Page 14 of Adepts and Alchemists

Then he turned to face me. “It would be worth visiting GG if she knows how to decode the rest of the spells in your mom’s grimoire, right?”

To that, I had no argument. Though I wanted to. Badly. Was it so wrong to want to be in a safe house, free of the fear I’d be blown to bits for a second time? Apparently. Because the vote was swift and not in my favor. Within minutes, they’d all begun making preparations to visit GG in California to chase this dubious lead.

I hate working with optimists.

Chapter Seven

Indigo

I muttered curses under my breath as we pulled into a lone gas station a few miles past the motel.

Apparently, RJ wasn’t very good at keeping his truck gassed up.

Even though we weren’t planning on driving to California in order to see Poppy’s grandmother (and thank the Goddess for that), we still had to travel there. And, apparently, we were going to get there by way of mirror magic.

And that meant we had to find a suitable mirror. But on that subject, Betanya had it covere.

The whole way to the gas station, Poppy kept pestering me with questions about my mother that I couldn’t answer. How had my mother and this Adelaide character known each other? Did I know Adelaide? Was I sure that AC really stood for Adelaide Clemmons? The list went on.

I didn’t have most of the answers. Worse, discussions of my mother were sure to bring on the waterworks, something I couldn’t afford right now. Victory would only come if I could outmaneuver Murrain. But right now, that seemed next to impossible. He’d killed me once. It wouldn’t take much for him to do it again, and make it stick this time. I had to be able to think five steps ahead of him. Yet, here I was—having to deal with this. And I was still convinced that this lead was going to turn up nothing of value. It wasn’t as if Poppy’s grandmother was the only gypsy out there with the name Adelaide Clemmons. Maybe this was nothing more than a coincidence. And if that was the case, it was going to be a big pain in the ass.

And a pain in the ass we couldn’t afford.

When Wanda had mentioned just calling Poppy’s grandmother to ask if there was a connection between her andmy mother, I knew that would be too dangerous. Murrain was very good at being in all places at all times, and I was too worried that their cell phones or the phone lines themselves could have been tampered with. In fact, I’d convinced everyone (with the exception of RJ, who was unknown to Murrain) to leave their cell phones back in Haven Hollow. There was just too big a chance that Murrain had tampered with them and could track us.

But getting back to Adelaide Clemmons. Yes, it could be a connection, but as I said, it also could have just been a coincidence. All I did know was that I didn’t want to bet my life and the lives of everyone here on a maybe. But I’d been outvoted.

Typical.

Once we’d stopped, RJ had jumped out of the truck to use the restroom, so I was the one pumping the gas. Currently, my hand was a vise around the gas nozzle. If I tried, I could twist the grip into scrap metal and send the gasoline spraying in every direction. One match, and I could die again. I was convinced that immolation wasn’t as dangerous to my health as Murrain was.

A bitter little laugh escaped me. Talk about depressing. It wasn’t a question ofifI died. More a question ofhow.When you went up against the Masked Lords, death was usually a foregone conclusion. No one could testify against them if there were no witnesses left alive. We should have been searching for the deepest, darkest hole we could find and pulling it in after us. Not embarking on this glorified field trip. This was why I hated working with amateurs.

“Something funny?” a voice to my right asked in a low, deadly tone.

I didn’t have to turn my head to know what I’d see, but I did it anyway. Angelo was leaning against the pump and glowering at me. I had to admit the demon could have a hard stare if he wanted to.

“No,” I said with a sigh. “There’s nothing funny about this at all. But since screaming and wailing in distress won’t improve our conditions, I’ll refrain.”

Angelo’s face creased with the intensity of his frown. It unfortunately didn’t reduce his sex appeal one bit. I hated how aware I was of him. How attuned Lydia’s body was to his. It wasn’t my desire that was making me want to peel off my borrowed clothes and let him do unspeakable things to me. It was the echoes of long-gone Lydia still warming my skin and making my heart race.

“I wanted to talk to you.”

“How ominous,” I drawled. “I don’t suppose I can change your mind about wanting to talk to me?”

Angelo reached for me, presumably to seize my arm and make me look at him. I nimbly dodged out of the way. It wasn’t even a thought these days. Someone reached for me, physically or metaphorically, and I pulled away. It was a gesture born of habit. Witches weren’t touchy-feely on the best of days, but after being in a defensive posture for years, I couldn’t stand for most people to be in the same room with me unless they’d been vetted. Angelo would have not made it past the review board.

He paused mid-motion, examining my expression before letting his hand drop. His eyes narrowed on my face.

“Stop flinching. You look like you’re expecting me to backhand you.”

“I’d do it if I were in your position,” I answered honestly. The admission was quiet, as if even I couldn’t believe I was saying it. “If you’d drained her to death or hurt her in any way, I would have cursed your teeth to grow backward and up into your skull.”

The statement seemed to drain some of the animosity from his expression. Odd, since I’d just threatened him with one of the nastier spells in my arsenal. He leaned against the car, watchingthe numbers roll by on the gas screen. They seemed to be moving in slow motion, ticking away the seconds we could have been using to run and hide.

“So you can force someone to eat their own brain?”

“Shred it, and they’re usually dead by the point they actually reach gray matter, but yes, I suppose you could call it that.”