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Instead of laughing, though, Theo just nodded. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't think about it."
I let out my breath. "It's okay," I said, letting my hands fall into my lap.
"I brought you breakfast," Theo added, giving me a small, beseeching smile. "Does that help?"
As if on cue, my stomach rumbled. "It does, actually," I said, reaching for the paper bag. "Please, not spurgos."
He laughed. "No way," he said. "There's a coffee shop a block away. You're going to love this."
I peered at the flaky pastry, which was swirled with something dense and dark. "Is this chocolate?"
"Nope," Theo said. "Try it."
I bit, and rich sweetness filled my mouth. "Raisins?"
Theo's grin practically reached his ears. "Bet you didn't know raisins could be that good."
"I did not," I admitted. "This is amazing. Not worth the heart attack you gave me, but thank you."
He leaned forward and kissed my cheek. "My pleasure, unicorn."
"Hey," I said with my mouth full, suddenly realizing what time it was. "Do they know we're back? Blanton and Neath?"
Theo made a face. "Yeah," he said.
His expression made my stomach drop. "What was that for?" I asked, putting the pastry back into the bag. "What happened?"
He shrugged. "Nothing much," he said. "Just…Neath emailed me last night, late. He's flying back to the States today."
"Okay," I said, trying to keep my voice neutral. "And?"
"And…” Theo hesitated. "He wants me to go with him. We're in the middle of three grants," he added, looking slightly guilty.
My stomach plummeted further; it was now somewhere in the region of my knees. Theo was leaving? When we had so much still to do? How were we supposed to get Luca back without him?
"I told him no," Theo finished.
My whirlwind of thoughts abruptly ground to a halt. "You did?"
Theo raised his eyebrows. "Of course I did," he said, looking slightly incredulous that I would even ask. "We have to go get a guy and a demon back from being kidnapped by another demon. You think my cubicle in Denver is more important than that?"
For the second time in ten minutes, my joints stopped working. I slumped forward and dropped my head into my folded arms. "Theo," I said into the table.
"Yeah?"
"Don't take this the wrong way," I said, "but you are the world's most stressful storyteller."
He reached over and tousled my hair. "There are worse things to be," he said. "Come on, get dressed. I'm on vacation now."
"Don't tell me you want to go to the beach," I said, straightening up.
"Nope," he said cheerfully. "We've got a job to do."
"Julian?" I said.
He nodded. "Yep," he replied. "Julian."
"You're forgetting we don't have a car," I said, thinking with a twist of pain about Luca's little orange car, smashed to smithereens in the deep Velartan woods.
