Neither Riordan nor Lucinda were in the mood for conversation during the drive. She had handed Riordan the phone to manage again, having him navigate as well as reading and sending texts, but that was the extent of their interactions. He felt no need to press the issue. Riordan monitored Mark and tried not to fall into a pit of self-blame.

They wouldn’t have gone to Honor if Riordan hadn’t mentioned it. They wouldn’t have encountered that death mage if Riordan hadn’t insisted on scouting. Mark wouldn’t have gotten hurt if Riordan had managed the mission better. Helena hadn’t seen through the disguises. All it would have taken to avoid the fight was keeping Mark and Daniel fully out of sight and in reserve. Of the four of them, Riordan was the oldest and the only one with any real combat experience. Being rusty didn’t excuse his mistakes.

Riordan could already tell Mark didn’t blame him. Daniel didn’t either, though the ghost stuck to Mark’s side with an equal air of worry. The spell covered all of Mark’s body except where the shield spells protected him now. The only thing that kept Riordan from second-guessing that decision as well was the thinness of the shadows. The invading magic gathered in his blood and circulated without making much progress. Flares of yellow sparks came from the mental shield every few minutes, but the shield easily repaired itself without the blood spell gaining ground.

A new text message came in as they approached Traverse City, skirting around the south side of the city to reach the airport on the far side. It was an address, sent by Vera. A quick check with GPS showed it to be a small motel nearby. A followup text came in, instructing Lucinda to get the keys from the office since a room was already paid for and the desk manager knew not to ask too many questions. Riordan sent an acknowledgement, informed Lucinda, and started the GPS directions for the new location.

Unwilling to be caught out again so soon, Riordan forced himself past the awkward silence and questioned Lucinda. “What did she mean by the desk manager knowing not to ask questions?”

“That she handled it,” Lucinda answered dismissively.

Riordan didn’t even try to stop himself from growling at that. “Obviously, but I don’t know your pack leader well. Does that mean bribed, lied to, bespelled, allied, or what?”

Given the strange look Lucinda shot him, that list probably revealed more about Riordan’s experience and mentality than he wanted. Still, she took him more seriously this time. “Vera probably called in a favor. I don’t know if the manager or owner is directly allied, but Vera makes a network of connections and social debts and leverages that to make things work in emergencies.”

“Thank you,” Riordan responded automatically.

Of the options, political networker fell into the middle of the morality scale, capable of tipping either way depending on the types of favors and who they chose to network with. Moral acceptability aside, that method left Riordan with more potential points of failure than the brute force methods, but also meant that the hotel staff weren’t likely to look for excuses to fuck with them. He could work with that. The less reason they gave the staff for concern, the less risk there was.

“When we get there, park in line of sight of the office. I’ll watch your back and Mark from the van while you get the keys. Assuming that goes without issue, we’ll move the van to our room. You will stay with Mark, prepared to leave immediately if things go wrong. I’ll take one of the keys and do a sweep of the surroundings and clear the room. Then I can bring Mark in and you can grab the supplies we do have,” Riordan rattled the plan off quickly, not giving Lucinda a chance to interrupt. “Mark can go on one of the beds, with his arm over the edge, at least at first. What sort of setup would work best for casting? Do we need to send someone out for, I don’t know, chalk or tarps or candles?”

Lucinda snorted, her attention back on the road even if her cold air eased back slightly. “We aren’t murdering anyone. This isn’t death magic.”

“Isn’t it?” Riordan challenged, watching the black magic creep along Mark’s veins. “Do you have any idea what expelling a blood spell will look like? I certainly don’t.”

That stumped her. After a moment of silence, she made an abrupt turn into a parking lot. Riordan glanced up, startled, taking in the hardware store in front of them. Lucinda parked and pulled a wad of cash out of her wallet, thrusting it at him.

“Vera and Frankie will be sending magical supplies. Your mind is clearly twisty. You go get whatever practical ‘just in case’ supplies you can grab quickly. I’ll stay with Mark.”

The order-offer was unexpected, but Riordan didn’t question it, taking the cash from here and shoving it into a pocket. He exited the van, closing the door quickly behind him to keep anyone from studying Mark too closely. “I’ll be right back.”

Years of survival experience drove Riordan’s purchases. He did a quick count of the cash and did a triage of supplies. First on the list really was a tarp, given they might be needing to create a temporary work space and then clean it up fast. Tarps were also useful for carrying unconscious people. For a similar reason, he grabbed a box of disposable gloves and a pair of tougher work gloves. A roll of duct tape, a pair of scissors, and a small can of WD-40 covered opening and closing things. Chalk, pencils, a marker, and a pad of paper covered writing and drawing. He was tempted by a set of walkie-talkies, but knew cellphones were fine in the short term.

Likewise, he skipped the lighters since he knew Lucinda had some in her kit. He wanted to get more weaponry, but the chance of them fighting again tonight was actually fairly low as long as they weren’t tracked. Riordan settled on a multi-tool with pliers and a knife and a small sledgehammer. With shifter strength, that hammer could do serious damage quickly. He found a cheap tool bag to carry all of it and topped the pile with energy bars and bottled water from near the desk.

