“Still have to go.”

  “I get it. I think you’d be safe here for a few more days, but I’m not going to argue with you about it. When are you going?”

  “Morning.”

  Elias chuckled. “It is morning. Go back to sleep, old man. I’ll get you up when the sun shows his shiny face.”

  BREAKFAST LATER that morning was more subdued, though Darius was pleased the news of moving on again didn’t affect Toby’s appetite. He tried to encourage, making sure the plates of bacon and extra toast were closer to Toby’s side of the table. Subtlety, apparently, wasn’t in his skillset as Toby side-eyed Darius and made certain his plate was full too.

  “You’re going to go to Zubayr, aren’t you?” Elias finally broke his brooding silence.

  Was there resentment in the question? Disagreement? Darius stopped with his coffee mug halfway up. “Yes.”

  “Going to at least warn him so he doesn’t try to shoot you?”

  Darius nearly started on a sentence about Zubayr not liking guns when he realized that wasn’t the point. “No. Could be listening.”

  “That’s a little paranoid, Dar. The guildmasters are mages, not the CIA.”

  Toby glanced between them, wide-eyed. “Are there mages who could tap phone lines?”

  “Sure, if they’re tech savvy enough.” Elias waved his fork in the air. “It’s not a thing, Dar. Just call him.”

  Darius ignored him in favor of more coffee. It was possible, with the right Animus/Crystallogen mage it could be. Fiber optics were either glass or plastic—silica or petroleum. No, he’d never heard of phone tapping done magically, but he wouldn’t be so optimistic as to rule it out.

  Repacked with clean clothes—Elias had been kind enough to put all the dirt-spattered things in the laundry—Darius hesitated near the door, certain he was forgetting something.

  Elias, back in his carbon fiber blade legs, leaned against the kitchen island watching him. “You try and make it another fifteen years before you even call again, I’m gonna come find you.”

  “El….” Darius crossed the floor in two strides and gathered Elias in for a crushing hug. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Idiot.” Elias’s breath hitched. “I know. Stop making everything about you and go save Toby. You’re lucky he found you.”

  It took a moment for Darius to parse out the last sentence, but the smile Elias held back made it clear. “Yes.”

  The goodbyes were at least less frantic than they had been with Arden. The strata of guilt weren’t any less complicated. Yes, Elias appeared to be living a more stable, contented life than Arden with his bizarrely curated collections of everything, but they were both people who had needed him, and it hadn’t crossed his mind to check on them.

  And Zubayr…. Dear gods, does he hate me? He’d be within his rights to.

  Not even a mile into their drive, Toby spoke up. “Are you worried? You look worried.”

  Of course I’m worried. About so much. About you and about all the friendships I’ve probably destroyed. About what happens when the guild catches me. About your survival. About how you might or might not feel. Darius managed an assenting grunt.

  “You’re crinkling around your eye patch, and not a laughing crinkling since your forehead’s crinkling too. It’s not that I’m not worried. I mean, I’d be stupid not to be. But you’re stuck on something specific and new. And maybe you should’ve called Zubayr.”

  “Hmm.”

  “That’s all I get? Really?”

  At a stoplight, Darius felt it safe to glance over with what he hoped was a quelling glare.

  “Uh-huh. Arden kinda lost it when he saw you, and Elias was mad, but he was better about it, and now you’re scared Zubayr won’t even see you. They kicked him out, too, didn’t they? The guild?”

  “Because of me,” Darius snarled, then huffed when he realized Toby might misconstrue where the snarling had been aimed.

  “Oh. Because he was there that day? That, um, that’s really sucky of them.”

  One of the few clear memories he had of the time afterward was Zubayr coming to visit in the hospital. Catatonic had been the doctors’ diagnosis at the time, though sometimes Darius had been aware. Zubayr had held his hand and told him, softly, regretfully, that he couldn’t come back. The guild had barred him and had forbidden him contact with Darius.

  When he’d finally settled in the house on the hill, he’d made the effort to confirm where Zubayr had gone, though he’d known in his bones. Back to the site of Zubayr’s own salvation, to Pine Creek Gorge—he’d taken up residence there. Darius had driven several miles farther before he realized he’d let Toby’s last question hang.

