After taking a shower and getting dressed, Luka settled down to wait.

He regretted leaving his phone behind, but he regretted leaving his cigarettes behind more. He had searched the apartment, but Quinn had no stash of smokes anywhere.

Quinn should be home in a couple of hours, and Luka considered spending the time sleeping, but he couldn't shake off the loss of two days. And then there was the thing about wonderland.

His memories had gotten clearer, and he had made sense of the deer and the fox; the people who attacked him were wearing masks. They had known who he was, and now he was even more sure that it was personal. They were waiting for him, but there had been a point to it. They hadn't been there to kill him. There had been a clue. Wonderland, and emerald roads? Or was he mixing children's tales? He remembered getting stabbed. He remembered Fox Mask saying something. He knew it was important, but he couldn't seem to hold on to it.

He got off the couch, and made his way to the library.

Quinn's apartment had two bedrooms, several walk-in closets, three and a half bathrooms, a library and an open kitchen/living room space. It was located on the 52nd floor of a massive steel and glass skyscraper in the middle of the city. The decor was very white and very stylish. Luka would have called it soulless, except he knew the man who lived here, and knew it was more about indifference. The main selling point for Quinn had been the indoor lap pool attached to the fitness center. He had hired an interior decorator, and given them free reign and an open budget, so he wouldn't have to make any decisions.

The bedrooms were better, embedded with some colors and personal touches, but the library most of all. It connected to the living room, not even separated by doors, but it was still like walking into a completely different space. The furniture was darker, the large windows covering the north wall hidden behind curtains. There wasn't a lot of wall space in there, so it was really more of a reading room, with comfortable chairs and soft rugs. The largest wall had floor to ceiling bookshelves, but the guest room held even more books.

Quinn had a large glass board in there, dark navy with brass fittings to fit the style, and Luka thought writing things down might help.

The phone rang.

He considered ignoring it, but the concierge knew he was up here, so it had to be for him.

"Yeah?"

"Devushka zdes," the concierge said. His name was Aleksander, though he went by Sasha, and had taken a very instant like to Luka. As far as Luka could tell, it was entirely based on the fact that they spoke the same language, and Sasha had never spoken anything other than Russian to Luka, which was absolutely fine. The guy was a little too friendly, but Luka didn't have enough people to speak Russian with, and sometimes it was a relief to scrape the rust off his mother tongue. The girl he was talking about could almost only be Alice, who must have followed him here. He knew he hadn't been careful enough, but he honestly didn't think she had been that close behind.

"Alice Malik?" Luka asked.

There was a pause on Luka's end, as they had a short conversation.

"Da. Ona govorit, chto u neye tvoi veshchi." Which meant that she had brought his phone and, more importantly, his cigarettes. Which also meant that he couldn't dismiss her, not if he wanted any of them back.

"Spuskayus," Luka said, and hung up the phone. He would go to her, rather than allow her to come up.

When he arrived downstairs, and found Alice standing in front of Sasha, he could practically see all the questions written on her face, as her eyes reflected all the perfectly polished surfaces. He waved her into one of the seating areas, which was empty at this time of day. Besides which, most people who wanted to sit around, did so at the resident club.

He held out his hand, and she dug into her bag, emerging first with his phone, then his keys. He pocketed both, and held out his hand again. The marker came next, then the lighter, and in the end, a crumbled pack of cigarettes.

"Thank you," he said. "You can go now."

"Luka, we need to talk about this."

"Do we?" He wasn't allowed to smoke inside, so he walked out to the street. Alice followed.

"Yes," she said. "Luka, I'm sorry, but I tried. Okay? I really did. But you were dying, and I didn't know what to do."

He inhaled smoke. Exhaled.

"I lost two days," he said. "This whole thing could have been over now, except I have a fucking partner and a handler, who think they know what's best for me."

"Luka, you were dying," Alice said, in a frustrated whisper.

"I know," Luka said. "You want forgiveness? You want gratitude?" He shook his head. "I don't have either to offer."

"I want to help you solve this," Alice said. "That's all."

"Okay." He tossed the cigarette, and stamped it out. He wanted to immediately light another, but he restrained himself. "Then let's solve this."

