The potion had put color back in her cheeks. Now her eyes glittered. “All in.”
“Arguing wastes time, so we move, and we move by priority.”
“If you taught me the spell, we could split up, cover more ground in less time.”
“No, we stick together, get planted what we can with as little movement as possible. The more movement, the more chance of hitting some alarm I didn’t see, or running into a guard. So we flash, flash. It’ll be a little rough on you, Hannah, but I can’t risk leaving you here.”
“I can deal.”
“Going to have to.” She took Hannah’s hand, nodded.
* * *
Twenty minutes later, Hannah sat down heavily on Fallon’s bed. Then she gave up, lay back on it. “I’m okay. A little shaky. And that was amazing. All of it. I’ve been inside the White House and helped plant magickal bugs. Can we have a whole bunch of wine now?”
“Which is why we came over in the first place,” Tonia remembered. “Look, Fallon, I know you probably want to get all this to Chuck, but the fact is, Hargrove and whoever’s sharing his bed were tucked in for the night, the rest of the rooms we hit were empty and locked up. They even secure the kitchen at night. Let’s have a drink to stealthy girls who just infiltrated the freaking White House.”
All good points, Fallon conceded. “Okay. First thing in the morning’s soon enough.” She led the way out to her own war room, got a bottle of wine from storage, some glasses. “It doesn’t feel as if anyone’s home yet.”
“They wouldn’t be,” Hannah told her. “Your parents were going over to our place, a bunch of them were. Your mom said we should come over here, talk you out of working tonight.”
On a laugh, Tonia took the bottle, poured liberally. “Didn’t manage that, did we? Is it always like that when you go somewhere through the crystal?”
“No. It’s usually more like sliding into a pool—a really deep pool. But with this, I needed a big punch to get through the barriers there.”
“Definitely a big punch.” Hannah drank deep.
“Your eyes rolled back, then…” Grinning, Tonia drew her hand down in a slow curve. “Actually, you even faint gracefully. It’s annoying.”
“It’s class. All class.” Dropping down in a chair, Hannah sighed, drank again. “I’ve never been a part of anything like what we did tonight. It’s exciting.”
“You’ve been in battle,” Fallon pointed out. “Treating wounded. And kicking PWs in the balls.”
“It’s different. You don’t think, you just act. You do what you’ve trained to do. But this? You have to think, every second, about what you’re doing, what’s around you instead of how to stop the bleeding or set a bone. And the magicks. I’m around it all the time, obviously, but I’ve never been in it, not so, you know, intimately. It’s the only time, other than now and then when I watch what the healers can do, I’ve wished I had some of that.”
“You’re a doctor,” Tonia said. “Saving lives, easing pain, that’s your magick. And it’s awesome.”
“I saw you.” Fallon spoke quietly. “On the night Petra attacked, when her twisted parents attacked. I saw you below, covering someone with your own body. You’re a doctor, and a warrior.”
“Ball-kicking warrior.”
“I didn’t have a sword on me at the time. Thanks. Anyway, I didn’t mean it to sound like I’m jealous. Maybe I had some moments when we were kids—”
“Mommy! Boo-hoo! Tonia’s making the puppy fly again.”
On a huff, Hannah rolled her eyes. “I was six.”
“Seven.”
“Whatever. And you weren’t supposed to fly the puppy.”
“He liked it.”
“So you say. Anyway.” Hannah exaggerated the word as she gestured with her glass. “As an NM, I can tell you I’ve observed that magick’s fun, and powerful, and important. But it’s also a heavy responsibility. I’m happy not to carry it. The two of you were born to carry it. I think—no, I absolutely know—I was born to be a doctor. I think about my birth mother sometimes. You must think of Max sometimes, Fallon.”
“Yes. I thought of him tonight.”
“Like Duncan and Tonia, and their father. Maybe tonight especially. When I think of her, I feel sure she was meant to survive long enough to bring me into the world. It had to be terrible for her, for all of them, but she survived until I could live. And Mom was there, right there, Rachel and Jonah, all right there, and I believe that was meant,