Maps, Artifacts, and Other Arcane Magic (Dowser Series Book 5) (18 page)

“No,” he answered calmly. “A bathing suit would be unwise at the top of the Andes in January … well, at any time of the year.”

I snapped my mouth shut to chew on that piece of information. I actually wasn’t too sure what the Andes were … mountains, from the sound of it.

“I’d hate to see you ruin that pretty dress further …”

“It’s a sweater,” I said petulantly, though I was amenable to him cajoling me out of my temper before it got out of hand.

“Sweater,” Warner corrected himself with a smile.

“You think my outfit was pretty?”

“No, but I think you look beautiful in it.”

Jesus, I wasn’t sure I’d ever been involved in a mating dance that took this long to seal the deal. It was screwing with my focus.

“We should just get it over with,” I blurted, instantly regretting my words even as I waited for Warner to respond.

He frowned. “This is not the Bahamas. And getting on the wrong side of the healer would be … well, unhealthy.”

“No,” I said, glancing around while I gestured between him and me. “Us. Together.”

Warner tilted his head, still not completely sure what I was talking about. “You wish to seal our bond, now? So quickly, and without your father’s blessing? Parents …” — he amended — “… without your parents’ approval?”

“Okay, let’s call it that, but skip the creepy part about my parents. And, yes. We can be slow the second time.”

“Slow the second time,” Warner repeated. Then a light went on somewhere in that quick mind of his. “Ah …” He shifted his shoulders. “Yes, I understand that … mating is different in this century.”

Jesus. He was going to say no. I could tell from the way he’d angled his body away from me. God, I didn’t think I’d ever had anyone say no to me before. Not that it was a question I asked often.

“I would prefer —”

“Forget it.” I interrupted him by doing a one-eighty toward the door that led to North America. “So I’ll need a ski jacket and hiking boots.”

“Jade,” Warner said.

“No,” I answered, yanking open the door. The magic of the portal whipped around me, and I desperately wanted it to instantly sweep me away. “You find the healer. I’m tired of dancing around the freaking instruments and the asshole map.” I stepped into the magic, hoping its golden light covered the shame I could feel spreading through my body. Then I remembered that Warner didn’t see magic in color anyway. No matter. If I couldn’t hide, I’d run away.

“I’ll find the healer,” Warner said behind me.

Wrapped tight in rejection, and in my anger at all the things I’d done wrong today, and yesterday, I stepped through into the bakery basement without looking back.

If Warner wanted arm’s-length, I could do arm’s-length. Jesus, he was the one who’d broken into my apartment to make me freaking pancakes!

He was also the one from the sixteenth century …

I tamped down on my need to counter my own irrational behavior, then slammed the portal shut behind me.

Well, I imagined slamming it closed. Because it didn’t actually work like an actual door.

Never freaking mind.

Where the hell were my hiking boots?

∞

Before I crossed back to the nexus, I slipped into the bakery to find it tidy and looking freshly renovated. The floor had been sanded and varnished. The windows sparkled. And, though they had been getting slightly worn around the edges, the bistro tables now shined. The bakery had been completely healed — maybe looking even better than it had before Shailaja knocked on my window.

The only evidence that remained of the rabid koala’s assault were the five broken trinkets that Blossom had placed on the desk in my office. And I could fix those myself.

Feeling blessed — and, though I was loath to admit it, thankful for Warner’s intervention — I pulled some day-old cupcakes out of the fridge and arranged them in a heart shape on the stainless steel workstation in the bakery. The daycare we usually donated them to hadn’t been open yesterday. I hoped that Blossom popped in to collect my thank you, but I vowed to leave a heart shaped in cupcakes behind every night until I knew she’d seen it.

Warner wasn’t in the nexus when I returned, swathed head to toe in a water-repellent, fleece-lined ski jacket and various pieces of knitwear. Yeah, not a great look. I’d owned the hiking boots for over seven years and maybe used them three times.

Still feeling childish, I went through the door to South America without waiting or looking around for the healer or the sentinel. I figured that the gold-carved handle that had appeared on the door, where there had been none before, was invitation enough. I’d never walked through this portal before, so I didn’t actually know where I was going, but I’d learned that the door of a particular territory led naturally to that territory’s main grid point. If there was more than one in any given territory, the door was usually only actively connected to one grid point at a time.