They would need a real meal at some point in the near future. All of them were burning magic and food offset that cost. However, until they were secure, Riordan operated as if they might have to run again. Emergency food never went amiss.

Lucinda was still parked in the same spot when Riordan emerged. The shopping had only taken ten minutes or less, but some part of him expected to come out and find her gone. The feeling was clearly irrational given how much she needed the extra pair of hands right now. He just didn’t trust her yet, which was clearly mutual. Learning to be a team with someone took more than one botched up emergency.

“Let’s go,” Riordan said as a greeting when he hopped inside. Lucinda didn’t bother talking to him before pulling out, but Daniel leaned over, peering at the bag with interest.

“What did you get?” Daniel asked, sticking his face inside the closed bag and discovering that didn’t help much when he couldn’t see in the dark.

Laughing quietly, Riordan unzipped the tool bag and went over his purchases quickly to sate the ghost’s curiosity. Indulging Daniel served the dual purpose of updating Lucinda as well, for all she was pretending to ignore him and he was pretending she couldn’t hear him. When he finished and zipped the bag back up, Riordan kept out the box of disposable gloves and the tarp. He opened both packages, shoving the trash into a little trash cubby hanging off the back of the passenger seat.

A minute later, they pulled into the motel parking lot. As motels went, this establishment was solidly middling, needing a fresh coat of paint and there were weeds in the cracks of the walkways, but it was also clean and nothing looked broken. Lucinda parked the van in front of the office like Riordan had requested earlier. He had half expected her to ignore his tactical orders since he was an annoying outsider, but Lucinda was too intelligent to ignore his advice and experience just because she didn’t particularly like him.

Before she could get out, Riordan thrust a pair of the disposable gloves at her. “Wear these. Easier to leave fewer traces than to have to clean them up later.”

Lucinda pinched them between finger and thumb like touching them more was beneath her. She raised an eyebrow at him. “Paranoid much?”

“Better safe than sorry and yeah,” Riordan admitted without shame, “I am more paranoid than usual right now because there are actually people out to get me and I don’t properly understand what their resources and tactics are. Worse, we have a vulnerable teammate.”

That shut her up hard. She slid the gloves on with only a wrinkled nose to show her continued distaste before hoping out. “Watch him,” she warned Riordan needlessly, just to remind him who was in charge.

Fighting her was not worth it. Riordan took that order with a nod. She headed inside to get their keys, staying in sight through the glass entry door the whole time. He turned to Daniel and asked, “Go with her, please. Keep an eye and ear out for trouble.”

Daniel perked up, happy to finally make use of his ghost status for something useful. “Roger that, boss.”

Before Riordan could object to that title, Daniel flew off through the van wall and into the motel. Riordan could see him flitting about the space, looking at random things, though the ghost’s attention always remained at least partially on Lucinda’s interaction at the desk.

Riordan likewise divided his attention, staging the tarp next to Mark so that it would be easy to unbuckle him and wrap him up blanket-style before carrying him inside. It would be easier to manage dangling limbs that way and also a hell of a lot less suspicious than carrying a shirtless man covered in magic circles. Carrying an unconscious man into a motel room was bad enough as it was.

Lucinda’s interaction with the desk manager was short and to the point. He couldn’t hear her well through a door, but it was basically her confirming the reservation under whatever name and being handed the key cards while getting the customer service spiel about services and setup at the motel. She exited the office a moment later, long legs striding quickly across the lot.

She hopped back into the driver’s seat and passed one of the key cards to Riordan. “Room 112, ground floor at the very end. I’ll drive over there and let you do your paranoia sweep.” Her eyes went to Mark and narrowed. “What is that tarp for?”

“Ease of transportation and to hide the circles,” Riordan informed her absently, putting on the work gloves before taking the key card and pocketing it. He also pulled out the small sledgehammer from his tool bag. He didn’t have space for practice swings here, but did a little stretching in the short time it took Lucinda to move the van to its new parking spot.

He hopped out and turned to her, “Remember, idle in park, keep an eye on Mark, and don’t go in until I give the clear. If I’m not back in five minutes or less or if you see anything weird, do a short drive to check for tails following you and then come back. If you get actually attacked, then leave me if needed.”

Lucinda waved him off. “Drama queen. I get it.”

Riordan knew she was listening at least and her eyes moved around the surroundings with proper caution, so he left the comment alone. Her attitude might be partly just her way of handling stress, but Lucinda was also spoiling for more reasons to focus her negative emotions on him. Whatever worked, so long as she kept listening.

“Coming or staying?” Riordan asked Daniel.

The ghost looked at Mark, concern written clearly on his face. “Think it’s safe for me to sweep the rooms or will there be more creepy magic?”

“Probably not going to be magical traps here, honestly,” Riordan said. “This is a precaution and gives us the lay of the land in case of emergencies.”

“Coming then,” Daniel decided, joining Riordan outside the van. He stuck to Riordan’s side as he began his search pattern.