Page 20

Chapter Twenty

The next few days grew slowly less awkward as Gwen and I tried to adjust to our new reality.

True, she spent a fair bit of time gaming or in her room on her datapad, but she also started to talk about her life at boarding school, and I shared some of my time with my grandparents, both of us tentative in our overtures to navigate this new relationship. I could see her start to relax after all the bombshells. She started to talk about UC again, and played with Lianith, smiles replacing the tense expression she’d worn for the first twenty-four hours after we found out about Jack.

Cassandra had started to teach her the basics of energy fields and she’d taken to it quickly, though she found the whole color thing funny. She kept whispering colors to me whenever she met someone new. Though she’d looked pleased when she’d discovered my aura was blue like hers.

On Thursday, I offered to take her on a hike on one of the reestablished trails around the headlands and she accepted. Though she punctuated the walk with commentary about people’s colors as we went.

“That guy’s kind of khaki,” she muttered at me when a tall, wiry, Asian guy jogged past us, his breathing loud and his face contorted in a grimace that suggested he wasn’t enjoying the exercise.

“Probably hungover,” I muttered back and she laughed, the smile making her eyes flash as bright as the blue of her running shorts. “Come on, let’s keep going.”

Moving while we talked seemed to make things go a little easier, and Gwen smiled with delight as we reached the highest lookout, with all of San Francisco and the bay spread out at our feet.

“It’s a beautiful city,” she said, looking down.

“It is. Not like it was, but you can’t argue with this.” I swept an arm out at the view.

“Earthquakes.” She shivered, hugging her arms around herself. “I’ve never been in one.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, the seismologists don’t think there’s likely to be another major earthquake here for quite some time. Probably several hundred years. Which is not to say that we won’t get tremblers, but you get used to those.” I didn’t mention that I wasn’t used to tremblers. She hadn’t been in the Big One. She shouldn’t have the same overreaction to minor quakes that I did.

“Perhaps. It’s not something we have to think about in England.” She chewed her lip, staring down at the view as though she expected everything to start rattling any second.

She was right about that. England had to deal with rising seas and the warming of their famously cold climate, but I hadn’t heard reports of earthquakes.

“The buildings are all much safer than they used to be,” I said. “And the warning systems improve all the time.”

“Why did you stay? Even though, you know….”

She meant my grandfather dying. We’d talked a little about that as well.

I gestured at the view again. “This is home. The first real home I ever had. I didn’t want to abandon it when it was having a hard time.”

Her expression turned sad. “I’ve never felt like that about a particular place. My aunt and I moved a few times when I was small, and then she dumped me at school. My room in her apartment in Canterbury always felt like something of an afterthought. I had a few things there, but not many. And I only stayed with her a few weeks a year.”

I nudged her shoulder. “Well, once you decide what you want to do for school, you can put down some roots for a while. It doesn’t have to be forever, but most of those programs are three or four years, at least. That’s long enough to decide if you want to stay here.” I waved a hand again, this time aiming at the view of the ocean. “There are tech hubs in other parts of the world, you know. This isn’t your only option.”

“No,” she said, “but I want to learn from the best, and the best is here.” She grinned at me. “You know that, right?”

“Yes. But I’m kind of biased when it comes to him.”

“He’s very smart, isn’t he?” she said. “And hot, if you like older guys.”

Older guys? I tried not to splutter, telling myself she was only twenty-two. To her, Damon was ancient. Like me. “I do,” I gurgled eventually.

“I can tell. And he likes you right back, that’s obvious,” she grinned and held up a hand for a high five. “Go, big sis.”

I laughed and slapped her hand. “I’m no slouch in the brain department myself, and I’m guessing neither are you, if you’ve got the marks to get into one of these programs.”

“We’ll see,” she said. “I’ve been trying to study up on some things Yoshi told me about. Things move quickly in the tech world. Everything I learned before is out of date.”

“You’ll catch up soon enough.” The sun was starting to lower slightly. It would be less fun navigating our way back down in darkness. Besides, after the exercise, my stomach was growling.

