The west coast operator has been tending a fault line for forty years. He calls Jen Rosewood not because he needs convincing - but because he's finally run out of explanations for what he's been feeding all this time.
Jen and Ronan fly out alone. David holds the building. The plan is a conversation, not a confrontation.
The plan doesn't survive the basement.
What's underneath Calloway's house is older than the Aurist, older than anything Ronan has direct memory of, and it isn't interested in the wrong kind of Keeper. It's been patient for three centuries. Now it's decided to stop.
Bea takes a flight she didn't tell anyone she was booking. The cardigan on the chair is Jen's. The teacup is not.
West Coast Blues - the sixth Velvet Room novel. For women who've learned the difference between tending something and simply standing next to it.