Today I woke up to find that some of Shan's vines had wrapped around me as we slept.

Little tendrils wound around my index finger,

thicker vines looped around my back,

feathery little leaves tickled my neck.

That probably sounds horrifying, but it's not.

They're just other parts of Shan's body, like their

eyes or hair or legs. But it did take me longer than usual to get out of bed, although, hey,

wasn't all bad. By the time I got untangled and dressed and over to where I left my phone,

I had 17 missed calls and texts for Miranda.

I didn't need to check any of the messages to know what that meant.

They had another lead, yet another clue about yet another splinter leader.

And that probably meant yet another attempted mosaic, more damaged or dead tiles.

Shit. And my day started off so good.

This is Spines. I'm. I'm.

I'm

. Whenry started chattering as soon as Shannon I got down into her little computer layer.

That was a lucky break, finding Dana Johansson's house, she said.

It took me a minute to remember that that was the name of the woman who owned the house

where we'd found the ritual remains on the last mission.

Winry pointed to a bunch of driver's license photos pulled up on her screens.

We found calls and emails between her and all these people.

All people with the resources to be the one who replaced Elliot. There were five faces, three

...