“No,” I say. “You didn’t. But you should have been anyway.”
A whine from the bushes indicates a victor has been discovered. A moment later, Thorn emerges. He is naked and he is bloodied. Not his blood, I think.
“I feel better,” he says. “Is there drink in the car?”
“Yes. Go on.”
A minute or two later, Skor crawls out. He is worse for wear, but alive, which is a better state than I would have left him in.
“You want your turn now?” He stands up and looks at me with an even expression. He might not have magic anymore, but he’s got the same dark soul. The real thing is, we need him.
“My turn?” Tabby laughs.
Skor snorts.
“You can all hate me as long as you like. But I’m going to look after my babies, and yours too, probably,” he says. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life, however long it is, looking after you, Tabby, and the pups we have. I promise.”
Thorn strolls over, still naked. People are going to make calls to the authorities.
The three of us stand in the bushes, next to some old, crushed beer cans.
“We are family. Do you understand? There are no loyalties outside this. Only to each other,” I say. “No captives. No vampires. No zombies.”
Tabby sighs.
“What?”
“It’s going to be boring,” she says.
“It’s not. It’s going to be an adventure like none you’ve ever had before. It’s going to be full of love, in a new city, where every day there’s a new wonder, and you’re going to learn what it’s like to have babies and a family that loves you so deeply they won’t let you be eaten by monsters in the dark.”
Tabby smiles, and I watch as her eyes go a little bit watery. When I met this woman, I thought she was too everything. Too young, too wild, too scrappy.
Now I know I love all those too’s. I can’t wait to raise a whole pack of little creatures just like her, and me, and Thorn, and yes, I suppose we have space for a few little Skors as well.
CHAPTER 16
Tabby
Eclipse City is like a mountain range, except flat. There are so many buildings, and they’re so tall they all look like crags in their own right. We drive through them in the car, which has a shiny pad on the back of the front seat where you can watch pictures move and make sounds. I’ve spent much of the journey here watching a hand-drawn pig have tepid adventures.
Now, as the world elevates itself around me and buildings of all kinds rise above my head to giddying heights while lights and little metal creatures rush about in the sky, I am entranced by what I see.
“How many people live here?”
“Oh, millions,” Krall says.
There are hundreds of them around us right now. Thousands probably. They’re wandering around, driving about, whizzing on motorbikes.
“What are the pretty yellow ones?”
“They’re delivery bikes. There’s a rumor the king’s mate likes to drive one of them when the mood takes her.”
We drive through the vast city all the way to the river, where a glorious palace stands in a fancy sort of way. None of this looks real to me. This is all just generally outlandish. The palace is large enough that hundreds of people would have to live in it just to make it make any kind of sense.
“Are we going in there?”
“We are. We are expected.”
