"No--wait, there's a sign on the farther one, on the roof, but it's too far to read."
"Do you see the sun?"
"No."
"Shadows?"
"There's one cast by the window."
"Which direction is the shadow falling?"
Faye smiled. "Clever boy. The shadow slants straight into the room, meaning the window points south."
"Back to the fi
re evacuation notice. Can you get close enough to read it?"
"Yes, but it doesn't list the hotel name or room number. Already thought of that."
"Does it have the room rate?"
"Ah, yes. One hundred dollars even."
"Good."
Lucas directed Faye around the room some more, but found nothing useful. Though I cast the occasional calming spell, she was starting to sweat again, so Lucas concluded the search.
"One last thing," Faye said. "Let me do a quick read. He's still sitting there, so he must be thinking. If he's planning something, I might be able to give you a heads up."
She went quiet, dropping her head to her chest again. A minute of silence passed, then she shuddered and her head jerked back, pupils flicking like someone in REM sleep. Lucas laid his hand on her shoulder. After a moment, she shuddered again.
"Sorry, it's that damned black hole again. It's...I've never felt anything like it. She meant so much to him." Faye swallowed. "Well, even Hitler loved his dog, right? Doesn't make someone a good person, and this one definitely isn't. Only thing he cared about was her. Okay, let me have another go--"
"Maybe you shouldn't."
"I've got it. Just hold on." She exhaled and let her head fall again. "He's frustrated. The killing--it doesn't help, doesn't fill the void. He needs more. There's one he was saving for last, but he can't wait. He's going to--" Her head snapped back, hitting the wheelchair headrest so hard it jumped.
"Oh." The single word came like a gasp.
Her arms gripped the sides of her wheelchair as her body stiffened, torso rising out of the chair. Lucas and I both jumped up. Before we could reach her, her body went as straight as a board, and she slid from the chair. Lucas lunged and grabbed her before she hit the floor. She convulsed, eyes rolling, mouth open. I grabbed a pen from a nearby table, opened her mouth, and stuck it in to hold her tongue down. Then she stopped. Just stopped, as if frozen in place. Lucas gently lowered her to the floor.
"I'll get Oscar," he said.
"Is she--"
"She'll be okay. This is, I fear, her normal state. Catatonic."
As he left, I rearranged Faye's arms, trying to make her more comfortable, though I knew she was beyond caring. As I adjusted her head, I caught a glimpse of her eyes, wide and unseeing. No, not unseeing. Leaning over her, I saw movement there, her pupils contracting and flickering, ever so slightly, like someone watching television. Only it wasn't a television screen she was seeing, but the tiny screen in her own mind, playing a hundred movies of a hundred lives, all glimmering past so fast her brain could no longer make any sense of them.
I would talk to Benicio about getting Faye a witch nurse. It wouldn't cure her, but anything had to be better than...this. Yes, that would mean advocating that a witch take a job with a Cabal, something I'd never thought I'd do, but the sad truth was that there were dozens of witches eager for Cabal employment, and if it meant they could help someone like Faye, well, for now, that was the best I could do.
Hotel Shopping
BY EVENING WE'D CHECKED OUT NEARLY HALF THE HOTELS in Miami as we'd searched for one with a view that matched what Faye had seen outside Edward's window. We'd started by targeting those hotels with rack rates of a hundred dollars. Tougher than it might sound. It was a nice, even number, and many hotels had at least a few rooms at that rate.
When we first left Faye, we'd called Jaime, who'd offered to split the phone-book list with us. After we found a few possibilities, Jaime suggested she and Cassandra take over the phone calls while we did the footwork. A wise arrangement, except that Jaime and Cassandra found so many hotels with rooms at a hundred dollars that we couldn't begin to keep up.
At eight, Jaime called.