Page 14

K ierce and I were the only ones on the back patio at the oyster house. Not surprising, given the hour. He was working his way through a platter of smoked oysters served on a bed of crushed ice with fresh lemon wedges and a rich mignonette sauce on the side while I polished off a bowl of catfish courtbouillon.

Until I shook hot sauce over the oysters, I don’t think it had ever occurred to him to try it. His hum of approval made me smile. New Orleans wasn’t my hometown, but it was a second home to me. Food was iffy for Kierce, and it pleased me to see him savor a meal instead of simply devouring it.

His enjoyment of the oysters from the restaurant near Café du Monde had inspired me to have him taste slight variations on a new favorite menu item, but the distraction only lasted for so long.

All signs pointed toward Dis Pater being the god behind the Midnight Parade.

Had those signs been planted by someone else, or had they been meant as a challenge to me?

With no clue as to who else could be gunning for me, I elected to focus on the easy target.

“What are the odds Dis Pater rummaged through his closet for this relic after I pissed him off?”

The saint bone hadn’t changed hands, so he must have been saving it for a rainy day.

Too bad I hadn’t checked the forecast before I smarted off to him about my new guardian role.

Based on the degree of decline in Matty’s cognitive function, he was among the first victims if not victim zero. Which meant Dis Pater must have gone out of his way to expose my brother to contaminated food or drink in Thunderbolt slightly before or simultaneously as the outbreak spread through New Orleans. His friend, Leyna, must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Had he known I had connections to the city, or had the bone dictated the secondary location? I could see it going either way, but the existence of the toughs indicated auctions were a regular side gig for the god to rake in money or power or both.

As Vi had taught me, if you had arcane trinkets to unload, you couldn’t find more eager bidders than in New Orleans.

Dis Pater struck me as petty, but would he go through that much trouble just to put me in my place?

Considering he killed me out of curiosity, yeah. I could see him deciding I had stolen the Alcheyvāhā from him, so he would take items of equal value from me. I just didn’t see why the burial grounds mattered so much to him.

I had taken a job off his hands. I was freeing up more of his time to write. As much as he harped on deadlines and bills, he ought to be grateful.

“The only documented cases are in the Savannah and New Orleans areas, and with both Matty and Vi afflicted, I’m inclined to agree this is a punishment.”

Heart in my throat, I asked, “I can’t count on you if I have to go up against Dis Pater, can I?”

“He’s my master,” he said simply.

Kierce mashed his lips into a hard line, promising he would fight every step of the way, but until I found a way to free him from Dis Pater—and I hadn’t begun to look—we might find ourselves on different sides of a fight neither of us wanted.

Already I was making contingency plans that didn’t rely on his help, knowing what it would cost me to shut him out. But I refused to pay with the souls of innocents, even if it got my heart banged up in the process. “Do you think your bond to Dis Pater is what tipped the scale with Rollo?”

Until Kierce pitched in, Anunit and I had been struggling in vain to cut the final cord binding Rollo.

“I don’t think so, or I would have had more luck with Matty that first night. Rollo hadn’t been part of the parade for long. He was more lucid than the others. There was more to grip.”

“If we can’t pry Vi and Matty out, if they’re too far gone, I’ll have to visit Dis Pater and bargain with him for the finger bone. Destroying it might be the only way to free Matty and Vi, and everyone else.”

“I pray it doesn’t come to that.”

“Me too.”

* * *

The Midnight Parade could have been a movie projection the way its revelers never missed a beat.

Of all the choice locations in the Quarter, I wondered why this one was special. “What anchors them to this street?”

Kierce, cocking his head birdlike, considered it. “Perhaps the saint lived on Ursulines?”

“Or died here?” That was always an option. “Midnight is the witching hour, but I don’t get why they’re only visible for ten minutes before vanishing. I don’t see why they would be visible at all, really.”

Unless the spirits had to materialize daily to maintain the tenuous connection to their bodies.

“The parade is a rather specific manifestation. We would have to know the saint’s name to determine the particulars.” He considered it. “That or the name of the person who turned the finger into a relic.”

By the time we heard drums, we had positioned ourselves in the middle of the street.

We held our ground as the parade swirled around us in a blur of dancers, singers, and musicians.

Halfway through the crowd, I spotted Matty and had to lock my knees to keep from running to him. That I had to prioritize Vi gutted me. I wanted my brother back. Now. Tonight. But I had to be smart about it.

