Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Robbie took me straight to the Storyhouse despite Amber’s many objections. We spent the night together there in one of their hidden apartments, and all the while I looked at the dove-like bird with panic.
Sleep, when it came, was nightmare-ridden and gruelling.
In the morning, I washed the night sweats away, dressed hastily, and dashed down to the portal. I walked through the portal and hoped that my bond with Loki would snap reassuringly into place, but it didn’t.
I had to claw around for it, searching for it in the recesses of my soul. It was there but terrifyingly faint. Even as I walked back up the stairs, I poured my newly acquired magic down the bond to my caladrius.
He’d taken the effects of the knockout potion for me, but he was so much smaller that it had hit him way harder. I just had to pray that my magic could jump-start my avian bestie. I prayed, and I poured more magic into him.
We spent another day and night at the portal. I drained all my magic into Loki, recharged myself and tried again. The second time, I felt him almost as soon as I walked back into the Other.
He was tired, but he was there.
I ran up the Storyhouse’s stairs and burst into the safe house we’d been staying in while I had no magic. I searched Loki out and when I saw him soaring around the ceiling, I gave a happy squeal that was not befitting an officer of the Connection.
Loki!
Pigdog, he greeted. Ham? Starving!
A burble of laughter escaped me. He flew into my arms, and I nuzzled him gently. ‘You can have all the ham you want, buddy. You saved me. I owe you big time.’
Tuna? he suggested.
‘Tuna and ham, if you want it.’
Sounds nice.
Finally, the tension slid from my shoulders. I beamed at Robbie.
‘You heard her,’ Robbie said to Maktel. ‘Get the bird some ham and tuna.’
‘Would it kill you to say please?’ I huffed at my fiancé.
‘Yes. I am a king. I must give orders.’
‘I will be uncomfortable if he adds please,’ Maktel weighed in. ‘An ogre king is not polite. He rips the heads off his enemies. He does not say please and thank you. He demands. It is right.’ He dropped his voice and muttered under his breath, ‘Even if he does make me feed your pet.’
‘You guys are so weird.’
‘You love us,’ Hanlon said.
‘I tolerate you,’ I corrected.
He nudged my shoulder. ‘We’ll get there. Before long it’ll be full-on adoration.’
Robbie growled.
‘Respectful, sisterly adoration,’ Hanlon hastily amended.
‘Come on,’ I said. ‘Let’s blow this joint. I want to get home.’
‘There’s no place like it,’ Hanlon said wistfully. And I wondered if he was thinking of the den that would soon become my home too.
When we arrived at my flat, Mrs Abernathy was leaving. She looked fetching in bright turquoise, and she eyed my male escorts with interest.
‘Where do you find them, dear?’ she asked in a hushed whisper that all the ogres definitely heard. ‘Such hunks.’
I leaned in conspiratorially. ‘They’re friends of my fiancé’s. They’re all very nice.’
She patted my hand. ‘I’m glad to hear it.’
‘How’s it going with Mr Jones?’
She waved a hand. ‘I caught him having cake with Barbara Frenton!’
I wondered if that was a double entendre. ‘Cake?’
She shook her head in disapproval. ‘Yes! They were holding hands and everything.’
‘Oh.’ I wasn’t sure what to do with that. ‘I’m sorry?’
‘We can rip his head off,’ Hanlon offered.
She blinked several times. ‘Well, isn’t that a kind offer, but I wouldn’t want you to go to any trouble on my behalf. I heard from Edith that he can’t get it up anyway.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that, Mrs Abernathy. No joy at the ducks, huh?’
‘Oh zero. It was a real disappointment. I know that at our age things don’t always work as they should, but he said all sorts of things that … well, it was false advertising. And holding hands with Barbara was the last straw. You just don’t know where she’s been!’
I stifled a laugh. ‘Understandable.’
Mrs Abernathy lowered her voice, looking at Hanlon. ‘He won’t really rip Gerald’s head off, will he?’
‘Oh no. He was just joking. He has a funny sense of humour. It’s an acquired taste. Like Marmite.’ I smiled too brightly. ‘Anyway, must be off.’
We continued up the stairs to my flat. The ogres swept in, doing a full security check. Only when they were certain the apartment was secure did they leave Robbie, Loki and me alone.
Except we weren’t alone, not truly, because Dad was here too.
‘Dad,’ I called as I shut the door on the ogres’ retreating backs. ‘We’re home.’
He flicked the lights on and off once in acknowledgement, but they flickered on and off a few more times and then he turned the kettle on and off too.
He’d been worried, I realised. We’d been away for days.
‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘We didn’t mean to scare you. I had to recharge at the Storyhouse for a few days.’ And recover from accidental poisoning in hospital, but he didn’t need to know that bit.
I moved to the dining room and sat at the table. Robbie grabbed me a much-needed Dr Pepper and I told my dad the events of the past couple of days as succinctly as I could, and as calmly and dispassionately as I would relay them to Thackeray tomorrow.
When I was done, I took a long sip from my cold can.
I thought of the Domini necklace that had dangled from Dad’s fingers in the crime-scene photo Jingo had given me – the necklace someone had removed after his death, clearing tracks.
And if they’d been clearing tracks, it was because they’d needed to, because those tracks led somewhere they didn’t want found.
I thought of Bolton’s taunts.
Your father can’t save you now.
Someone close to you is Domini.
I thought of Jingo. Of Beeks. Ambrose Beeks with the Domini tattoo on his shoulder, who’d run with Jingo for years. Jingo, who collected power like it was oxygen.
I couldn’t get it out of my head. The necklace, Jingo, Bolton’s words.
How far would my father go to protect me? To avenge me?
My father had been a logical man. If Jingo was Domini and my father had wanted to bring him down, he would have needed help.
He couldn’t use the Connection’s resources.
They wouldn’t have let him arrest or kill a doppelganger.
If he couldn’t go to the Connection, then who else had the power to bring a doppelganger down?
Power. It all came down to power. Those who had it, and those who didn’t.
I closed my eyes, my heart thundering.
I didn’t want to ask the question haunting me, but I had to know. I had to. I took a deep breath and opened my eyes.
It took everything in me to gather my courage and ask the one question I truly did not want the answer to.
I licked my lips. ‘Dad … were you part of the Domini?’
I watched, heart in my mouth, as the planchette began to move.
The small piece of wood slid across the board until it hovered over his answer: Yes.
Fuck.
Well, I know that's a shocker! I had fully intended to wrap up this series with this book, but as I wrote it became entirely too clear that Stacy demanded at least one more adventure.
Who am I to argue? Things are going to come to a head in Reckless Justice, coming out in October 2026.
It's a few months away, so don't forget to pre-order it!