Page 12 of Warlocks Don’t Win (Singsong City #9)

Chapter

Seven

W hen we got inside the house, Winston carried me to the front parlor, where he used to come when we were courting.

He stopped in the doorway abruptly, clutching me to his chest with all those muscles so I couldn’t breathe and my ribs creaked.

I gasped and struggled, but he didn’t seem to notice that he was crushing me, not when he was glaring across the room at the warlock lounging on the green velvet couch, a dust-free spot in the otherwise web-shrouded mausoleum.

“Cousin,” the handsome warlock with a tidy goatee said, standing and giving me a look that made my stomach twist. “And in the arms of your old lover. Seems as though he’s crushing you. Would you like me to throw him out for you?”

Winston immediately loosened his grasp on me, but he didn’t put me down. “You, the Snake of Salem, dare enter Sage House uninvited?”

It took me a long time to link this smooth and sophisticated individual with Silas the Snake, who was a very distant cousin, probably not at all blood related to me, and had been hitting on me since I was eleven.

“Oh. Silas. You’ve gotten much better looking,” I said, still out of breath from being squeezed by Winston. I subtly elbowed him, but he didn’t put me down.

Silas smiled, serpentine and oily as he gave me a raised brow. “Have I? And you have only grown in beauty as well.”

Yeah, nothing said beauty like random hair stripes and black sweats.

Winston growled, the rumbling in his chest going through me like an earthquake.

“You were supposed to be responsible for getting her legal representative. You didn’t hire anyone.

She was left with an intern public servant who never passed the bar.

” Ah. Good old Sarah J who ‘represented me’ so well.

Then again, the fact that I’d had an unlicensed lawyer was part of why I was pardoned.

Silas shrugged, giving Winston a smirk. “Unlike you, who testified against her. It was so cowardly the way you did it, having them record your witness but not showing up so anyone could cross-examine you.”

It was Winston’s first public performance on the screen. And all for me. Be still my heart. And now I wanted to bite him. Again.

He growled. “It wouldn’t have mattered if I was there.

Her lawyer didn’t cross-examine anyone, including her.

” He held me closer while I held very still and tried not to kill everyone.

During the case I wasn’t capable of defending myself or even talking.

I’d been in such deep shock from the magic transfer, it was a surprise that I hadn’t been unconscious.

“Silas,” I said, sweet and cheerful, sounding like my mother as I summoned all the strength in my body to deal with him when I wanted nothing more than to collapse forever.

He immediately stiffened and looked more alarmed. “Yes, Clary?”

“It’s time for you to leave. We’ll be in touch. You’re still at the Reptile House?”

He nodded and absently stroked his goatee.

Apparently, that was his nervous tick. He did look good, strong, healthy, like he’d been draining the life force from something like, I don’t know, my house.

Could he have shot at me and then hurried to the house before I got there?

I guess it was possible, but how would he have known I was back so soon?

I smiled so hard my teeth creaked. “I’ll let you know what I need from you. Right this moment, Winston is going to draw me a bath and massage my feet. He’s such a good friend.”

I gazed up at the warlock I was going to strangle, and ran my hand up the side of his cheek. His skin was rough under my palm. He needed to shave every five minutes or grow in a manly beard.

Silas gagged and then forced an oily smile. “Of course, Clary. I just want you to know that you have my full support. Welcome back.”

He gave me one last look then turned and slithered out, leaving me to wriggle out of Winston’s grasp and land on the floor in a puff of dust.

I reeled and almost fell over, but somehow managed to stay on my feet.

Being connected so deeply to an entity like Sage House when it was drained wasn’t healthy for me.

Obviously. I had to cut off whoever did it now.

But I was too weak on my own. I’d need the help of my Singsong coven to break those bindings.

And someone had tried to kill me.

I winced and held up a hand when Winston moved closer, like I needed him to carry me away again. “You should go,” I said.

He nodded. “Yes. We can go to the nice bed and breakfast on Comfrey Corner until this house is up to health code standards.” He pursed his lips. “Not that it isn’t marvelously charming,” he added for the sake of its self-confidence.

I sighed heavily. “Not we, you. You keep picking me up. The next time you do that, I really am going to murder you. Your grandmother would be sad.”