“We should get back,” I said and started the descent.

Damon was sitting on the bed when I came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, once again blessing the luxury of high-tech showers. The steam and hot water had revived me after such a long hike.

“You’re home early,” I said, suddenly feeling even better.

“Wanted to see how you were doing.” He leaned back on the bed, studying me appreciatively. “How did it go?”

“Yeah, it was good, I think. It’s becoming easier for both of us.”

“Great.” He nodded his head toward the door. “There was some mail for you. A messenger brought it to the gate. I left it on your desk.”

“Package?” I asked. I did get the odd delivery. Packages from clients and office supplies and that kind of thing. I’m sure if I asked, Damon would get Amy to magically restock my office as she did his, but this was my business still. I paid the bills.

“No, an envelope. Are you expecting any documents?”

Not many people sent actual mail these days. There were a few who stuck to traditions like cards on birthdays and celebrations. Cassandra sent Christmas cards, but she didn’t do it for all the other holidays. It was probably an invite to a charity lunch or something. I got them regularly since Damon and I had gone public. So far, I always declined and Damon made a donation instead. Which is probably what they wanted, more than dealing with little old me who didn’t have the kind of wealth they were interested in.

“Thanks, I’m going to go work for a bit before dinner, unless you want me for something.”

“Always.” His eyes went hot. “But you have to work. And so do I.”

Darn. I should have dropped the towel when I first spotted him. But now I’d have to wait. “Any news?” I asked, wandering into the walk-in closet to grab clean clothes.

“Cassandra rang earlier. They’ve confirmed the Wheatley on the database isn’t a real person.”

“So that’s another point for Team Jack then,” I said, emerging with the clothes. I dropped them onto the bed and sat next to Damon.

He slid an arm around my shoulders. “Seems like it.”

I sighed. “Fine, I’ll see you for dinner.”

I dressed and marched down to my office, trying to recapture the happy buzz of hiking endorphins to chase away the small ribbon of ick the confirmation had given me. It was silly. I knew it was Jack. Had known it since I’d first seen the photo.

The envelope was on my desk, as Damon had said. Nothing special about it. Bigger than the usual invite and the paper was office supply yellow not fancy white or cream. Maybe a formal notification from the DNA database or something? I didn’t know if they sent a confirmation by mail. There was no return address. Just a printed address label with my name and the address.

I tore the edge and pulled out the contents without thinking and found myself staring at a photograph of Gwen and me on the hike.

What the fuck?

I nearly dropped the photo. But instead, I made myself turn it over.

You did not tell me you had a guest. U.

This time I did drop the photo. Or flung it away from me. Usuriel was sending me photos?

Oh, crap. Usuriel knew about Gwen.

I grabbed the photo and headed for Damon.

He came to his feet when he saw my face. “Something wrong?”

I waved the picture. “Usuriel’s still watching me.”

“What?” He grabbed the photo. “This is today?”

“Yes. He knows Gwen’s here.” I’d known he’d find out sooner or later. I just didn’t count on it being sooner.

Damon’s face darkened. “Well, he can’t get to her here.”

“I don’t know that he wants to.”

He held up the photo. “If he doesn’t, why does he have people following you?”

I waved a hand in frustration. “How am I supposed to know? I’m not the Lord of the Nichtkin.”

“I know.” He tossed the photo back onto the desk, but I got the feeling he wanted to tear it to pieces. “I hate this.”

“Trust me, you don’t hate it more than me.” We both stared down at the photo. All my happy endorphins had vanished.

“So, what do you want to do?” Damon asked after a minute, his voice calmer.

“Ignore it. Anything else seems like unhelpful escalation. I’ll tell Cassandra.”

“Are you going to tell Gwen?” Damon asked, not disagreeing.

“No. She’s just starting to settle in. Let’s leave it for now. Can you put this somewhere she won’t stumble across it? And ask Amy to hold any mail that might come for Gwen? We should make sure Usuriel doesn’t send one to her.”

