Page 15 of 'Til All the Seas Run Dry

“As ye said, I cannae risk traffic. If that’s all, I’ll be going.” He turned and moved toward his vehicle.

“Oh, that’s not all, Cal. Not by a long shot.”

He looked over his shoulder at her, an eyebrow lifting high on his forehead. “Enlighten me, Magda.”

“I know you love her.”

He scoffed, turning away again and talking another step.

“And I know you killed her.”

He froze.

“Well… almost,” she said with a snort.

He forced himself to pause, to take what would have been a deep, calming breath when he was alive but was now just an expanding of his lungs with air, an affectation. He spun slowly around and found her right behind him, both of them standing in the dark now.

“I dinnae ken what ye think ye?—”

“Lie to other people all you want, Cal, but you can’t lie to me.”

He could see her smile in the dark. “What is it you want?”

“I want a ride home.”

“A ride home,” he repeated slowly.

“Yes.”

“Why cannae ye ask Hank to drive you?”

“Because Hank doesn’t need my help. You do.”

“I dinnae need?—”

“You do. You don’t even know you do yet. But you do. So unlock that wholly unnecessary dinosaur burner that you’re driving, help me climb into it, and we can murder some ozone while you drive me home.”

“It’s a hybrid,” he replied through gritted teeth.

“Oh, well, that changes everything, now doesn’t it?”

“I dinnae like ye verra much, Magda.”

She smiled and patted him on the chest before breezing past him and approaching the SUV. “You just don’t like missing pieces.”

He stared at her.

“Come on, Cal,” she said brightly. “Night’s wasting, and I’ve got something to show you.”

What she had to show him was an A-frame cabin about a mile down a gravel road behind what she had pointed out as her house. As he pulled in front of the cabin, Magda climbed down from the SUV as if she were bouldering.

“You coming?” she hollered, as if he were on top of the boulder instead of across a center console.

Callum sighed and rolled his eyes. “It seems I am.”

He turned off the SUV and got out, following Magda as she climbed the steps onto the porch. She flipped a switch, and Callum saw that the inside of the cabin was filled with worn furniture. It smelled like Esther. He caught a faint scent of Hank too, though that was less prominent. It smelled like lemon-pine cleaning solution and bleach and wood smoke. They weren’t unpleasant smells, though. It smelled like a home, like a real home.

Magda went to a broom closet and opened it. “Come on, Cal,” she said, disappearing inside.