magic here as mine, and all the ambient power will keep you from going wraith for a long, long time.”
“You mean if you don’t come back.” His voice was deceptively neutral.
“Yes. We have to think about that possibility