Page 20 of A Deeper Blue
“Not the methods. The way. Everyone used to sing. Doing a bit of work? Sing to pass the time. Walking down to the neighbors? Sing as you go. Going to church? Didn’t matter what church, but you’ll be singing. No one sings now. It feels like something’s been lost.”
Azure made a thoughtful noise. “I will have to think on that,” she said.
“It was not meant to be a topic for deep pondering,” he said, feeling embarrassed. “I just meant that I like it when you sing.”
“Well, I like it when you sing,” she said. “So we’re even.”
He chuckled. “OK, then.”
“Hey,” she said, sounding a little too casual. “I texted a friend of mine who lives near here. I thought we might be able to hitch a ride.”
“Hitch a ride?” he repeated.
“We’ve got Warlocks after us,” said Azure. “We need to cover a little ground without getting noticed.”
“Where is the bike supposed to ride?” He was trying to figure out where she was going with this. Was she trying to ditch him?
“Horse trailer,” said Azure. “He hasn’t texted back yet. If you hate it, we don’t have to do it. I just thought we could both use a break. He might not even be available.”
“Is he going to freak out about Warlocks?” asked Rafe suspiciously. He sensed that there was more to this than she was saying.
“Um…” said Azure. “He’s a wood nymph, so anything we can do to stop warlocks will be good with him.”
“A wood nymph?” Rafe was surprised. “Really? Those are still a thing?”
She laughed. “Uh… yeah. Just like the rest of us. They’re still a thing.”
“Well, I just thought with all the habitat loss that they’d gone the way of the Fae. You know… gone.”
“Uh, well,” said Azure. “I mean, not exactly...” Her phone beeped, and she checked the message. “Um, he says he can meet us here tomorrow morning and take us as far as Grangeville.”
Rafe tried to remember where that was. “That’s right at the Nez Perce Rez?”
“I don’t know. He just says that’s the edge of his territory. If you don’t want to do it, we don’t have to.”
Rafe mulled it over. Azure had a point, and the weather smelled like rain. Maybe this was the solution he had been looking for—freeway speed without the visibility.
“No, that would be good. From there, we can drop down toward Weiser and then head up the 84 toward Mt. Hood.”
“OK,” she said, then seemed to hesitate. “Are you sure you’re OK with… wood nymphs?”
“Um, yeah?” He shrugged. She smelled funny. Uncertain? “Are you trying to ask if I’m some sort of wacko speciesist?”
She gave an awkward laugh. “Maybe?”
He rolled his eyes. “I don’t have any room to judge anybody. And frankly, between warlocks and the bullshit going down with humans, I don’t think any of usotherscan really afford to be speciesist, do you?”
“No,” she said, smiling at him. “But you’d be surprised how often Supernaturals still manage it.”
He snorted. “Too true,” he said, thinking of his father. “Although, I think I should be offended that you’re not asking him if he’s going to be OK with a wolf.”
“Oh, no, he loves wolves. One saved his life after the Night of 1000 Deaths.”
“Really?”
The great tragedy of World War II had cost the Supernaturals dearly. Warlocks had fought for the Nazi’s—because of course they did—and they had cooked up some sort of atom bomb for the Supernaturals. An Allied team had stopped them, but it had still detonated off the coast of Greece, devastating the entire area, stripping it of magic, and killing over 1000 Supernaturals. Fortunately, the warlock’s spell had been lost along with the ship it had gone down on, but that was small comfort when almost every family knew someone who had been lost, and entire mermaid enclaves and nymph groves had been killed.
“Yeah, he was still in the seed when it happened, and a wolf found it in Greece and brought it here and planted it.”