Just in case I was wrong, which certainly wouldn’t be a rare event, I thought about the North Shore Mountains as I stepped through the portal. The mountains that I viewed every day from my apartment were my clearest frame of reference when it came to ranges. I assumed that the portal’s magic could sort out that I meant the Andes instead. So yeah, deep down I was still an idiot. Now I was just an asshole as well.

Warner and Qiuniu were waiting on the other side.

A wave of dizziness hit me the instant I stepped through the portal. And the lightheadedness wasn’t from the spectacular view — of the mountains, because I flat-out refused to ogle the men waiting for me. Yeah, I was that pissy. Nor was it from the way the natural magic of the area sparkled from every rock and patch of moss.

A massive body of water spread before Warner and Qiuniu, who had turned from their conversation to watch me appear. I would have assumed it was an ocean — a really still ocean — except I was fairly certain we were seriously high up. Way, way high. Like, fourteen thousand feet high, according to the quick googling I’d tried to do in between pulling on wool socks.

I inhaled deeply, not allowing myself to panic about the air being so thin up here. The dizziness I’d felt cleared enough that I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to faint from instant oxygen deprivation.

A second breath steadied me further, so that I remembered I should be glaring at Warner … and at the healer, because why not? He’d started it, after all. They were still staring at me.

“You were planning on skiing?” Qiuniu asked, his tone somewhere between mocking and flirting.

“It’s cold here, guardian,” Warner said, before I could take a bite out of the healer myself.

“Of course,” Qiuniu said. “I forget the warrior’s daughter is not wholly dragon.”

Well, that was the politest way anyone had ever called me a half-breed before.

“Even I, the son of Jiaotu, can feel this cold.”

Qiuniu inclined his head. Yeah, I wasn’t sure this conversation was about a ski jacket anymore.

Warner’s magic rolled around him, and I tried to ignore its insane deliciousness. Dark chocolate with a hint of smoke, alongside sweet cherry topped with whipped cream was a lot to ignore, but I persevered. As I watched, his clothing transformed to a toned-down male version of mine. He was missing a scarf, probably because mine was tucked into my zipped-up collar, which was so tight it compressed my chin uncomfortably into my neck. Since we didn’t appear to be in the middle of a blizzard, I could probably afford to unzip it an inch or two.

I tugged the extra scarf I’d brought — a navy, gray, and green-striped cashmere number knit by Gran — out of my bulging satchel as I crossed to join Warner and Qiuniu at the edge of the lake.

I wrapped the scarf around Warner’s neck, and he obligingly unzipped his navy-blue ski jacket to allow me to loop-knot it. I kept my eyes on my task — pulling the well-worn cashmere through my hands and gently tugging it to a snug-but-not-too-tight knot — but I could still see Warner’s slight smile without looking up.

“Where are we, then?” I asked as I zipped Warner’s jacket up against the scarf.

“The Coastal Highlands of Peru,” Qiuniu answered proudly. “At the shores of Lago Puarun.”

“Big lake,” I said.

“Very,” Qiuniu answered agreeably.

“I assume there isn’t an airport or a private airfield nearby?”

Qiuniu frowned at this question but didn’t ask me to elaborate. “Huanuco will be the closest. Follow the road and you will arrive at Cerro de Pasco at the tip of the Andes first. They are known for silver, not luxury accommodations.”

He had gestured into the sun so that I couldn’t see which road he referred to, and the ‘luxury accommodations’ comment chafed. Kandy had nearly died on our last treasure hunt — a fact well known to the healer, who’d practically refused to help her.

“The healer has a vehicle parked nearby,” Warner said, interrupting the biting retort I was formulating.

“It bothers me, warrior’s daughter,” Qiuniu said. “Not only that this task falls to you … and the sentinel. But also that it brings you to my territory.”

I nodded. I knew now what it felt like to have your home invaded, or even to house a potentially lethal weapon under your roof.

“It bothers me more that I cannot accompany you,” the healer continued. “I’m considering defying the treasure keeper’s … assessment of the situation.”

Warner’s shoulders tightened, then he forced himself to relax. “You have felt the magic of an instrument, guardian,” he said.

