Blood Spells

His too-serious eyes glinted. “I promise.”

“And you’ll look out for Braden?”

“Of course.”

“You’re sure you’ve got them straight, right?” Brandt asked from behind her. “I’d hate to think you mixed them up.”

Her laugh came out as a sob, but she was grinning through her tears as she held back a hand for him to help her to her feet. “I never mix them up.” Okay, almost never. But as Brandt pulled her vertical and urged her back against his strong, warm body, she felt better for having laughed, and the twins looked far less tragic than they had moments earlier. In fact, Braden was starting to glance at the Jeep.

“Okay, guys.” Carlos climbed down and pushed the driver’s seat forward so the twins could get into the back, where he’d installed a pair of kiddie seats. “Last one in is a rotten . . . er, something.”

Braden was the first one to break away and head for the vehicle. Harry followed soon, though. He shot several looks back at Patience and Brandt, but then faced forward and climbed in. Carlos strapped them in, then slid the seat back into place. Leaving the door open, he approached Hannah, looking distinctly wary.

“Do you have everything you need?” she asked diffidently.

“Change of plans.”

Hannah stared at him. “Excuse me?”

“I’m not going.” Carlos jerked his chin toward the mansion’s front door. “He is.”

Jox stood there with a knapsack slung over his shoulder and a resolute expression on his face.

“Oh,” Patience said as her heart thumped a couple of times and her eyes filmed with a new wash of tears at the thought of Hannah and Jox finally getting a chance to be together after more than twenty-

five years.

Hannah stared at him with an expression that bordered on horror.

After a long moment, she blurted, “Is that all you’re bringing?”

He lifted a shoulder in a casual, knapsack-burdened shrug. “I’ve always traveled light . . . except where it came to you.”

Her eyes filled. “You rat. I thought you weren’t speaking to me. I thought . . . damn it, I don’t know what I thought. But it wasn’t good.”

“I couldn’t say anything until I told Strike I wanted to leave. He . . . it wasn’t easy, not for either of us. Then I had to talk to Rabbit. And now . . .” He glanced back at the mansion where he’d been born, the one he’d renovated from top to bottom and run as his own kingdom for the past two and a half years. The one that represented humanity’s single hope for survival, even if humanity didn’t know it.

“Now I’m ready to leave. That is . . . if you’ll have me?”

“But, but—” Hannah went speechless for a few seconds as a tear tracked down her face. Her voice dropped to a disbelieving whisper. “What about the war? What about the other winikin? Who’s going to run things around here?”

Jox came down the rest of the pathway to join her in the semicircular drive, stopping a few feet away. “The war won’t be won or lost by a single winikin, but you and Woody already proved that one person can make a difference when it comes to protecting the next generation. As for the other winikin and keeping this place on an even keel, they’ll manage. If they can’t put together some sort of a workable democracy, with Strike as the buck-stopper, I’ve left instructions. One way or the other, they’ll be okay without me.”

“But . . .”

When she didn’t say anything else, just stood there looking scared and confused, he said softly, “I know I’ve put my duties ahead of you for way too long, that maybe it’s too late for us. But I’m asking you to let me come with you. This doesn’t have to mean we’re dating, or courting, or, hell, so fucking crazy about each other that we can’t keep our hands to ourselves.” A distinct gleam entered his eyes as he said the last part. “We can take our time. Whatever you want. Just say you’ll bring me with you. I can be a good winikin to the boys. I’ll teach them, protect them, love them like they’re my own. And I’ll put you equal to that, with nothing above you three, I swear it. I—” She launched herself at him and cut him off with a kiss. He rocked back under the impact, and his hands stayed out to his sides for a few seconds, as if it had been so long since he had kissed someone or been kissed that he couldn’t quite remember what to do with them.

Then his arms folded around her, and they merged, for a moment, into a single unit.

Carlos walked past them, back into the mansion, whistling tunelessly. Patience blew out a happy, relieved breath. “Well. That was a long time coming.”

“Really?” Brandt asked, looking honestly shocked at the turn of events. “Where have I been?”

When she glared at him, he held up both hands. “Don’t answer that.”

“Men,” she muttered, but she was grinning faintly, and her smile broadened as Hannah and Jox separated, both looking more than a little awestruck.

Then it was time for more good-byes; Patience climbed halfway into the Jeep to kiss and hug each of the boys again, and then hugged Jox, and then Hannah. As they parted, Hannah said, “Keep that card close to your heart, sweetling.”

Patience nodded. “I will. I promise.”

Brandt finished with the boys, kissed Hannah’s cheek, and did the manly handshake-backslap thing with Jox. “I owe you one,” Brandt said with a pointed look at the backseat.

Jox nodded. “I’ll collect in a couple of years, gods willing. I’m toying with the idea of rebuilding the garden shop that Rabbit torched; I never got around to putting the property up for sale right after the fire, and then the market tanked. So I still own it.” One corner of his mouth kicked up. “If I decide to rebuild, I’ll be looking for a good architect.”

“You’ve got one,” Brandt said firmly, then echoed, “Gods willing.” He waved them into the Jeep, and then joined Patience as she moved back toward the covered entryway.

As they crossed the drive, she caught several flashes of movement from various windows as the inhabitants of Skywatch waved to Jox, Hannah, and the boys. It was the single unmoving figure in an upper window of the royal quarters that caught her attention, though.

Strike stood staring down, his body etched with weary resignation. “He looks so sad,” she said softly.

Brandt followed her eyes. “I bet you never thought you’d feel bad about the idea of him being cut off from his winikin.”

“A lot has changed over the past week.”

“You’re telling me.” He went silent as the Jeep fired up.

They turned back, their hands twining together, as the vehicle rolled toward the gate in the perimeter fence surrounding Skywatch. Together, they lifted their free hands in a dual wave. Magic washed over her skin as someone inside the mansion dropped the blood-ward to let the Jeep through the perimeter. The vehicle cleared the main gate; brake lights flashed, and Jox tapped the horn in a cheery beep-beep . . . and then he drove away, following the dirt track that led away from the compound.

“See you in two years,” Patience whispered.

Brandt pressed a kiss to her temple, leaning into her hard enough to let her know that the kiss was as much for him as for her. “We’ll see them in two years.”

Neither of them said “gods willing.” It seemed too much like a lack of faith.

Instead, as they stood together, watching the Jeep dwindle to a dust cloud, he said, “What card was Hannah talking about?”

Patience’s heart lightened, just a touch. “I did a one-card reading, asking about the day after the zero date. I pulled the Kan card, which represents the iguana. It’s the one card in the entire star deck that I’ve never pulled before, ever, even though it should be my bloodline totem. It represents two things.” She paused, smiling softly. “The first one is hope.”

“I like that one.” He gave her a one-armed squeeze. “What’s the second?”

“Fertility.” Aware of the shiver that ran through his big frame, she grinned. “I was thinking . . .

Woodrow is a good name.”

“Yeah.” His voice went rough. “Yeah. It is.”