The Sorceress Screams (7 page)

“Instead of what?”
I asked. His
continued silence seemed like an accusation. “The band was so loud that we
barely said ten things to each other. What was I supposed to do? Shout the
question where the vanilla humans could hear me? And then he dropped me off
here right after we left the restaurant. The only way I could have brought the
subject up would have been to go home with him. I’m sorry, Marino, but I’m not
willing to whore myself out for information.”

Another
lengthy silence met my tirade. I took a deep breath. It did little for my rapid
heartbeat. I hadn’t realized quite how worked up I’d been until then. He always
knew just what button to push to incense me.

His next
question was spoken in his professional tone. “Are you going to try again?”

He’d regained
control quickly for a Water witch. Hades, that was good for
anyone
. Nonetheless, I couldn’t help but
sigh. “He still has something of mine. This time he’s making me go to his
Independence Day barbecue. I’ll try then.”

“He isn’t
going to admit he did it with the entirety of
Wipuk
gathered around his lawn, Ms. Walsh.”

The event was
that
large? If it really were that big,
then Desmond was probably correct. Did that mean Maximo wouldn’t give me back
my ring either? Clearly the vampire was screwing with me.

“Then what do
you suggest, Marino?”

“You visited
my office to learn my secrets through my furniture.” His bitterness was barely
checked as he reminded me of how I’d used
psychometry
to read his office chair’s history. “Perhaps de Sole’s secrets are as easy to
find.”

Hmm
.
The idea had merit. But there was
at least one problem with the suggestion. “Does he have a business?”

“No.”

Yeah, that
would be the problem.

My eyes
narrowed at nothing in particular beyond the shop’s bank of windows. “So I’m
supposed to show up at his house unannounced and miraculously find the item of
furniture he used when he allegedly set up this plan to enthrall
Dea
? Do you have any idea how impossible that is?”

“No. I’m a
Water witch. I don’t know how
psychometry
works.”

I couldn’t be
irritated because he was correct. “I have to sift through the memories of each
item backwards. I was lucky to pick the seat
Eamonn
Cary used in your office and equally fortunate you let me sit there debating
with you long enough to traverse the memories to the previous day. I’d have to hang
out in de Sole’s place for a half hour to go through a week’s worth of history
for one object. I don’t know what furniture he uses on a daily basis to do his
work. And even if I found out, he’d assume I wanted more than conversation.”

“This
photograph in my hands implies that you do.”

“Good grief,
Marino.” My pitch jumped back into its defensive lift. “He made me drink two
margaritas. I can’t hold my liquor. And I
am
trying to get something back from him.”

“Two
margaritas didn’t make you dress like a can-can dancer!”

“Whoa,” I
heard myself saying before I could stop it. “Where did that come from?”

“Nowhere.”

But the accusation
offended me. It wasn’t smart of me, but I felt the need to defend myself.
Again.

I hopped to my
feet so I could pace the floor in angry agitation. “That skirt is two inches
longer than the one I wore on
our
fake date. The top is basically a tank top, because, you know
it’s
June in Ari-
freakin
-
zona
. And one more thing, Marino, at least I kept my
panties on during
his
date.”

I smashed my
finger down on the disconnect button before he could retort. I was done playing
mole if he was going to get nasty with me.

If Desmond
wanted information from Maximo, he could damn well get it himself.

****

Nell pretended
nothing had happened when she returned. A portion of that might have been
because of the black look on my face. I retreated to the
Wipuk
storefront to avoid her because I’d already gotten in two fights before our
first hour had finished. I didn’t want to make it three.

I’d done a
foolish thing by hanging up on Desmond. He knew I could access four schools of
magic. And he knew my ability in each was nothing to sneeze at. He had the
power to sway the coalition against me.

And if I
didn’t stay in Maximo’s favor, I could be run out of the colony. Remaining in
Wipuk
was critical for the success of my mother’s plan. I
had to stay in the good graces of one of them. But which was the lesser of the
evils?

It was
disturbing to realize Desmond fit that bill.

Though it was
conceivable he’d taken a life at some point in his years, I thought it slim.
And I highly doubted he would have killed a lover. But the more important fact
was that Desmond was a witch. He was one of the high priests I had to win over
to further my mother’s agenda. I couldn’t afford to have him gunning for me.

Hades’s
hair.
I was going to have to make
nice.
Again.

****

Desmond
shockingly answered my call rather than sending it to voice mail. It was half
past nine. I’d just walked through the apartment door. It might be late to call
a veritable stranger, but I hadn’t wanted to speak to him while Nell could
overhear. His chilly greeting wasn’t promising, but that I heard it at all gave
me hope.

“I’m sorry I
hung up on you,” I said rather than greet him. He
did
have a preference for getting right to the point.

As the silence
stretched onward, I struggled with the urge to give an excuse for why I’d done
it. I dug my teeth into my lower lip to remain quiet. Excuses seemed to cheapen
an apology.

“You called me
to apologize?” he asked in what sounded like his cautious tone.

“Yes.”

“Really?”

My jaw set
angrily.
“Yes, really.
That’s so shocking?”

“Apologies are
a terribly difficult trick for your gender.”

I just about shot through the roof before I realized where he’d
gotten that.

“Oh, I see,” I
said at a drawling pace, giving my blood pressure time to ease. “You’re using
my words against me.”

He inhaled a
soft breath that might have been a laugh.