  “Yes.”

  “You know what worries me?” Toby asked around nibbles on a ginger cookie. “That your communication style is starting to feel normal.”

  Entirely possible that Zubayr would refuse to see him. The guild had forbidden it, and Zubayr had never been comfortable with bending rules too far.

  They stopped for lunch at a diner around noon, where Toby chattered away about books he liked to read. Apparently mysteries were a favorite. Darius listened in a skimming sort of way, diving into his own thoughts and surfacing every now and then to be sure he hadn’t missed anything important. It wasn’t that he found Toby’s monologues boring. He simply found himself unable to concentrate for more than a few moments at a time.

  “How do you feel?” Darius finally inserted into a critique of a Dick Francis novel.

  “What? Oh. Not bad, really, considering. A little bit like I was trying to run a 5K and fell down a hill instead, but not like I usually feel after an explosion. I mean, that’s okay, right? Me feeling not terrible doesn’t mean something ominous, does it?”

  Darius shook his head. “No. Diverted power.”

  “Elias said something like that too.” Toby fidgeted with a french fry. “Did you get anything from the overflow? I mean, like what kind of magic I’m throwing off?”

  I need to answer this. Really answer this. He can’t be kept wondering. “Phone.”

  “What?”

  “Phone, please.”

  With the tip of his tongue protruding from the corner of his mouth, Toby fished his phone out of his jeans pocket. “Um. Okay? I thought I wasn’t supposed to be using it?”

  “Not for calling.”

  Darius pulled up Toby’s message app and began to type. I don’t have anything definitive yet, but I can tell you what you’re not. There’s no hint of Fire or Light. I’m not getting an Earth impression either, and that would be the most obvious to me. Air is also unlikely. Water is still a possibility, as are Life, Dark, and Animus. Understand that these are impressions that I have and are in no way scientifically verifiable conclusions.

  Forehead crinkling in an adorable way, Toby read the message. “But that’s good, right? Process of elimination and stuff?”

  “Half the outer web.” Darius shrugged. “Good start.”

  “Also, why haven’t you been typing out answers all this time? It’s a lot easier on you and gets a lot more info across.”

  “Ha.” Darius’s lips quirked up no matter how hard he tried to prevent it. “Someone… said practice.”

  “Yeah, I did.” Toby reached across to pat his hand. “You’re right. But good call for when it’s something complicated.”

  What isn’t complicated right now? Darius managed a grunt and returned to his salad, ordered instead of a massive burger like Toby’s since Darius couldn’t recall eating a vegetable in the last few days. For Toby, it didn’t matter quite so much. He needed calories desperately. Not that Darius couldn’t use a few pounds himself, but he wasn’t twentysomething anymore.

  Toby’s laugh broke into his nutritional meanderings. “You’re not listening at all anymore, are you?”

  “Sorry.”

  “Nah. It’s okay. We’ll watch Endeavour sometime instead of me telling you about it. I think you’d like it.”

  Darius nodded even though he had no idea what Toby was talking about, but the nod pleased Toby, which was more important. Those smiles warmed him from his core outward, his own little patches of interior sunlight when Toby granted them to him. He found himself wanting more of them, and wanting them filled him with guilt. He had no right. None.

  The drive to Pine Creek Gorge wasn’t a hardship at all, meandering along Route 44, through the ancient rounded mountains of the Allegheny Plateau where deciduous trees well on their way to full leaf provided bright green skirts to the darker pine crowns. Here and there, early wildflowers in yellow and white made brave forays past the guardrails along the sides of the road.

  Houses cropped up less frequently—a lone one farther down the hill from the road, several clustered in a row along a flatter stretch as if they sought others of their kind. Zubayr lived in one of these houses. Darius knew that and still had difficulty placing urbane, Philadelphia-born Zubayr in this setting. Many years ago. People change.

  All too soon, they’d arrived. He pulled into the driveway of a neat ranch house with a white pebble walkway to the front door and planters with explosions of pansies on either side of the front steps. Zubayr had always loved bright colors. Darius switched off the ignition and froze. Of course he was going to have to open the door and move his legs. Eventually. Though he couldn’t quite see how it would happen.

