“I said…” Danny began.

“He’s getting testy now,” said Veevee.

“I don’t spy on you,” said Danny, “and I know you won’t spy on me. But that’s how power is—just because you have a power doesn’t mean you want other people to use their power on you. Fairness only seems reasonable when the other person is more powerful than you.”

“As it seems to us,” said Hermia.

“I hate to sound like one of the Family,” said Danny, “but … you’re just going to have to live with it till I get used to the idea. Maybe someday I’ll wish I had made gates that follow me around like puppies, so you can always find me. But right now I don’t know how to do that, and I don’t think I even want to, and so … I won’t.”

“Tough guy,” said Veevee.

“He’s not so tough,” said Hermia. “He sounds like he’s apologizing. Real assholes don’t even pretend to be sorry.”

“True,” said Veevee. “It isn’t in his nature, so he’s not good at assholery yet.”

“Thanks,” said Danny. “I think.”

“Well,” said Hermia, “I’d better go, or the Family will track me here.”

“You’ve got to get those trackers out of her,” said Veevee.

She was right.

Danny studied Hermia, and then passed a gate over her, one that left her exactly where she was.

“What was that about?” asked Hermia.

“I didn’t know what I might have gained by going to Westil,” said Danny. “For all I know, I might always have had the ability to attach gates to portable objects. And maybe going through a Great Gate doesn’t affect the mage who made it. But I think there is a difference. When you went through the gate I just made, I could feel a difference in you—the places where the gate was trying to heal you and meeting with resistance. Maybe that’s what it was, anyway. I counted five places like that.”

“You should just send her through an airport scanner,” said Veevee. “They’ll show you exactly where the trackers are implanted.

Danny laughed. “Of course. Veevee, will you come along and make a distraction?”

He took them to the Roanoke airport. Veevee got to the end of the security line and then started wailing. “Where’s my ticket? I had my ticket right here!”

Her noise drew everyone’s attention, and in the moment, Danny put Hermia right in front of the security gate, ahead of the person at the front of the line. Then he opened a peephole over the shoulder of the TSA official working the screen.

Veevee, seeing Hermia in place, took off on an elaborate charade of searching for her lost boarding pass. The guard waved Hermia into the machine.