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Millicent still sat in that same chair, eyes glued to the pages of her book. I don’t even think she noticed us come through—something I was grateful for.

“I know I shouldn’t say this, but I can’t wait for this whole thing to be over,” I murmured to Charles as he fiddled with the lock and key.

“You can say and feel however you want, Ang. It’s all perfectly understandable,” he assured me with a sad smile, continuing to struggle with the doorknob.

Octo-Cat moaned.“I could open that thing ten times as fast, and I don’t even have opposable thumbs.” He and Paisley had rejoined us on the walk to the parking lot, and neither seemed any worse for the wear—which probably meant that mean old Persian was off troubling somebody else for the moment.

“Be nice,” the little dog yipped. “He’s doing the best he can. Right, Mommy?”

“Well, clearly UpChuck’s best isn’t quite good enough, is it?” came the cat’s snide reply.

I pressed my fingers into my temples and rubbed.“Ugh. I thought we’d moved past that horrible nickname.”

“What?” Charles asked with a furrowed brow.

“Here. Let me help,” I said rather than answering his actual question.

I took over and struggled for a couple moments before finally wresting the lock open. Another couple—old and married from what I could tell—came down the hallway and entered their room with no problem.

“I bet that was the room we were supposed to have,” I whispered to Charles. We both rolled our eyes.

The door eased open, catching me by surprise when it finally gave way.

“Took you long enough!” Octo-Cat said, heaving a dramatic sigh as he entered the room. “Seriously, humans. What are they even good for?”

I walked in behind him and was surprised to feel a chilly wind rush past.

“Charles, I thought you closed that.” I said, flopping over on the bed nearest the door, since Octo-Cat had made it clear none of us were to mess withhis bed.

“I thought I had,” he said, going over to secure the sliding door once again.

I could hear a soft swish as he flipped the lock latch back and forth. He opened and closed the glass door a few more times before turning back to face me.

“That’s odd,” he muttered.

“What is?” I asked, sitting up and petting Paisley as she climbed into my lap.

“This latch system doesn’t work.”

“So the door just slid open on its own?”

He nodded before coming over to join me on the bed.“Seems like it. I guess we can jam something in there to hold it before we go back out again.”

“Isn’t it kind of weird that one lock works too well and the other not at all?” I asked, quirking my head to the side.

Charles sunk onto the bed next to me and pulled me into his side.“Not weird. Just a simple coincidence. Now you said you needed some time alone with your thoughts. Did you mean alone together oralone alone?”

“Would it be all right if I had just a little bit of time to myself?” I asked with an apologetic grimace. It was strange how I’d been craving his company all week, and now that we were finally together, I needed to ask for space. It was nothing against Charles, of course. But Sharon had dropped a doozy on me. No wonder she hadn’t wanted to tell me over the phone.

My fianc? pressed a firm kiss into my hairline. “Tell you what, you get some rest, and I’ll head out to see if I can make some sense of Bravo’s directions. Can you text those to me again?”

I breathed a happy sigh of relief.“That would be wonderful. Thank you for understanding. I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and brought up the notes app. I’d recorded the seagull’s guidance there, and now I copy-pasted it into a fresh text for Charles.

Initially, Bravo had said he would take me to my grandmother, which I thought meant he’d be joining us for the trip.

Nope.

He actually meant he would take us there with his words. One thing I’d learned in all my conversations with animals is that every single species had a different way of viewing the world. I had the least experience with birds, given their flighty nature, but I figured between me, Charles, and the pets, we’d be able to find our way.

I pushed the button to send my text, and Charles’s phone pinged a couple of seconds later.

He cleared his throat, then read aloud.“‘Follow the water until the air begins to chill. Stop at the green dumpster with the good fries.’ The good fries? What’s good to a seagull? Oh, here we go. ‘Follow the scent of fish several leagues until you reach a tan building with loose trash can lids. The dogs to the south have been restrained, so eat all you want. Short hops from here through the human encampment. Approach in a zigzag to avoid floodlights and bad air. Cross the dead river and find the target amongst the stick-colored domiciles with pink sentinels standing guard…’ Seriously?” he asked with a chuff once he’d gotten to the end. “None of this makes any sense.”