He had plans of his own. He had intended to see Quinn, since the near death and the loss of time had left him more rattled than he cared to admit. He would have put off telling him about the infection for a couple of days, hoping he might be able to solve it quick and that Quinn would never have to know. But now those couple of days were up, and they needed to talk. He had wanted Quinn to get him something that might keep his heart rate down, so he had a chance to get through this, but maybe this was better. Maybe getting back on the case as soon as possible was exactly what he needed.

"Catch me up." He was still haunted by wonderland and the emerald road, but he had been out for two days. Maybe there was another clue, he could cling to for a while.

"Oh," Alice said, "Um."

"Nothing?" Luka asked. He realized they wouldn't have woken him up, if they thought they could do it without him, but nothing?

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"I thought we needed you. I thought getting Hadley to wake you was the most important thing. I would have gone back to the restaurant, but I…"

"It wasn't that kind of clue," Luka said.

"So you have it? You have the next clue?"

He might, if he could remember it. "Go home," he said, hoping annoyance might cover up how useless he felt. "We'll pick this up tomorrow."

“Fine,” Alice said. She retreated a step, but then stopped. “I get that you’re mad at me, but maybe I get to be mad at you too.”

Luka eyed her. “I’m not stopping you.”

He headed back inside. The talk with Quinn was back on, and Luka called him on his was back up to the apartment.

"Luka?" Quinn asked when he picked up the phone. "Are you okay?"

"I'm great," Luka answered. "Can you do me a favor? Preferably without attitude."

A hint of a smile crept into Quinn's voice, although Luka was sure he hadn't entirely shed the worry. "You know I can't promise that."

"Yeah. I do." It had become something of a running joke between them, ever since Quinn realized that when Luka asked for a favor it was either because he was already in danger, or whatever he asked for would get him there.

"What do you need?"

"Beta blockers."

"Beta blockers?"

"Or something else that lowers the heart rate. I don't care what." Luka didn't know drugs in as much detail as Quinn did. He knew what he needed to know as a lab tech, but as a Healer he didn't much care.

There was a pause, then a very suspicious, "Why?"

"I'll explain later. Right now I just need to know if you can do it." He could definitely do it. That wasn't the real question. It was more about willingness. It wouldn't be the first time Quinn forged a prescription, and beta blockers was an easy one. They weren't addictive and prescribing them to Luka wasn’t even a lie.

"Yeah, fine." Quinn relented. "So, I'll see you at home?"

"I'll be here."

"You're at my place?" Quinn wondered, since Luka never spend any significant amount of time there on his own. It wasn't that he didn't like the extravagant luxury of the place. It was that it never felt like his, but most of it didn't feel like Quinn's either. Every time, it felt like stumbling into some stranger's apartment. Someone he couldn't recognize in Quinn. It made the experience of being there alone too uncomfortable to bother with.

"I am."

"And further questions are pointless?"

"Most definitely."

"Luka?"

He made an affirmative sound.

"Weird request aside, are you sure you're okay? You sound off."

"Yeah," he said, then forced himself to tell the truth. "No. Not really."

"I can—"

"No," Luka said, knowing he would offer to leave work for him. "No, it's fine. Finish your shift."

He hung up. With his keys back, he could let himself into the apartment, and was glad he didn't have to ask Sasha for another favor. He would ask questions, and Luka had work to do.

While waiting for Quinn to get home, he filled the glass board in with every piece of the puzzle he could think of, hoping to highlight the missing pieces. In the end, he had more questions than answers.

He knew that the person behind this wasn't working alone, the masked duo had made that clear. He knew nature mages and urban mages were working together. He suspected it was somehow about him, and had all but confirmed it during the attack. Meanwhile, things he didn't know: Why send a nature mage into the city, was that supposed to be part of the clue? Was the restaurant significant in some way? Why were they trying to get to Luka? Did he know this person? He had tried to think of anyone he might have crossed paths with, someone who might have done this, who seemed capable of it, but came up empty.