Just as I began kicking myself for not making a move on Matty, since I couldn’t spot Vi, I saw the same pair of men as before. Their grip had eased on Vi, and she no longer fought them. That wasn’t good. I preferred it when she was spitting in their faces.

“Vi.” I strained for confirmation she was still in there. “Can you hear me?”

Her dull eyes lifted to mine, and my heart dropped into my toes.

“Oh, Vi.” I focused on solidifying her, but it was like trying to catch smoke. “I’m so sorry.”

“Frankie,” she mumbled, her eyes widening in understanding I was really here. “Frankie.”

“Vi.” I reached for her again, but my hand swept through her. “We’re going to get you out of here.”

Hope gave her the strength to lash out at the men to either side of her. Her sudden violence after her docile walk allowed her to take them off-guard. She sank her elbows into their guts then stomped their insteps as she grasped for me. Our hands slid through one another, and her frustration threatened tears.

“Kierce.” I’d had Anunit’s help in anchoring Rollo before Kierce arrived. I wasn’t sure he and I could do it without her help, but we had to try. “It’s now or never.”

He stepped up behind me, and as I mimed clasping on to Vi’s wrist, he covered our hands with his.

Lightning crackled above us, streaking through the dark sky, and the hairs lifted down my arms.

“I feel you,” Vi sobbed with relief. “I can feel you both.”

“I have this little thing called work I like to do,” a multilayered voice boomed from behind us. “It’s how I make money. You’ve seen my house. Mortgages don’t pay themselves. Yet here I am, on this dirty little street, instead of home in front of my laptop, because someone is kinking my energy supply.”

The storm overhead gained momentum, the forks of electricity striking nearby lampposts, shattering the bulbs in a shower of sparks.

Brilliant light washed over me, but I wasn’t as blind to Dis Pater’s form as I had been the last time he up and appeared before me, and my skin didn’t so much as sunburn. Godburn? Whatever.

“Let Matty and Vi go,” I barked without turning, afraid of taking my eyes off Vi. “Then you can zip right back where you came from. Otherwise, you leave me no choice but to break them out myself.”

“Relic enchantments are fragile. You can’t just go around ripping out their parts.”

“Parts?” I gritted my teeth until my jaw popped, determined to hold on to Vi. “These are people .”

“They’re souls.”

“Their bodies are still alive, which means their souls can be returned to them.”

“Huh.” He scratched his chin. “That wasn’t in the fine print, but I sourced that bone ages ago. Maybe I just forgot.” He spread his hands. “I can see how that looks bad, but hear me out…” His expression thundered with animosity. “I don’t care.”

Here was the proof I had been right to lean into my suspicion this was all him. Not that the validation did me any good. Unable to risk keeping my back turned a moment longer, I pivoted toward the threat, forced to let Vi go.

“Then why do this? Why go after my family?” I spread my arms wide. “From where I’m standing, it sure as hell looks like you care if you’re wasting your precious writing time on targeting me.”

“That’s enough.” He snapped his fingers. “Kierce, I order you not to help her.”

“Leave him out of this.” Whipping my head around, I bared my teeth at the god. “He hasn’t done anything wrong.”

“The list of wrongs he’s committed could wrap around the world twice.” Dis Pater scoffed at my defense of his vassal. “He deserves everything he gets and then some.” His voice turned pitying. “Why do you think I’ve loaned Kierce out to you? You’re a punishment. That’s it. That’s all.”

Pressure built behind my breastbone. Fear of how much Kierce knew, and how much he didn’t recall. His god might have let Kierce think he was free to make his own choices, and that he had chosen me. But he just as easily could have been told to infiltrate my life the same way Ankou had with Josie.

The thought of what we had being an act or a mission, and Kierce not knowing either way, wrenched my heart out of alignment. He knew pieces of him were missing, but Dis Pater had torn him apart and stuck him back together so many times, he couldn’t find the seams to begin lining them up again.

“You can’t loan him out. He’s not a library book.”

“You’re adorable, but that’s exactly how it works, mouthy girl.”

“You’re in no position to judge him, especially since every wrong he’s committed lies at your feet.”

“Frankie,” Kierce warned me, his voice low.

