“Follow that to the highway,” Lemuel said. “It’s the fastest way. From there, you’re on your own.”
There was a silence. Then Aaron said, “Thanks.”
Of course Aaron would say thanks, Call thought, as they hurried toward the brook. If someone were hitting Aaron over the head, he would thank them for stopping.
They made their way along the brook for half an hour in silence before Jasper spoke up.
“So what’s your plan now? It’s not like we’re safe once we hit the highway,” Jasper said. “There’s no buses, and we don’t have a car —”
“I have a plan,” Tamara said.
Call turned toward her. “You do?”
“I always have a plan,” she said, raising her eyebrows. “Sometimes, even, a scheme. You should take lessons from me.”
“This better be a really good plan,” Aaron said, smirking. “Because you sure are talking it up.”
Tamara pulled her phone out of her bag, checked it, and then kept walking.
THE FIRST SIGHT of the highway made Call shudder as he remembered the last time he’d crossed it, looking for Aaron. He recalled vividly the pain in his legs as he forced himself to hurry, the panic at the thought of Aaron in danger, and then the discovery that he wasn’t the person he’d always thought himself to be.
Jasper squatted and petted Havoc’s head when the wolf came up to him. For a moment, he didn’t seem like such a jerk.
Then he saw Call looking and glared.
Call sat down on the ground, watching the occasional car whir by. Tamara was typing things into her phone. He wasn’t sure if she was researching stuff for their quest or just e-mailing friends from home. Aaron frowned thoughtfully into the middle distance, the way heroes in comic books did. They could make a figurine of him looking like that.
Call wondered how Aaron would look when he found out that Call had lied to him — lied to him a lot.
He was still wondering about that when the sleek black town car pulled up.
The window rolled down and Tamara’s butler, Stebbins, pushed back his sunglasses to show his pale blue eyes. “Get in,” he said. “We’ve got to make this quick.”
Jasper scrambled into the backseat. “Oh, sweet hydration.” He grabbed a water bottle from one of the cup holders and guzzled the whole thing.
“That dog’s not coming in here,” Stebbins said. “He’ll track dirt all over the seats and his nails could scratch up the leather.”
“They’re not your seats,” Tamara reminded him, patting the cushion next to her. The wolf hopped into the car and then turned around, looking dubious.
Call got in next, pulling Havoc onto his lap. It was hard to believe that the wolf had once fit underneath his shirt. Now he was almost as big as Call himself.
Aaron got into the front.
“I assume this will be our usual deal,” Stebbins said to Tamara, turning in his seat. “What’s the address?”
Call told him, although he didn’t know the number, just the road. Stebbins punched the location into his apparently non-magical GPS.
Then they were off.
“What’s the usual deal?” Jasper asked Tamara under his breath.
“Stebbins drag races with my parents’ cars,” she told him, keeping her voice low. “I cover for him.”
“Really?” Jasper asked, frowning at the guy in the front seat with what appeared to be new respect.
As they drove on, Call found himself dozing against the window until his head started knocking against the glass. They were heading down a dirt road.
He blinked. He knew exactly where they were. “Just pull up here,” he said.