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“Pine Valley,” Logan says. “Jade and I already decided that’s the plan.”
“It’s a terrible plan.” Callie locks the wheel and crosses the deck. “You’re a Revenant, and you want to stroll into a shifter town. Shifters, Logan. Supernaturals who can smell predators in their sleep.”
“The ankar token masks what I am.”
“Except shifters don’t detect threats with magic.” Callie stops in front of him, her glare lethal. “They detect them with instinct. With scent. With the hair standing up on the back of their neck when a predator walks into the room. We haven’t tested the tokens on them yet because they won’t touch the Blood Coven with a ten-foot pole, since they’ll lose their wolf if they turn into a Revenant. You really want to gamble your life on something that hasn’t been tested?”
“I’ll take the risk.”
“Of course you will. Because it’s not a risk to you, is it?” She steps closer. “You just healed from a divine blade in seconds. You’re immortal. You’re indestructible. But the rest of us don’t heal like that. The rest of us can’t time travel. The rest of us die when we die, and we stay dead.”
She glances at me, and the hatred in her eyes is sharp enough to kill.
Logan steps closer to me, although his focus remains on Callie. “No one’s forcing you to come.”
“Good. Because I’m not coming.” Fire sparks at her fingertips, and Logan’s wind kills it. “The Blood Coven is the smarter play. My parents are already there. I’m more useful gathering intelligence from the inside than sitting in a shifter town waiting for everything to go wrong.”
“Then go.”
“I can’t fire travel.” Her words come out tight. “You know that. I’ve been trying for years, and I can’t do it. So, if I’m going to the Blood Coven, someone has to take me there.”
My pulse picks up, because the direction this conversation is heading is obvious.
“No,” Logan says.
“One trip. You fire travel me to the coven, drop me off, then go to Pine Valley and forget I exist.”
“I’m not going anywhere near the Blood Coven.”
“Why? What are they going to do to you that a demigod’s blade couldn’t?”
“It’s not about what they’d do to me. It’s because the second I show up on their grounds, they’ll know I’ve left the academy, and they’ll start looking for Jade.”
“They’re already looking for Jade!”
“And I’m not going to hand them a trail to follow.” Wind picks up around Logan, pressing the sails taut. “The answer is no, Callie.”
“Then who takes me?” Her chin lifts. “Evie, who can’t control her magic? Kieran, who just tried to kill you? Jade, who you won’t let out of your sight for five minutes?”
“Nobody needs to take you.” Logan says it so casually that it takes a second for the words to land. “Jade’s electricity has boosted my magic before. If her lightning can amplify a Revenant’s abilities, it can amplify a witch’s fire travel, too.”
Callie stares at him like he’s gone mental, which, admittedly, fair. “You want Jade to electrocute me.”
“I want Jade to channel a controlled current into your magic to amplify your power enough that you’ll be able to fire travel on your own.”
“That’s electrocution with extra steps,” she shoots back, and I glance between them, my mind racing.
“I can control it,” I say, and they both turn to me. My hands are still tingling from the lightning I threw at Kieran’s dagger, and the idea of channeling that same energy into Callie’s body makes my stomach clench, but Logan’s right. If my lightning works the same way on a regular witch as it does on a Revenant, Callie might be able to fire travel on her own. “I’ve done it with Logan a dozen times. I know how much to give without hurting anyone.”
“You’ve done it with a Revenant who literally can’t die.” Callie sneers. “I’m a witch with a normal body who’s been drained of blood for three months, and you want to run electricity through me.”
“I’d rather run electricity through you than fire travel you to the Blood Coven.”
Callie looks at Logan, then at me, then back at Logan.
He holds her gaze, and if he cares about her, it doesn’t show in his eyes. I don’t know whether to be relieved or scared, because there’s no humanity in his stare, as if he’s already the monster I fear he might become.
“Fine,” Callie eventually says. “But you can’t hide from them forever. You know that, right?”