“Is this a love thing? The famed rose-colored glasses in action? You have no idea who he is or what he’s done. You think he’s pretty or sexy or needs saving. You’re clueless. A baby . Just because you got shiny new powers doesn’t make you a god and doesn’t give you a voice among us. It just makes you one more half human in a world populated with them.”

“And you’re one more asshole in a world populated by them. What’s your point?”

“You need to learn to accept your losses and move on. Otherwise, eternity is going to be one hell of a bad surprise. You can’t get so fixated on the small things. Think big picture.”

“My brother and my mentor aren’t small things. They’re every thing.”

“That kind of passion stirs the blood, Bijou.”

Chills skittered down my spine in a prickling wave.

No, no, no.

I did not have time for this.

Bracing myself, I expected Ankou to have taken on a new avatar since I last saw him. But when I turned, he wore Armie’s face. And it hurt to see a friend standing there who never existed.

His grin also made my knuckles itch to sink them into his face for every wrong he had dealt my sister.

“Did you miss me?” Ankou blew me a kiss. “I’m good as new, thanks for asking.”

“You’re living dangerously.” I drummed up some bravado. “Kierce tells me you’re not welcome in this city. Something about pissing off Bacchus. Killing one of his lovers. Any of that ring a bell?”

“Kierce isn’t wrong.” Gaze cutting left to right, he rolled out his shoulders. “But I go where I’m sent.”

Too bad I didn’t know how to summon Bacchus.

Forget the gold Bacchus was offering as a reward, I would have turned Ankou in for a speck of pollen.

“Get lost, filth.” Dis Pater curled his lip at him, reminding me how low his opinion was of Ankou. “I’m in the middle of something.”

“Um, no.” He kept closing the gap between us. “You look ready to smite Frankie, and my master is too invested in her to let your temper tantrum ruin all our hard work.” He winked at me. “You have no idea how good it is to see you again in the flesh. Dreams are nice and all, but they can’t compare to reality.”

Smothering my fear before it could gasp for breath, I smiled back. “Do you want me to kill you again?”

“See? That’s progress. It tells me you missed me. At least a little bit.”

“How do you figure?”

“You could have just killed me without asking. Rude but effective.”

The god drama ran down the clock until all hope of saving Vi tonight vanished along with her. Without Kierce, I had no hope of freeing her, but it stung to have an opportunity wasted because Dis Pater had chosen that exact moment—when we were right on the cusp—to meddle.

Antagonistic as their relationship was, Ankou’s appearance must have been such a boon for Dis Pater. Yet another distraction for him to throw in front of me like a roadblock. Another way for him to screw me. Or screw with me. The timing made me consider if they had planned it, but the animosity between Kierce and Ankou was real, an extension of their gods’ tumultuous relationship.

Which left me with having damn bad luck.

“Happy?” I shoved Ankou back a step. “Your interference could cost people their lives. People I love. People who don’t deserve to be swept up in this divine bullshit.”

“I could help,” he offered silkily. “I’m not beholden to?—”

His taunt choked off as Kierce gripped his throat in a brutal hold that made Ankou wheeze.

“You’re feeling very choke-y tonight.” I slanted Kierce a grin. “I don’t hate it.”

His lips twitched, but he didn’t look at me. He kept his eyes on the immediate threat. Well, the threat he could engage without divine punishment. Though it did beg the question if Dis Pater wanted to hurt me, why hadn’t he snatched Kierce away like a shiny toy I was no longer allowed to play with?

Hello, paranoia. Too bad you’ve got valid reasons for this pit stop in my subconscious. Don’t forget to validate your parking.

As the last of the revelers vanished, I was left standing in the street with Kierce, Ankou, and Dis Pater.

“Keep out of my affairs, mouthy girl, or I will make you regret it,” the god snarled at me. “This is only a taste of what I can do to you, and your family.”

Light flared in a blinding pulse, and Dis Pater vanished with a crack of thunder.

“No.” I groped after him, clutching handfuls of air, then whirled on Ankou. “What were you thinking?”

“That you’re wasting your time if you expect him to give you answers or show you mercy.” His laugh was strained, his air supply cut short. “He won’t help you save your family.”

“And you will?” I couldn’t believe his gall. “You expect me to believe that?”

“The only help he was going to give you was into an early grave.” He feigned shock at his own words. “Oh. Wait. He already did that.”