“Yes and yes. I’ll put this in the safe,” he said. Something in his tone suggested he’d like to lock me away in a safe, too. I had half a mind to let him.

Worrying about Usuriel and Jack made it hard to focus on work. On Friday, I found myself checking the security logs and the camera feeds, instead of concentrating on what I was supposed to be doing. Just before twelve, I gave up and went to find Gwen.

She was in the game room lying back in one of the game chairs, headset on, eyes closed, engrossed in whatever she was doing.

I hesitated on the threshold. Opportunity for sisterly bonding, or should I give her space? I didn’t know, but blowing up shit in a game might make me feel better.

I crept across the room and slid into the chair next to hers. She didn’t react, which told me she was deep in the game.

I put my wrist against the control panel.

:CONTACT:

The foyer formed around me. “Madge, I’m do-not-disturb for an hour. Unless Damon calls.”

“Of course, Maggie,” came the reply.

Good. I didn’t want to be interrupted if I could avoid it. Not when our sister time had been going smoothly. I waved a hand to summon the menu, delving into the admin system to see what game Gwen was playing.

Serenity Falls . Again. It seemed to be turning into her favorite. Fine with me. Better than Archangel. Which I still avoided. Too many memories of my demon.

And we were doing well in Serenity Falls . We’d fallen into a rhythm working together without having to try too hard. She was more impulsive than I was, but I chalked that up to her being younger and less experienced. I knew more about the pitfalls in the game. She was still exploring. Which she did in a systematic and thorough way that reminded me of, well, me .

Maybe there was something in this genetics business after all.

Though I was less certain of that every time I watched her running on the treadmill before breakfast. I mean, I ran, too, but I did it so I could make it through my lessons with Callum without puking. Gwen enjoyed it. She even sang along to the songs she got Madge to pump through her earphones. And sounded good doing it.

I was happy if I could keep my breathing mostly under control. I’d chase endorphins in other ways. The naked-Damon-involved kind of ways.

I tracked down Gwen’s location in the game, but hesitated again. What if she thought I was being too try-hard? We were still strangers, even though we were sisters, and there was still distance between us. Suddenly uncertain, I procrastinated for a moment, and pulled up my messages.

I didn’t keep in contact with many of the gamers I’d known through Nat anymore, but I played with Benji and some of the other Righteous developers every so often and hung out with Lizzie watching Zee train.

Damon, Lizzie and Zee wouldn’t use game messages to get hold of me, but some of the Righteous crew might. I’d dropped them a note before all the nonsense with Ajax and Jack had come up, telling them I’d be beta testing Infinite Rise and there’d been a trail of messages ever since.

I checked the latest chat in those, added my two cents and then ran my eye over the short list of other messages. A couple of administrative things from the system and one message request. From someone I didn’t know. Interesting. My profile was private. Though, I wasn’t impossible to get to. No one was truly unreachable if you wanted to invest enough time and effort.

The username was Night&Mirrors, I snorted to myself. Gamers had been around for a long time, and yet their ability to pick silly usernames still amused me. Gwen’s was BritDontQuit33. Damon’s was simply Righteous when he gamed publicly. At home we used our names. The status bubble next to Night&Mirrors showed they were currently online. I flicked open the message.

I would like to talk to you.

No signature. Just the one line.

I snorted again, preparing to consign it to the depths of the spam filter. Then something pinged in my brain.

Night&Mirrors. Usuriel’s territory was sometimes called the Court of Mirrors.

It couldn’t be, could it? Surely Usuriel wasn’t gaming?

I mean, he could, of course. Callum did, and no doubt Usuriel could put his hands on tanai who could explain to him how to game and get him whatever equipment he wanted, barring a chip. But what was he doing in the game and, more to the point, how did he find me?

My first instinct was to disengage and get the hell out of there. But that would leave Gwen logged in while Usuriel was online. It wouldn’t take me long to pull her out, but the Fae moved fast and a few seconds might be all the time he needed.

But he hadn’t approached Gwen. He’d approached me.

