Page 19 of Ride or Die (The Body Shop #5)

Maybe if I stroked his ego enough, he would let me hold Dinorah under the pretense of wanting to know more about where I came from and how he accomplished his miracle. Even if the idea of praising him for what he had done made me want to hurl, I had to be smart if I wanted to get out of here.

And that meant, for better or worse, I had to answer his questions and play the role of dutiful daughter.

Dutiful creation? Dutiful invention? I didn’t care how he saw me.

All that mattered was I got my hands on Dinorah and got out of here in one piece.

Assuming Anunit and I made it that far, we could worry about Kierce and the mirashii later.

A loud pop startled me as Ankou appeared beside Ithas. “You might want to?—”

Light exploded into the room, filling every nook and cranny, and Ithas bellowed with rage.

Holding a hand up to shield my eyes, I expected Dis Pater had come to roast me yet again, but the figure at the center of the disturbance was too curvy to be him. Great. Just what I didn’t need. Another god in my life. Though this would be the first goddess. That silhouette was definitely female.

“Get your ass over here.” The woman pointed to me then to the spot right in front of her. “We need to go. Now. Before it’s too late.”

“Go?” A tingle of possibility shivered through my limbs. “You mean me ?”

“Who else? Chop-chop, kid.” She made a walking gesture with her fingers. “This is a portal. You walk through them. They take you places. Get it?”

Ithas raged and thrashed in the light, unable to face its source, but I was running out of time to choose. I could stick with Ithas and hope I was too valuable for him to take apart, see what made me unique, then put me back together, or I could take my chances with the newcomer.

A second figure limped up behind her, one arm holding his stomach.

Kierce.

As much as I wanted to run to him, I had learned my lesson. I held my ground, trying to figure out what, exactly, was happening. I sank my fingers in Anunit’s ruff and rocked forward onto the balls of my feet. The pull to go to him was that strong.

“Frankie,” Kierce gritted out my name. “You must come with us.”

“Hear that booming?” The woman pointed up above us. “That’s the mirashii. I left a basket of your dirty laundry right inside Ithas’s front door.”

Tempted as I was to believe that meant Ithas lied about not knowing the predatory birds were in the area, I believed his denial had been genuine. Confronted with the truth, I bet he gave Dis Pater an earful.

“What?” That might be the most shocking thing she had said so far. “How did you get my laundry?”

“From your house, where else?”

“That’s not what I?—”

“They’re going to break through soon, and they’re going to realize fast that dinner isn’t hiding in that pile of fabric. Trust me, kid. You don’t want to be here when that happens.”

Warm lips brushed my ear, and Ankou whispered, “Consider this payment in full.”

Swatting him away, I cranked my head toward him, but I was half blind. “For what?”

Ice-cold dread dripped down my spine when it occurred to me how big of a risk Kierce had taken.

He was only safe around me with a bone bullet pinging through his body.

Ankou hadn’t ripped it out and flung it aside, allowing Kierce to go berserk, but I couldn’t trust Ankou not to turn Kierce against me if I refused his terms. God only knew what those might be, but my window of opportunity was closing fast.

Smooth warmth pressed into my palm, and I closed my fingers around the object on reflex. As soon as I took its weight, firm hands smacked me between the shoulders, knocking me stumbling forward. “This.”

“Frankie.” Kierce waved me on, urging me toward him. “You must hurry.”

The way my name rolled off his tongue was almost enough to send me hurtling toward him, but I held my ground, uncertain whether it was safe.

“You will perish for what you have done,” Anunit told Ithas. “Enjoy your last days of existence.”

Then her head butted the backs of my knees, almost sending me sprawling, as she urged me to run.

The grooves in the object in my hand revealed themselves to be the hilt of a sword under my seeking fingers. Dinorah . Ankou had given me Dinorah. That was all the prompting I required to cave in and sprint.

Anunit sprung through the narrow gap between the woman and Kierce, but I launched myself against his chest on a sob. He hiked me higher up his torso, closing his arms around me even as his legs trembled and his labored breaths grew harsher. His lips were warm at my ear as he whispered assurances.

Gravity twisted my stomach, spun the whole room, and then the bleakness at my back vanished into sunlight on my face. I wrapped my legs around his waist, eliciting a groan from the back of his throat, but his eyes smiled up at me.

“You have the survival instincts of a chicken crossing the road during rush hour in Atlanta,” the woman grumbled as she closed what must have been an interdimensional portal.

