Chapter 14
PETER PAN
Kody’s office is in the back of the diner and seems to exist somewhere outside the confines of the diner’s dimensions.
Walking into it is not dissimilar to walking into the nave of a medieval church.
Curved beams hold up a domed ceiling where one large iron chandelier hangs from the center. Ivory candles burn from the fittings, dripping wax into a gathering well in the stone floor.
Kody sits behind a desk made of black ashwood, the front carved with the constellations of the autumn sky.
A stained glass lamp glows from the corner of his desk where a cone of incense burns from the mouth of a marble dragon bust, perfuming the air with the scent of smoke and musk.
In contrast to the dark, Gothic office, Kody is loud and obvious in his presence with a shock of bright red hair, a bushy red beard, and a plaid wool suit done in the colors of his home village: green and mustard yellow.
A thick gold chain hangs from around his neck where a pendant of a cat dangles at his sternum.
A cigar is caught in his teeth, smoke curling up to the ceiling.
“Peter Pan!” He pushes away from his desk and comes around, forcing his hand into mine, shaking with the vigor of a mountain cat with a rabbit caught in its jaws.
I could crush his bones with very little effort but I hold myself back.
My general feelings on Kody are mixed. He’s always followed through when I’ve needed his specific brand of expertise, but there have been whispers of him occasionally fucking people over if it benefited him in the moment.
I suspect that Kody cannot help himself when he either thinks he’s right or he stands to gain some level of significance from whatever will transpire.
“Kody,” I say.
“It’s been a while.” He pulls the cigar from his mouth and leans back into his desk. “Sit. Sit!” He waggles his fingers like a showman onstage and several more chairs appear in front of his desk.
“We won’t be long,” I say. “I just need some information.”
“Oh yeah? What kind of information?” His gaze strays to Darling before flitting back to me.
“Merry Darling is missing and we were just ambushed at her house by Witch Killers.”
A low whistle escapes him. “Nasty bunch, aren’t they.”
“The nastiest,” Bash says.
“Have you heard anything?” Vane asks.
“Nah. Me? Nah.”
“Kody,” I say.
“What? Peter Pan! Come on!” He spreads out his arms. “I’m telling the truth here! But…” He returns to his domain behind his desk, putting a barrier between us all. As if a desk would stop me. Though if he was a smart man, he’d have a ward line or other magical barrier around it.
I think Kody is a smart man. Most of the time.
“I could help in other ways,” he says and pulls open one of the desk drawers. He tosses something to me and I pluck it from the air.
It’s a stone about the size of a peach pit with a smooth gray surface. There is nothing about it that stands out as remarkable, and that’s because it’s missing the part that makes it magical — a sigil etched by the hand of a gnome in one of their secret stone circles hidden deep in the forest.
In the Seven Isles, there is always a balance. Where one magic exists, another will rise up to counter it. Where darkness prevails, light will shine through the cracks. And this stone is no different. It’s the only counter to the bone shards the Witch Killers use to subvert our magic.
I think the gnomes call it a fire stone, because once the sigil is etched, it reveals some of the red flecking of the stone’s innards.
“Can you get us five by tomorrow?”
Kody whistles again and then catches the cigar between the cut of his teeth. “That’ll cost you, Peter Pan.”
“Will it?” Vane counters, reminding Kody of the debt he is owed.
I could pay any dollar amount for the stones, but Kody rarely deals in money.
I don’t know what bargain Vane made with Kody and I don’t know when he made it, but there is very little that will get Vane out of bed. Which means whatever is owed Vane surely amounts to more than five fire stones.
Kody’s veil slips. The one of affable gnome just looking to run an honest business.
A hard edge comes to his eyes. “You’d be willing to cash in that favor for this?”
“Yes.” Vane crosses his arms over his chest. “That and your continued effort to find any and all information about Merry Darling and the Witch Killers.”
Another puff on the cigar and smoke ribbons in the air. Then, “Fine. A week and a day.” Kody spits in his hand and extends it to Vane.
A week and a day is the timeline for the transaction. Kody will get us the stones and gather as much information as he can within the timeline. A week and a day already seems like too long. I want this resolved in a day.
Vane checks me.
“A week and a day for information,” I amend. “We need those stones as soon as possible.”
“I can get the stones by the next beldam’s hour.”
Which means three a.m. the following night.
“Sooner if you can manage it,” I say.
“I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t make that promise.”
I meet Vane’s eyes and nod.
“Agreed,” Vane says and then spits in his hand, the two men shaking.
“Is the spitting part of it?” Darling asks.
“Oh Darling,” Kody says. “The spitting is the most important part.”
She screws up her mouth. “Then remind me never to make a deal.”
If I have my way of it, she’ll never have a cost, not for a single fucking thing.