Page 25 of Gray Dawn

Asa couldn’t stop touching her. I couldn’t blame him. I wasn’t sure I believed she was here.

Safe.

She wassafe.

Yet her escape felt too easy. Harrowing, yes. But I couldn’t see Clay not telling the director about her.

A thousand questions perched on the tip of my tongue, but I clenched my jaw, giving her a moment.

“Clay and I were on our way to you. It was after your meeting with Calixta.” Her antennae grew taut. “I was on my way into his pocket when he got a phone call. I couldn’t hear who it was, I was already in the insulated part, but I felt when he...” She flexed her hands, burying her face in my shirt. “He stopped being Clay.”

The spell on the inside of his jacket pocket was meant to insulate little moth ears from hearing adult conversations. For the first time since I made that modification to Clay’s wardrobe, I regretted it.

“I climbed out.” She eased up enough to look up at me. “I saw his face, and I knew it was bad.” She swallowed. “I tried to get through to him, but he wasn’t…” Her expression crumpled. “He wasn’t Clay anymore.” Her antennae drooped down her back. “He didn’t know what to do with me, so he put me in a jar.”

“He put you in a jar?”

“There were air holes,” she rushed to add, “and food and water.”

“Wait.” I tried to make that fit what I knew of his blackouts. “He did that on his own?”

“Yeah.” She tucked her wings in tighter against her back. “He was very careful not to hurt me.”

Leaning forward, Asa appeared to steel his resolve. “Did he show you to the director?”

“No.” A shudder rippled through her. “He kept me hidden from him.” She rubbed her hands together. “I might have also started referring to him as Big Nose Baron to make him less scary.”

“From Mystic Seas,” Asa explained for my benefit, his lips curving.

Big Nose Baron was nicer than any of the names I would have called him.

“Clay kept you in his pocket?” I wanted to be sure I got the whole picture. “Did you see the director at any point?”

“The jar was tall enough I could fly to the top and hear what they were saying. Sometimes. It depended on how Clay was sitting. That was how I knew about Charlotte. Oh. Clay mentioned another safe house in Dallas, if that helps.”

“I’ll text Isiforos,” I decided. “He can shift the Kellies’ focus toward Dallas in case the director decides to run there next.”

Now that I thought about it, that was a lot of movement for him. He preferred to find a secure location and hunker down. Maybe Clay had convinced him that keeping on the move was the best way not to get caught? Hard to say without more information, but it was interesting that he chose Charlotte when Luca had too.

“The Kellies?” Colby’s eyes brightened. “They’re alive?”

“They are, and they’re in Boston. They’ve taken over the setup you and Clay were working on.”

“Good deal.” She puffed up her fluff. “That means I can get back to the important stuff.”

I got the feelingthe important stuffwas, to Colby, locating Clay. I couldn’t say I blamed her.

“The Kellies are more than capable of resuming regular Bureau operations.” Fergal turned back to the front. “As Colby said, we can focus on the more critical matters.”

Clay.

The director.

Luca.

Calixta.

Aedan.

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