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“Where is he now?”
“Enough, Ted,” Deming said sharply.
“She said she’s worried about him,” Ted said. “We don’t know where he is right now.”
“Really? And you don’t know anything about the Venator conclave in London in a few days?” asked Mimi.
“You know about that?” Ted blurted out, and then quickly regretted it.
“Seriously, that’s enough, Ted,” Deming said. “Mimi, I appreciate that you’re trying to help, but the best way to do it is to let us do what we do best. If you want to help, leave Kingsley alone.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Mimi said. “I’m really sorry.”
Before Deming or Ted had a chance to react, Mimi pulled the needle out of her blouse, restored it to its full size, and trained it at Deming’s throat. “Take me to that conclave,” she said. “Or your blood will be on my sword.”
She turned to the Venator’s husband. “And you’re right, Ted: Kingsley Martin is no traitor. I am.”
THIRTY-FIVE
Bliss
don did not return. Bliss had taken Malcolm and Rafe with her to the catacombs as well as the ancient sites of the city, to see if they could find the portal, but returned to the hostel at the end of the day as frustrated as ever. She hoped that leaving Lawson and Ahramin to themselves would allow them to sort out whatever was between them, but she was still struggling to understand it herself. Lawson and Ahri? Now it was her turn to feel jealous, but mostly what she felt was angry. They had bigger problems than the consequences of a random hookup right now.
Bliss knew they were close to solving the mystery of the passages and that Arthur had pointed them in the right direction by sending them to Rome, but this thing that had happened between Lawson and Ahramin was distracting them from their real task. She found Ahramin in the lounge, flirting with some backpackers who were trying to decide whether to stay.
“Where’s Lawson?” Bliss asked.
“Can’t you see I’m busy?” Ahramin rolled her eyes and pointed to the hostel’s back door.
The door led out into a small garden, with a patio and a couple of wire chairs surrounding a table. The surface of the table was littered with old newspapers and overflowing ashtrays. The days when Bliss would step outside of a New York club to smoke a cigarette with Dylan seemed so very far away, and now the smell of the ash made her feel a little nauseous.
Lawson was sitting in one of the chairs. His head was buried in his arms, crossed on the table, but he looked up when he heard her coming. “How did the rest of the day go?” he asked quietly.
“Not well. We’re not looking in the right place. I can see it so clearly in my head, and I feel like I know it in my bones—but when I look around—I don’t see it. Maybe it’s not here?”
“It has to be,” Lawson said. “We can’t give up.”
“What about you? Did you and Ahri talk?”
He shook his head. “She doesn’t want to talk to me. I’m not sure I have much to say to her either. I
just want to forget any of it ever happened, and I have no idea what she wants. Until the last couple of days, I thought we’d both just put it behind us.”
“Clearly not,” Bliss said. “And Edon?”
“He hasn’t come back. But his stuff’s still here. He’ll show up eventually. When he does, I need you to tell him how sorry I am.”
“Tell him yourself.” Bliss felt the hairs on her arms stand up. She had a feeling she knew what was coming.
Lawson shook his head. “I need you to take charge of the pack. I’ve become too much of a distraction, and I need to leave.”
Bliss bit her lip. She had come to the same conclusion. She had hoped for a different outcome—for Ahramin to excuse herself—but she knew as well as Lawson that that wasn’t about to happen.
“Are you sure? She should go, not you.”
“If I stay, Edon won’t come back, and he’ll still be angry. And I know you won’t admit it, but you’re angry too. And Malcolm and Rafe won’t know what to think. We’ll be fractured and ineffective, and the wolves will be lost. We’ll never repair the breach in the timeline. But if I go, Edon and Ahri will reconcile, and you can lead them. You’ll heal the rift.”
Bliss wanted to tell him that she could forgive him, that she could help him mend fences with Ahramin and Edon, but she wasn’t sure she could. She was still too confused about her own feelings. Still, she didn’t want him to go. “You’re taking the easy way out,” she said. “You could stay here and work to earn everyone’s forgiveness. You could help us, but instead you’re running away.”
