At that moment, my brain separates the ocean of brown into individual shapes and I realize we’re looking at an enormous gathering of buffalo. I’m talking multitudes here. There are thousands upon thousands of the horned cousins assembling there on an open plain, drumming and dancing as more, and then still more, join their already swollen ranks.

Jack gives a low whistle.

I know he saw this coming—we were just talking about it not that long before Tatiana came in—but the actual moment seems to have come upon us way faster than I ever thought it would. And on a far larger scale.

“There must be thousands of them,” Tatiana says in a quiet voice.

Jack gives a slow nod. “And that’s just for starters.”

“What do you mean?”

“I see both living spirits and the ghosts of their dead, which tells me that they’re calling in all the buffalo tribes, past and present.”

“I still don’t know what it means.”

Jack gives her a look that says Who are you kidding?, but he only says, “Do you have any idea how many buffalo got displaced or killed when the humans you followed over here made a grab for their lands?”

“We had nothing to do with that.”

“Maybe not. But you still took advantage of their misfortune and moved right into their territories wherever you could.”

When Tatiana doesn’t respond, Jack adds, “Come on. You had to know this was coming. Sooner or later, there had to be a reckoning.”

“We settled that with Raven.”

Jack shakes his head. “You settled a local problem. And then you let your people go out and hunt cousins.”

Tatiana doesn’t look at him. She can’t take her gaze from the gathering buffalo.

“You have to get Joe back here,” she finally says. “He has to talk to them.”

When Jack doesn’t respond, she turns to look at him. He just shrugs.

“I can do that,” he says. “Soon as you bring Jilly and her friend back to us—safe and sound—I’m sure he’ll be happy to give it a shot.”

“So he’s just going to let the buffalo overrun the city because of two missing humans?”

“You know it’s not about that.”

“But it’s awfully convenient that they should all show up just when he thinks he needs some bargaining power.”

Jack gives her a hard look. “Joe had nothing to do with this. You called it down on yourselves by not keeping your bogans in check.”

“Maybe we could have kept a better eye on them,” she says, “but this is still overkill.”