he slurred. “I have things under control.”
Linus shared a worried glance with Clem. “All the same, I would like to treat you.”
“Okay.” Eyes drifting shut, he leaned against the wall. “Do your worst.”
There wasn’t much Linus could do for a head injury, but he granted Boaz temporary energy and clarity of thought. It ought to be enough to get him into a guestroom at Woolworth House before the fog descended again.
“Thanks,” Boaz grunted as he came to attention. “My brain feels much less like soup.”
“Glad to hear it.” He located Clem. “Can you guide Boaz out?”
“On it.” Clem led him to the vent. “Keep hold of my ankle, okay?”
“I’ve seen enough of your flat ass to last me a lifetime.”
“Better you run into my ass than that metal door if it got triggered after we left.”
Grumbling reluctant agreement, he toddled after Clem, and they began their crawl.
“I’m going to use this rope to make a harness.” Linus secured his mother with gentle hands. “I’ll have to back through the vent to ensure I can reach you if you’re in distress.”
“Tell me one thing,” she said drowsily, making him wonder how long she had been awake. “The baby?”
“You haven’t missed the birth.” The gender he would leave to Grier to reveal. “There’s still time.”
“Good,” she murmured. “That’s good.”
After giving her one last quick exam, he checked his ropework twice. “The glamour was yours, I take it?”
“Boaz provided the location.” Her eyes drifted closed. “I didn’t have time to do much more than conceal the entrance.”
An exit door was a risk she wouldn’t have taken, had the pain not clouded her mind. A blank wall was much safer, and it invited less examination. Then again, that might have been the point. She might have decided the risk of giving them away to their enemies was worth a quicker rescue from their allies.
“Had there not been a familiar essence to the work,” he confessed, “I might not have noticed it.”
The weight of the magic, paired with the strain on her body, dragged her under, and he was glad. This was going to be awkward and painful, and it was for the best if she was conscious for as little of it as possible.
As imposing as her personality loomed, she weighed nothing in his arms, and he was reminded of her age as he hauled her thin frame into the vent after him. Their relationship would never be what it could have been, but he could do better. She could too. Maybe, like him, she had to learn how to express her affection, how to be present, how to let go of the past.
He could imagine no better teacher for her than Grier, and no better time than now, with LJ’s birth, for them to get started.
Love for her grandson might unbend his mother, enable them to have the relationship Grier experienced with Maud. That was his unspoken wish for his son, that his mother show LJ he was loved in ways that left the boy certain of his place in her heart. Not aware of his value as a pawn.
“You are not hard on the eyes in reverse.” Adelaide chuckled behind him. “Do you need help?”
“I can manage,” Linus said, flustered, “but thank you.”
All the same, Corbin guided Linus’s feet onto the floor and helped him extract his mother and settle her onto his lap where he began untying the harness.
“You didn’t say nice things about my butt,” Boaz grumped. “All I got was a view of Clem’s pancake ass.”
“Leave me and my butt out of this.” Clem helped Adelaide ease Boaz into a seated position. “It’s not my fault your eyes are still crossed.”
Chuckling, Corbin kept out of their conversation, but the camaraderie between the three was clear.
As was often the case, his mother had been right to draft Corbin into the sentinels. They were providing him with an anchor, a kinship, outside of Grier. One that could last him the whole of his immortality should he choose.
“Hush.” Adelaide sat next to Boaz. “You don’t need to get worked up over nothing.”
“I knew you would save me.” Boaz leaned against her. “You always do.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” She didn’t fuss about his weight, just wrapped her arms around him. “You’re half out of your mind.”
“That doesn’t change the facts.” He buried his face in her throat. “I love you, Addie.”
“I know.” She kissed his cheek. “Try telling me when you’re not concussed, you big oaf.”
With Cletus mingling in the