What the hell did he want? Surely his charming photo had been enough to let me know he was still watching. I tried to figure out his angle, dialing down the sensory feedback to my avatar so the instinctive fear died down to unease, letting me focus.

While I was hesitating, another message pinged.

The system informs me that you are online. I would like to talk.

Well, that was certainly arrogant enough to be Usuriel.

Who is this?

The response came almost instantly.

Lord of the Night.

Lord Usuriel?

Is there another Lord of the Night?

I rolled my eyes so hard I risked spraining my eyeballs. Arrogance at its finest. Damon might pull his master of the universe attitude at times to get things done, but he didn’t tip over into outright arrogant. He didn’t think he was better than other people.

Usuriel, on the other hand, did. But if he wanted to talk, in-game might be safer than in person.

Yes, he could probably use magic here, but he could hardly lock me in. He might have a viddeck, but I doubted he’d figured out Jack’s nasty little trick. Callum knew how to get out of it, but he didn’t know how the system was locked down in the first place.

I thought fast. I didn’t want to join Usuriel in a game. Cerridwen had managed to get someone to plant a summoning in a game. I didn’t want to end up under another compulsion, forcing me to meet Usuriel wherever he was hiding.

But here, on Damon’s home system, I had access to quarantined environments that I controlled completely. I sent Madge a request to try to identify the user of the account and pulled up a new sterile test space. Those weren’t connected to anything else, other than a quarantined server, and they had multiple levels of firewalls and security around them.

The test space formed around me, another plain white box, only differentiated from the foyer by the fact I used a different, less-stark shade of white for the walls. I double-checked all the security and sent Usuriel an invite before I lost my nerve.

I’d barely taken a breath when he materialized on the other side of the small room.

His avatar wore a long black velvet coat over tight leather pants and a black T-shirt that had enough sheen that it was probably supposed to be silk. The hair was lighter than it had been at Decker’s, but still not as light as in the realm. And the face was handsome, but not alarmingly so. The eyes, while dark, almost startlingly so against the blond, were not fully black. Definitely trying to pass as human.

Had he been interacting with humans in the game?

I tightened my grip on my mental shields. Just because he looked more human, didn’t mean it was safe to treat him as though he was.

“Lord Usuriel,” I said, politely.

He nodded. “Maggie Lachlan.”

Nerves prickled down my spine. This could be anyone. Another Fae. Someone sent by Usuriel. A tanai related to the Nichtkin. “All right,” I said, “if it’s really you, prove it. Tell me something that only you would know.”

“I know what it’s like to kiss you,” he said.

I glared at him. “You’re not the only man who knows that, my lord, and if you are hoping for a civil conversation, I suggest you think of something else.”

“You parted my shields in the realm,” he said in a low rumble of a voice. It was part annoyed, part…alluring.

Ick. I slammed my shields down harder. If he thought he could sway me with his Fae charm or whatever the hell you called his particular brand of pushing past unearthly toward creepy but still somehow enticing beauty.

But he knew about what I’d done to his shields. The only people who knew the details of what I’d done in the realm were people I’d trust with my life not to share them. And I doubted that Usuriel had shared the story. He wouldn’t want any Fae to know that a mere human had beaten his power, however briefly. That would be a blow to his status.

“Okay,” I said, “let’s assume it’s you. What did you want to talk to me about?”

“You did not tell me you had a guest,” he said, taking a step closer.

I stiffened and thrust out a hand. “Stay right where you are. Also, you did not ask, my lord.”

His eyes narrowed. “The little tanai you stole from me.”

“I didn’t steal her from anyone. We had a deal and I fulfilled it. Everything fair and in accordance with the contract. Despite you trying your best to wriggle your way out of it.” I was two seconds away from booting him out. But I wanted to know how much he knew about Gwen. “So I’m not sure why she’s of any interest to you. Or why you are having us followed for that matter.”

“I told you I would be watching.”

Great, so he was stalking me, not Gwen. If he was telling the truth.

