Chapter 27

I tapped Ricky on the shoulder. “That work for you?” Suffice it to say, he continued ambling. And groaning. And stinking. And, sadly, not amassing. “I hate to say it,” I hated to say, “but I have a sinking feeling that he’s not leading us anywhere, apart from away from the water, which, I’m afraid, doesn’t bode well for us. That, and it’s starting to get dark out, and if we get lost, we’re screwed.”

“I know,” Dara said. “I’ve been thinking the same thing. Which does leave us one other option.”

I was already thinking the same thing, but was loathe to mention it. “You know I hate turning them, Dara.” In fact, she was the very last one I’d turned in nearly three hundred years. “And then what, we take him with us forever? Or do we just let him eventually revert back?” Even the thought of that made my non-beating heart break. “Plus, once he’s, well, back, there’s no telling if he’ll even help us. Because then he’ll have his own free will again.”