But Willow had always worn a simple necklace made of river stone. She might weave in a few spring wildflowers or some greenery. At least that’s what she used to do.
Now she wore a set of men’s teeth, still bloody at the roots. She noticed my gaze and lifted it up so I could get a better look. My stomach roiled.
“My dearly departed husband’s,” she said with a satisfied smile.
Willow was the one who’d killed Danvers.
She’d ended the blood oath. Willow was free. But she wasn’t the girl I’d come to love. I’d turned her into this. A killer of men. A queen. She’d killed Danvers. It’s not that he didn’t deserve it, but murder changed a person. I should know.
Her eyes were full of ambition and pride. She was beyond me now. There was no turning back. My dream of a life with her was impossible. Once she’d experienced the bloodlust, she’d never be satisfied with a little place near the Driftless.
I’d been a fool to think I could ever be happy.
I didn’t regret helping Willow to save herself, even though my actions had freed Hecate, just as the prophecy foretold.
“Can I kiss you good-bye?”
She nodded. I kissed her softly on the nose, the forehead, and finally the lips. She kissed me back until I said the wrong thing.
“I love you,” I whispered into her ear.
She stiffened and pushed me away. “Don’t say that to me ever again,” she said, “or I’ll add your teeth to my collection.”
I dropped my arms and she turned and headed toward the lake. With each step, she moved faster and faster until she was running, arms wide as if greeting a lover. Then she dove into the water and disappeared.
I sat on my favorite bench and stared at the water until the sun came up, but she never returned.
Chapter Twenty-One
A week after we’d captured Hecate, Rebecca stopped by the apartment on her way to Parsi. Her arm was still in plaster and someone had drawn a complicated protective hex on it.
“Nice art,” I said. “Who did it?”
She looked down. “Johnny. I ran into him last night at the diner.”
Ran into him, my ass. Johnny Asari was making a play for my sister.
“I hope you have better luck than I do at love,” I said.
“You saved her,” Rebecca replied. “You saved the whole city.”
It didn’t make me feel any better. Willow’s rejection still stung.
She changed the subject. “How’s it feel to be a rock star?”
I popped the top on a beer. “Grand.”
One of the things I liked about my sister was that she never ragged on me about my drinking. She probably hoped I’d fuck up my liver and keel over, which, since I was mortal now, could actually happen.
I offered her a bottle, but she waved it away. “It’s a little early for me. I’m on my way to work,” she said. “Which brings me to why I’m here. The aunts want you to come back to Parsi Enterprises.”
I wasn’t surprised by much these days, but she’d done it. “To work?”
“Of course to work,” she said.
“Why?”
“They’ve decided we need to stick together,” she said. “Wyrd family united and all that.”
I studied her face. “I’ll think about it.”
“It’s a solid offer,” she said. “You can’t work at Eternity Road forever.”
“Why not?” I asked. “The aunts want me back in the bosom of the family, but they don’t trust me with their secrets.” The two items of power were the harpy’s silver feather and Hecate’s Bead. Nona had told me Medusa’s mirror was the third item of power, but the aunts knew more than they were telling me.
“They don’t trust anybody,” she replied. “Including me.’
“What’s the real story about why you left?”
“You mean why did I steal the money?”
I nodded. “I’m assuming you had a reason.”
“You’re the first,” Rebecca said. “What makes you think that?”
“You don’t strike me as someone dumb enough to double-cross the Fates for the hell of it.”
“I’m not,” she said. “I had my reasons. Maybe someday I’ll tell you about them.”
A silence fell, but she didn’t make a move to leave.
“Something else on your mind?”
“I had an interesting offer and I wanted to talk to you about it,” she replied.
“Then talking about it means you know, talking about it,” I hinted.
She made a face. “Smart-ass. Johnny Asari asked me out and I wanted to know what you think.”
Was my sister really asking me for dating advice? “About Johnny? Talbot thinks he’s a dick, but there was a girl involved in that decision-making process.”
“There usually is,” Rebecca said dryly. “So you’re cool with it?”
I didn’t tell her I already knew about her and Johnny. I was touched she’d considered my feelings at all. “You’re worried that I’d be offended because Johnny wants to take over House of Hades? Don’t be. I don’t want it.”
“That’s not what he thinks,” Rebecca replied.
I shrugged. “I can’t help that.”
“The aunts are furious about it,” she confided. “And we haven’t even gone on our first date.”
“They’re usually pissed about something,” I said. “Do what you want. What your heart wants.”
Rebecca gave me a peck on my cheek. “Maybe you should take your own advice.”
Maybe I should. It hadn’t worked out for me so far, but I was the son of Fortuna. Luck was in my nature.
“I thought you hated me,” I said.
She met my eyes. “What can I say? You’re growing on me.”
After she left, I finished the beer and hit the streets. Eternity Road was located in a less-than-desirable location in Minneapolis, but I liked it. It had become home to me, the only home I’d known in two hundred years.
I hadn’t given up on finding Baxter. Part of me felt responsible for him. Hecate probably would never have noticed him if it weren’t for me.
We’d already gone through the house Hecate had commandeered. It had been a scene of vile depravity, blood-soaked rooms, and the stench of despair, but no Baxter.