Qiuniu turned his gaze from me to Warner. In this setting, he looked almost human. I guess he fit here. Or perhaps, surrounded by the magic of the grid point, his demigod status was lessened somehow.

“I have, sentinel,” Qiuniu said. “I don’t see you fearing the possibility of feeling such again.”

“It’s my duty.”

“It’s my territory.”

I glanced back and forth between Warner and the healer. “Geez, guys. We don’t even know for sure it’s here. Or, rather, where it is in Peru.”

“Yes. It also bothers me that this … dragon could be in my territory without my permission … or sensing.” The healer closed his eyes and lifted his chin up as if listening intently.

“Guardians can sense magic in their territories? Not just demon summonings?” I asked Warner, momentarily forgetting I was being pissy with him. “Like how Suanmi found us in London? She felt Sienna’s triple demon summoning.”

“Only great amounts,” Warner answered. “Massive summonings or incursions. The child is not so powerful, healer. She walks unhindered because we hesitated to harm her and she resisted our offers of aid.”

“She’s not big on the idea of returning to the nexus,” I added.

Qiuniu opened his melted-milk-chocolate eyes and smiled at me. It wasn’t a pleasant smile — so that when my heart skipped a beat, it came with a wash of fear, not any sort of attraction. “You have my permission to return her as you see fit, Jade Godfrey.”

Magic, called forth from his words, hung in the air between us. Reminding me of the life debt I’d offered to the healer and he hadn’t accepted … yet.

I nodded. His ‘permission’ settled over my shoulders, and I automatically absorbed the magic into my necklace.

Well, that was new.

“I leave reluctantly,” the healer said, brushing by me before I could speak. He touched my shoulder lightly as he passed, leaving a kiss of his magic there — though I wasn’t sure he’d done so deliberately.

The portal opened and the healer walked through, taking the comforting, buoyant, and warm portal magic with him.

I turned back to find Warner squinting at me. His body language and expression were at the edge of pissed off, but not full-on glaring.

I flashed him a blinding smile.

“Don’t fake smile at me, Jade Godfrey,” he said. Then he marched off in the direction Qiuniu had indicated.

Behind his back, my smile tempered into something heartfelt. The sentinel was jealous of Qiuniu. So though I might be having trouble getting him there, he did want to be in my bed.

“So,” I said to Warner’s broad shoulders, “what was that? A ‘get out of jail free’ card?”

“I’m not sure what a ‘jail free card’ is. But yes, I believe the sentiment is apt.”

“Monopoly,” I said. “A human board game.”

“A game you play while you’re bored?”

“Yeah,” I answered with a laugh. “I guess so.”

Warner didn’t ask any more questions, so I glanced around. It wasn’t as crazy cold as I’d expected it would be, based on Warner’s caution. But I wasn’t going to be unzipping my coat anytime soon. Sunshine reflected off the huge, clear, light-blue lake. With only patches of snow on their craggy peaks, the mountains didn’t look at all like the North Shore Mountains. But I had a feeling that was because we were standing in the middle of the range, as opposed to looking up at the mountains from below. The view was breathtaking but barren.

“So you think Qiuniu has a house here?” I asked.

“Most likely nearby.” As Warner glanced over his shoulder, I caught sight of a couple of single-storey buildings at the edge of the lake in front of him.

“What is that? A farm?”

Warner shook his head. “I’m not sure what you could farm at this altitude.”

“Llamas, maybe.”

Warner laughed but didn’t comment further. I’d slowly been figuring out that the sentinel wasn’t actually all that much more worldly than I was. He knew a ton about dragons, magic, and duty. I’d even seen him get the better of the sword master in training — once. But other things were completely new to him. He just figured everything out a hell of a lot quicker than me.

Now that we were closer, the simply constructed but well-maintained buildings appeared to be two-car garages. Their siding was painted a light blue that almost matched the lake, while their roofs were unpainted aluminum without a speck of rust. Both were also protected by a ward of some kind, and based on the residual coffee taste of its magic, it had been constructed by Qiuniu.

“Warner,” I said.

“I feel it.” The sentinel wrapped his fingers around the plain steel handle of the nearest double garage door, then waited.

The taste of the coffee magic intensified, then abated. The door clicked open.