Kissed by Ice(35)

"Thanks," I said, grabbing the map. "How about a phone?"

He pointed across the lobby to a cream-colored phone fixed to the wall. "There is a customer courtesy phone. Feel free."

"Thanks again." I strode across the lobby and quickly dialed the number. Somebody answered on the sixth ring.

"'Lo."

"Is this the helipad?"

"Sure."

"Have you had any helicopters fly in or out in the last couple hours?"

"Sure."

This was going nowhere. "Did a man named Alister Jones fly out today?"

"Dunno."

I wanted to scream into the phone. Instead I told myself to enhance my inner calm and tried again. "Did a helicopter carrying male passengers fly out within the last couple hours?"

"Sure."

Now we were getting somewhere. I quickly described Alister Jones, down to his pink and blue striped shirt. "Was he the passenger that flew out?"

"Yup."

"Fantastic. Do you know where they were headed?"

"Nope."

"How about which direction they flew?"

I could almost hear him shrug. "West? But that don't mean nuthin'."

He was right, of course. Whatever direction the helicopter had flown initially, they could easily change course once they were over open water. Did helicopters even need to file flight plans? I was pretty sure they didn't, which sort of left us up a creek.

"Thanks for your time," I mumbled before hanging up.

Alister Jones could be anywhere by now. We'd lost him.





Chapter Thirteen



We had no choice but to return to the ship. There was nowhere else to go. Nowhere else to look. The nest was destroyed, Alister gone, and the people on the islands safe, at least from those particular monsters. Other sorts of monsters weren't really my forte.

Once aboard, Haakon gave us a brief, stilted goodbye before returning to his duties. Kabita and I met up with Eddie to get my amulet back and give him a rundown of everything that had happened, including my run-in with Alister.

"Alister gets wilier by the moment," Eddie grumped. "No offence intended." He patted Kabita's hand.

"None taken."

"Ladies, I want to thank you both for coming to my rescue. I don't know what we would have done without you." He gave the hem of his mustard yellow waistcoat a tug.

I grinned. "No problem, Eddie. Just consider us your knights in shining armor."

He laughed. "I'll do that. Now, the cruise ends tomorrow. Any ideas about what to do next? I feel that finding Alister is becoming increasingly important and the book even more so."

I agreed with him. This whole thing had started with Alister and stopping him was the only way to end it.

"What about asking your sentient book, Eddie? Maybe it knows something about the book Alister took from France. It might even be able to tell us where he is."

He tapped his lower lip thoughtfully. "It's an idea. Of course, knowing and sharing are two different things where my sentient book is concerned. Still, I agree we should ask it."

"I'll go with you," Kabita said, turning to Eddie. "With Inigo out of commission, I've got work piled up back in Portland." She didn't say it, but I knew that me running around the planet after Alister and Inigo wasn't helping anything, either.

"How about you, Morgan?" Eddie asked. "What's your plan?"

"For now I'm headed back to the Highlands." I repressed a stab of guilt at leaving Kabita with a full plate. I needed to check on Inigo. I could only hope things had changed. If not…well, I'd cross that bridge when I got there.

Eddie and Kabita nodded. That's the thing about true friendship. Never needing to explain yourself.





By the time the plane touched down in Edinburgh, I was happy to be on solid ground again. I'd had my fill of boats, planes, Hippocampus, and dragon flight. Frankly, I wouldn't have minded spending a couple weeks lounging on that beach we'd landed on in the Bahamas. That had been one seriously beautiful stretch of sand, at least from what I could see at night, and it had been awhile since I'd had a vacation.

But I needed to be with Inigo. He might not want me there, but frankly, what he wanted didn't matter. People who loved one another stuck by each other. They didn't run away when things got hard. He needed me whether he wanted to admit it or not.

I picked up my rental car and drove north into the hills of Scotland. Several hours and a pub stop (or two) later, I was pulling into the courtyard of the dragons' keep. This time there was no one to greet me. I hadn't expected it. No one knew I was coming, after all. But I'd no doubt many eyes were on me. I could feel them boring into my back as I took the front steps two at a time. I wasn't worried, though. They didn't call me Fire Bringer for nothing.