“Our goal was to capture, hold, and release. Killing wasn’t the intent. You held up your end of the deal, you made that clear.”

“I tried my best. I didn’t have as much clout as I would have liked, being the person who was hiding her powers. I told my boss it was important, and he handled it.”

“It was enough,” he said. “Thank you. And in thanks, continuing this trend of cooperation, in exchange for information and images you’ve shared, and because of Marquis’ goodwill, you can investigate. I have trucks.”

It didn’t take long for us to get moving, after Lookout picked up her stuff. Lord of Loss had cars and trucks. Capricorn ended up in the driver’s seat again. Marquis had Spruce as a chauffeur. Lord of Loss changed into a flier.

I thought about flying myself, but I defaulted once again to sticking with the group.

I took a seat in the back. The truck had a trailer attached at the back, and Cryptid seated himself in it. The little window at the rear of the truck was left open, so Cryptid’s head wasn’t that far from us.

The first minute or so of driving was painful. The silence dragged.

I didn’t know what to say.

No, maybe I did.

“Marquis gives me the impression he’s the real person in charge, here,” I said. “With Lord of Loss as the decoy king.”

“I kind of got that vibe too,” Sveta said.

“Aw, I keep missing stuff,” Lookout said.

Capricorn was silent, but he was more focused on driving.

“It’s little things you learn to watch out for,” Sveta said. “This is more of a feeling thing than it is logic. We don’t have any evidence.”

“Ah huh,” Lookout said.

Sveta was sitting in the front seat. She turned her head around one hundred and eighty degrees, tilting her body to one side so she could look past the headrest. I gave her my most convincing smile.

Her arm released, forearm and hand dropping between the two front seats. Tendrils bent, and her hand moved up to the seat beside me, reaching for my hand.

I took it and gave it a bit of a waggle.

Twenty minutes of driving through nowhere, with only a bit of flattened grass where cars had passed over. Cryptid reverted back to being Chris, relying on his cloaking and the fact we were facing forward and he was behind us to maintain his modesty. Were the roads busier or if Marquis was driving behind us, it might have been more awkward.

“If you don’t want to do the thing tonight because you’re tired or upset or something, it’s okay,” Lookout said. “It’s not that important.”

I didn’t want to. I was exhausted.

“I’ll come,” I said. “Unless something happens in the next hour. It’s important.”

Marquis’ car slowed down. We came to a stop on a hill with the cars leaning at almost a forty-five degree angle. It felt like they would roll down the hill with one good push.