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Shreveport was still a fifteen-hour haul, and if we stopped there for the night, we could formulate a plan for what to do when we got to New Orleans.
It didn’t matter if our goal was Shreveport, Fort Worth, or all the way to NOLA. Cade would need to sleep. I could catch intermittent shut-eye in the car, because honestly there was no way I’d be able to sleep now, even if I tried.
“I’ll be fine. It’ll make me feel useful, keeping an eye out for trouble. Get some rest.”
“I’m not the one who needs it the most. You saved us back up in the mountains.”
I couldn’t handle the look of admiration in his eyes. It made me feel guilty. Yes, I’d saved us, but I was also the only reason his life was in danger in the first place. I didn’t want him patting me on the back because he hadn’t gotten killed.
“I’m not tired.”
His audible snort told me he wasn’t buying my bullshit. Not that he ever had. “All right. Just don’t get into any trouble.”
I barked out a laugh, and it felt good to be honestly amused. Some of the tension building inside me released along with the laugh, and I sank more comfortably into the chair. “No more than usual, I promise.”
Without saying anything else he returned to the room. Once inside I could hear the rumble of his voice as he spoke to Fen. I couldn’t make out the whole conversation, but I’m pretty sure he was asking if the fennec was hungry. The timbre of his words was warm, friendly, not full of annoyance that he was stuck feeding my familiar.
Maybe he realized that the hungry creature wouldn’t let him sleep if the food dish was empty.
I let out a yawn in spite of my earlier assurances that I wasn’t sleepy. If I got too worn down, I’d head back inside, but for the time being I needed this moment to myself to breathe.
Without having my phone out to check the time I didn’t know how long I’d been outside—it might have been mere minutes, or perhaps I’d dozed off and hours had passed. But suddenly I was nearly blinded by headlights. The rumble of an engine cut through the previous silence of the night.
It was as if the car had appeared out of nowhere.
I scrambled for my bag, yanking the gun out and aiming it in the general direction of where the driver would be.
“Please, Tallulah, that’s not necessary.” The female voice was rich and friendly, like cinnamon and chocolate. I’d never heard anyone with a voice like hers, so in spite of being momentarily unable to see, I knew precisely who had arrived.
“Sido.” I let my breath out all at once and set the gun down on the arm of the chair.
The lights turned off, and I blinked away the orbs they left behind in my sight. Sidonie Barker was leaning against the door of my Mustang, looking every bit like the cat who got the cream. Her tightly curled hair was a halo around her head, glowing faintly under the parking-lot lights. Her skin was a lovely warm brown with a pink undertone that gave the impression she was constantly blushing. Although she was in her forties, she didn’t look a day over twenty-five. Her complexion was flawless and only improved upon by her bright smile.
“Hello, darling.” She closed the gap between us and gave me two friendly kisses, one on each cheek. When she attempted to withdraw, I grabbed her and pulled her in for a tight hug.
Sido was the kind of comforting presence that made you feel better simply by being near her. It had been a scant few weeks since I’d been in Seattle, yet it felt like I hadn’t seen her in months.
When I’d been delivered to the temple on my seventh birthday, Sido had taken me in. She had been in her mid-twenties then, and still looked exactly the same today. If someone told me Sido was a hundred years old, I wouldn’t doubt it. Her face was young, but her brown eyes were filled with a century’s worth of knowledge.
She was a special case among the Rain Chasers.
There’d been a missed generation, where no chosen were born, and the fear at the temple had been that worship of Seth was diminishing, and as a result no one had arrived to serve him. Sido had taken the job.
In a way she was born to abide by Seth’s will, in as much as she was his daughter.
And so she served him until I was born, and when I arrived, it had been up to her to train me. She’d taken on the role of sister, mother, and friend, and was the closest thing I had to a companion as I grew up.
Without Sido I probably wouldn’t have survived my tempestuous adolescence. Surely someone at the temple would have killed me if not for her endless patience to guide me through.
“I brought you your baby.” She nodded towards the Mustang.
It couldn’t have been more than four hours since I’d texted her to request it. “You think whatever flying-car magic got you here might get Cade and me to New Orleans overnight?”
She gave me a thin smile and didn’t laugh at my joke. “No.”
“I was—”
“Do you think it’s wise to be traveling with the Luckless One?”
