Macklin had the grace—and humor—to look sheepish. “You’re right,” he said with a sigh. “I can’t believe I forgot that.”
Jordan wrapped his arm around Macklin’s waist and pulled him close enough to kiss his temple. “You grew up with Alistair too,” he said softly. “That’s a lot of bad habits and bad feeling to unlearn. That’s part of adulthood, right? Unlearning the bad and celebrating the good parts of childhood?”
Macklin leaned into him, and Scout watched him visibly relax. “How’d you get so wise?”
Jordan chuckled. “The dads. They’re pretty much infallible.”
Macklin chuckled in return. He looked up at Kayleigh and Scout and said, “Someday, you’ll have to meet his dads. We can all spend our time wishing they’d raised us instead.”
Scout’s stomach growled loudly in response, and Macklin pulled away cheerily. “And in the meantime, have either of you had pizza before?”
Jordan sighed. “You East Coasters and your pizza. Someday you’ll have to come to California to tasterealpizza.”
Macklin snorted, and together they set up their pizza-and-salad feast, along with soda pop, which Jordan and Kayleigh found to be wonderful in spite of Jordan’s assertion that pizza needed at least four more toppings to be considered “real” pizza.
By the time they were done, Scout and Kayleigh were stretched out on the two beds, trying to stay awake, and Jordan and Macklin were cleaning up the pizza to put by the coffee maker for morning.
Jordan paused in cleanup and pulled out the map, which he’d folded up, hole and all, and put in his pocket. Scout watched him through hooded eyes as he spread the map on the table and produced a tiny wooden top from his pocket, then spun the top on the page.
His back was to Scout and Kayleigh, so all Scout could see was Jordan’s jerk of surprise when the top did something unexpected.
Macklin grunted from across the room and walked over.
“Do that again,” he ordered softly, and Jordan did without question, but Scout got the feeling that was only because Jordan wanted to do it anyway.
This time they both grunted in surprise.
Quietly, so as to not disturb the top with his steps, Scout rolled off the bed and approached the map. The top—tiny and wooden and apparently homemade—was perfectly upright, spinning on a little spot off the coast of the Carolinas. Much of the coastline was formed of little peninsulas and tidal islands—Hilton Head being one of the more notable places—but there were smaller islands. Tybee for one, and this one here… almost directly at the border of North and South Carolina.
“Spinner’s Drift?” Scout murmured. “Never heard of it.”
“Maybe not,” Jordan murmured. “But it’s heard of you. Spun the top twice, and both times it went directly there.”
Scout blinked. “For which one of us?” he asked.
“Both,” Jordan murmured. “I wasn’t picky with the spellcasting. I just thought, ‘Where should they go?’”
As if in emphasis, the top bounced up once, twice, three times, each time landing so emphatically on that point on the map that it had already drilled a tiny hole through the spot.
Jordan spoke softly. “I don’t doubt you,” he said to the top. “I’m just going to try it one more time to prove to them this is your doing, okay?”
The top gave a sulky little hop and then, much to Scout’s surprise, jumped directly into Jordan’s waiting palm.
“Where did you get that?” Scout asked.
Jordan smiled softly at him. “My friend Lachlan made it. We were practicing divination spells after we found out about the portals. He got really thoughtful, went home, and came back with ten of these, one for each member of the coven. Plain, well-made, and very susceptible to magic. They’re perfect.”
He smiled at the top spinning in his palm like a child might smile indulgently at a pet hamster. “Ready to go again?” And with that, he picked the top up by the little spinner and used his thumb and forefinger to whirl it directly on the map. Scout was watching this time. It landed somewhere in Kansas and made a beeline directly to the exact same spot.
Spinner’s Drift.
“You think?” Kayleigh asked softly from over his shoulder, where she’d come to watch the tiny top that held their fate.
Scout looked at her and shrugged. “Why not?” he asked. He turned troubled eyes to Macklin and Jordan. “Not that we’re ready to leave tomorrow!”
“No worries,” Jordan said easily. “We’ll set you up, get you at least partially ready for life outside the compound. Don’t worry, guys. Believe me, if Macklin had his way, we’d be on a plane to Sacramento right now with plans for you two to have a second childhood at our house. He was so excited when Josue contacted him about helping you. You have no idea.”
Exhaustion swamped Scout as he remembered that just that morning, he’d awakened with a vague tickle in his stomach telling him this was the day Alistair would test him, and knowing he’d fail.