And then there was the goddamn clue. It had to refer to a place, but how? He left the board, and settled down in the soft chair with Quinn's laptop. He searched for the history of the restaurant. He searched for locations with reference to wonderland. He searched for emerald roads, and did come up with the Emerald Necklace, which was a series of parks threaded through the city. Something he really should have realized without looking it up. It could make sense with the nature mages, but he still failed to see the significance of wonderland.

He wrote the Emerald Necklace on the board, but didn't feel like he had made any breakthroughs. Right now, his options were narrowed down to 1.100 acres of parks, and more notably, the surrounding city.

He sighed, and pulled up a map, tracing the path of parks, but it was useless. If he was meant to literally "follow the emerald road to wonderland", he would need to walk the path in person. Hopefully, his plan to talk to a nature mage tomorrow would yield something useful.

Quinn came home. Luka heard the key in the lock, and went to meet him in the kitchen. He was craving coffee anyway, and grabbed a cup from a cupboard. Quinn had one of those coffee makers that used capsules, and Luka still didn't understand why there were so many different kinds of coffee. Quinn had at least seven to choose from, and Luka picked one at random.

"Hey," Quinn said, when he joined him in the kitchen. He put a bag down on the kitchen island. It smelled like food, and Luka remembered that he hadn't eaten in over two days. Next to it, he put an orange bottle of pills. Luka turned, putting his cup down by the bottle.

Quinn was watching him with a burning intensity, like he could somehow guess what was going on just by picking up on physical clues. His eyes lingered on the embroidered logo perched on Luka's chest, which suggested Luka had changed here. Luka was pretty sure it was meant to be a ram skull, or something close to that, and he didn't even want to think about the price tag. His own clothes weren’t cheap, but they tended to be logo free.

"I'll take that explanation now," Quinn said. He crossed his arms and leaned back on the counter.

So, Luka told him the heavily edited version of events, sipping his coffee underway to distract himself from the smell of food. He told him about the infection, about what it did. He told him about Mutiny, about infecting himself to get the next clue. He told him about the restaurant, about getting attacked, about Alice getting there in time, and calling in Healers. He told him about the two days he had been in the hospital.

Quinn was quiet for a long time when he finished. Disapproval probably didn’t even begin to cover what he felt anymore.

"I don't even know where to start," he finally said. "You couldn't have called me before making the decision to slowly kill yourself?"

"No," Luka said. "I didn't need you to talk me out of it." Because he could have, and he absolutely would.

"How long?"

Luka shrugged. "Maybe five days."

Quinn nodded. "Great," he said, but Luka could tell he was struggling to stay composed.

He reached for him, putting his hand on his arm. "I just need to find the guy, and he'll cure me. I'm sure of it."

"You know I trust you, Luka, but how can this possibly be about you?" His face was turned away from Luka, his fingers tiredly rubbing his eyes and temples. He was unusually still, unusually distant. Normally, Luka might have been okay with that, but right now he wished he would react to his touch.

"I don't know," Luka said. "What I do know is that this is set up like some sort of twisted game, and it's starting to look a lot like it was made for me. And if it's a game, there's a way to win it."

"Right," Quinn said. "But it also means you might lose."

Luka shook his head. "I don't lose."

"Okay," Quinn said. "Okay. Wait here." When Quinn was out of the room, Luka reached for the bottle. He shook out a couple of pills and swallowed them with coffee. When Quinn returned, he was carrying a gun.

"Take this," he said, and put it on the table in front of Luka.

"Why the fuck do you have that?" Luka asked, inching his fingers away from it.

"That's not important. You said you can't trust your magic right now, and I want you to be safe. Take it."

Luka reached for it, feeling the cold steel under his fingers. He checked the safety, and tugged the gun into his pants.

"You're leaving now?"

"Only if you want me to," Luka said. He hadn't planned on it, but if Quinn needed space, he would give him space. It wasn't like Alice didn't know where he was, so staying off her and Hadley's radar was no longer an issue.

"No," Quinn said. "No, I don't want you to leave." His body language was still too closed off, and he wasn't really looking at Luka. It was unfamiliar on him, and it didn't suit him. Luka turned away from him and finished his coffee.

"Please tell me you have eaten since getting out of the hospital."

Luka shrugged. "I've been busy."

"Honestly, Luka." Quinn shook his head, and started unpacking the food.