Page 99 of The Flame Game

“Well, why not? I can ask if he’s dead, alive, or in danger, and get where he’s at.”

“Wait, you can ask?”

“It’s usually yes or no questions.” I hesitated. “You know those marbles from my apartment?”

“Yes. They’re very similar to the ones in with your other wayfinding stuff. I brought them, as it would be a tragedy if you were to lose what’s left of your marbles.”

Oh. I giggled. “I’m going to feel that one for days.”

“You really shouldn’t be excited when I do that. It encourages me to keep doing it.”

“But it was a good one. Do it again. See, I’m encouraging you to keep doing it, so you should keep doing it. You aren’t pulling over yet. I can’t do my wayfinder trick without my stuff, which is in the back. The very back.”

“I’m not against looking into his uncle, but I am going to insist we wait until after we deal with Kennebago and Long Lake. That way, if you get a trail, we can act. Ideally, we would do this when we’re in a position to have someone watch over the pets, as we can run as unicorns. Also, as you yourself say your wayfinding is a creator of disasters, we are not creating additional disasters to go with our current disaster. We are at maximum disaster capacity right now.”

“It’ll only be a little bit of a disaster. Come on. It’ll be an adventure.”

“We’re already on an adventure.”

“It’ll be an adventure within our current adventure.”

“I’m not sure we can handle our current adventure as it is. Please be sensible, Bailey.”

Me? Sensible? I hoped impending fatherhood hadn’t done irreversible damage to my husband. “Sam, why are you asking the impossible of me?”

“Oh, right. I guess asking you to be sensible was a little rough. I’m sorry. Try to be patient. You can use your wayfinder tricks to your heart’s content as soon as we’re done with this nasty business in Kennebago and Long Lake.”

“Or I can just use my wayfinder trick to find the source of this mess and skip Kennebago and Long Lake?”

“Your father went through all of that work to arrange Long Lake, and it would be really rude of us to steal his thunder, especially since he’s trying so hard to be the cool dad for you. We should go to Kennebago and Long Lake. If our date with disaster is a no show in Long Lake, then you can steal your father’s thunder and find the culprits that way. For now, let your father satisfy himself. The last thing we need is a divine who just found out he’s a father snapping because his daughter got herself in trouble again.”

“No take backs!”

My husband sighed. “No take backs. Just try to be somewhat reasonable should we need to use your wayfinder magic, okay?”

“So, when did the commissioner’s uncle disappear, anyway?”

“Huh. Good question. It happened before I joined the force, so at this point in time, it’s really unlikely you’ll be able to find any good news. I’d have to dig out the file and read it over. That case has been considered dead in the water for a while.”

I devoured the rest of my sea bug sandwich, rescued the final one from the container, and debated how best to separate it so my husband could have his share.

“Just eat the whole thing, babe. If you’re that hungry, I’m sure I can stop and forage should I become peckish.”

“I’m eating my feelings,” I admitted. “They’re frustrated, hungry feelings.”

“Eat the sandwich, my beautiful. You need the extra calories. If you start gaining excess weight, then you can worry about nibbling on those salads you’re convinced will rise up and get you.”

“Well, if my salads had more sea bugs on them, I’d probably eat salad willingly more often.”

“You’re going to make me learn how to cook fish, aren’t you?”

“You can use other types of sea bugs on salad, too.”

“I demand evidence of this.”

I laughed. “You just want to explore more sea bug options, now that you know they’re open to you.”

“I really do.”