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Then came today's messages.
I would like to discuss the situation with you. Any slight last night was unintentional. Call me at your earliest convenience.
Yep, not exactly "Hey, buddy, give me a shout," but for Gabriel this was uncharacteristically considerate. Sending three versions of that message meant Gabriel was bending over backward to apologize.
Which made Ricky feel all the shittier for doing exactly what Gabriel feared. He wanted to pretend he never got the messages. Return them later.
Whoops, totally missed those. Bad service, you know. Everything's fine now. The problem is resolved. Liv's safe and happy, and we've left town.
This was definitely one of those times when Ricky wished he could be that guy. The irresponsible young biker, not self aware enough to know better. Just in it for kicks, hanging out with his hot girlfriend and having fun, consequences be damned. After all, YOLO. Which was a fucking stupid motto. You did only live once, so you really shouldn't be in a hurry to end it by doing something dumb.
While Liv changed her clothing for the ride, Ricky sipped his tea and ate his scone and basically gave up every hope of embracing his inner badass biker. He also composed an e-mail to Gabriel.
Hey,
Got your messages, and I wanted to let you know we are about to do exactly what we promised we wouldn't. We're going back to the swimming hole. The gwragedd tricked us about the baby. Fucking shock, huh? A fae playing a trick on us? Yeah, so there's a baby up there, and we're the only ones who can get her back, and I know you don't give a shit about that. But Liv does, and you can't ask her to walk away. You know you can't. Even if you managed to convince her, she'd spend years scouring the paper to see what happened to that baby.
So we're going back. Taking all precautions, but going back.
I'm going to ask you not to call and try to change our minds. Especially don't call Liv. Trust me. I know you don't, not when it comes to her. But she can take care of herself, and I have her back, always. So I'm asking you to step aside and stay out of this one thing. For me. If you can't do that, then I guess we know where we stand.
I'll send you the coordinates of where we're going, just in case. I'll text when we head in, and you should hear from us in an hour.
Ricky
He had time to take exactly two bites of scone and one sip of tea before his phone pinged with a reply.
He sighed. Well, at least he'd tried.
He opened the e-mail. It was a quick note, no salutation or closing. Ricky read the first line.
Avoid the swimming hole.
He winced and forced himself to continue.
The gwragedd won't have taken the baby into the water, so stay out of that if you can, and if not, the primary concern is the cavern itself. Do not allow Olivia near it. The danger is that you will be separated by a vision, and she will wander into it unknowingly. Impress that upon her, please.
Also, Patrick said that gwragedd have claws in their fae form. They are somewhat smaller than typical fae, which might make them seem easily overcome, but the claws are sharp, and the lore suggests they can bite as well.
If you stay out of the swimming hole and are aware that the gwragedd is more dangerous than she looks, you should be fine. Also, as I said before, do not let the creature know what you are.
Please contact me when you are done.
Ricky read the note twice to be sure he wasn't missing some trick, some thinly veiled threat. Then he exhaled and turned the phone off.
"Everything okay?" Liv asked as she walked into the dining room.
He smiled. "Everything's fine."
Fourteen - Liv
As we walked to the swimming hole, Ricky told me he had spoken to Gabriel and let him know what we were up to. I was glad. I'd been mentally arguing with myself on that. I didn't want the hassle of fighting him on this, but neither did I want to come back later and tell him we'd done it. Well, since you let me down before, I see no reason to keep you in the loop now.
We were about a quarter mile from the swimming hole when we split up. Definitely not something Gabriel would approve of, but it made sense. Ricky's Cwn Annwn stealth skills were our best chance of getting a jump on the gwragedd. Better for him to roust her while I stayed clear.
I watched Ricky go. Then I kept an eye on my watch. We'd agreed that if it took him more than fifteen minutes to find her, he'd loop back to let me know he was fine. He'd keep doing that--checking in and heading out--until he'd tracked her down. We had a signal too. Bird calls. One to say he was in trouble. Another to say he'd found her and I should start approaching carefully in that direction.
Fifteen minutes passed. I was to give him five more, in case he had a lead. Then I would--