I drove by the morgue. Baxter’s car was long gone, of course, probably collecting dust at the police tow yard. He could be anywhere, if he was even still alive.
I’d driven halfway around Minneapolis without any luck. I decided to search Morta’s for the silver harpy feather. Hecate had been contained, but I’d learned the hard way to hedge my bets.
Morta lived downtown so I pointed the car in that direction. I used a quick obscura spell and slipped in without anyone, including the security guard, noticing. I listened, but didn’t detect anyone else in the apartment.
I let the spell slip away. I needed to concentrate on my snooping.
The portrait of my mother still hung above the fireplace. In it, she wore a red dress and the silver chain with the charms that I now wore around my neck.
I headed for the bedrooms and collided with Claire in the hallway. The collision left both of us disconcerted, but Claire recovered first.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I could ask you the same thing,” I replied.
“This is my mother’s apartment,” she reminded me unnecessarily. “I have a key.”
There was something twitchy about her, though. Like she’d been caught doing something wrong.
She didn’t ask me why I was there, either, which I found interesting.
“Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” I asked. “Tangling webs and all?”
“I’m the boss’s daughter,” she said. “And I was on my way. Morta asked me to pick up something for her.”
She was lying. She wore blue jeans and a Minnesota Twins tee. I’d wear that to Parsi, but Claire never would. She favored power suits and expensive jewelry when she was at the office.
/>
She tried to step around me, but I blocked her way. “Want to tell me what you’re really doing here?”
She deflated. “Same thing as you. Looking for the harpy feather.”
“So you did find something out from the Book of Fates?”
“Not much,” she said, “but enough to know my mother has it.”
“Why were you looking for it?” Suspicion was clear in my voice.
“I just wanted to know where it was,” she said. “Don’t worry. I wasn’t going to take it.”
I’d been suspicious of Claire, but now I was curious. “Why do you want to find it so badly?”
She shrugged. “They never tell us anything,” she replied. “They tell us that we are the new generation of Fates, but then they keep things from us, like we’re children.”
I studied her face. “I’ll make a deal with you,” I said. “If I find it, I’ll let you know.”
She flashed a grin. “And if I find it, I’ll do the same.”
I was getting woozy from all the warm fuzzy family time I’d had. We walked out of the building together and I escorted her to her car. I watched her drive off, wondering if I’d been wrong about Claire all along.
A sudden gust of wind nearly knocked me off my feet. I thought I heard a snicker, but when I looked around, there was no one there.
Chapter Twenty-Two
A few days later, Claire, Naomi, and Rebecca walked into Eternity Road. Rebecca and Naomi carried a bottle of wine in each hand. Worse yet, Claire held a stack of board games.
Talbot and I exchanged a glance. “Uh-oh,” he said.
“Family bonding night,” Claire announced.
“We used to do it all the time when we were growing up,” Naomi said. “Minus the wine.”
“Speak for yourself,” Rebecca said. There was a hint of a smile at the edge of her mouth. “Nyx, it’s time you joined us.”
What had brought on the sudden urge for my company? My sister had thawed toward me, but I was still wary.
“Have fun,” Talbot said wistfully.
I stared at Naomi. “He’s coming with us. He’s my brother, at least as close as I’ll ever get to one, so he’s in or I’m out.”
Talbot gave me a grin. “I guess I could close the store early.”
She sniffed. “I’ll encourage your little bromance. We’re playing at your place, then. And you’re buying the pizza.”
“Fair enough.”
They followed me up the stairs to the apartment, but I noticed that Talbot and Naomi were lagging behind.
“Naomi, hurry up,” Claire called out, but Rebecca nudged her. “Don’t be an idiot.”
I gave my sister a look. “Playing matchmaker?”
“She was miserable,” Rebecca replied. “It’ll work. Trust me.”
Strangely enough, I did.
I unlocked the door, frantically trying to remember if I’d left underwear on the floor. Normally, I didn’t give a shit, but Rebecca was bound to notice. The idea that I worried about impressing my sister made me a little queasy.
I was relieved that the apartment was relatively clean, if you ignored the empty bottles piling up on the kitchen counter.
“Did you have a party last night?” Claire asked, staring at the bottles and cans littering the room.
Rebecca snorted with laughter, but didn’t say anything. Surprisingly, my sister was polite enough to ignore my empties. Or maybe she just didn’t care.
“Make yourself comfortable,” I said. It was after 7 p.m., but it was still hot, so I went through the apartment and opened all the windows.
Talbot and Naomi finally showed up, holding hands.
“Let’s get the game started,” Rebecca said. “I call Scottie dog.”
“Whenever we play Monopoly and Becks gets the dog, she always wins,” Naomi explained.
“Not this time, Becks,” I said. “We’re rolling for it.”
The pizza arrived and we settled in. When I chose a soda instead of absinthe, Talbot grinned at me, but didn’t comment. I wasn’t trying to stop drinking, I was trying to win. Rebecca was a ruthless player and I needed my wits about me.
I won the roll of the dice and got to go first.
“Luck is on your side, Nyx Fortuna,” Rebecca said. “But I have skill on mine.”
