they saw it and no one cares.
“Sun comes up, they’ll be out. They’ll call authorities. People will ask questions.”
I listened to his statements and didn’t disagree with any of them. After a moment, I realized that they were connected to a line of thought, and I said, “It’s time to go.”
“Aye, soon,” Ebenezar said.
“You never told me, sir,” I said.
He was quiet for a long moment. Then he said, “I’ve done things in my life, Hoss. Bad things. I’ve made enemies. I didn’t want you to have them, too.” He sighed. “At least . . . not until you were ready.” He looked around at the remains of the Red Court. “Reckon you more or less are.”
I thought about that while the sky grew lighter. Then I said, “How did Arianna know?”
Ebenezar shook his head. “A dinner. Maggie—my Maggie—asked me to a dinner. She’d just taken up with that Raith bastard. Arianna was there. Maggie didn’t warn me. They had some scheme they wanted my support on. The vampires thought I was just Maggie’s mentor, then.” He sighed. “I wanted nothing to do with it. Said she shouldn’t want it, either. And we fought.”
I grunted. “Fought like family.”
“Yes,” he said. “Raith missed it. He’s never had any family that was sane. Arianna saw it. Filed it away for future reference.”
“Is everything in the open now?” I asked.
“Everything’s never in the open, son,” he responded. “There’re things we keep hidden from one another. Things we hide from ourselves. Things that are kept hidden from us. And things no one knows. You always learn the damnedest things at the worst possible times. Or that’s been my experience.”
I nodded.
“Sergeant Murphy told me what happened.”
I felt my neck tense. “She saw it?”
He nodded. “Reckon so. Hell of a hard thing to do.”
“It wasn’t hard,” I said quietly. “Just cold.”
“Oh, Hoss,” he said. There was more compassion in the words than you’d think would fit there.
Figures in grey gathered at the bottom of the stairs. Ebenezar eyed them with a scowl. “Time for me to go, looks like.”
I nudged my brain and looked down at them. “You brought them here. For me.”
“Not so much,” he said. He nodded at the sleeping child. “For her.”
“What about the White Council?”
“They’ll get things sorted out soon,” he said. “Amazing how things fell apart just long enough for them to sit them out.”
“With Cristos running it.”
“Aye.”
“He’s Black Council,” I said.
“Or maybe stupid,” Ebenezar countered.
I thought about it. “Not sure which is scarier.”
Ebenezar blinked at me, then snorted. “Stupid, Hoss. Every time. Only so many blackhearted villains in the world, and they only get uppity on occasion. Stupid’s everywhere, every day.”
“How’d Lea arrange a signal with you?” I asked.
“That,” Ebenezar said sourly. “On that score, Hoss, I think our elders ran their own game on us.”
“Elders?”
He nodded down the stairs, where the tall figure with the metal-headed staff had begun creating another doorway out of green lightning. Once it was formed, the space beneath the arch shimmered, and all the hooded figures at the bottom of the stairs looked up at us.
I frowned and looked closer. Then I realized that the metal head of the staff was a blade, and that the tall man was holding a spear. Within the hood, I saw a black eye patch, a grizzled beard, and a brief, grim smile. He raised the spear to me in a motion that reminded me, somehow, of a fencer’s salute. Then he turned and vanished into the gate. One by one, the other figures in grey began to follow him.
“Vadderung,” I said.
Ebenezar grunted. “That’s his name this time. He doesn’t throw in often. When he does, he goes to the wall. And in my experience, it means things are about to get bad.” He pursed his lips. “He doesn’t give recognition like that lightly, Hoss.”
“I talked to him a couple of days ago,” I said. “He told me about the curse. Put the gun in my hand for me and showed me where to point it.”
Ebenezar nodded. “He taught Merlin, you know. The original Merlin.”
“How’d Merlin make out?” I asked.
“No one’s sure,” Ebenezar said. “But from his journals . . . he wasn’t the kind to go in his sleep.”
I snorted.
The old man stood and used his right hand to pull his hood up over his face. He paused and then looked at me. “I won’t lecture you about Mab, boy. I’ve made bargains myself, sometimes.” He twitched his left hand, which was still lined with black veins,