Are we okay?” I asked Gabriel as we walked back to Rose’s.

Dusk was deepening to night, but he still had his shades on. “What do you mean?” he asked.

“We’ve had a rough couple of days,” I said. “The visions, Macy, Todd, James. It’s been a roller coaster. Between us, too. We’re fine and then . . . we’re not. I know that’s because of everything that’s happening. Stress and tension. But I feel as if I’m the one instigating it—”

He removed his sunglasses and tucked them into his pocket. “You aren’t. It is, as you said, fallout from the situation. For both of us.”

“Then what I’m trying to say is that I understand if you need a break. From the strain. From the angst. From me.”

That wall behind his eyes shot up. “If you mean that you need a break—”

“If I needed one, I’d say so.”

“If I want one, I will take one.”

“Sorry. I’m just feeling a little frazzled.”

“And I’m not helping.”

“Sometimes . . . ?” I shrugged. “But ninety-five percent of the time? I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You’d manage,” he said.

“Maybe,” I said. “But I wouldn’t want to.”

“You won’t need to,” he said, and we finished the walk in silence.

—

Since I’d last spoken to Rose, I’d had at least three episodes—if I counted all the visions at the Villa as a single one. So, lots to talk about, right? Not really. They didn’t boil down to much that needed her folklore expertise.

We discussed the fae massacre at Villa Tuscana and the result: the kelpies murdering Letitia. Rose confirmed that they were indeed kelpies. As for the blue fire used to slaughter the fae, she had no idea what it was. Some metal salts could turn fire blue. The only metal she knew that was supposed to affect fae was iron, and while I’d seen the men sowing iron filings to trap them, we were all a little confused about exactly how that worked. It seemed simple in the vision: the fae couldn’t come in contact with iron. But there had to be plenty of iron in Cainsville, and no one made any apparent effort to avoid it. Which suggested the issue was more complicated than that.

What I really wanted to discuss was Mallt-y-Nos, Gwynn ap Nudd, and Arawn—who they were and what they had to do with us. I couldn’t tell her about the Gabriel connection in front of him. I had to figure that out before I brought him into it.