Paper & Blood by Kevin Hearne

Author:Kevin Hearne [Hearne, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2021-08-10T00:00:00+00:00

When the sky slid from indigo to grey, heralding the dawn, the birds began to wake up and call about their urgent need for Wednesday coffee—or so I imagined. I certainly needed some, as a belligerent caffeine-withdrawal headache had taken up residence in my brain and likely had legal arguments against eviction. I got to spend thirty seconds or so dreaming of some heirloom beans from Ethiopia that were grown at a high elevation and prepared with a natural process to preserve their inherent fruity flavors of cherry and blackberries. Silky mouthfeel, brewed at 93.3 degrees Celsius, taken black, perfect with some breakfast haggis and some tatties, maybe a smear of marmalade. It was a far better dream than the one Roxanne had sent me.

But the birdcalls served to wake up the others, and we had our small tents packed up and ready to go by the time the sun peeked over the horizon. That chore was completed in near silence, as no one felt especially talkative before breakfast. We grimly tore the wrappers off protein bars, raised them in mock cheers, and bit into them with more resignation than gusto. Oh, how I missed proper food.

A woman’s voice caught us with our mouths full, the way servers in restaurants always manage to ask you how your food is tasting at the precise moment you’re unable to answer.

“Hello? Is it okay to approach?”

The dogs startled and barked, obviously annoyed at being surprised, and Connor was instantly on his feet, searching for the owner of the voice. Ya-ping, Buck, and I were close behind, but I already knew who it was: The voice had given her away.

It was Roxanne, dressed in Thea Prendergast’s orange threads, smiling winsomely at us and appearing totally harmless.

But Connor was wary. “Hold up there a moment, keep your distance,” he said. “Who are you?”

“I’m Roxanne.”

“The SES woman who was gored by an eagle bull and disappeared?”

“That was weird. And scary.”

I thought those were understatements, but Connor focused on something else. “Your name badge says Thea.”

“Oh, yeah. But you shouldn’t go around believing what name badges tell you. My name’s Roxanne. My uniform wasn’t available for this job, so I’m using Thea’s.”

I realized at that point that everything she had said so far was technically true while completely obscuring the actual truth. Half-truths, like Ya-ping and I had discussed the day before. It was a special skill of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and while I was certain Connor knew that, he didn’t know he was speaking to one of them right now.

“Fine. But you sustained a very bloody injury and disappeared for a day. We found your uniform empty on the forest floor. My hounds couldn’t track your scent. Now you’re here and in no obvious distress, when one would think after an attack like that you’d head back for help, or at least ride one of the ATVs that you abandoned. You have simple explanations for all of that too?”

Roxanne shrugged. “It was a flesh wound.

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