Page 36

“I’m not certain,” he said. “As I mentioned, I haven’t fought the control as hard as I have other times.”

“Like when they tried to get you to kill me in that courtyard?”

“Yes.”

“So, you’ll fight them when they want you to murder a friend, but when they want you to go treasure hunting, you’re all in.”

Duncan winced. “I wouldn’t say I’mall in.”

“You ripped a glowing-eyed robot dog to pieces, leaped into a twenty-foot-deep hole, and swam around in murky water to find a magical bauble that wasn’t even what you were looking for.”

“The water wasn’t that murky.”

I folded my arms over my chest.

“I don’t think my priorities are wrong,” Duncan said.

“You shouldn’t be working for them, not willingly.”

Not at all.

“Whatever they want those artifacts for,” I continued, “it can’t be anything good. Those aren’t the kinds of people who are out to dogoodin the world.”

“I’m certain they are not.”

“But?”

Duncan extended his arm in the direction of the water, fingers flexing. Still called by the hunt? Thetreasurehunt?

“Come back with us.” I patted the truck door. “We’ll give you a ride to your van. It misses you.”

“I also miss it—and the equipment carried within.”

“Uhm, Luna?” Jasmine turned her face as a Jeep rolled around a bend toward us, headlights shining in our eyes. A larger vehicle followed right behind, something that looked like a mix between a tank and an SUV.

With a start, I realized I’d seen it before. It had been in the garage at the lavender farm in Arlington.

“Get in the truck,” I told her.

“There’s not much room to turn around and go past them,” she said.

“They’re here for me,” Duncan said with certainty.

“I don’t doubt that, but they wantedmeat one point too.” As I’d been thinking before, I hoped Abrams and Radomir had lost interest in me, but I couldn’t count on that.

“They won’t get you.” Duncan held out the medallion he’d found and walked into the road, arms spread.

“Come back with us,” I tried again. “We’ll find a way past them.”

Duncan shook his head, not looking back, and took a few more steps, as if he might keep the vehicles from running him over to get to our truck. Of course, if he turned into the bipedfuris, he would have that ability. I’d seen him rip steel doors off their hinges. The tank-SUV looked armored, but he could tear into that Jeep; I had little doubt.

The vehicles rolled to a stop, and I could sense magical beings inside. Or, if Radomir had the same army as before, those were normal humans amped up on potions that enhanced their strength.

“Duncan, if you abandon your treasure hunt and come back to Shoreline with me, to help me fight crime in the neighborhood, I’ll reward you with the finest of cacao-nib and bacon-bit darkchocolate.”

He looked wistfully over his shoulder at me. “Thatisvery tempting.”

But not tempting enough, his resolute expression said.