  “Hey,” Toby said softly. “You’re not okay, are you?”

  “No.”

  Darius startled when a hand closed gently around his. Toby had scooted awkwardly forward so he could face Darius around the center armrest. “The worst that’s gonna happen is he doesn’t want to see you. Maybe he’ll say something nasty. I don’t know him, but I guess that could happen. And he closes the door and we go away.”

  “Not supposed… to see me.”

  “Now you want to worry about what the guild says? Kinda late for that, don’t you think?”

  “For me.” Darius powered the seat back so he could turn and see Toby better. “For you.”

  “You don’t want him dragged into this. Especially if he’s had a quiet life and doesn’t want to see you.”

  Darius ducked his head on a nod, startled again when Toby’s hand moved to cup his cheek.

  “Everyone keeps saying you were such an arrogant bastard. You sure care a lot for someone who was.” Toby stroked his thumb under Darius’s eye. “Maybe let him make that choice, though?”

  He couldn’t have stopped himself from leaning into Toby’s touch if he’d had a will of steel. Right then, his will was more room-temperature mercury, sliding and slipping about. Or, as Toby slid his fingers back into Darius’s hair, more like talc as it completely crumbled.

  Toby leaned in, head tilted. The shock of their lips meeting sent a dizzy rush from Darius’s balls to his throat. He grasped Toby’s elbow to keep him close and closed his eye, drowning in the gentle electric caress of Toby’s mouth. His tongue traced the seam of Darius’s lips and he opened on a sharp intake of breath. Such heat, such an enthusiastic offering of life, Darius tried to pull him closer, frustrated by the confines of the car.

  “Oh gods.” Toby pulled back, thumb still caressing Darius’s cheek. “That was amazing, but I probably shouldn’t have done that, huh?”

  Darius pulled in a slow breath, let it out, then opened his eye. “I….” Oh, well done. Brilliant response. “I don’t….”

  “Sorry. I ambushed you. A little.” Toby slid his hand down to grab hold of Darius’s fingers. “That wasn’t right.”

  “I’m not….” So many things he wasn’t. He settled on “Not angry.”

  “Good. That’s good to hear. Ready to get out of the truck before we fog up the windows?”

  Though his face felt like it was on fire, Darius chuckled and opened his door. He’d never been this awkward before. Granted, it had been some time, but his past social life had been filled with assertive moments, either yes, I want you or no, this isn’t appropriate. None of this shillyshallying. Great. Now I’m starting to sound like Aunt Eva.

  He stood staring at the mountains, letting the breeze cool his face until he was certain he no longer looked like a blond, one-eyed pirate lobster. Toby was right, of course. Zubayr would either let them in or send them away. Pain and humiliation might be part of that second option, but to come here and not try to see him was unthinkable. They’d been close, once. Not close in a romantic or sexual sense. They’d understood each other, though, and Darius had hoped Zubayr would be the person to take up his teaching methods someday.

  Until, abruptly, they had run out of days together.

  Head up, Darius shook back his hair and did his best to walk instead of shuffle to the front door of bright peacock blue. Toby kept a few steps back, and Darius couldn’t blame him for that. The doorbell—because of course Zubayr had one since a sharp knocking sound would annoy him—played three descending notes and a voice called out, “Just a minute,” from the back of the house.

  Light, hurried footfalls, the turn of a lock—and there he was, just as perfectly put-together as he always had been, black hair cut short, umber skin smooth and unblemished. He hadn’t changed at all.

  “Holy mother of….” Zubayr’s stare could have been horror or hostility. “You can’t be here.”

  “I know.” Darius stared at his shoes, uncertain how to proceed. “I’m sorry.”

  Zubayr slammed the door in his face.

  That certainly takes all the uncertainty out of it. With his heart heavy enough he was shocked the porch boards didn’t break, he turned and shuffled back down the steps, where Toby took his hand in silent sympathy. Unable to speak, he gave Toby’s fingers a squeeze. Thank you. I know you’re there.