“You’d rather I let you fall over? You’d probably have rolled back down the hill. That time, Paulo wouldn’t have broken your fall.”

And he knew the names of the people running around in my yard, but hadn’t bothered to mention it. I swung around to glare at him. “You didn’t tell me that they were using my woods for their show. Why not?”

He frowned back at me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think it was relevant. You’re hungry. Let me take you out to dinner.”

“I’m not leaving the house until I’ve broken the curse, if there is a curse, and broken the bindings to the local coven.”

“That’ll be a declaration of war when you’re barely on your feet. Everyone, including the house, is angry at you for abandoning them.”

I jabbed his chest. “I didn’t abandon them! I went to jail! No one was on my side. Not my coven, and not…”

He grabbed my shoulders and pulled me close so I couldn’t help but smell that incredibly delicious scent that was all him. “I know. I’m sorry. I ran away instead of staying by your side. I…”

“Didn’t love me,” I said shortly and broke out of his grasp.

“I know. Too bad you got a tattoo before you realized your mistake.” I sighed as the anger drained out of me.

Anger took way too much energy. “Don’t worry, Winston.

If there’s a curse, I’ll break it. You don’t belong here.

Go be with your grandmother. She’s dying alone. ”

He frowned at me. “She’s not alone. She’s a manipulator like me, only better at it.

Clary, if you’re serious about setting a way door here, I recently installed one at home, to connect both coasts.

It’s not a small feat. It took me years of research to properly set one up that didn’t lose people in various dimensions in the process.

It’s good that you’re willing to be connected to Sage House.

It needs you.” His eyes were so sweet, caramel balls of sincerity.

I snorted. “It needs to be burned to the ground. Maybe that’s the obvious solution to all the issues. Burn the house, burn the woods, and you won’t have curses or anything else latching onto it. It’s tired. I’m tired. There’s no way I have enough strength to make a way door, not when…”

Did I want to tell him about the house being drained?

His eyes flickered with purple. “In the woods, when you locked into your home, you became weak, more weak than before. That’s the opposite of what’s supposed to happen, isn’t it?”

I sighed heavily. Of course it was. And of course he’d noticed that I hadn’t become some super-fueled witch when he knew all about the theory of places of power like Sage House.

Was there any point of pretending? If he’d recently made a way door…

But I didn’t want to be connected permanently to Sage House.

I wanted to go back to my real life in Singsong city and forget that all of this existed.

Except that someone had shot me. Someone who must have known who I was and wanted me out of the way for some reason.

But who could have known me after fifteen years and just as many different bad hair days?

Someone must be reporting on my activity to the Salem Coven.

But why? Had Silas really been responsible for hiring my lawyer?

Several people had been surprised that I’d gotten a life sentence from killing someone who was notoriously suspected of all kinds of illegal activities, including murder.

But the trial had been very one-sided, convicting me with Winston’s testimony more than anything else.

His family was well-known and respected.

Of course it was. That’s what they wanted to be, so that’s what they got.

Mine was well-known and feared. Also what my mother had wanted.

What did I want?

His voice was low, persuasive. “Clary, let me take you to dinner. Use me. Being seen with me will cement the idea that you have a very strong ally and aren’t dependent on the will of the coven. Hiding in Sage House isn’t going to help. Don’t let the house’s panic affect you.”

“The house isn’t being a drama queen. It really is being torn apart,” I murmured, but I wasn’t really thinking about that, not when he was looking at me with those soft caramel eyes.

His family were the world’s greatest manipulators.

He was manipulating me right now. In fact, what were the odds that I’d have brought him on a cross-country trip if I wasn’t being magically influenced by him?

But why did he want to be here with me? What did he want, other than to break his grandmother’s curse? If there was a curse.

Someone had tried to shoot me. If I died, who would profit?

I’d already abandoned the coven, so nothing much would change there, but the house.

It would go to someone else if I died, someone who might think that they’d take better care of it.

It must have seemed like I’d abandoned it without a backwards glance.

Would that be enough reason to shoot me?

Maybe it was something else. The coven wouldn’t believe that I didn’t want to take control of them again once I came back. They didn’t understand how deeply I didn’t want to be my mother.