Thicker Than Blood by Annie Bellet

clear. Sunset is pretty clear, but there’s stuff about the length of time it takes a candle to burn down, and one spell only works outside, I think. To be safe, I should do the magic as close to the time we’ll need it as possible.”
    “All right.” She sat back, wheels clearly spinning in her mind behind her icy eyes. “Here’s the plan. We’ll drive up behind the prison. Salazar said there is an old logging access road that can get us within a mile. We’ll hike closer, do the spell there, and then head in. Salazar will meet us at the hatch. Once there, the alarms go off, yes?” She looked at Salazar.
    “Yes, alarms, guards, the works. The place is guarded by a few NOS agents, but mostly contracted shifters.” Salazar added that last part looking at me, so I assumed he’d been over that and was saying it for my benefit.
    “Jade heads to her father, we head toward the entrance, hopefully drawing attention with us. After that, we leave, and Jade, you’re on your own.” Kira gave me a look that spoke volumes about her opinion on my chances of success.
    “How do I get into the cell?” I asked Salazar, ignoring Kira.
    “I’ll get you a passkey. It’s a room, technically, not a barred cell. I would tell you the number right now, but I have to look up the exact one in the system. Doing so will flag me, but fortunately bureaucracy being what it is, I won’t be questioned until long after we’ve escaped.”
    “We could try to hack in now and find out,” Cora said. She cracked her knuckles.
    “Internal system. No way to hack from the ouside,” Salazar said.
    “Damn,” Alma said.
    “How are you guys going to get out?” I asked.
    “In a blaze of teeth and glory!” Cora said. They both started giggling again.
    “We’ll worry about that,” Kira said with a quelling look at the twins. “You just do whatever you have to do. The Archivist says your father will get you out.”
    “He will, if Jade can convince him to help her,” Noah said from his post against the wall near the door.
    “Okay, final question,” I said after I’d drained the last of my coffee. “How do we get there? Isn’t South Dakota, like, a day of driving away? Also, covered in winter?”
    “Leave that to me,” Jaq said.
    “We can drive there in less than four hours,” Kira said. She smiled at me, all teeth.
    “How, exactly?” I set my coffee mug down and raised an eyebrow at her.
    “Magic,” she said.

I took another shower and gathered my few things. This was it. All the worrying and planning was more or less over. In a few hours, I’d have answers. At least, I hoped.
    Someone knocked on the door as I was getting dressed. I finished tugging on a clean-ish long-sleeved shirt and called out for whoever it was to come in. It was the Archivist, which surprised me. He hadn’t been the knocking type up until now. Maybe he’d known I hadn’t been fully clothed yet, which sort of defeated the politeness of his knock, since I couldn’t think of an explanation for how he’d know I was half naked that wasn’t more awkward than walking in on me.
    “They ready?” I asked Noah as he entered.
    “Yes,” he said. He closed the door behind him and stood with his hands behind his back, almost like I imagined a formal butler would stand. “There is a box of the things you asked for in the vehicle, along with the book and the scroll. I’d like those back, by the way.”
    “I don’t plan on taking them with me. I’ll leave them in the RV and tell Kira to return them. Good enough?”
    “That will do,” he said. He brought his hands out from behind his back, revealing a sheathed dagger in them. “This is yours.”
    “I meant like a pocket knife or something,” I said, not understanding. My ingredient and spell component list hadn’t had a dagger on it.
    Then I looked more closely at the knife, taking it in my hand. I nearly dropped it when I realized what it was. Samir’s dagger, only somewhat changed.
    “I traded this to