“Everything is as she left it.” Odette nodded in understanding. “Only nature has changed things since she passed.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, voice hoarse. “That.”
“I will honor her memory.” She kissed both my cheeks. “I promise.”
I savored her mothering while I had the chance. “Are you sure you don’t need anything before I go?”
“Amelie and I can entertain ourselves.” She reached for Amelie and took her hand. “Can’t we?”
A peculiar expression flickered across Amelie’s face, a close relative to panic, but she schooled her features before I could be positive. “Sure. Yeah.”
I collected my bag from Amelie, stepping on the porch as Odette led her into the house. I watched them walk arm in arm toward the kitchen, wondering what Odette had up her sleeve and wishing I could linger and be part of whatever treat she planned on concocting. I was trying to banish the annoying sensation I was forgetting something important when an impact to my spine slammed me against the rail.
“You didn’t say goodbye.” Oscar cinched his arms around my neck until I couldn’t breathe. “I was hiding, but you didn’t come find me.”
Ah, that would be the thing I was forgetting.
“Sorry.” I pried him away from my throat and sucked in oxygen. “I searched for you through Woolly earlier, but I couldn’t sense you. I thought you must not be home.”
One day I ought to ask if he made a conscious decision to go wherever ghost boys went or if he simply dissipated when his reserves petered out, but I wasn’t sure he knew, and I didn’t want to upset the kid.
“I was in the basement,” he announced proudly. “It’s the best place to hide ever.”
Safe behind Maud’s wards, wards he shouldn’t be able to cross to a basement he shouldn’t be in.
“I bet.” I glared up at the porch light, but Woolly pretended not to notice. “We’re having a chat when I get back.”
Woolly flickered the bulb in a so what gesture that had me second-guessing—or was that tenth- or eleventh-guessing?—the wiseness of this trip. I couldn’t afford for my house to start sassing me now.
“The Odette lady has a bright glow,” he told me. “Is she nice?”
“She’s the best.” I collected my suitcase, ready to try again. “Remind her you’re a secret, okay?”
Odette was known for talking to herself, or at least to things outside our perception, so Amelie wouldn’t think too much of it if she got caught chatting with Oscar, but there was no sense in taking unnecessary risks. With Boaz only a phone call away, I wanted all mentions of the little terror far from her thoughts when her brother called.
There was no reason to believe the Elite, let alone Boaz, would have a problem with me keeping the kid, but they had wanted to use him as dybbuk bait, so I wasn’t keen on that crowd learning of his continued existence.
Better to ask forgiveness than permission, or something along those lines.
“I’m tired of being a secret,” he pouted. “You said I’m family.”
“Yes, you are.” I patted his cheek. “But you’re also family that not everyone can see or understand. It won’t always be like this. Amelie will move out in a few months, and you’ll have run of the house. After that, I can bring over friends who can see you for you to play with. How does that sound?”
He sank like a lead weight had been attached to his ankle. “Like Mr. Linus?”
“Yes, Linus is one of them. He’s a good man, Oscar. I promise he won’t hurt you. He’s the reason why you got to leave the Cora Ann. He wouldn’t have—” found his remains then returned them to his family, “—relocated you if he didn’t want you to have a better life. Afterlife. Whatever. That doesn’t make sense, does it?”
“I guess not.” He sighed in the way only small children can, as if all the oxygen in their bodies has been expelled, leaving only a boneless sack of meat behind. “I’ll be nicer since you like him.”
“I do like him.” I collected my bag. “You will too once you get to know him.”
Movement drew my gaze to the front yard and the man standing there, who had probably overheard our whole conversation.
“It’s time for me to go.” I waggled a finger at him until he laughed. “Be good for Woolly. She’ll tell me if you misbehave.”
“I’ll be good.” He squeezed me so hard I decided he must have been a boa constrictor in his previous life. “Promise.”
After disentangling from Oscar, I leaned against the wall and rested my forehead on the siding. “I’ll be home soon. Call me if you get lonely or scared, and I’ll come straight back. Okay?”
