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We have to go now. This is a small town. It won't take them long to find us.

I stand, pull back on my clothes. While Fitz is gathering the things he wants to take with us, I step out of the cave and and then call the phone number on the card.

“Elizabeth Strutt,” a gravelly voice answers.

“Hi, Elizabeth,” I say. “My name is Grace, Grace Cavanaugh, and James Watts gave me your phone number.”

There's quiet on the line for a moment. “James, hmm? What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into?”

I look back into the cave at Fitz. He's waiting patiently for me, watching me carefully.

“I guess that depends on what kind of trouble you’re equipped to deal with. Could we meet maybe?” I don’t think Professor Watts would have given me the card unless she knew the truth about the Yellow-Eyed Treufel.

“If you can get here, we can talk.” She gives me an address in Deary. It’ll take us a whole day to walk it if we don’t take breaks.

“You have someone with you?” She doesn’t elaborate, but I don’t think she needs to.

“Yes.”

“Then best come at night.”

“Thank you so much. Thank you,” I say. “We'll be there just as soon as we can. We're going to be coming on foot.”

“On foot?”

“We don't have a choice. No car and we have to stay out of sight so no flying.”

“Flying.”

I realize I might have said too much. We don’t know this woman. We don’t know what she’s capable of. We don’t know how she intends to help us or if she intends to help us at all. All we know is that Professor Watts thinks she can help us. She might not have suspected exactly what caliber of situation I was dealing with.

“Even if it was safe, which I guess it could be once we’re outside of town, one of us is injured.”

“How bad?”

I glance at Fitz.

He shrugs, even though I know he has no idea what's going on.

“I don't know,” I tell the voice on the phone. “He's saying it's not that bad, but I don't really know anything about it.”

“Of course not,” Elizabeth says. “Just be careful and get here when you can.”

We arrive at Elizabeth's house not long after dark the next night. We stayed low and undercover most of the time, creeping on foot when we had to, sometimes going airborne just to move faster.

I don't know what I was expecting to find when we got here. I guess something like an apocalyptic compound with a gate around it. Instead, it's an old Victorian style home off a dirt road.

In the dark, I can tell the house is painted a light color, maybe a baby blue. And I'm surprised when Fitz hesitates at the side of the house. He glances around, but Elizabeth doesn't seem to have neighbors anywhere near.

“What is it?” I ask him. He has a pensive look on his face, like he's upset about something. He points to my bag, and I realize that he wants the reference book. I don’t know that the authors of it intended for anyone to be using it as a translation device, but that’s what we’re doing for now.

We stop at the side of the house in the shadows, and I reach into my bag and hand it to him. He flips through, his brow furrowed, and then looks up at me. “Dangerous. Scared,” he says. It makes my heart hurt. Of course he's scared. He most likely spent his entire life hiding from humans, and if we get caught, the worst-case scenario for him could be horrendous.

I go up on my tiptoes, take his face in my hands. “I’m not going to let them have you. I’m going to take care of you. We’re going to take care of each other.” I tell him, pressing my forehead to his. He bends down and kisses me. “I’m scared too,” I whisper.

We breathe together, both of our chests moving up and down in sync. And then Fitz stands tall, his shoulders back and his chest puffed. He takes my hand and we walk to the back door of the house. It opens before we get there.

“I was wondering when the two of you were gonna finally come in,” the woman at the door says. She’s small, most likely about five feet with short white hair and two ears full of earrings. “Come on,” she says.