Chapter 26
The whole way up in the stinkovator, she tried to think of ways to warn Lucareoth without her mother noticing. She’d promised to protect him. Assuming he hadn’t left already.
It wasn’t until they were nearly at the apartment that it occurred to her that she could have simply refused.
She felt a flush of shame. Not that it would have helped much—Fiona knew where Lucareoth worked, and there was no way he could avoid going to work.
But it would have been the right thing to do.
When they stepped out of the elevator, she stopped her mother. “What are you planning to do? About Luke, I mean?”
“I’m not going to stake him through the heart, if that’s what you’re worried about,” her mother laughed, and then paused. “No, you’re actually worried about that.”
“He didn’t ask to get stranded here,” Morgan said. “I know what you do to threats. I offered him sanctuary; I’m not going to let you hurt him.”
Fiona raised an eyebrow as they each contemplated the likelihood of Morgan stopping her, if she wanted to hurt Lucareoth. “I said I’d ignore the issue for now, and I’m going to. But what were you planning to do if I didn’t?”
“… Pull the fire alarm?”
“Let’s not scare your neighbors,” Fiona said. “I’ll swear by the moon’s pull on my blood that I will do him no harm this day. Unless he starts it.”
That would have to do. She didn’t like it, but she didn’t have a better idea at the moment. She nodded and then continued down the hall to her door.
“Nobody freak out, OK?” Morgan said as she opened the door, realizing that if the universe was feeling particularly ironic, it would be to an empty apartment.
But no. Gisele looked up from her burrito, visibly alarmed. “You realize that’s probably one of the worst possible ways to come in a door, right?”
Morgan continued to open the door, revealing Luke frozen with the burrito halfway to his mouth.
“I like what you’ve done with the place,” Fiona said, looking around and not focusing straight on Luke.
She’d been to Morgan’s apartment exactly once before, when she and Gisele had first moved in.
Morgan had grudgingly appreciated the wards that dissuaded uninvited guests, but she wasn’t sure whether she was grateful or resentful that Fiona had never shown any interest in returning.
Rix barked happily and trotted over to the table to see if anyone had dropped any chips.
“Ms. Blackwater. How nice to see you again,” Luke said weakly. At least he was in human guise.
“Luke Harrioff,” her mother said, sweeping in and shutting the door behind them both. “Shall we try this again, this time with the real answers?”
Luke looked at Morgan, frantic and betrayed. Murder flapped over and helped himself to a piece of carne asada that had fallen out of Luke’s burrito. After a moment’s thought, the bird plucked a chip from the pile and dropped it to his new accomplice below.
“Murder, stop that, we both know you haven’t washed your beak. Go wash,” Fiona said, shooing the bird off to the sink. “Now, let’s do this the short way—I know most of it. Right, Morgan?”
Morgan looked helplessly at the white stone she still held. “Most of it, yes.”
She set the stone down, defiant far too late. Luke recoiled from them both, his eyes darting to the window. She sighed. “It’s OK. She promised to look the other way for the moment. Didn’t you, Mother?”
Fiona held up her hands. “Truce. Let’s try to get this apocalypse off the table before we deal with immigration irregularities, shall we? But maybe you should hand the rock to your boyfriend.”
“Demons can’t lie, Mother,” Morgan snapped.
“Oh, really?” Fiona looked intrigued.
“Wow,” Gisele said, after swallowing her nopales. “This is bringing ‘awkward lunch with the parents’ to whole new levels, and I should know. Hi, Ms. Blackwater.”
“It’s nice to see you again, Gisele,” her mother said, her eyes still trained on Luke, waiting for him to bolt. Morgan wasn’t sure what her mother would do, in that case. “I keep telling you to call me Fiona.”
“Nope, still feels weird,” Gisele said, and took another bite of her burrito. Morgan noticed that she’d moved to the edge of the chair, ready to try to help if needed.
“I swore to my daughter and I’ll swear to you too: I mean you no harm this day,” Fiona said, laying her hands flat on the table.
Murder turned on the faucet, jumped on the soap pump once, dipped his beak in the puddle of soap, and then fastidiously rinsed off his beak.
He repeated with his feet, for good measure.
Clean, he glided back to the table. Fiona sighed. “Can he have a few of your chips?”
“Looks like he wants to feed them to Rix, and Rix knows he’s not supposed to have human food,” Gisele observed mildly. “Do you have any spare change?”
“A trade?” A smile flashed across Fiona’s face.
She rummaged in a pocket and dropped a few nickels on the floor.
Rix slurped at them happily and only left minor acid burns.
She claimed a few chips and crushed them into crumbs for Murder.
“Now. The way I see it, the most urgent issue is getting Valefar out of New York before we have a war on our hands. Secondary is this ridiculous plan your boss has—when is it all supposed to start happening?”
“The product’s supposed to launch in time for Christmas,” Morgan said.
“We’ve got a little time on that. So the next priority can be getting Luke to safety.”
“And getting Morgan’s soul out of hock,” Gisele reminded her.
Fiona dropped her chip. “You made a Deal?” She turned to Luke accusingly. “You made her make a Deal?”
Morgan glared at Gisele.
“You told her the rest and not that part?” Gisele threw up her hands.
“It wasn’t Luke’s fault. I got trapped on the Infernal Plane and it was the only way back,” Morgan admitted reluctantly, bracing for the lecture.
But Fiona was motionless except for a few hard blinks. She said softly, “You didn’t trust me enough to tell me?”
Morgan looked away from her mother’s quiet devastation. “I’m working on it.”
“Is it,” her mother paused, searching for a question. “Is it timebound?”
Morgan shook her head.