“I am merely curious as to why she is no longer in London. I would have thought your Cestis there would have been taking care of her.”

“She’s a grown woman. She can go wherever she wants.”

“So she came here?”

“She’s interested in a career in game design,” I said, hoping I wasn’t revealing too much. “San Francisco is the best place in the world for that.”

“And your Damon Riley is helping her?”

“She’s staying with us while she makes some decisions.” That was noncommittal.

“Kind of you to open your home to a stranger.”

“Is kindness such an odd concept to you, my lord? Humans do not always think of obligations and favors as the Fae do. Sometimes we merely do what is right.”

“Foolish,” he muttered.

“Perhaps. But Gwen is not your concern. She is none of the Fae’s concern. Period.”

“She seems to be nobody’s concern, other than yours,” Usuriel said. “Did her father disown her, too?”

I went still. Was he asking or did he know something about Jack? “That’s Gwen’s business, not yours,” I said firmly. “But now, you know she’s here and that should be the end of it. You have no claim on her that I am aware of, my lord. So unless you want me to involve Lady Cerridwen in this matter, I suggest you leave us alone.”

“I am entitled to protect my people.”

“Neither Gwen nor I are a threat to your people.”

“That is for me to decide.”

“Within the realm, perhaps. Your authority ends once you step through the door.”

“She is tanai.”

“But not of your family.” I said firmly. “Unless you are making a claim otherwise? Is her mother one of yours?”

His mouth flattened. “No. Whoever her mother is, she has not made herself known.”

And looking at Gwen, it was hard to believe she came from one of the Nichtkin. Usuriel’s illusions aside, I had no doubt whatsoever I’d never seen his real face. “This conversation is going in circles, my lord. And I have other business.”

He scowled. “You are here in one of these game worlds. You cannot be so busy.”

“My work involves these game worlds. The same cannot be said for you.”

“I grew curious after your adventure in my realm. About what you and your Damon Riley do. It is like a dream of a kind and I rule dreams and nightmares.”

Yeah, not creepy at all. “So you got someone to teach you to game?”

“I have not spent all my time locked up in the realm, Maggie. The door here was closed, but others were open and I visit your world often enough. There are tanai who are mine. It was not difficult to find one to show me this thing.”

Thankfully, I hadn’t been anywhere near a public game system since we’d returned from the UK. And Damon had done only that one exhibition game at Decker’s.

A dumb part of my brain suggested I should try locking him in here. Find out if he, too, could leave a game without needing a kill switch. I squished it hard. No sharing secrets with the scary Fae lord with a chip on his shoulder. “Well, it’s nice to have a hobby.”

My brain caught up with my previous thought. I hadn’t been gaming, but Gwen might well have. She could use her datapad to link up to the public game networks. Or had she asked Damon for a link? The account we’d made for her didn’t have access to anything sensitive. But if Gwen had been gaming…had Usuriel been watching her? Maybe even before she came to San Francisco?

So many questions. None of them I was willing to ask because he would want something in return.

“You do not spend much time in the game. At least, not where you can be found.”

I raised an eyebrow. “As you can imagine, Damon protects what is his as well.”

“Your guest on the other hand, is here often.”

Fuck. He had been spying on Gwen. “How do you know that?”

“There was quite a stir when she returned from the realm. And there are those who remember her from before she came to us. It was not hard to find her.”

In other words, someone she’d known at university or one of the tanai she’d met had sold her out to Usuriel.

Charming. I cursed them mentally, wishing I could turn them all into frogs. Or bugs. I was going to have to talk to her about staying off the public links for a while. And about whether her username was from before she went into the realm. And about Usuriel, because she’d need a good reason to not go onto the links when she was probably trying to build some networks and meet people who gamed here.

“She has been talking to someone in game. Quite often. Especially the last few days.”

I bristled. He shouldn’t know that. Unless whoever had helped him find Gwen was helping him poke around in places he shouldn’t necessarily have access to. I was going to do my best to find out which tanai had helped him. And then hand them over to Mitch. “How do you know that?”

