Part 8

"So you're going to blow the whole deal?"

"I thought you didn't even believe this girl's the Wild Power," Garret snapped at Lareina. He had told her about Pythia and Dido. He'd thought she would understand. Instead...he dropped on the couch in her apartment, his head between his hands. He really didn't need her cynical bitchiness right now.

"If I don't give Pythia the Wild Power, then she'll kill Dido." He looked up, his eyes pleading. He didn't know what to do.

Lareina sighed, and sat down next to him. "I really don't know how to advise you on this one," she said. "End of the world balanced against your love life."

"Put yourself in my position," Garret said, straightening. "You know Dido, you know what she means to me."

Lareina was silent for a moment, thinking. Garret knew after her affair with that shifter she'd been kind of iffy on the subject of love. He supposed he couldn't blame her, but he really needed her help right now.

"Okay, okay, I *do* understand," Lareina said, touching his hand lightly. "I'm sorting out an idea. I don't know how good it is."

Garret eyed her curiously. "Any plan is better than no plan."

"Okay, We find this girl we're supposed to, we get someone else, put a glamour on them to make them appear as the Wild Power. You take her to Pythia. The real Wild Power will be safe. And while all that's happening, I'll be rescuing Dido, while you and the fake girl kill Pythia."

Garret frowned. It sounded pretty dangerous. They had to be absolutely certain that Pythia wouldn't see through the plan - or that they could actually find someone to agree to it - *and* that when they found the Wild Power, she was on their side.

There were a lot of if, ands and depending ons in the plan. But as he'd said before, any plan was better than nothing.

"I guess we could try that," he said finally.

"Could you sound any less enthused?" Lareina snorted.

Garret sighed. "Sorry, it's just...this is so hard." He couldn't even begin to think what might be happening to Dido at the moment. "So we have a plan. How the hell are we going to pull it off?"

He stood up and started pacing around the living room. He didn't know hardly anything about witch magic, and for the task, they would need someone more powerful than Lareina. And a volunteer to pretend to be the Wild Power.

"She has a sister, doesn't she?" Lareina said.

Garret nodded. "Yeah. Star. Who's apparently just spilled the whole story."

"I do hope you're kidding," Lareina said, staring at him.

Garret shook his head. "On my way over here I ran into Demios and Galadriel who'd just come out the diner. They'd said that the girl and her sister were there and the sister told her everything. The waitress thought they were plotting a movie."

Lareina threw up her hands. "Great. Could things get any worse?"

The phone was ringing. With a heavy sigh Lareina picked answered. "Oh, it's you." She didn't sound too pleased. "*What*?" Obviously things *could* get worse. "*Who*?"

Garret frowned. What was going on? Lareina kept *looking* at him in a peculiar way. "He's gonna *love* that." She sighed, and hung up.

"Do I dare ask?" Garret's eyebrow rose.

"Guess who's just been spotted in town."

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