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And she’s right. There are a couple of tourists in the main exhibit hall, but they don’t look up as we walk quietly past.
Miranda heads straight for Thornfield’s office. She doesn’t knock, just barges in.
Kole and I follow her.
She stands in the doorway and locks eyes with Thornfield. A smile plays on his lips, then he sighs and strides forward to shake her hand. “My dear friend,” he says. “I knew you’d return.”
Patting his elbow, Miranda steps aside and goes to the whiskey bottle. Thornfield tuts at her and pours her a glass. He picks up his own and they chink them against one another as if we’re at some kind of works Christmas party instead of returning from a horrific, life altering experience.
I step into the room and barely have a chance to speak before Tanner and Mack are throwing themselves at me. At my feet, Snow brushes against my legs. Tanner squeezes my waist. Mack kisses my forehead.
When they finally let me go, and Tanner moves to embrace Kole, I notice an angry wound on Mack’s forehead and frown at him. “What happened?”
“Nothing exciting, Little Star.” He brushes my cheek then kisses me deeply. “A collision with a table when I passed out.”
“You’re no better?” I ask, gripping his upper arms, trying not to notice that he feels a little thinner. A little more frail.
He shakes his head. “Fraid not. But I’m still here.”
“What happened?” Tanner fetches me a glass of water, Kole too, then listens carefully as we tell them.
“Kim betrayed us?” Mack asks, a confused expression. Despite everything else, this is his first concern.
“I didn’t see it,” Tanner breathes. “How did I not see it?”
“I knew it,” Thornfield spits. “I knew the human wasn’t to be trusted.”
“Oh, well, good for you.” Tanner rolls his eyes. Clearly, they’ve been getting along swimmingly while I’ve been gone.
“You call yourself an empath?” Thornfield snarks.
Stepping in, Mack reprimands Thornfield for causing tension.
As the two of them start to dissect whether or not Zephyra is likely to be dead and, if she is, whether she’ll be coming straight here or needing to regroup, Tanner turns to me. “Before we talk about this stuff any more, there’s something else you should know,” he says in a low voice, taking my elbow and pulling me to the corner of the room.
My breath snags. What now? What else has happened?
Tanner meets my eyes. Relief swims in them for a moment, but then it is replaced with worry. “Sam’s here.”
I start to smile, but Tanner’s expression makes me stop and frown instead.
“Now might not be the best time to tell you this, but I think you should know he’s not good, Nova. Even before all this, I think we both knew it. But it’s deeper now.” He rubs his temples. “I know I shouldn’t have, but I did a reading on him and I think it’s more than just feeling down.”
“You mean like… depression?” The word feels uncomfortable on my tongue. Not because I don’t feel comfortable talking about it, but because it hurts to think Sam’s been going through so much pain and I didn’t realize it was so deep.
Tanner nods. “I know there’s a lot of other stuff going on but I think you should talk to him.”
“I’ll go now. Where is he?”
Tanner’s about to object, tell me to take some time to reacclimatise. But then he must realize that I’m not going to take no for an answer because he nods and says, “Down to the basement, there’s a lounge that Thornfield uses for entertaining. He’s in there. Dark wooden door. Bat on the doorhandle.”
“Discreet,” I mutter.
“Want me to go with you?” Tanner asks.
I shake my head. “You stay with the others. I’ll be back.”
* * *
