Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
The wizard was sipping tea. “It was the star tattoo, right?” Cardamom asked.
We had gathered at the long wooden table in the control room.
Cardamom looked relaxed and tan, his sandy hair sun-streaked, as if he’d spent the entire summer out in the orchards. Since he was half-dryad, I could only assume he had.
“Ricky told us,” Lula said.
“I hoped you’d call her.”
“Why didn’t you just tell us who you were?” I asked.
“Because I wasn’t a hundred percent sure you were here. If I’d gotten the place wrong, I didn’t want it leading back to Ricky.”
“How did you find it?” Elmer asked. “Because if we have a leak, I’m gonna need to plug that hole.”
That wouldn’t sound as threatening if he didn’t have his rifle in pieces on the table and was slowly notching it back together after he’d thoroughly cleaned it.
“Euterpe told me. She said you’d be here.”
“Did she show up in a dream?” I asked, remembering my own first encounter with the Muse.
“No, she pulled up at Ricky’s about a week ago and asked to have a chat. The house was so excited a Muse was visiting, it conjured up all the fancy china and furniture and put out the best tea and cookies it could get its magical hands on.”
“A week ago,” Lula said. “She must think we’re predictable.”
Cardamom shrugged. “She gave me seven different possibilities. This was number two.”
“You want to tell us the others?” I asked.
“I can. But now we’re here, all the other possible futures have been altered.”
“Free will,” Lu said.
“That’s it,” he agreed.
“Did she tell you why you were supposed to be here?” Pamela asked.
“Little bit of free will in that too,” he said. “So, no. Just that I might want to lend my services. I do know Lula and Brogan have the spell book of the gods.”
“That’s right,” Lula said. “What does that have to do with you?”
“I can only guess it’s because I’m a wizard. I have extensive training with magical tomes and ancient spells.”
“You rank high in the guild?” Elmer asked.
Cardamom’s eyes seemed to darken, but his voice was still steady, friendly. “High enough.”
That made Elmer grunt.
I could tell Cardamom was underplaying his ability. I wondered if it was out of habit, or if he had a reason to hide.
“You can’t touch it,” I said. “The book. No one can.”
“How did you transport it?”
“Witch’s box,” Lula said.
“Someone picked it up, put it in the box?”
Lu nodded.
“Look.” He leaned back, easy like there was nothing on the line with this decision. “I’m good at this stuff. You’re Ricky’s best friends. If you’re going to be dumb enough to try and use god magic, the least I can do is try to help you stay alive, point out possible traps, help decipher language.
“You can say no,” he said amiably, “and I’ll get out of your hair. But if you want my knowledge and skill, I’m here for you.”
“They teach you how to wield god power in this wizard school you graduated from?” Pamela asked.
“No. But they teach us how to wield power. Any power.”
There was something about how he said it that sent warning chills down my spine.
“You haven’t asked us what we want to use the book for,” Lula said.
“It’s not like I’m not curious, and knowing what kind of spells you want to use would help me guide you. But Ricky loves you. That means I’ve got your back, because I know you have hers.”
“I think you should say yes,” Abbi said. She was on the floor pulling a string with a knotted end for Hado to chase.
“Let’s just get to the point,” Josie said. “What’s the downside of having a wizard help with the magic?”
I rubbed my face. “Death, I suppose. Messing with the book could kill us, but there’s an even higher chance it would kill you, Card. Then what would Ricky think?”
“She’d think I was a dumbass for not setting up protections.” He gestured with his teacup, the tattoos on the backs of his hands glowing. “I, my friends, am not a dumbass.”
“Maybe the lizard can help,” Abbi said. “I liked the lizard.”
“Lizard?” Cardamom asked.
Elmer cleared his throat. “Never mind that. Are you two going to do this or not?”
I didn’t have to look at Lu to know what her answer would be.
This was big—trying to use god powers, god spells, trying to understand the book to find the lost gods’ spells. Lu and I weren’t trained for it.
We knew magic. We’d been around it all our lives.
But we were not wizards.
Was it a stroke of luck Cardamom had come back into Ricky’s life just when we needed a wizard?
Yes.
Was I suspicious about that coincidence?
Also, yes.
But we were at the point of no return. We’d made our deals with gods, with monsters, with seers and demons.
If we wanted justice—to kill the monster who had destroyed our lives—if we wanted to make sure neither Ate nor any other god could ever get their hands on the book again, then there were risks we had to take.
Cardamom was a risk I was willing to take.
“Let’s get you in the same room as the book,” I said. “Find out if it knocks you out or not.”
“Fun,” he said. “When do we start?”