The porch light flared with sudden warmth as good as a hug, and when I straightened, I noticed the curtains in all the windows shooing me toward Linus.
I took the hint and met him in the grass, cringing at his sleek Tumi carry-on in black. Mine was also Tumi, an older model, but still serviceable, despite its custom purple shell being spackled over with Lisa Frank stickers that shouted tween me’s eye-gouging taste for all to see.
“Now I know how Maud felt when she left me behind with a sitter.” I toyed with the telescoping handle. “I never thought of myself as particularly maternal but…”
“They’ll be fine,” a voice promised from the darkness.
“Taz?” I jogged toward her as she stepped from the shadows, only the twinge in my jaw reminding me why it was never smart to rush Taslima. “Hey.” I stopped six feet away. “It’s good to see you.”
“I owe you an apology.” Head bowed, she planted her feet at parade rest and pinned her arms behind her back. “I assured Boaz I could handle this assignment, but I failed you.” Unable to glimpse the fire in her eyes, I didn’t recognize her. “I have trouble separating the past from the present sometimes. It’s why I had to leave the army and go sentinel. Only my own kind understands the switch that gets flipped in my head.”
Slowly, I approached her. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No.” She shook her head once. “It’s not you, it’s me.”
“You hang out with Boaz too much if you’re spouting his favorite lines.”
The laugh I expected never came, and she raised her chin to look at me. Measure me, more like it.
“My baby brother was all mouth and not willing to bow to his betters.” Lingering fondness curved her lips in a bitter smile. “He sassed the wrong boy and was killed by a High Society punk when he was eleven. That boy used magic to trap him one day on his way home from school so he couldn’t run away, and then the punk beat Rajib to death. I almost returned the favor. I would have if my father hadn’t peeled me off him.”
A sour taste clogged my throat. “I had no idea.”
“It was a long time ago.” She peered up at me. “I like you, Grier. You’re different. You’re like us, not like them.” She cut her eyes to Linus. “But I can’t spar in your gardens, in front of your talking house, with the Grande Dame’s son playing referee, and pretend you’re one of us when you’re not.” A thread of anger wove through her voice. “You’re the farthest thing from it.”
“Why would Boaz do this?” Pairing us up to fail. “He had to know how hard this would be for you.”
“See?” She laughed, a crazed sound. “You don’t think the way they do. You care about others.” She tugged on her earlobe. “Boaz thought that goodness might fix me, that you might—I don’t know—heal me.”
Never in a million years had I expected her to say that. As often as I had to peel him off the ceiling when I did something he disagreed with, I had no idea he thought I was capable of more than getting in trouble.
“I’m going to take some basic self-defense classes for a while,” I found myself telling her, “but I’d like to train with you again when I’m ready. You’re amazing, and I want to learn to move the way you do.” To flow like water and kick like a freaking mule. “We can rent space in a dojo if meeting here is too hard.”
“I’ll think on it.” Her posture relaxed, and
she squinted up at me. “What about Boaz?”
I packed as much defiance into my smile as it would hold. “What about him?”
Cackling, she bared her teeth in a sharp smile. “You’ll do, Grier. You’ll do.” She saluted me as she faded back into the shadows. “Call me when you’re ready. We’ll see what you’ve learned.”
Feeling smug over my minor rebellion, I strolled to Linus, who shook his head at me. “What?”
“I still don’t understand.” He jerked his chin toward Taz and started walking down the driveway.
“She doesn’t go easy on me because of who I am.” There was more, but it was hard to put into words. “She’s angry.” Until tonight, I hadn’t understood that anger was the well she was drawing her water from, but looking back, I should have guessed. “So am I.” Lost family, lost time, lost hope. “We might be good for each other.”
“Perhaps,” he allowed without pushing. “Would you like to meet your new instructor while we’re in Atlanta?”