He shrugged. “Perhaps she is not as security conscious as you and Damon.”

“Well, she’s allowed to talk to people.” I used my chip to access the menu and start a search for links between Gwen’s account and Usuriel’s. And to download the activity on hers. If Usuriel was telling me this, he thought he had a reason.

“This person sought her out.”

“That happens, too.” I didn’t point out he was doing a fine line in stalking himself.

“I do not think they are who they are pretending to be. Their account has no history of other activity in other games. It was created recently.”

“How recently?” I really needed to find his source.

“On your Monday this week. Late in the day.”

The day I’d received my notification from the database. The day Jack would have, too. Telling him Gwen was back in the world—assuming he’d known she’d been out of it. Crap. I tried to keep the reaction off my face, but Usuriel wasn’t fooled.

“Not so sanguine, now?” he said. “I know something else happened that day. A few hours before the account was made.”

I gave him a flat stare. “If you’re waiting for me to ask you what, you’ll be waiting a while. I have no desire to be in your debt. So you can tell me or not.” I sent a few more inquiries though my chip, trying to see if I could slip into the back of Usuriel’s account. Usuriel might be a Fae lord, but I was the freaking queen of tech even before I’d met Damon, and working with Damon had only taught me how to be even better. And sneakier. I doubted Usuriel or whoever was helping him could get around me.

“May I share an image with you?”

Better than sending it through the mail like an old-fashioned stalker. I triple-checked the security on the space, deploying every defense the system had. Bad things could be hidden in image files. “Go ahead,” I said, hoping I wasn’t taking a gamble I was going to lose.

An image blinked into view a few feet from me, hanging in the air. It was somewhat grainy, but not so much that I couldn’t recognize Jack. At a recharge stop. Like the ones that had replaced gas stations up and down the interstates. The background was too fuzzy for me to make out any identifying features. “Where was this taken?”

“New Mexico, I believe.”

Fuck. Too close for comfort. And right next to Mexico. Which still had a border less tightly controlled than the one we shared with Canada. Jack was smart enough to know Damon would be watching the airports and ports here. But he couldn’t cover every entry point to the country. I grabbed a copy of the image before Usuriel could snatch it away and shoved it into a secure storage file, locking it down. “And it’s from Monday?” Mitch’s team could verify that later.

“Yes. That is Jack Miller, is it not?” Usuriel asked.

“It is,” I admitted.

“And you cannot be foolish enough to claim he does not present a threat.”

“No.” I gritted it out.

“So it is interesting, is it not, that on the day he is first seen back in this country, the account who sought Gwen out was also created. I don’t know how you feel about coincidences, Maggie Lachlan, but I do not trust them.”

Me either. Thank God I’d dialed back the feedback from my avatar or my hands would have been shaking. “You think Jack is talking to Gwen?”

“Perhaps.” The eyes on his avatar darkened, as though his true nature was breaking through. I let my sight slide into the magic, trying to be subtle about it in case he was about to try something. There was the faintest hint of black smoke around the avatar, but nothing to suggest he was actively using magic. “Which makes me wonder, Maggie. Because we know he has been interested in you in the past. And your Damon. But why is he interested in her?”

Shit. Nope, this conversation was done. I killed the room and booted Usuriel from the system. I’d deal with the consequences of pissing him off later. Pausing only to trigger the admin version of Gwen’s kill switch, too, I wrenched myself out of the game and sat up in my chair, breathing hard.

Gwen sat up with a start, confusion clear on her face at the sudden interruption. “Maggie? Do you need me? Damn, I was hoping you’d join me. I worked out how to get out of the game. You know, the way you told me Callum can?”

I blinked at her, my brain not quite catching up. “You did?”

“Yes, want me to show you?”

I did but it would have to wait. “Not now. We need to talk to Damon.”

“Isn’t he at work?”

Crap. Yes. He was. “I’ll call him. Or Cassandra.”

She was starting to look worried. “Did something happen?”

“Don’t get mad, but I need to ask you a question.”

“O-kay.”