Because she hadn’t simply brought us out of Ithas’s lair.

No. This wasn’t Abaddon but NOLA. “You just take randos’ hands and leap across worlds with them? ”

“Who are you?” I breathed in the smells of the French Quarter that couldn’t be faked. “ What are you?”

To open a portal that crossed worlds required serious power, and speaking of serious power...

Dinorah gleamed in my hand, leaving me more confused than ever about Ankou and his motivations.

All I could figure was Ithas hadn’t told Ankou point-blank to never give me Dinorah. Ankou had proven time and time again he could wiggle around orders, just not defy them. This skirted a dangerous line, though. One there would be no coming back from now that he had crossed it.

“You hold Dinorah?” Anunit was once again relegated to speaking in my head. “How is this possible?”

“Ankou.” I heard the profound shock in my voice. “I don’t know what he’s playing at, but he told me I owed him. I can’t imagine that will amount to anything good, but we’ll figure it out.”

Using those seconds of blinding brightness, he snitched the sword and handed it off to me. As payment. For the favor he was asking. I had been sitting across from Ithas when the portal opened, so I had no doubt Ankou would blame it on me. Which meant Ithas and Dis Pater would be gunning for me.

But they pretty much already were, so…

“According to Vionette Fontenot, who I only met an hour ago, I’m your mother.” The woman hardened her jaw. “The fact that vaporous sleazeball had you in his clutches tends to make me think she’s right.”

Mother.

Mother?

No, no, no.

“Thanks, but no thanks,” I mumbled, lips gone numb. “I’m all parented out for today.”

For all that she looked like a normal person leaving for a week of camping, with her blondish hair twisted into tidy French braids and her probing eyes in a remarkable shade of blue, I couldn’t dump more on top of everything else already stuffing my head.

Not until I cleared out space for new revelations.

“We need to get…you inside…the wards.” Kierce trembled under me. “Safe.”

“Sorry, sorry, sorry.” I unlatched my legs and stood on my own two feet. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

The sword drew his eye immediately, but he didn’t comment, and his silence made me think he wanted the woman to believe it was nothing special. That suited me just fine. I would have a hard enough time explaining its importance to the others without revealing its value in front of a stranger.

“Another time…I wouldn’t mind.” A fine mist sheened his forehead. “But…the bone...”

“I would ask how you’re feeling, but that would be stupid under the circumstances.

” I cradled his face in my palms. “God, I missed you.” I rolled onto my tiptoes and smashed my lips into his.

“Sorry again.” The amused light gleaming silver in his eyes made the embarrassment worth it.

“I’ll keep my hands to myself until you are yourself again. ”

“I don’t mind your hands.” His words came easier without his burden. “Whether I’m myself or not.”

Forcing my libido to cool, I shut my eyes and counted back from five before opening them again with the mental clarity I had lost as soon as I touched him. “Josie?” I peered down the street. “Carter? Harrow?”

“They’re already here,” the woman—I couldn’t think of her as Mother —growled, losing her patience.

“We must get Dinorah behind the wards.”

“Yes. Of course. Everything else can wait.”

“Come on, lover boy.” The woman snapped her fingers at her side. “You got your girl. Let’s move.”

Arm sliding through his, I guided Kierce toward the street-level entrance to the Chartres townhouse. The magic slid over me as I helped him past the wards, but I hesitated when the woman reached out to me.

I convinced myself the pause was because I ought to check with Vi to verify whether she had permission to enter but worried the truth was I didn’t want to touch her.

To cover the awkwardness, I welcomed Anunit in first.

A chime rang out, and the elevator doors rolled open to reveal Vi, sparing me from my indecisiveness.

Bustling past me, she hauled the woman in and shut the door before gripping my shoulder and spinning me around to face her. She dragged me into her arms, smelling of spice and earth, and I breathed her in. New Orleans would always be my second home, and these hugs were the reason.

“Damn fool girl.” Her voice hitched. “You should have come home with Papa Legba.”

“I wanted to,” I blubbered into her shoulder, “but I couldn’t come back without Kierce.”

Faint blue light flickered on the edge of my vision as Pedro and Pascal rushed to greet me.

“Mija.” Tears gleamed in Pedro’s translucent eyes. “Thank God.”

“You scared us, Francita.” Pascal made to hug me, but Vi didn’t let go. “I’m glad you’re in one piece.”