Page 130 of Moonlight Hearts

Elias gasped.“But you refuse to call me baby!Are you going to call Amory baby now?That’s unfair.Amory, tell him that’s unfair.”

If I hadn’t known Elias so well, I might’ve gotten mad, but he was probably as tense as I was, so I was fine ignoring him.

To Ambrose, I said, “I won’t let Soyer get hurt, and…I don’t want him to have to face that witch alone.”

Ambrose’s eyelid ticked slightly.“Thatwitch?”

“Yeah.”I was fidgeting like Thaeros now, wondering what to tell them.I knew it wasn’t my place to explain this.Soyer had told me his story, the story of how his phoenix curse had come to be, in confidence, and I wasn’t going to betray that.“He’s met her before.”

Ambrose kept looking at me, almost like he could sense there was more there that I wasn’t saying.

Echo cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and focused on the screen.“Let’s see if we can find something that has a private or mostly private underground parking structure for vans or big SUVs.”

Elias nodded.“Yes.That big naga tail would stick out.”

They put their heads together once more.Ambrose clearly still wasn’t happy about it, but I was grateful that he seemed to be on board, at least for now.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Thaeroshadpassedoutin an armchair in a waiting room right next to Elias’s office, and while I should’ve been fine, I was starting to feel like a nap might be a good idea.It was around five, and I was watching the second hand on my watch.

“We have to move soon, don’t we?”I asked.

“Yes.Well…” Echo rubbed his forehead.

Elias was frowning at his screens.“You know, with these locations…I think this one is close to where we think the void creature first popped up.”

“Ugh, don’t need a reminder of that fucker,” Ambrose grumbled.

I sat up just a little straighter while Elias was typing away.“What’s a void creature?”

“Something that easily ruins all the plans you make for a fun semester or ten,” Elias said.“But as Valentin says, there are no coincidences.”

Echo shook his head.“There’s no void creature in what I’m seeing.I’d know.Those scare me.”

Ambrose cackled.“So youdohave a survival instinct.We killed that fucker a few months back, but not before it managed to feed.Caused quite the upset.”

Elias pointed at his screen.“Well, yes, but if its appearance wasn’t random—and I don’t think it was—then we should pick that one out of all our possible locations.”

Ambrose looked over Elias’s shoulder.“That’s near to an entrance hub we run.Are you sure about that?”

Elias shrugged.“No, but worst case, we go there, and Echo might infer that we’re at the wrong location.”

I stood.“Say this is where we want to be, what do we do when we get there?Is Caecilius there?”

“He will be where we need to be,” Echo mumbled.“I’m meant to see him, but… Doesn’t matter.He’ll be there.”

Echo sounded sad.Perhaps he was just tired, having exhausted himself while running all over this city during this strange rescue mission he’d orchestrated.I couldn’t quite tell which it was, but a pinch of sympathy stirred in my gut.

I rubbed my hands on my pants.“At the IBT, when I got shot, Soyer talked to Caecilius over the phone, and he told him to come here and make obeisance before the year was out.Is that important?”

Ambrose huffed.“Good ultimatum.Does make sense to roll into town when the Black Shuck isn’t here if you’re out for mischief.You fellas get ready to move.Wake the narcissan if we’re taking them.I gotta go make a phone call.”

Elias spun in his chair and fanned himself as Ambrose walked off with long strides.“He’s so high strung.”He turned to me.“I’ll loan you one of my coats.We’ll look like brothers, finally.”

“Uh…”

Echo pointed to the next room.“I’ll go wake Thaeros.”