I’d unlocked the personality he’d taken on under some of his former owners, he’d nearly killed me.
“The Wardens destroyed it, of course,” she said.
No, they hadn’t. Justin DuMorne, former Warden, hadn’t destroyed the skull. He’d smuggled it from Kemmler’s lab and kept it in his own—until I’d burned him to death, and taken it from him in turn.
“It was just too much power under too little restraint. And it’s entirely possible that the Archive could become a similar threat on a far larger scale. I know you care about the child, Harry. But you had to be warned. You might not be doing her any favors by acting like her friend.”
“Who’s acting?” I said. “Where is she?”
“We’ve been keeping her asleep,” Luccio said, “until you or Kincaid got here.”
“I get it,” I said. “You don’t think I should get close to her. Unless you’re worried about what’s going to happen when you wake her up and she’s really scared and confused.”
Luccio’s cheeks flushed and she looked away. “I don’t have all the answers, Dresden. I just have concerns.”
I sighed.
“Whatever,” I said. “Let me see her.”
Luccio led me into Murph’s guest bedroom. Ivy looked very tiny in the double bed. I sat down beside her, and Luccio leaned over to gently rest her hand on Ivy’s head. She murmured something and drew her hand away.
Ivy let out a small whimper and then blinked her eyes open, suddenly hyperventilating. She looked around wildly, her eyes wide, and let out a small cry.
“Easy, easy,” I said gently. “Ivy, it’s all right. You’re safe.”
She sobbed and flung herself tight against me.
I hugged her. I just rocked her gently and hugged her while she cried and cried.
Luccio watched me, her eyes compassionate and sad.
After a long while Ivy whispered, “I got your letter. Thank you.”
I squeezed a little.
“They did things to me,” she said.
“I know,” I said quietly. “Been there. But I was all right after a while. You’re going to be all right. It’s over.”
She hugged me some more, and cried herself back to sleep.
I looked up at Luccio and said, “You still want me to push her away? You want her baseline to be what she shared with those animals?”
Luccio frowned. “The Senior Council—”
“Couldn’t find its heart if it had a copy of Grey’s Anatomy, X-ray vision, and a stethoscope,” I said. “No. They can lay down the law about magic. But they aren’t telling me who I’m allowed to befriend.”
She looked at me for a long moment, and then a slow smile curled up one side of her mouth. “Morgan told them you’d say that. So did McCoy and Listens-to-Wind. The Merlin wouldn’t hear it.”
“The Merlin doesn’t like to hear anything that doesn’t fit into his view of the world,” I said. “Japanese.”
“Excuse me?”
“Japanese. There’s a Japanese steakhouse I go to sometimes to celebrate. Surviving this mess qualifies. Come with me, dinner tomorrow. The teriyaki is to die for.”
She smiled more broadly and inclined her head once.
The door opened, and Murphy and Kincaid arrived. Kincaid was moving under his own power, though very gingerly, and with the aid of a walking stick. I got out of the way, and he came over to settle down next to Ivy. She woke up enough to murmur something about cookies and a Happy Meal. He settled down on the bed beside her, and she pressed up against his arm before settling down to rest again. Kincaid, evidently exhausted himself, drew a gun, took the safety off, placed it on his chest, and went to sleep too.
“It’s cute,” I whispered to Murphy. “He has a teddy Glock.”
She was looking at Kincaid and Ivy with a decidedly odd expression. She shook her head a little, blinked up at me, and said, “Hmm. Oh, hah, very funny. I had your car dug out of the snow, by the way.”
I blinked at her. “Thank you.”
“Got your keys?”
“Yeah.”
“Give you a ride to it,” she said.
“Groovy.”
We took off.
Once we were in the car and moving, Murphy said, “I like Luccio.”
“Yeah?”
“But she’s all wrong for you.”
“Uh-huh,” I said.
“You come from different worlds. And she’s your boss. There are secrets you have to keep from her. That’s going to make things difficult. And there are other issues that could come up.”
“Wait,” I said. I mimed cleaning out my ears. “Okay, go ahead. Because for a second there, it sounded like you were giving me relationship advice.”
Murphy gave me a narrow, oblique look. “No offense, Dresden. But if you want to compare total hours