Page 20 of Warlocks Don’t Win (Singsong City #9)

Chapter

Eleven

T he train ride was quick, an hour, and the cab ride a sedate drive from the station through the old city and up the hill overlooking the harbor where the Winston home perched, guarding the city like an old gargoyle.

Jessica inhaled sharply when she saw the house where we’d stopped.

“Oh.” Her blank expression was probably authentic as she stared at the house she’d probably only seen pictures of.

I glanced at her. “You should probably stay here while I go and pay my respects.”

She shuddered but kept her hands around my arm.

She used to like touching me because my magic cancelled out hers, and she didn’t need to think about turning me into a victim, but could have the physical contact she always craved.

Now I wasn’t sure what she was doing, but it reminded me of Tabitha, of the way she’d tried to touch me twice.

You just didn’t do that to people you hadn’t seen in fifteen years.

Jessica had slept most of the train ride, her head falling on my shoulder like old times, sleeping off her hangover. Now she looked down at her outfit, aware of how underdressed she was for an interview with an old maven like Dame Winston.

“No. I’m not letting you go in there by yourself,” she said, raising her chin and trying to look brave, but not too brave, because then you wouldn’t really know how awesome she was for facing her fears.

“Your acting was always passable but now it’s really good,” I told her, getting out.

I paid the cabby and walked towards the black iron gates that guarded the formal front rose garden.

The front gate was unlocked, but a wash of magic went through me, checking my intent, leaving my fingertips tingling.

The magic was familiar, an echo of Winston that had been buried in my chest.

I really needed to unbind the two of us. I shuddered and then continued up the front walk, enjoying the scent of roses and honeysuckle.

Jessica continued to cling to me, looking around like she feared a crow attack at any moment. Maybe a golem.

I started talking to give her something else to think about. “Midas is Silas’s cousin? The one always messing with explosives?”

“That’s him,” she agreed, still staring at the house solemnly.

“He came up with the golem?”

“It was something the team came up with when we were slightly drunk. Keeping a golem is a lot of stress we didn’t think about. If it doesn’t have a purpose, it can get destructive. You could have it help you with your garden, clearing paths.”

“I could if I didn’t already destroy it.”

She gasped, finally focusing on me. “You destroyed it? How? It was an extremely durable model we ordered all the way from Angel City!”

I cocked my head at her and tsked. “No, Jessica, the question is why. Why did I destroy a golem? Why am I asking about it? Why do I know it exists?”

She blinked at me, but didn’t speak because we were at the front door. I knocked, not bothering to pull back my shoulders and suck in my stomach like I’d done when I was first introduced to Dame Winston.

The door opened without a creak, and there was the butler, handsome, around my age, well-groomed, elegantly matching the home. “Miss Sage,” he said with a slight incline of his head. “I’m afraid that Master Winston isn’t free this afternoon.” Or here, but he wouldn’t tell me that.

“I’m here to see Dame Winston,” I said with a tight smile. Even after years of letters, I was still nervous about seeing her. She was so pulled-together. Except that now she was cursed by my house.

The butler blinked at me. “May I ask what brings you to visit?”

I glanced at Jessica who stared back at me with big eyes, while her mouth was sealed shut. “I am looking for information about breaking a curse. Sage House has a lot of records on curses, but most are on their creation, not on dispelling them.”

“Ah,” he said, still staring at me. He spent a good sixty seconds just staring at me and considering while the grandfather clock in the hall ticked every second before he finally nodded and stepped back, letting us into the hall that smelled of lemon polish and respectability.

I should definitely stop for some lemon polish before I went home. The dust was gone, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t use some polish.

“Madame is in the back garden. If your friend would wait in the parlor, I will take you to her. She will have to give you permission to peruse the library.”

I pushed Jessica towards the parlor before she could protest, then followed the butler towards the kitchen.

It was as grand and immaculate as I remembered.

The cook with her cleaver was even larger and more terrifying, hacking apart the lamb she was preparing for dinner with her enormous bare arms showing beneath her apron.

She gave me an evil look while I kept my distance, keeping close to the butler. Once we were past her and safely on the back porch, he turned towards me.