“OK,” her mother said, slowly nodding, trying to absorb the information.
For once in her life, Fiona seemed to be trying to follow her daughter’s lead.
“We just need to make sure you stay alive until we solve some of the rest of this.” Fiona took a shaky breath, and then a steadier one.
“Now. What are our advantages over Valefar?”
Grudgingly, Luke raised his hand.
“Good point,” Fiona said, sounding a little more confident. “We need to take advantage of the fact you’re here, and you’re basically invisible while you’re not actively casting.”
“Can you guarantee my safety? Some kind of immunity for cooperation?” Luke shot back. Morgan wanted that for him. Even if it meant he didn’t need her after.
“There’s no precedent for interplanar amnesty, but we have rules for protecting political refugees from this plane. I can’t make any guarantees, but I can try,” Fiona said honestly. She tapped her teeth thoughtfully. “So… what are your intentions toward my daughter?”
“Don’t answer that,” Morgan shot Luke a glance.
She did want the answer, but not under these circumstances.
She turned back to her mother. “Stop trying to use his nature against him. That’s between him and me.
Also, if you try to pull out the pictures from the Penguin Incident, I’m kicking you out. ”
“But the one with the fish was so cute,” Fiona protested. “Gisele, tell him she was cute.”
Gisele opened her mouth, but Morgan held up her hand. “Only if you reimburse her for a hundred bucks’ worth of squid sashimi.”
“I thought you didn’t like squid.”
“I hated squid. Now I hate squid even more. We’re here to try to stop a demon war that might end the world, not discuss my love life or feelings on seafood. How do we help the Shadow Council stop Valefar?”
“The way I see it,” Luke said slowly as he thought it out, “if Valefar is really making GreenField mirror Zabloom, then if we keep Brad from making his latest pivot announcement until the conference is in full swing, GreenField will need to move fast.”
“Fast enough that they have to summon their own demon to keep up?” Fiona said, looking mildly impressed.
“And that’s the evidence you need, right? So your Council can do something about them,” Luke said.
“Only works if they cast on the show floor, though,” Fiona said. “Maybe in the office. But if your guy goes home to make his calls, I’m going to have a lot more trouble getting the Council to move.”
She was sitting in her own apartment, watching her mother and her boyfriend conspire to fix her problem, and she didn’t enjoy feeling like she’d been sidelined.
Again. Like every other time her mother had had anything to do with Morgan’s life.
She tried to think of something she could contribute.
“What if I asked Stavrula to ask them for a comment on the floor?”
“So they have to revise their product strategy?” Luke looked thoughtful.
“The only way we’re handling the shift from B2B software to B2C consumer electronics is with magic and giving Carter an ulcer,” she pointed out. “We have to put enough time pressure on them that Hawk feels like he has to duck into a booth conference room or something to get immediate results.”
“Could work,” her mother said thoughtfully. “I’ll be able to get at least some of the Council fixers on the floor as backup.”
“The show tickets are more than a thousand bucks a head,” Morgan pointed out dryly.
Fiona smiled. “Oh, your old mother has her ways.”
“I’ll come, too,” Gisele said. “You need your own backup.”
“Absolutely not,” Morgan declared. “For one thing, show tickets are more than a thousand bucks a head. I just said. But also, what are you going to do against two demon Houses?”
“Know what the hell’s going on, unlike almost everyone else,” Gisele countered. “And be unexpected.”
“Actually, that’s not the worst idea,” Fiona said. “As much as I hate it, sometimes it’s the random civilian friend who’s made the critical difference for me.”
“Mother,” Morgan said tightly. “Please understand that I’m not saying this to be hurtful, but nearly all your civilian friends have ended up dead.”
Fiona looked sad. “It’s unfortunately true.
But—when they’ve died, it’s almost always been at two different points.
Either it’s been early in the case when the perpetrator was trying to get to me, and we’re well past that point.
Or it’s been at the height of the fight, when they tried to be a hero.
When they’ve stuck to their wheelhouse, they’ve been OK. ”
“And what is Gisele’s wheelhouse here?” Morgan said, incredulous.
“Graphic design,” Luke said. He didn’t look happy to be agreeing with Fiona, but it wasn’t stopping him.
“Look, you know Brad’s going to change his presentation five times on the day of.
He can’t commit to plane tickets or a business model, he’s not going to commit to a PowerPoint.
We bring Gisele in as an on-site graphic designer.
We can have her use one of the Zabloom tickets.
We’ve got a premium booth, it came with a bunch of floor passes. ”
“And then I can change his presentation to sabotage the soul market scheme!” Gisele said excitedly. “Somehow. Umm. We’ll have to workshop that part a bit more.”
“I hate this,” Morgan said to her mother. “This is a terrible idea, and if anything awful happens to Gisele, I absolutely will never forgive you.”
“I’ll never forgive myself,” Fiona promised.
“You’ve never forgiven yourself for at least half a dozen deaths that I know of, and that does not help them at all,” Morgan shot back.
“Hey,” Gisele put her hand on Morgan’s wrist. “I don’t wanna die. I don’t plan to die. But I also don’t want you to go to Hell, or Luke to go back to Hell, and I really don’t want to end up fractionally in Hell because I hit Accept on a mobile tappy game four years from now. Let me help.”
Morgan’s eyes stung. Partially because Gisele was a better friend than she deserved, but mostly because she was once again on the sidelines and helpless in her own life.
Like every other time her mother had gotten involved.
This wouldn’t be happening if she had magic, she was sure. But she didn’t have a better idea.
Murder tilted his head, examining her. He picked up a chip and hopped over to her, shoving the little plastic cup of guacamole as he went.
She sighed and ate her chip.