  He really should’ve questioned his motives for coming here before distressing Zubayr like that. Was it just a need to reconnect, or had he come here to use his former student? A tool to help unravel the puzzle of Toby’s channels? The guild might have been wrong on many counts, but that didn’t mean his own choices weren’t often suspect too.

  “Hey. You’re thinking too hard,” Toby murmured.

  “No such thing.”

  “Hmm. It is if you’re reverting to stone griffin gargoyle face.”

  Occasionally, Toby uttered sentences that scattered his thoughts so thoroughly, he couldn’t even respond inside his own head. A door slamming distracted him, and he turned to find Zubayr barreling down the gravel path at him, expression unhappy and determined. Darius was certain he was about to get flattened, but Zubayr threw himself against Darius’s chest, arms spanning his ribs in a crushing hug.

  “Dar. It’s you. You shocked the heck out of me and you shouldn’t be here. But you must be in trouble or you wouldn’t have come.” Zubayr lifted his head, eyes swimming with tears. “I can’t just shut the door if you need help.”

  “Thank you.” So much more needed to be said, but that was the limit of Darius’s words as tight bands constricted his chest.

  Somehow Zubayr made pushing back and leaning around him graceful. “Hello?”

  “Hi. Toby Jones. Fugitive unplaceable student.” Toby offered an uncomfortable wave. “My fault he’s resorted to a life of mage crime.”

  A familiar tic started under Zubayr’s left eye, his sigh only just audible. “You better both come in. Sounds like I have some catching up to do.”

  TOBY SAT quietly while Zubayr hurried around the kitchen. He’d declared them both too thin and set out an astounding amount of food. Thinly sliced chicken. Tatziki. Rice balls with some sort of ground meat. Leftover black bean chicken from a Chinese takeout place, which he heated up. Pumpernickel bread and honey. Zubayr plunked an entire apple pie in the center of the table, then after a moment’s consideration, added an orange-glazed pound cake beside it.

  “Feeding… armies?” Darius croaked out from where he hunched by the window.

  An almost smile twitched at a corner of Zubayr’s mouth, so maybe that was an old joke. “I get visitors sometimes. Pays to be prepared. Like now. Darius, sit down. Please. Make me happy and eat something. You look like a hard breath could blow you away.”

  Darius snorted, but he sat and reached for the black bean chicken and the rice balls. Too nervous to eat much, Toby contented himself with bread and honey.

  Finally Zubayr plunked a pitcher of iced tea amid the bounty before he settled. “Dar, the last time I saw you, they weren’t sure you’d walk again.”

  Darius swallowed whatever he’d been chewing. “Ta-dah?”

  “Cute. The doctors weren’t even sure you’d ever be aware of your surroundings again.”

  “There was… help. At first.” Darius trailed off and hunched in on himself, staring at the table.

  Zubayr’s frown transferred from Darius to Toby. “How long?”

  A sensible person’s instinct would’ve been to ask, how long, what? Toby’s mouth apparently wasn’t on speaking terms with his brain that day. “How long have I known him? Not long at all. Not quite two weeks? How long was the guild helping? Dunno, but it sounds like only until Darius was sorta mobile again. How long was he alone? At least a decade? I think?”

  A tic had started in Zubayr’s left eye, and Darius began to growl, so Toby decided his best course of action was to stuff a rice ball in his mouth.

  “Is this true, Dar? They forbid you teaching, revoked your guild status—that part I was there for. Then abandoned you?”

  “I was fine,” Darius snarled as he stabbed a piece of chicken.

  “According to some definitions of fine, I’m sure.” Zubayr heaved a soft sigh. “Dar, I’m not in any way trying to diminish your amazing recovery. I’m angry that the guild withdrew support from someone who needed it.”

  “Didn’t need them.”

  A slow, crooked smile spread over Zubayr’s face. “Of course you didn’t. Silly of me.”

  He cut himself a slice of cake, then offered the knife to Toby. In a move faster than Toby would’ve credited, Darius snatched the knife and placed it out of reach.

  “Food first. Then cake.”