“You will approach Madame and stay where I can see you both. If she signals to me, I will shoot you in the head.”

He made it sound so elegant.

I blinked at him while I tried to see past the facade of appropriateness. If I wasn’t wrong, this guy used to be Winston’s companion when he was young. “You’re warning me? That seems like a miscalculation as far as strategy is concerned.”

He gave me a slight smile. “For Master Winston’s sake, I do hope I don’t have to.” He made it sound like Winston cared.

He nodded towards the lounger on the small lawn where the old woman was bundled up, wrapped in a pristine white down coverlet but still with a straight spine.

“Miss Sage,” she said coldly as I approached. “I sensed you the moment you entered. It seems that the bindings haven’t faded in all this time. Peculiar.”

I swallowed as I grabbed a chair and dragged it beside her so I wasn’t standing over her. One glance at her hollowed eyes and yellow tinted skin showed me everything I needed to know. She didn’t have much time. Anyone could see that her organs were probably collapsing.

I sat there, staring at the blowsy roses around us in shades of pink and yellow. The scent almost covered up her deterioration. What did I think I was doing here? What could I possibly do to save her even if the curse was tied to Sage House

“Well?” she snapped after I’d spent a long time avoiding reality.

I slowly turned to look at her. “Winston said that you’re under a curse.”

Her expression froze before anger lit her eyes like a live wire of flickering violet. “Did he? And you’re here to gloat?”

I raised my hands and shook my head. “No, of course not. I wanted to see if I could help.”

“Sage suddenly knows anything about breaking curses? Hm?” She narrowed her eyes at me while her pale lip curled.

“The arrogance of you coming here to help me? The only thing you ever did to help was murder your mother and go to jail. At least it should have helped, but instead Winston became fixated. Poor creature, beguiled by a monster like…” She broke off coughing.

When she finally recovered, she frowned at me. “What on earth happened to your hair?”

I tugged on a green stand. “It’s a curse.” What else could it be?

Her thin brows rose above those dangerous eyes. She knew so much that I could barely grasp. Power. Knowledge. Control. She’s what a voice should be. Except that she wasn’t as stable as she had been. The curse had unbalanced her. I could relate.

“Miss Sage, if that’s all, you should leave.” The weight of her voice, the disapproval and contempt she wielded like a dagger made me want to run away in shame. But she hadn’t abandoned me when everyone else had. I wouldn’t quit now until I’d had some answers that might lead to her cure.

I shook my head and pulled out the herbs I’d borrowed from Jessica’s kitchen. This whole trip was more spontaneous than I liked, but how else could I get around whoever had sent the golem and its death spell after me? Everyone would expect me to cower at home. I didn’t have time for that.

“I’m here to help, Madame Winston. Win asked me to come.”

She inhaled sharply and shot daggers at me. “You lie. He would never sully our name with a convicted murderer.”

That hurt. Still, “I was aquitted. This will only take a second.” I worked around her, frowning at the herbs I crushed in my hands and sprinkled on the ground while I muttered spells under my breath.

“You refuse me? At my own house? You have such contempt for your betters. No wonder my grandson testified against you. You have no shame, no propriety. You’re as shocking as your mother, invading your former betrothed’s home as though he didn’t make his feelings towards you imminently clear when he testified against you! ”

Her letters hadn’t been nearly so cruel, but age made some people bitter.

No doubt I’d be one of them if I lived that long.

I sighed and continued my elaborate hand gestures and murmured words.

I was responsible for any curses attached to Sage house, and also, I needed to find out where her curse came from so I could kill whoever did this.

Madame sputtered, “Where is the butler? Anthony, take this person out. Anthony!”

I finished my circle while her trembling voice rose, then finished with a clap of my hands.

A flare of light flowed around her, running towards her and then spiraling out before shooting off in a straight line through the sky towards Sage House.

I could feel when that light dart hit its target.

It hit me as well, sending me stumbling to the ground, blinking up at Dame Winston where she stared at me, horror and rage on her face.

“Get out!” she commanded before she raised a shaky finger and shot a dart of raw glowing magic at me.

I rolled across the grass, leaving a singed spot where I’d been. I stood up on shaky legs, raising my hands. “I didn’t do it!”