“Comeuppance?” Tess asked.
“It’s a word,” I said.
She shook her head. “You’re the boss.”
“Exactly, experience beats youthful enthusiasm anytime.”
She made a snort of derision and picked up her saddlebags. “Ready?”
I grabbed my own. “Ready.”
Tess opened the door and stepped out into the noonday Colorado sun. The sun was warm, but a stiff breeze that kept the day from being pleasant. I could see a line of dark clouds over the western mountains.
“Looks like snow is coming,” I observed.
“Really? Not the best conditions for riding bikes.”
“Don’t sweat it. You have a familiar now. You don’t have to worry about road conditions slowing you down,” I said.
Beast and Maia were parked close to each other at the back of the lot. I motioned that way, and we joined them. The motel’s parking lot was nearly deserted at noon. Everyone had either left for other locations or were out getting lunch. This kind of motel wasn’t usually a favorite of long-term guests. People either chose the cheaper motels with a weekly rate or if they were on business, a more expensive place that would be more relaxing.
I put my saddlebags on Beast and then mounted up. His engine roared to life as I sat down, indicating that he too was ready to hit the road. Tess was standing beside Maia, running her hand along the gas tank. I watched her for a minute and realized she was petting her familiar.
Weird, I’ll never understand women.
“Ah, do you two want to be alone?” I asked.
Tess gave me a glare and then mounted up.
Maia’s engine started. I shifted Beast into gear and pulled out of the parking lot with Tess close behind. We stopped for breakfast at the outskirts of Cañon City and then headed east out of town and turned north along Highway 115. It was a short ride to the Springs, but I wanted to find somewhere to get off the road long enough to give Tess some practice time before actually entering the Springs. As usual, Verðandi’s summons was short on the when and why, concentrating on the where rather than the how soon. She’d given us a few days since she’d originally told us we’d be needed in Colorado, I was curious if events were partially hidden from her or if there was someone Fate couldn’t sense. I had already gathered that Rowle was capable of hiding his own fate from Verðandi, but I was unsure as for whether it was something he did or just a natural occurrence when a Wanderer went rogue.
A half-hour up highway 115, I found a spot that looked promising. We pulled off the highway onto a dirt road that led up into the foothills away from the sprawling property that made up Fort Carson.
Finding an abandoned quarry, we got situated, and I had Tess concentrate on practicing the enhanced senses spell. It was a natural follow up to her other spells and allowed a Wanderer to spot threats in time to use their shield before it became too late.
A few hours later, I thought Tess had the spell memorized well enough to get by. She was able to generate the spell and then hold it while triggering her one tat. She even held it against my application of energy blasts, fire, and lightning. A little more practice and I might even trust to leave her alone for a few hours.
“Are you ready to try the healing tattoo?” I asked.
To her credit, she didn’t respond immediately. A few seconds passed and then she nodded. “Yeah, sure. I’m ready.”
“Okay, where do you intend to put it?”
She shrugged and started removing her jacket. “I guess I’ll follow your example again and put it over my heart.”
“All right.”
I opened my main grimoire to the correct page while she laid her leather jacket to the side and started unbuttoning her blouse. I watched her and then frowned.
Tess folded her blouse, laid it atop her jacket, and caught my frown. “What’s wrong?”
I reached over and traced the pattern across her in the same location I had mine. My fingertip slid over the skin beneath her left breast, over the side of her sports bra, across the top, and then back down between her breasts. “Hmmm,” I said, thinking to myself.
“What?”
“I’m not sure you can get it right just there. Your breast is not as flat as my chest.”
She guffawed, “I should say not, but what’s that got to do with anything?”
I frowned again. “I’m not sure it does, I’ve never considered the problem before.”
Now she was frowning. “Well, decide, I don’t want to go through that much pain just to find out the tattoo doesn’t work.”
I nodded and considered everything I knew about Wanderer tattoos. They could span voids, as when my two upraised fingers formed a Cub Scout salute and completed one tattoo and another formed when I made the same hand into a fist. So would the fact that her round, and oh so lovely, breast actually have a problem with the tattoo?
Finally, I shook my head. “No, I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”
Tess sighed visibly. “Good, you had me worried for a minute there. Okay, same as last time?”
“Sure,” I said and triggered my levitation tat.
She floated from her cross-legged position to a prone position about waist high. As I stood, she undid the front closure on her bra and dropped it toward her blouse and jacket. It continued to float beside her.
She frowned at it. “Are you going to fix that?”
I nodded, concentrated, and the bra dropped to her blouse.
I held my grimoire over her face so she could read the spell and then put my finger on the smooth skin just beneath her left breast. “Start here.”
Tess focused, using my eyes to see the placement of that finger. She gave a little gasp as the first glow appeared beneath her skin. “Shit, that hurts.”
“Some areas have