Dread started creeping up on me in anticipation of the crimson Lincoln that ferried Linus around town, the model identical to the one Volkov had favored. “He’s not local?”
“Most of my contacts are in my city.”
Until that moment, I couldn’t have told you if Linus had ever referred to Atlanta as his, but I heard the possessive edge, the anticipation, like being parted from it was a physical ache. Proving once again I was a crap friend, I had never asked if he was magically bound to his city. Was his anticipation homesickness or a magically fueled compulsion?
He wasn’t meant to stay in Savannah forever. Only long enough to help me get my feet under me.
The sudden tick-tock of a countdown rang in my ears, and I shook my head to clear the noise.
“You’ll like Mathew.” After frowning at his watch, he scanned the road. “He offers basic self-defense classes at Strophalos twice a year, that’s how we met, but he travels all over the state.”
The suspicious part of me perked its ears at a resume befitting a spy for the potentate. But, to be fair, that’s exactly what Taz had been. The only difference being she reported to Boaz. Using that logic, I couldn’t strike Mathew from the list of potential replacements without meeting him first.
“You took classes from him?” Lessons would be a perfect cover to disguise any covert meetings.
“No.” He fiddled with the zipper on his bag. “But we spar on occasion.”
Linus sparring.
Linus.
Sparring.
While I understood he had hunted the dybbuk, which meant he must work in the field in Atlanta, I had trouble picturing him in the role. Even with Cletus for backup, I had difficulty wrapping my mind around him being the defender of a city. Atlanta’s own Bruce Wayne/Batman. Unreal. Picturing him in a mayoral role came easy, but down in the streets? Fighting? His elegant hands used as weapons?
No, that I couldn’t imagine.
“How are you going to entice him down to Savannah?” That must be his plan. “How long will he stay?”
“His home base is in Atlanta, but he doesn’t live there. He couch-surfs or stays in hotels. He hoards his money like a dragon.” He reached for his suitcase. “Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him pay for anything.”
I wanted one thing clear upfront. “He’s not a dragon, though, right?”
“No.” Linus shook his head, amused. “He’s not a dragon. Those all live on the West Coast.”
The taste of dirt filled my mouth, which probably had something to do with my chin scraping the grass. “Dragons are real?”
“Most everything is real if you know where to look.” He grasped my wrist, turned it over, then traced the crease bisecting my palm. “We hold the balance of life and death in our hands. We can make, unmake, and remake humanity, and you can do so much more.” His thumb pressed over my pulse point. “Your blood is proof that all things are possible.”
The cold of his touch spiked chills up my arm. “I spent too much time with one foot in the human world. There’s so much I don’t know, so much Maud kept from me.”
Muted pop music blared at the same time an engine revved, the noise unheard of in this neighborhood of the quietly wealthy. A horn honked at the gate leading onto my property, and I gawked at the nerve. But Linus was on the move, so I followed him.
This couldn’t be our ride. The driver must be lost, and Linus wanted to hurry him on his way.
Beyond the glare of the headlights, I spotted a familiar white van coated in dust with profanity written across the hood and windows.
A young man with greasy hair popped his head out the driver’s side window and waved to us with a folded slice of pizza. “You guys call for a lift?”
I choked on a laugh. “Are you serious?”
“Do you approve?” Linus glanced over his shoulder, making certain I understood he was serious. “I thought you might—”
Catching up to him, I looped an arm through his. “This is perfect.” I chuckled again. “I can’t believe you’re going to let people in Atlanta see you arrive in this. What will your friends think?”
“They won’t be paying attention to him.” The stiffness that always seized him when experiencing unexpected physical contact began to melt, and he softened against me. “They’ll be looking at you.”
Shoulders hiking up to my ears, I wished he had kept that to himself. “I hope not.”
“You’ll be arriving with me,” he said, an odd smile flirting with his lips. “People will be curious.”
“Well, in that case, I’m happy to play the role of Nameless Arm Candy.”
