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“How did you know we were here?” I ask, stepping into her small kitchen.

Fitz follows me in, and it's like trying to fit a bull mastiff into a Smart car.

Elizabeth says, taking him in, “You're a bit smaller than the others.”

“Smaller?” I ask, the words coming out on a nervous laugh. “Fitz is huge.” My mind flashes back to trying to fit his cock inside me last night. If he was any bigger, we would have been playing just the tip. And then the rest of her comment registers. The others.

“Fitz?” she says. “That's nice.” She shuts and locks the door, bolts it three times, then comes into the kitchen just as a kettle on the stove starts to scream. She removes it from the burner. “I saw you coming because I have this place covered in cameras.” She turns to face me, puts her hand out. “I’m Elizabeth Strutt.”

I shake her hand. “Grace and Fitz.” When I motion to Fitz, he puts his hand out and I fight back a smile. Elizabeth takes it without hesitation.

“Tell me a little bit about your predicament,” she says.

Half an hour later, our teacups are empty, and Elizabeth is nodding sagely at me. “Well, this seems simple enough.” She looks to Fitz, and I'm surprised when she rattles off something in his language. Something I don't understand. He responds, his voice level. I don't have the faintest idea what they're talking about.

Elizabeth goes to her bookshelf, pulls something out. It's not a book, but a folded-up piece of paper that she slaps into my hand.

“What is this?”

“A map. You're not going to find this place on your own.”

“What place?” I unfold the piece of paper, trying to figure out exactly what it is I'm looking at. For the most part, it all makes sense. There's the shape of Idaho, and Montana on the other side. The border of Canada, north of us. Then, running diagonal across it all, is an arc, oblong in shape. It crosses right over the border of Canada, following the shape of the greenery in the area.

“I don't understand,” I tell her. “What is this?”

“A sanctuary.”

It's clearly a circle, but the edges of it run off the map.

“I need you to memorize that map and how far it is to the sanctuary because you can't take it with you.”

My eyes shoot up to hers. “In case we get caught.”

“The thing is,” she says, standing and picking up our empty teacups. “this thing goes far deeper than you or anyone would want to believe. For every non-human creature that’s been caught on film or been seen by a human, there are a dozen more that haven’t. Well, you’ll see when you get there.”

I toss the map down on the table. “And we’re supposed to be safe in this sanctuary? What, it has like a wall and bodyguards?”

“No,” she says. “It has wards and charms.”

“Charms?” Fitz glances back and forth between us. I wonder how much he understands. Maybe nothing. Every once in a while, Elizabeth translates things in his language, the important things.

“Yes,” Elizabeth says. “You'll understand when you get there. But the sanctuary is protected. Anyone who doesn't know it's there won't know it's there. It's completely invisible to the naked eye.”

“Then how are we supposed to find it?”

“I have a contact who's going to meet you. They do have guards. They keep a watch on these things. He’ll show you the way in.”

I look to Fitz. “Home.”

11

It takes two days for us to get to the sanctuary. Sometimes we walk, sometimes we fly, sometimes Fitz cradles me against his body like a toddler as we trek through the woods. The further we get away from Elizabeth's, the less people we see, less cars.

Now, we stand in a valley overlooking a waterfall. I point to the left, certain we're going the right way. That night at Elizabeth's, I spent hours memorizing the map so I wouldn't forget anything.

We cross through a canyon, and as Fitz is flying us up over to the other side, I see a man off in the distance. I tap Fitz on the arm twice, the code we came up with for possible danger.

Fitz lowers us to the ground, and we duck behind some trees. I’m fairly certain the guy I saw was the one we’re looking for, but I don’t want to take any chances. I tell Fitz to stay hidden and turn in the direction of the man.