Blood Calls to Blood
- For the next few days, Nick stays at the house but he avoids Alan.
- Eventually he decides to try talking to Mum to see if he can get any answers from her, but it doesn't go so well—she freaks out when he enters her room and keeps her distance from him, like she's afraid of him.
- He tells her he knows Black Arthur is his father and asks her if he looks like him. She says yes.
- Then he says that he's planning to leave Alan and he wants her to come with him—there's no need for Alan to keep on taking care of high maintenance people he isn't even really related to.
- Olivia says she'd die before going anywhere with him, and Nick is surprised. Black Arthur must have really done a number on her.
- He tries to reassure her by saying he's not like Black Arthur, and Mum says, "I know. I loved him" (12.51). Nice, huh?
- After this uplifting conversation, Nick goes out to the garden to practice his swordsmanship.
- Mae comes out to talk with him in an attempt to smooth things over, and he tries to get all sexy with her but she resists. She tells Nick she's not stupid—she can see that he's attempting to use her to get back at Alan and she won't bite. She says sure she's attracted to him, and she could be attracted to Alan too, but she's not letting any of their drama get in the way of her real priority: helping Jamie.
- She goes back inside and Nick sees her, Alan, and Jamie cooking and singing in the kitchen.
- Nick contemplates going in to join them, but he doesn't feel like he fits in with, as he calls them, "the ordinary people laughing in the warmth" (12.106).
- In the morning, Nick finally comes inside for breakfast. Things are tense to say the least, and they become more so when Alan says he wants to use Nick's blood to do a spell that will help them locate Black Arthur.
- Nick realizes Alan has known Black Arthur is his father all along and wonders why he didn't just use Nick's blood to trace him earlier. Alan says he never wanted Nick to know about his real father and never planned to tell him; now that he knows, though, they might as well use the spell.
- They do it, and Nick feels a tug, pulling him toward his father. Alan adds his own blood to the mix so he'll be able to trace Black Arthur, too.
- The spell weakens them both significantly, and at one point Alan, already weak from the effect of his mark, almost falls. Nick catches him, and Alan says, "Don't leave me."
- Nick doesn't understand. He hurt Alan. Why does Alan still want him around?
- He starts to leave, but Mae stops him, telling him to walk back through the vision he had when they did the spell to see if he can come up with an address for Black Arthur. He does, and Mae tells everyone to stay put while she races out the door.
- She returns with floor plans of the house where the magicians are staying, which she obtained from the local city planner's office after claiming to be Arthur's niece doing a school project.
- They pore over the blueprints and make a plan for all four of them to go into the house.
- Nick says he'll take Jamie as his partner.