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“Can you drop me outside my apartment building?” Adam asked Dautre.
“I can bring you within.”
“Outside, please. I need to talk to someone.”
“As you wish.”
Adam nodded his goodbye to the knight and Dautre wrapped them in his magic.
Light bloomed and Adam let out a long breath to feel the warmer air. The smell of the city, of ozone and exhaust mixed with spring hit him, replacing the clean taste of the alpine air.
“Thank you, Dautre.”
The elf tipped his pork pie hat and vanished.
North wasn’t a Lost One, but he was like them. The problem of what to do to help them was overwhelming, but Adam had to try. He circled the building, heading for the alley to find Seamus. It was only when he spotted him that he realized he hadn’t flinched when North had hugged him. Maybe, just maybe, he was getting better. He decided to add the feeling to his list of good things for Dr. Cahill.
16
Adam told Seamus about the Lost Ones, recounting their conversation with Lily and the miner.
“They’re pissed,” he said in closing. “And they’re everywhere.”
Seamus stared into the distance, perhaps through the planes, perhaps at the Lost Ones gathered at his tower.
“It feels like it’s close to boiling over,” Adam prodded.
The King of Coins let out a long breath.
“It is, and it can’t go on, but I’ve no idea how to stop it, Binder. Nor have I found your missing souls. No one’s dealing and no one’s talking.”
“What does that mean?”
“That they’re not a commodity,” Seamus said. “They never have been before.”
“That’s what I’ve always heard, so why take them? I can say they’re not in the Between. I’ve got one lead left to check at the Night Market, but it’s a slim one.”
“I’d follow up soon. The spirit realm might not be safe for you or your kind much longer. It hasn’t been this bad for a long time, at least not since we arrived.”
“Where did you come from?” Adam asked. “I know the elves started in Alfheimr.”
“My people? Their plane has many names. I have people back there, in the Otherworld, but I was born in the spirit realm. My parents moved there to find their fortune.”
“They colonized it.”
“They emigrated. I was born there.”
It was unusual for Seamus to speak freely. Adam always took these insights and tidbits as gifts.
“You’re worried about it.”
“I’m always worried about it. It was never meant for so many, I think. Now it’s becoming something else, being remade, and what it was will be forgotten.”
“You sound a little bit like an elf.”
Seamus snarled. “You take that back.”
Adam held up his hands.