“You don’t get to take the moral high ground with me.” I imagined my fingers replacing Kierce’s, closing around Ankou’s throat. “You set Lyle up to murder me. He just couldn’t pull it off.”

“Rub salt in the wound, why don’t you?” He pouted at me. “Besides, I was acting in your best interests.”

“Are you serious?” I growled at him. “You never do anything without your own best interests at heart.”

Until Kierce flung Ankou back and away from him, I hadn’t noticed how close I had gotten to Ankou. Close enough that Kierce had released Ankou in favor of keeping his hands free to grab me if necessary.

“Dis Pater would have ended you just now. He would have snuffed out your eternal soul like a cigarette smoked down to the stub. I distracted him.” He spread his arms wide like I owed him a hug. “You can thank me now.”

The opening was too good to resist. I lunged at him, hands itching to bring my earlier fantasy to life. I was tired of listening to him talk in circles. I was done with all the constant death threats and senseless taunts. The suspicions he whispered in my ears were driving me insane. Which was probably the point. Because I would have to be crazy to put up with his brand of help .

Kierce snatched me out of the air, holding me under my arms while I kicked and seethed at Ankou.

“You’re a liar and a manipulator.” I flailed against Kierce. “I don’t believe a word you say.”

Dis Pater wasn’t done punishing me. Not yet. I hadn’t suffered enough. I hadn’t lost enough. He wouldn’t go to this much trouble then skip out on the big finale. He wanted me broken. And if I lost Matty…

Cold fingers tickled my arms, ragged voices moaning in my ears. The dead beneath the city stirred as I spiraled from the magnitude of my frustration. Spirits whirled in my periphery. Whispering. Sobbing. The pressure bubbling in the back of my mind pushed against my temples, causing my vision to spark golden.

“You’re upset. I get it. Your brother is halfway to dead, and your mentor isn’t far behind. That sucks.” Ankou inched closer. “You have to look on the bright side, though.”

“There is no bright side,” I growled at him, shaking as I forced the spirits back to their resting places.

“Kierce, why are you so quiet?” Ankou, who didn’t appear to have noticed the restless souls frothing around me, angled his chin. “Oh. That’s right. Your god told you to sit and stay like the good boy you are, and you let Frankie’s loved ones slip through her fingers.”

Ankou was a first-class potstirrer, a facet of his chaotic nature, I was sure. He couldn’t open his mouth without making things worse, and I wasn’t inclined to help him. Unless by help, I could count shoving a roll of socks down his throat to shut him up for good. Barring that, I decided to play possum until Kierce relaxed his hold on me.

“Kierce can’t ignore orders any more than you can.” The second he set me on my feet, I swung my leg between Ankou’s thighs with as much force as I could muster. Impact drove him to his knees, and he clutched his junk before falling onto his side, twitching. “That’s for Josie.” I was tempted to stomp him again. “Consider it as a down payment on the pain you caused her and the rest of my family.”

A whistling groan slipped past his lips, and he vanished before I could decide on that second kick.

“He’s not wrong.” Kierce stared where he had been. “I’m a liability.”

“Nope.” I was done with this conversation. “You’re not.”

“Tonight, I was forbidden to help you, but it can get worse. Much worse. He has the power to command me to hinder you.”

Hindering me wasn’t what he feared. I could tell. Hurting me, though, made him pale with possibilities.

“You make it sound like I should kick you to the curb just in case.”

“It wouldn’t be the worst idea,” he murmured, his eyes downcast. “You should protect yourself from me.”

“I have a theory.” I hadn’t been convinced of it until Dis Pater’s tantrum. “Humor me?”

“All right.”

“I don’t think he can force you to harm me. I think it’s tied into how I go where you go when you’re summoned. We’re bound somehow.” I rubbed my forearm and the hidden mark there. “There’s a chance he knew I couldn’t accomplish anything without your help, and that’s why he didn’t bother asking you to restrain me. If I couldn’t break his enchantment, then there was no reason to alienate us by pitting you directly against me.” As I said it, I had another thought. “Maybe it’s as simple as that. He could order you to get physical but won’t because he wants to cultivate our relationship in case I prove useful one day.”

“You’re not convincing me that staying is in your best interests…”

“It’s a risk.” I couldn’t deny he was right or turn a blind eye to the facts. “But you’re worth it.”

I wasn’t afraid to fight for him, even if one day soon it might mean fighting against him.