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Lily could feel how deeply he wanted to reach out and pull her down onto his chest, and for a moment, Lily didn’t know what she was going to do. The most natural thing in the world would be to kiss him and love him, but she couldn’t. Not with an image of her Tristan’s rotting body in her thoughts. Rowan caught a glimpse of what she was thinking and he let his eyes drift away from hers. The moment passed. Lily hauled herself up to standing.
She found the rest of the coven already regrouping a few hundred yards away. Tristan watched Lily as she came out from between the trees. His gaze lingered on her puffy face and her red eyes.
“Where’s Rowan?” he asked.
Lily shrugged. “Back there,” she said, her indifference making it clear that the rift between them had not been repaired. Tristan looked troubled by this, so she changed the subject. “Anyone have any food?”
“We were just discussing that,” Caleb said. He looked hassled. “Is anyone familiar with this Monterey area?”
“I’ve never been, but I’ve seen pictures,” Lily offered lamely.
“Anyone who’s seen a car commercial has seen pictures of Monterey,” Una said. Tristan and Caleb had matching expressions of confusion. She shook her head. “Wow. That’s right. Neither of you have been to this world.”
“Do we need papers to get into the city?” Caleb asked.
Rowan emerged from the brush and joined them. “No. And you can relax, Caleb. There are no Woven in these woods.”
Lily noticed Caleb’s shoulders drop and realized that he had been on alert. “There might be a mountain lion or a bear here or there, but it’s safe,” Lily added. “And we can walk into town without having to show any identification.”
Caleb and Tristan shared a look and possibly some mindspeak. They both seemed uneasy with how easy things were here.
“But we do need money,” Breakfast said. He stood up and brushed the redwood needles off his legs. He studied his clothes, which were from Bower City. “This kit either makes me look like the coolest guy ever, or a giant tool. I can’t decide which.”
Una chuckled. “Do you really want me to answer that?”
“We’re in California,” Lily said before they could start their back-and-forth teasing. “I think they havea broad definition of normal here. We should blend in just fine.”
“California,” Rowan said under his breath, a bittersweet smile on his lips. He looked up at the redwood canopy and took a deep breath, letting the dappled light play on his face. “Feel that?”
“What?” Tristan asked.
“Nothing to fear.”
As they set out, Lily could feel Lillian brushing against her mind, asking where they were going. Lily blocked her out. She had to start thinking strategically again, and not run to Lillian for comfort every time she lost her nerve.
Lily still hadn’t decided how to get Lillian and Alaric to work together, but she knew that she had to do it face-to-face and not give Lillian the chance to come up with a counterplan. Lily’s only shot at uniting all of the armies was to confront them and force them to work together somehow, although she still had no idea how she was going to do that. Until she came up with a plan, she needed to keep Lillian in the dark about what she hoped to do or she ran the risk of being outmaneuvered by her other self. And Lily had the uneasy feeling that being outmaneuvered could mean the deaths of many innocent people. Lillian wouldn’t hesitate to lose every last one of her claimed if it meant killing Grace.
They walked for hours before reaching anything close to a road. They didn’t go completely hungry, though. Every few steps Rowan or Caleb would spot something edible and pick it or dig it up for the group to share.
“It’s like a market day,” Caleb said, his face grim.
“Pretty much everything grows out here,” Breakfast said. “Farming is one of the main industries of California.”
That only made Caleb angrier. “And Grace kept it all for herself,” he said, fuming.
Breakfast and Una shared a worried look with Lily. The more time Caleb had to digest just how deeply wronged his people had been by Grace, the deeper his resentment went. She looked at Rowan, expecting some of that anger to be in him, too, but all she saw in him was a wistful sadness. He took in the majesty of the redwood forest as if it was the first time he’d ever been able to enjoy the woods, rather than just survive them.
The coastal road was no less stunning. A strip of concrete wound along cliffs that hung, green and misty, over the edge of dark blue water that was churned into pearly foam around the rocks.
“Surfers,” Rowan said, pointing down at the bobbing figures in slick-black wetsuits. Big surf had come in with the setting sun, and they rode the frigid water with the mellow golden light behind them.
Caleb and Tristan stared down at the surfers like they’d never seen anything so outrageous.
“Those rocks,” Tristan said, grimacing. “That guy is going to get himself killed.”
“No. They don’t let amateurs surf this break. He
knows what he’s doing,” Rowan mumbled, focused on watching one of them paddle out and drop into a set. The wave broke sloppy, and the surfer wiped out. “Ah!” Rowan exclaimed, wincing. He turned to the group, pointing, and realized that they weren’t as engrossed as he was.