“Your username. Is it one you used before? Before you went into the realm, I mean?”

“Yes.” She looked confused. “I never closed my account and I was still paying for a link. I never intended to stay in the realm so long, so I didn’t shut down anything before I went in. I was in Halls, so I didn’t have a lease or a car or any other big regular expenses.”

I stomped on the big sister urge to lecture her about financial responsibility. It would be the pot calling the kettle black. At her age I’d signed up for a gym at one point in a fit of Nat-urged-on enthusiasm. I’d taken classes about a month, then ignored it for about three years before I cancelled my membership. And presumably her university would have stopped taking money when they decided she wasn’t coming back. I wondered how long that had taken? Had anyone raised an alarm? Or had the tanai handled it somehow?

“And have you been talking to anyone from the public links in game?”

“I’ve played a few sessions with someone. I met them in the game. Is there a problem?”

“Maybe. I’m not sure how to tell you this but Lord Usuriel has been in San Francisco.”

The color drained from her face and she shrank back into the chair, her skin looking like chalk against the dark leather. “What does he want?”

I had to avoid telling her Usuriel had asked about her. Sticking to Jack was less likely to completely freak her out. “He got interested in Jack after we left the realm. He found out who we were after, somehow. And I think he sees Jack as a threat because of the demon connection. He’s been looking for him, too. But he hadn’t found him. But today, he sent me a photo of Jack. He said it was taken in New Mexico. Earlier this week.”

“Mexico?”

“New Mexico.” I jerked my head roughly in the direction of the state. I couldn’t expect Gwen to have a solid understanding of American geography. I didn’t know all the counties or whatever they were in England. “It’s two states east from here. Along the border.”

“So Jack’s in the States?”

Apparently it was possible to turn paler than chalk. Or greener, maybe. “Hey, take a breath.”

She ignored me. “He’s in the US?”

“Seems that way. If the photo’s real.”

“Is he coming here?” Her voice was high, too breathy.

“I don’t know. But breathe. This person you’re talking to in the game. When did you meet them?”

“Tuesday. I went to the supply market on that weird desert crossing level and we started chatting.”

“So the day after Meredith ran your DNA?”

“Ye-es. What, you think it’s Jack?”

“I don’t know. Have they told you anything about themselves?” No point asking about what avatar they used. Avatars could resemble anyone or anything.

“Not really. They’re into old sci-fi movies, said they liked to cook and hike. They—he—seemed nice.”

Male, then. Dammit. Though, again, there were gamers who didn’t play their biological sex. “He hasn’t asked to meet?”

“He mentioned hanging out at one of the clubs one night, but nothing definite.”

“If he tries to firm something up, put him off. No meeting him. Not until we know what’s going on.” I sent a message to Maia, asking her to pick us up. Jake replied, reminding me it was Maia’s day off. “Jake’s coming to get us.”

“Where are we going?” Gwen asked.

“To see Cassandra. Maybe Cerridwen can work out what Usuriel’s up to.”

“It sounds like he’s being helpful,” she said tentatively. As though she couldn’t quite believe it.

“Fae don’t just help. Or rarely. So let’s—” I stopped as both of our datapads chimed near identical alarms. I checked mine. “Crap, I forgot you have your follow-up with Meredith today.” I chewed my lip. “Do you want to reschedule?”

“You can talk to Cassandra and Damon while I’m doing whatever needs to be done there, can’t you?”. She held out her arm. “The surgical shield is starting to lift. And it itches. I’m dying to take it off. Or get a new one.”

“How itchy?” I asked. Hopefully it wasn’t another allergy. But surely she’d have mentioned it by now.

“Enough to be annoying. But I feel fine otherwise. Still, Jack can’t know I’d be going to the hospital. Let alone with you.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. But if we took Jake, it should be fine. We could head to Cassandra’s after, or meet her at the Riley campus, which was even more heavily guarded than the house. And I could understand Gwen wanting to know if her arm was healing okay.

“Okay. Hospital, then Cassandra. Let’s go.”