The slight curving of his mouth blossomed, and I grinned at having made him smile.
“I invited Neely to meet us there,” I confessed while he was in a good mood. “I hope that’s okay.”
Quiet for a few steps, he lowered his voice. “Are you uncomfortable being alone with me?”
“No, nothing like that.” I tugged on his arm until he turned his head toward me. “He was looking for an excuse to visit Cruz in the city, so I gave him one.” Unsure why it embarrassed me to admit it, I glanced down at my least holey T-shirt and the jeans with ripped knees. “We’re also going shopping.” A flush warmed my nape. “I want to look not like a street person at Strophalos.”
The frown Linus bestowed on me while sweeping me from head to toe with his dark-water gaze made me want to plant another kiss on his cheek. His honest confusion that I needed help in the wardrobe department buoyed my spirits. Boaz didn’t care what I wore, minus his conviction that less was more. Volkov had been all about playing dress-up with me, which put me off the role of Society darling like nothing else. But Linus didn’t seem to mind the style I had adapted, a mix of thrift store finds and pieces from my teenage years scrounged from my closet, and that won major points with me.
Sadly, Linus was not a High Society dame or even a Low Society matron, and anyone we met in his town would hold me to the standards of my station.
Savannah might be used to me schlepping it, but Atlanta was all glass, steel, and glitter.
“We meet Reardon tomorrow at dusk.” Linus opened the gate and held it for me. “You’ll have to shop tonight if new clothes are on your agenda.” Brackets framed his mouth as he made his own addition to our schedule. “I have a meeting. One I can’t postpone.”
Our driver watched us over the end of his pizza slice as we loaded our luggage. I shot him a look he answered by taking a healthy swig from a twenty-ounce bottle of soda.
Linus had spoiled him. He wasn’t budging without the promise of another fifty-dollar bill.
The cargo area was crammed with speakers, which meant our bags got stacked on the front passenger seat, leaving us to share the middle bench.
“It’s no problem.” As much as I hated shopping, I would never subject another person to it unless I already knew their preference. After snapping my seat belt in place, I woke my phone. “I’ll shoot Neely a text and see if tonight works
for him.” While I was at it, I took a covert shot of Linus and sent it to Marit as promised. “I’ll need to snag him before he meets up with Cruz. Their reunions last for hours.”
And Neely was useless afterward, all soft-eyed and boneless, smiling goofily and texting his husband when he thought I wouldn’t notice. Goddess only knew how I would end up dressed if I left it up to him in that condition. Probably lingerie. With accessories that required batteries to operate.
Ten
I jolted awake, chased from a blessedly dreamless sleep by the hand shaking me.
“We’re here.” Linus’s cool breath hit my cheek. “We’re also in a no-parking zone in front of my building.”
The numbness pervading the left side of my body clued me in to the fact I had fallen asleep on his shoulder.
“Parking here is a nightmare.” Our driver grinned at Linus in the rearview mirror. “Besides, you can afford the ticket.”
“You’ve created a monster,” I whispered, yawning as I sat upright and took in our surroundings.
“I think you’re right.” Linus passed him a fifty-dollar bill and a printout with a hotel logo in the top left corner. “Your reservation has been made, and your room paid for. You’re responsible for any room service you order, movies you rent, or other fees you incur during your stay.”
“Yeah, yeah. I got you, man.”
“Keep your phone on you at all times. You are only to accept fares from myself or Grier. Do you understand? No freelance work while you’re in the city.”
“I told you I got you. Sheesh.” His scowl tightened. “You need to take a chill pill, man.”
“Come on, man.” I shoved Linus out of the van, and we collected our luggage. “He’s got this, man.”
Linus sighed as he took my elbow and led me to the entrance. “I can’t tell if you’re mocking him or me.”
“Both?” I hopped onto the sidewalk, purple suitcase trailing at the maximum distance the handle allowed, like maybe I wouldn’t have to acknowledge it if it arrived after me. “Two-for-one special?”
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