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He raps his knuckles nervously on his knee a couple of times.“Understand, Elsa was taking a big risk feeding me information about Geoffrey and the others. I think you’re a good person underneath this image you put out to people, but you do have a habit of . . .”

“Of what?”

“Flying off the handle. I couldn’t risk my sister’s safety.”

“You’d have left me out there with all Wormwood after me. You fed me just enough information to hang myself.”

“No. I would never have done that.”

I check his eyes. What do you know? It looks like he’s telling the truth.

He says, “I’m not just the augur, remember. I’m a seer. I saw all this coming. I knew you’d find out. Don’t you think I could have done something about today if I knew that you’d be coming to me in this frame of mind?”

“You think you know my frame of mind?”

“You said you were going to burn my boat.”

“I suppose I did.”

I sit down opposite him.

“If you’re such a hot seer why didn’t you know where Nick was? Or did you know and waited for me to find him?”

“No. I didn’t know about Nick. When I scry I often see multiple outcomes. With Nick it could have gone different ways. There were several outcomes where he ended up dead. And I never saw Geoffrey’s involvement. I think Wormwood is being protected against people like me.”

“They’re working with Hellions and angels. They have a lot of protection.”

He makes a fist.

“That’s why we need each other. You know that world and I know this. I still want to bring Wormwood down. I understand if you don’t believe me. That’s one of the outcomes I saw. But I hope you’ll stay and see this through with me.”

I run everything he said backward and forward in my mind. I’ve watched his eyes and listened to his heart this whole time and he didn’t show any traces of lying. But if Burgess and his crowd are protected from hoodoo, maybe Abbot is too. I don’t have a lot of choices here. I have to pick one.

“I’ll try it,” I tell him. “But don’t ever lie to me again.”

“Or you’ll burn my boat. I know.”

“No. I’ll kill you. Then I’ll burn your boat.”

He picks up his glass and takes a drink.

“You’ll be interested to know that in every way I saw this conversation, it always ended with that statement.”

“Then you know it’s true.”

“Yes.”

“Good. Then we understand each other. So, what happens next?”

Abbot pushes a boyish lock of hair out of his face.

He says, “There’s another child missing.”

“When?”

“I don’t know. Elsa just found out about it.”

“But it was after Nick was found.”