Page 13 of Transfiguration

“Did you get that info from Con?”

“No, from Hart. I think we should be there?”

The strangeness in that Luca never called Hart his father was not lost on Sam. “Okay. But we still don’t know what the fuck is going on. Found a kid where? Was he looking for a kid? I didn’t think he did people retrieval.”

“He doesn’t. Or at least never has to my knowledge. He’s in artifact retrieval, not people. He’d need a full-time enforcer if he worked with people. And you know how much he hates group things.”

“Why does this all keep getting stranger and stranger?” Sam knew Con didn’t dislike kids. He played video games with Seiran’s kids often enough, but he never sought them out.

“Why does anything happen?” Luca asked. “Fate is a bitch.”

“No kidding.”

SIX

Con sent a message before turning off his phone for the flight, letting Luca know the time his plane would be landing and warning his lovers not to be intimately engaged when he got home. He didn’t ask them to pick him up from the airport as he already arranged for a driver to take him home.

Why?Came Luca’s reply.

Not alone,was Con’s reply.Will fill you in later. You safe?

Yes.Luca agreed.Love you. Miss you.

Sam sent him an eggplant emoji, and Con bit his lip. He hated missing watching his men together, but it wasn’t as if they couldn’t make up for lost time later. He glanced at Bella, who sat in the seat near the window in business class, reading. How did people with kids have sex? Did they always have to find a babysitter or something? He was going to have to talk to Rou, wasn’t he? But then, Rou was only getting Santini back now, after what, over a decade? He could ask Kelly, but it was still bizarre asking his teenage lover about his current love life.

Con sent another message to Hart, adding that Bella might have been born a boy, thinking it would help them find where she came from. He then turned off his phone, storing it in his bag at his feet, and dug out the first of the romance novels, picked a box of the fudge at random, and tucked the bottles of water in the seat pocket in front of them. The flight attendants had been by already, greeting them and smiling over Bella, who acted like a normal nine-year-old girl, at least in the presence of others.

“There’s a ghost near the cockpit,” Bella said when the flight attendant left. “You don’t think he’s the pilot, do you?”

He let his gaze trace the space near the open door as people boarded around them. “Is he dressed like a pilot?”

She stared, squinting a minute. “No.”

“Can you see and hear them? Are they solid like people? Or more like what we see in movies? See thru or shadows or something?” he asked, keeping his voice low as everyone moved by. His size, visible tattoos and piercings kept everyone moving, and he felt more than a handful of wary glances in his direction. No one noticed Bella beside him. He hoped that helped keep her safe.

“Depends. Sometimes I can hear them and not see them at all. Those are the worst.” She stared at the fudge he’d pulled out, and a little plastic spoon to cut it up. He sliced a small chunk and set it on one of the extra napkins the flight attendant had brought for them, passing it over to Bella. She poked it for a second before lifting the piece to pop it into her mouth. Chewing thoughtfully as people passed. “The chatty ones startle me. I can’t always sense them first. At least the ones I can see. I know where they are. The voice-only ones feel like they are in my head sometimes.”

That sounded terrifying.

“Can you hear that guy? Or are there too many people?”

She shook her head and accepted another slice of fudge. “Too much noise.”

“Do they ever scare you, more than because they startle you?” Could ghosts hurt people? Most of his studying on magic related to his element. He’d never thought there was much point into looking into things he wasn’t certain existed, like necromancy.

“Sometimes they follow. That’s scary.” She looked away. “It’s not like I can turn it off.”

“I understand.”

“The worst are the ones that don’t look like people.”

That startled Con. “What do you mean?”

“Sometimes they are just shadows, and that’s okay. People shaped. Some aren’t. More like ooze, or monster-shaped, but always dark and unclear.”

“Like shapeshifters?”

She shook her head. “Shapeshifters are people ghosts, too.”