Lula stood. “Now.”
“Later,” I said. “I don’t remember when we last slept. I say we eat, get some rest, and hit it early in the morning.”
We had ourselves a little glare off, my wife and I. Then she cut her gaze to the side. “How much time do you think we have before someone or something else finds this bolt hole?”
“I’d wager six hours, minimum,” I said. “Enough time for food, and a couple hours sleep.”
“Food will be ready in a bit,” Pamela said. “I put on a roast and sides. There’s cornbread in the oven. Eunice sent some extra food too.”
“Sounds delicious.” Cardamom stood and pushed his chair flush with the table. “Need any help? I’m handy in the kitchen.”
Pamela sized him up from head to foot. “I think you’re exactly the kitchen help I’ve been looking for. This way, Wizard.”
He chuckled. “Just Card works.”
“Oh, I’ll make sure you work, Just Card.”
They pushed through the swinging door into the kitchen, leaving me, Lula, Abbi, and Elmer in the room.
“I’m gonna take a walk,” Elmer said. “Make sure the trips and guards are solid. Tell the girls to save me some of that grub.”
He picked up his rifle and cleaning kit then walked out of the room.
“I think Cardamom is going to be a big help.” Abbi came over and took Lula’s hand. “Even the lizard thinks so.”
“You’re talking to the lizard?” Lu asked.
Abbi shrugged one shoulder, her head tipped. “It kind of talks to me? It likes Card’s magic. But…”
“But?” I asked when she didn’t go on.
“It says lots and lots and lots of bad people are looking for him.”
“Terrific,” I said. “He’s on the run too.”
“That’s okay,” Abbi said. “We can run really fast.”
A pot clattered in the kitchen and laughter rolled out. This wasn’t my home. Hell, I hadn’t had a home for as long as I could remember. Well, not a physical building.
Lula was my home. Had always been. So long as she was in my life, I was home. I belonged.
But it was nice to be here, in a place that offered shelter, maybe long enough we could take a breath.
I jerked my thumb toward the kitchen and the laughter. “Want to get in on that?” I asked Lula.
She stared at the door. I knew she missed baking and always spent time in Ricky’s kitchen when she got the chance.
“No.” She looked back at me, her gaze sharp. “I think that will keep them busy long enough you and I can see if the safe room is robust enough.”
“After that we sleep?”
“Eat, then sleep. Yes.” She stood. “Do you want to come, Abbi?”
Abbi looked over her shoulder, her nose wrinkled. Lorde was snoring on a pile of blankets Josie had set out for her. Hado was sneaking up to her, either to pounce attack, or snuggle in for a snooze.
Abbi nodded. “Hado can stay here.”
Hado’s little kitten ear twitched, the only indication he’d heard her.
I pushed up to my feet and stretched. I was bruised and sore, but still breathing, and that’s what counted.
“That way, right?” I took a step, and my thigh cramped. I hissed and took the weight off of it, limping toward the hall.
“How bad?” Lu was beside me, moving with the kind of silence and speed only a half-vampire could. “You’re limping.”
“Just a cramp.”
She walked alongside me, frowning.
“I’d tell you if it was worse.”
She exhaled, wanting to say something, then changed her mind.
“Years ago, after Mithra tried to kill us,” she said. “We promised each other we’d never deal with gods again.”
“I remember.”
“And now…”
“…and now we’re up to our armpits in gods,” I said. “I know. I don’t see a way out of it. The only way forward is to get the book to Ordinary and hope they don’t wipe us off the face of the Earth on the way.”
“Headwaters dies first,” she said.
“Agreed. Which means we can’t run. Not yet.”
“This one,” Abbi said, stopping outside a nondescript door.
“The minute we get the chance,” I said, “we tell every damn one of the gods to pound sand.”
She flashed me a quick smile then blew out a breath, her stance settling into the wary preparedness of impending battle.
The safe room door could only be unlocked with the key Pamela had given Lu, and only if Lu used it. Lu had hooked the key onto a chain with the winged key to the spell book. A separate chain suspended the pocket watch that could stop time.
Lu bent and inserted the key into the keyhole. The door flushed with blue-white light, sigils catching fire and spreading to kindle more magical guards and symbols along the walls.
She pushed open the door.
I took a deep breath and forced myself to step into the room.
Stone floor and concrete walls, the space was big enough to walk around in and also to hold a cot and small side table set up along one wall. There were no windows.
The room was absolutely soaked in magic, smelling of pine, of all things, beneath a metallic tang of copper.
Electric lights from above burned yellow, and a fan set high in the ceiling cut the light into slow wedges that rotated around the room.
