“Really?” Will smiled mischievously and craned to look over her shoulder. “I would rather like to see two of you at once!”
“Stop it, Will!” She punched him gently in the shoulder
“Don’t worry, I’m still warded!” Will suddenly held a hand out in the air, as if he were feeling the temperature. “We’re quite close to a ley line nexus here. Not too far from Versailles. Shall I take you back?”
“No!” Zani was quick to answer. “I’m not interested in going back to Versailles. I’m not interested in seeing Cosimo, either, in case you were wondering.”
“I wasn’t, actually.” He was telling the truth. For the first time in ages, he felt the burden of jealousy had lifted. How foolish he had been to think that Zani was really in love with a vampire.
“It’s you, Will Porter. You who I thought about the whole time I was stranded in the seventeenth century. You who I–”
He heard a couple arguing in the next car and bent to peek through the glass windows separating them from the corridor. A door was open and someone was sticking their head out into the hall. Someone who looked a lot like the woman who was spinning him around now and pinning him to the wall with a spell of a kiss.
He saw stars. Actual stars. Kissing Zani was better than porting. It made him feel weightless.
After a moment, she pulled away. “It’s safe now,” she said. “But we really should get going.” Zani glanced out the window, looking up and then back at him. “Hang on,” she said, face screwed up into a question. “How did you get back in time without me?”
Will held open the small pocket of his coat and leaned forward for her to look inside. “Burnside turned me into a tooth fairy.” He thought for a moment, then cocked his own head. “But then if I had his time travel enabling tooth, how did he port here with you?”
Zani protectively patted the bag slung across her body. “Because I finally figured out who had the stone all along, Will. I finally figured out who stole it from me.” She raised her eyebrows and smiled smugly.
Understanding dawned on him more slowly than it should have. He peeked down the hallway once more and then glanced at Zani in wonder. “You mean you–”
“I mean, I was right when I said nobody could have possibly busted through my wards without doing some damage or leaving a trace of their magic behind. Nobody butme.”
Zani unclenched her fist and showed Will the key fob from Burnside.
“I know where I want to go,” she said. “Can you take me back to Burnside’s dirigible? Burnside said we can summon it with this whistle.” Zani put her lips to it, testing it to see if it made a sound. It let out a soft, gurgling chirrup. “I don’t want to blow it too hard,” she explained, “in case it’s loud. We’ve gotta get out of here, I think. We don’t want to draw any more attention.”
Will closed his hand around hers, feeling the whistle and searching for the tether. He could still feel Burnside’s presence in it, even though the older porter was gone.
Consider it a wedding present.
“I don’t think you have to blow it at all. The dirigible is close. I can take you there.” He released her hand and laid his palm against the wall, feeling the pins and needles of magic gathering the ether and drawing them toward the destination.
“Good, Will, because I have so much to tell you. So much to catch you up on.”
The wall effervesced beneath his fingers. Zani reached up to wrap her hands around his neck. But at the last minute, Will pivoted and lifted her into his arms, bridal style. He held her close as they stepped into the space between.
__
“So, what do you think we should do now?” Zani was sprawled on the velvet couch, sipping a cup of tea. Will, who had located the well-stocked galley kitchen as soon as they’d arrived, was sitting nearby enjoying a dragon fruit smoothie.
“I like the way you say we.” He grinned.
“You heard Nostradamus’s prediction. There’s no way I’m doing this alone!”
Zani had just finished telling him everything that Burnside had shown her. Will was still processing it all, mentally fitting the puzzle pieces together across both time and space. He wasn’t sure what to say.
“You wantmeto tell you what you should do with the stone?” he asked.
“Well, kind of. I want to hear your opinion, Will. We’re in it together, aren’t we?”
Will liked the sound of that, too.
Despite the dramatic turn of events that had brought them to the dirigible, there was something quite homey and domestic about the airship. And this time, this moment, felt special. Life was rife with possibilities, both good and bad, and knowing this only made their connection sweeter. They would face whatever came next together.
But for now, it was just the two of them floating above the clouds, outside of time, and away from the rest of the world. Will felt as if they had discovered the ultimate secret clubhouse in the dirigible. A home base with the added benefit that it could take them practically anywhere and anywhen they wanted to go.
