Page 18 of Be the Serpent

“Hi,” said Arden, stepping up beside me. She put Tybalt down, smiling at Anthony. “I’m the Queen. You must be Anthony. It’s a pleasure to meet you properly. Your sister is a favorite of mine.”

“I’d get up, but I’ve lost a lot of blood, and I feel real bad,” said Anthony. He winced. “The wind said not to come home today. I thought it was being dramatic again.”

“You have to learn that the future’s never being dramatic when it tries to tell you something, you goober,” said Cassie, sounding like she was on the verge of tears. I wasn’t feeling too steady myself.

“Can he be moved?” asked Arden.

“Don’t ask me,” I said. “I can always be moved.”

“It should be reasonably safe,” said Simon. “Just don’t jostle the blade too much and it can be removed once he’s been transported.”

“Good. Your Highness?”

“On it,” said Arden, and stooped to help Cassandra guide Anthony to his feet. He hung between them, limp, head dangling. “Toby, can you put the other one down?”

“If he’ll let me.” I bent until Andrew’s feet were on the ground. He whimpered, trying to climb back up me. “Hey, buddy. Hey, hey. I need you to go with your sister and the Queen, okay? Karen’s waiting for you in Muir Woods. You’ll be safe there.”

“I don’t want to!” he wailed. “I want to stay with you!”

“Hey, Andy,” said Quentin, moving up on my other side. “Remember me?”

Andrew lifted his head and looked suspiciously at Quentin, sniffling. “You’re Quentin,” he said. “You’re Aunt Birdie’s squire.”

“I am. And we were in Blind Michael’s lands together, a long time ago. You and me, we got into a lot of trouble, and Toby saved us. That’s what she does. But to save us, she had to go to some really dangerous places, and she got hurt a lot while she was there. Your brother’s already hurt. I don’t want to make your sisters deal with you both being hurt at the same time. So please, will you go with Cassie and the Queen, so they can get you someplace that’s safe? Just for right now?”

Andrew’s suspicion faded into simple dubiousness, and he finally let me go, stepping uneasily over to take Cassie’s free hand in his own. She looked at me with desperation in her eyes.

“I’m going to do what I can,” I said. “Get them safe, and get Anthony’s wounds looked at. Hurry.”

“We are,” said Arden, and flicked her fingers. A portal opened in the air in front of her, carrying the scent of redwood sap and blackberry flowers, and she stepped through, tugging the Browns with her.

“Jessica’s dead?” asked Quentin, as soon as the portal closed.

I nodded, not trusting myself to find my words.

Simon blinked, asking blankly, “Jessica?”

“The youngest of the Brown girls,” I said. “Mitch and Stacy have—had—they had five kids. Three girls, two boys.” Now they had two of each. If Jin was still in Muir Woods, then I knew Anthony was going to be okay, at least physically. Having faith in Jin has served me well so far, and I didn’t see any reason to change that now.

But for the moment . . . “Simon, what are you doing here?”

“You threw me the keys, and I know how to drive,” he said. “I thought you might need another blood-worker to hand, depending on what was happening.” He ducked his head. “I suppose I thought you were asking me along, on some level. My apologies if that wasn’t the case.”

Maybe I had been. It was the only reason I would have thrown him the keys and not Arden, or the Luidaeg. “Patrick’s okay with this?”

“Patrick’s just happy I wanted to do something without someone to hold my hand,” said Simon, wistful fondness in his tone. “I haven’t been exactly what you’d call adventurous since our marriage, and I think I’m starting to worry him. It may seem as if something inside me has been permanently destroyed.”

“Has it?” asked Tybalt, with surprising mildness.

“I don’t know,” said Simon. “So I’m sorry if I’ve crashed your adventure. We’re only about three miles from the ocean. I can call a cab and see myself back to Saltmist, if you’d prefer.”

I shook my head. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re here, and we have a big problem to deal with.”

“Jessica’s dead,” repeated Quentin. It wasn’t a question this time. It wasn’t even a complaint. It was a slow, horrified acceptance. “Toby, what happened?”

“I don’t know yet,” I said. “Something terrible. There was a woman—a woman Jessica didn’t know—in the house, and she attacked the boys when they came home from school. Jessica was in her room. She didn’t see the woman arrive, or her mother leave, but when she heard her brother yelling, she came out of her room and she tried to defend him. The woman, she had a knife—”

“Yes, we saw that,” said Simon. “Was there only the one injury?”