“So how do you stay so young-looking?” I asked my sister. “If you’re older than me, I mean?”
“How do you know it’s not the same way you look so young?” she replied.
“I doubt your mother defied the Fates and a prophecy and hid your thread of Fate,” I told her. “So how do you really do it? A little of Gaston’s go-go juice?” The orange nectar of the gods had kept the Fates’ Tracker alive long enough to torment me.
She raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you read all of the Book of Fates?”
“Not enough time,” I said. “I died, remember? Claire inherited it.”
Claire gave me a look. “I’m not giving it back.”
“I was supposed to have it,” Rebecca said.
“You can have it,” I said. “There are just some things it would have been nice to know.”
“Sorry, it’s a trade secret,” Rebecca said. She rolled the dice and got snake eyes.
“Now who is lucky?” I bit into a slice of gooey cheese pizza.
“Is that what they call it?” My cousin elbowed me hard in the stomach.
Talbot and Naomi were so busy kissing that he wasn’t paying attention to the game. “Talbot, it’s your turn.”
“While you were drowning your sorrows, I was doing some research,” he said smugly. “I know where Wren is.”
Part of me still had a soft spot for Wren. My inclination was to let her go. She had been under her mother’s thumb. Maybe she could have a life of her own, now that Hecate was trapped.
The soft summer wind picked up and blew the Monopoly money all over the room. Rain poured down like liquid silver, coming faster and faster. I shut the windows while everyone else gathered up the money.
“Should we start over?” Rebecca asked.
Naomi shivered and Talbot wrapped an arm around here.
“Weather’s changing,” she commented. The air turned cold. There was a sudden cessation of sound.
Something hard hit the roof. I looked out to see hail, larger than I’d ever seen, slamming to the ground.
Rebecca shivered. “Something’s wrong,” she said.
The air had gone electric. “Storm’s coming,” Naomi said.
“Not just any storm,” Talbot said.
“Storm god,” I said. The sky was purple and getting darker.
“A storm god?” Talbot asked. “No, it’s just a little crazy summer weather. Happens all the time in Minneapolis.”
“Not like this,” I said. “I’m telling you this is the work of a storm god.” The wind screamed in my ear. Where is she?
“Which storm god?” Claire asked.
“The pissed-off one,” I said. “Now move. Talbot, where’s your dad?”
“At home,” he said. “At least he was ten minutes ago.”
“Find him,” I said. “Gather up all the magical items at the store and then take them and everyone you can find into the basement.”
“What are you going to do?” Rebecca asked.
“I’m going to try to stop him.”
“I’m staying with you.”
“Me, too,” Claire said.
I didn’t have time to argue with them.
“Talbot, find your dad, please,” I repeated. He hesitated, but finally tugged on Naomi’s hand and they headed for Ambrose’s apartment.
Rebecca and I took the narrow stairs that led to the roof. The door wouldn’t budge, but Rebecca shoved me aside and sent a spell whizzing through the door. It popped open and the wind tore it off the hinges. The door flew into a growing funnel cloud. We were pelted with rain as we went.
There was every possibility we’d end up in that funnel cloud, but somehow we stayed on the roof. For ev
ery step we took, the wind beat us back two. The tornado sirens wailed a warning as we struggled to stay upright.
The sky was filled with clouds like dark smoke, but the sun still shone through in spots. Tornado weather.
The storm god appeared, riding a black storm cloud in the shape of a horse. “Bring her to me,” he said. His voice boomed like thunder. Boreas, the god of the cold north winds, had a voice like thunder. His long black hair, streaked with frost, streamed in the wind. A bolt of lightning struck not far from where we stood.
“What does he want?” Rebecca said.
“Not what, who. He wants Hecate.”
“She’s not here,” Rebecca said.
“Obviously,” I replied. “But he doesn’t know that. Unless…” I trailed off, struck by an even more horrifying possibility.
“Unless what?”
“Bring me the goddess.” Boreas said. He accentuated his request with another bolt of lightning.
“What goddess?” I shouted, but my words were swallowed by the wind.
“He’s trying to kill us,” Rebecca said. “Why?”
I tested her theory by moving closer to Boreas. At that range, he shouldn’t have missed, but the next bolt he sent landed several feet away.
Why was Boreas attacking us?
“He’s not trying to kill us, he’s trying to stall us,” I told Rebecca.
“Why?”
“He’s just the diversion,” I shouted.
“Diversion for what?” Rebecca yelled.
“Someone is trying to break Hecate out,” I said. “His job is to stall us.”
“The aunts,” Rebecca said. “They’re at Parsi. Let’s go.”
My sister caught on quickly. When we tried to leave, Boreas sent a gale-force wind to stop us.
“Since when is the god of the north wind on the side of a murdering psychopath?” I yelled.
The building shook with the force of Boreas’s fury. The hail came down faster and faster, morphing into huge jagged icicles. The air went frigid enough that I could see Rebecca’s breath.
“He’ll tear the city apart,” I said. “We have to stop him first.”
Stopping a god, even a minor one like Boreas, wasn’t going to be easy.
I tried to send a compulsion spell his way, but it didn’t even slow him down.