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“Fine,” she muttered, and she pushed out of her seat. “Give me the map.”
Murtagh handed her the map, and she unrolled it on the floor.
She looked at it for at least five minutes, bearing her weight back on her heels as she knelt over it.
“Got even an inkling?” Murtagh asked.
She turned to him for a second, narrowing her eyes. “Can you give me a second? I’m not AI, okay? You can’t just demand things from me and have me fart it out. I have to think for a second. You said that diamond looks much like that other one?” she asked, gesturing towards me, as if I carried it in my pocket.
Murtagh shrugged. “I’m not positive, but I think so. It’s got a different name, according to the grocery list, but looking at the instructions for it that the witch wrote out, they’re similar power, so I imagine they’re twin stones. It’s got to look similar if it has the same powers, right?”
“Okay,” she hummed, turning back towards the map.
She sighed and rubbed between her eyebrows with her thumb. “Here, give me the diamond,” she demanded, putting out her hand.
“Why?” Murtagh asked flatly, as if protective of it.
She raised her eyebrows. “Now you’re just being difficult. What I need is that diamond and like, fifty cups of coffee, but you know what? The diamond is a good first-step,” she snapped peevishly at him.
He grumbled, but then went to a box, opened it up, pulled out the diamond, and put it in her hand.
Her eyes immediately turned white. Almost glowing.
“Oh, fuck. That feels like some good shit…” she said, then shuddered with pleasure. “Mmm. Yes. Where is your friend, huh?” she asked the diamond like a Disney Princess might as her animal companion. “You miss him? Huh? I bet you do. Let us have a good think together, huh?”
With her eyes like that, it was impossible to even see where she was looking if it wasn’t for a tilt or two of her head. She shuddered her shoulders again.
“Drop us…” She looked at the map again, silent for another long minute. “Here…” She pointed at Russia.
I leaned over her. “Moscow? Why Moscow?”
“Because when I think of his friend, I can almost hear it. I think… borscht… I think Russian voices… I think power… I think politics… I think… pride. I think… cold. It feels like Moscow. If it is, I’ll hear it calling when we get off the plane. I know what I’m listening for.”
“Listening?” Murtagh asked, smirking.
She shrugged. “Not with my ears. Like, not listening-listening. But you know, I can feel it in my jellies,” she said and looked at Murtagh’s hand when he reached it out to her. “What?” she asked the hand.
“The diamond,” he demanded.
“He wants to stay with me,” she assured him, pressing the diamond to her chest.
He rolled his eyes. “Want me to put a mirror up to you?”
She groaned. “Did I go all white-eyed?”
I nodded. “It almost seems like it’s making you more djinn-like every second. We promise we’ll take good care of the diamond. Never you fret, darling,” I assured her, almost wanting to laugh at her mulish expression.
She sighed and finally put the diamond back in Murtagh’s hand. He smiled and put it back into the box on the other side of the plane.
“Moscow it is,” he told her with a nod. “I’ll let the flight crew know that’s where we’re headed.” He strode forward towards the front of the jet to the captain’s chamber.
I walked over to Zazie and pulled her into my lap. Her eyes were already beginning to clear and looked better than before, with the swelling around the rims of her eyelids mostly gone.
The flight would take another few hours, and I was going to enjoy my mate until then. Seraphus wouldn’t be able to find us while we were in the air, so we were safe at least for the time being.
Besides, my nerves were frayed from leaving the house so quickly, and I knew that the comfort she could provide would make that feeling go away.
“You’re a pretty little thing, aren’t you?” I murmured into her ear.
