Iz’s smile was a little wan, and Logan could see the effort behind it, but it was still beautiful. “They’ll be much more fashionable than anything I own, then. Evie has excellent taste,” she said to Logan in an aside.
“And Theo will bring you toiletries and some fresh clothes in the morning.” The corner of Keith’s mouth quirked. “Probably way more than you could possibly need.”
“Yes, I’m familiar with how my cousin packs.” Iz stood up, and Logan didn’t miss how she had to catch the edge of the nightstand to keep herself from wobbling. “Which rooms are these, Keith?”
“Seventeen and eighteen. They’re on the other side of the pool. We’ll watch the fluffalo—” Logan felt like congratulating him for being able to say that with a straight face—“since they’re so obviously magical that you wouldn’t be able to explain them if somebody sees you. But I think the greyhound will be fine if he keeps his wings folded.”
“And the snake,” Evie added. “You could wear that snake to a gala and nobody would know it wasn’t a bracelet, if it was on its best behavior.”
Iz stroked Cat, and her smile went from wan to fond. “He’s always on his best behavior, and he’d do marvelously at a gala. But don’t you need us?”
“No, you should go,” Cooper called out across the room. Like the rest of them, he’d spent the last few hours either on the phone, frantically typing, or trying to give Iz and Logan more food; he looked pale and hectic underneath the stubble. “We can debrief you tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow’s today, technically,” Keith said. “It’s past midnight.”
“We can debrief youwhenever,” Cooper revised. “If somebody higher up the food chain wants to throw a fit about a delayed report, let them. Maybe they can tell me why thefuckthey didn’t mention anything about the last marshal on this case going missing.”
Logan wished he knew that too. He was surrounded by evidence that Iz’s team cared about her. He didn’t think he’d ever had anything like that.
Maybe one of the reasons he’d forgotten his one-time coworkers was that deep down, he’d known he couldn’t count on them, not when it really mattered.
Like Cooper said, though, that question could wait forwhenever. He wasn’t up for dealing with it right now.
They said good night to Iz’s team and walked out into the cool, breezy darkness. They were far enough away from any major city that the stars stood out bright and clear.
This was a roadside motel like any other, with stucco walls and sidewalks stained with old gum. It was constructed in a horseshoe shape, wrapping around a murky-looking pool with an abandoned kid’s floatie bobbing in it. The air smelled like gasoline from the nearby freeway.
It didn’t have Sebastian in it. It was paradise.
Neither he nor Iz talked about it, but they wound up walking towards their rooms arm-in-arm, supporting each other.
For the first time since their eyes had met back in the cave, Logan felt—peaceful. Probably it was just the exhaustion talking, but this silence felt like it came fromcomfort, not from being overwhelmed or tongue-tied.
It lasted as long as it took them to get to Room 17 and Room 18.
Chapter Fifteen