“Cute.” I
grumbled even though it wasn’t cute at all.

“So what do
you want, Ms. Walsh?”

“I have to
want something to apologize?”

“You don’t
like me. I can’t imagine you would call me at half past nine simply to chat. You
want something.”

There was
nothing like the truth. “I need the stay in the good graces of one of you, or I
risk getting kicked out of the colony.”

Silence.
My blood pressure hiked into
a loftier position. I was about to make an excuse and hang up when he finally
spoke.

“So you chose
me? Or are you keeping your options open by jerking us both around?”

The bitter
build in his voice caught me off guard. This wasn’t going at all how I planned.
But wait … had he said…?

“How am I
jerking you around, Marino?”

He let out one
of his irritated puffs of breath. “Apology accepted, Ms. Walsh. Good night.”

And then
he
hung up on
me
.

Chapter Six

The baying of
dogs at three o’clock in the morning meant only one thing—my mother had come
for a visit. I staggered out of bed and stomped into the living room. Reclined
almost upside down, atop the beanbag chair the size of a small
elephant,
was the petite goddess Hecate in gauzy ceremonial
robes. Her burgundy hair hung over the chair and pooled on the floor like a
veil. She made shadow puppets using the light cast through the mini blinds.

I grunted over
a yawn powerful enough to pop my ears. “I hope you’re here for an early
report.”

“No.” My
mother drew the word out while she made the shadows of a bird dive-bomb a dog.
“I need a favor.”

My eyelids
slid shut while I pulled in a long breath for fortitude. Her favors were never
anything simple like babysitting four packs of Boy Scouts with ADHD after a
raid into a Girl Scout cookie factory. Her favors involved tracking down
witches
gone rogue and stopping them before they did
something terribly destructive, all with minimal assistance.

“I’ll get my
bracelet.”

Catey
—my mother’s preferred name
these days—appeared within my bedroom before I did. Unlike moments earlier, a
fine mist coated her delicate frame. She’d moved into the Spirit Realm. Only I
could see or hear her—well, only me and any of the dead lingering nearby. The
baying of the neighborhood’s dogs fortunately faded.

As I hopped
into my jean shorts, I debated asking her about Trip. My lifelong nemesis had
taunted me every Wednesday night without fail for six years. But I hadn’t seen
him in two weeks. Though he’d been sentenced to two weeks in Tartarus, time
moved differently in the Underworld. He could have served his time in the blink
of a mortal eye. If he’d wanted to, that is.

What had I
said the last time I’d seen him? I’d been furious he’d tried to trick me into
eating an apple from Hades. And then that he’d used his newfound power to touch
objects on the Mortal Realm to do something as pointless as tangle up my power
cords at the shop. My fury had made me proclaim it would be a travesty if he
were promoted from a back-up judge for North American souls in the Underworld
to the
full-time
judge. And I’d meant
it.

Was that why he’d
been avoiding me? Or was it because he believed his punishment was my fault?
Why did I
care
?

I slipped my
hammered silver cuff over my arm—the magical gift that enabled me to stay alert
without sleep. My mother held her palm out toward me. I hesitated. The moment
our skin would touch, she’d transport me into the Void—the realm of nothing
that filled in the crevices around everything. It would be uncomfortable.

No,
uncomfortable was an understatement.
Voidwalking
was
my least favorite fact of divine life. But it was the quickest way to get
around the world. And it was the only way to get to the Underworld without
dying.

I pushed out
three quick breaths, and then set my hand atop hers.

****

I’d visited
few cities in the world that shone as brightly as Las Vegas did at three in the
morning. I gazed at the sparkling jewel of a city in all its electronic glory
from my vantage point high in the night sky. Why was I here?

The soft sound
of contentment to my right reminded me. I glanced over and found my mother clad
in a pair of her denim overalls. Beneath them was a lime T-shirt with a winking
apple printed in the center. She’d twisted her hair into a baseball cap, making
her look like a pretty, teenage boy.

She wasn’t
particularly concerned about the sleazy dead guy gawking at us from within the
Spirit Realm where she’d dropped us. Though I tried to ignore it, the scent of
decay and cheap cologne was too much. I discreetly covered my nose with my
fingers.

“You have two
hours,” she said, snaring my attention again. “And if
Clotho’s
time at the slots gets interrupted, you’re going to have bigger problems than
your battered conscience.”

The fate
spinner was here.
Crap
.

I nodded
because my mother’s bosom buddy status with Fate meant I had leeway no other
Diakonos
—the half-blood children of the gods—could claim.
If I wanted to keep my leg up, I needed to make sure nothing interrupted their
girls’ night out.

She waved and
then disappeared. I was plunged into the air-conditioned Mortal Realm. The
decay and cologne scent faded beneath the smell of tourism. I took in the view
from the lofty height atop what I assumed was the Stratosphere’s tower.

Just once it
would be nice to enjoy Las Vegas like anyone else instead of always being
favor-bound. Styx, it would be nice to enjoy
anything
like anyone else. But alas, this was my life. This was who
I was.

Woe-is-me-moment
behind me, I sent out a pulse of magic awareness. Pings returned from all
sides.

Vegas
was
a magical city despite its heavy reliance on
electricity. I’d have to change my usual procedure of homing in on a magical
signature. There were simply too many here for that to work. For this favor,
I’d find the largest concentration of power signatures within my two-mile
radius and also monitor for spikes.