Page 67
“I only mean they want to preserve the past. They know that’s important.”
Seamus spat.
“It’s not about preservation. It’s about the future. There are young fay everywhere in my territory and they have nothing ahead of them. What resources we have are being consumed, literally, by the Lost Ones.”
“You gave them sanctuary in your territory.”
“I did. It’s the least they deserve, but I have people who need food. They need to feel pride in their lives. I put as many to work in my court as possible, but that’s a fraction of them. The spirit realm has limited resources and unlimited potential. The elves treat it like a damn playground. They could go home tomorrow, to their perfect world where no one’s ugly and no one dies—and they should. They should go and leave it to us.”
“But you can’t, right?”
“It’s my home. My people are—were there.”
Adam knew he needed to tread carefully. Seamus had lost someone. Adam didn’t know if she’d been his wife or his girlfriend, but he knew she’d been the love of his life. The rage born of that unhealed grief had brought pain to a lot of people, Adam included.
He tried to think of something to say, but in the moment of silence between them, Seamus had disappeared.
Shaking his head, he stood, brushed off his coveralls, and walked home.
He had class the next day. It would be a good chance to bring Wendy and Joey what they wanted for their shop in the Night Market.
Vic was home when Adam entered the apartment. Something beeped when Adam opened the door. He turned and saw an electronic keypad.
“What the—?”
“Oh, hi,” Vic said from the kitchen. “The code is your birthday. Hurry, you’ve only got sixty seconds before it goes off.”
“Month and day or year too?”
“Just the month and day.”
Adam punched in 0621.
“Then the pound sign.”
Adam hit it and the beeping stopped.
“There are contacts on all the windows.” Vic came around the corner to point. “It will also go off if one of those gets opened.”
“But someone like Wilcox would be able to guess the code, right?”
“Yeah. That’s why I didn’t make it harder. The important thing is that it will log every entry and we can check it on our phones. We might not be able to stop someone from getting in, but we’ll know they did, and when. You can check the app to see if someone’s in here when no one is supposed to be.”
“Wait a moment, how much did this cost?”
“It wasn’t too bad.”
“How much, Vic?”
“A few thousand and a little bit each month. We’ll drop some streaming services to pay for it.”
They didn’t have that many to begin with.
“We’re supposed to be saving for your truck.”
Vic kissed him atop the head.
“I’d rather live without us watching over our shoulders every moment. You can ward the place from the spooky stuff, which I can’t do. Let me handle the mundane protection.”