The floor was carved, painted, chalked, and salted with more magical sigils, containments, and spells than you could shake a witch at.
Right there in the middle of the spells, in the middle of the floor, covered by the black shadow cloth, was the witch’s box containing the book.
“I’ll shut the door.” Abbi darted back to make sure it closed.
The click was absolutely claustrophobic.
I rolled my shoulders and stuck my hand in my back pocket to keep from grabbing Lula and getting us both the hell out of here. “All right. How are we going to approach this?”
“Lula should touch it,” Abbi said. “I mean, then we’ll know if the room magic can hold the book magic in.”
“How?” The enormity of the task ahead of us seemed impossible. I felt lost already. “How will we know if the gods can tell that we’re touching it or using it?”
Abbi tipped her round face up, her nose wrinkled, her eyes sparkling with mischief. “I can see them, Brogan.” She made her eyes go wide. “I have big ears too.”
She leaned into my arm, then skipped to the far side of the room. “I’m looking. I promise. If I see a god, I can tell you and you can shove the book back in the witch’s box. Easy!”
“Easy,” I muttered.
“No instructions,” Lula said. “We could wait for Cardamom, but we just need to see if the wards are strong enough to contain the magic.”
“Can’t test the wards with the book in the box,” I said. “Unless…we could do this tomorrow.”
“And spend the night worrying about it?” She wasn’t calling me a coward, but yeah, she was calling me a coward.
“Hell.” I moved toward the box.
Lu stopped with the toes of her boots outside the painted line that created a circle around the box. I stopped beside her.
“Think we need permission to step in the circle?” I asked.
“Abbi?” Lu asked.
“Elmer didn’t ask for permission when I put the box there,” she said. “He said we could cross in and out. But the book couldn’t.”
I mopped my hand over my face. I was sweating, even though the room was several degrees colder than the rest of the hideout. “On three?”
“Three.” Lula stepped forward.
I stepped after her.
No explosions, no light show, no affect at all.
“Abbi?” I asked.
“Nothing. No gods.”
Lula pulled the chain over her head and took the few steps to the box. “Do you want to pick up the box?”
“Yeah.” If she was the only one who could touch the book, I should be the one who held the box.
I bent and removed the cloth.
The box was the size of a small cooler and looked like a wooden crate that might hold tools. The wood was unfinished, chipped on the edges, and all-in-all looked like it would fit right in at a thrift shop.
But the inside of the box was woven with the McClellan witches’ power and magic—moonlight and forest, water and glade, all grown into the very fiber of the wood.
It was powerful enough to hide the book from gods, even when those gods were right next to it.
I picked it up.
It wasn’t heavy. It wasn’t odd. It was just a wooden box.
But I knew what was inside of it. Our future, our deaths.
Our freedom if we didn’t screw this up.
“I’m gonna lift the lid,” I said. “Abbi, keep those ears open.”
She made a small humming noise.
I met Lula’s gaze. She winked, and I huffed. “I’m just being cautious.”
“You’re always cautious,” she said. “There’s no way out of this but through. Open it.”
A part of me—yeah, all of me—didn’t want to do it. I wanted to put the box down and leave the book hidden away in this room forever.
To hell with Headwaters, gods, and all.
But Lula had lived a hundred years alone. I had lived a hundred years unable to touch her, to talk to her.
Because of Ate’s monster, Headwaters.
Even though my gut said run, hide, do anything to keep Lula far away from gods and their magic, I didn’t step outside the circle. I stayed right there beside her.
“Then let’s go,” I said.
I opened the lid.
Lu sucked a quick breath, her pupils dilating like a predator spotting prey. The book was still wrapped in the kerchief Lula had wrapped it in back in Texas. Even so, it thrummed with an odd whispering musical chorus of magic.
“I’m going to pick it up and unlock it. Abbi?”
“Still quiet,” she said.
“You hear the magic?” I asked her.
“No,” Abbi said. “But it’s quiet out there.”
Lu pulled the book free and unwrapped it, dropping the handkerchief back into the box.
I expected…something. But the book was just a soft, tawny leather-bound book, slimmer than one would expect a gods’ spell book would be, worked with gold threads and bits of stone and metal.
The carved bone lock was a bird in full dive, the loop of leather clutched in its talons.
Lu shifted her grip on the key, shaped like a wing, and inserted it into the lock.
She turned the key, and I heard the tick of tumblers sliding.
And then…
…and then the world filled with the scent of flowers. Sunlight burned the room to dust.
In the distance, a universe away, I heard Abbi whisper, “Oh no.”