Rolling my eyes, I waited until she was satisfied, then took a good look. None of the scar showed, and Yuri had recreated my sketch flawlessly.
“Very nice,” I complimented him.
He bowed in an old-fashioned way.
Some older nephs are like that. I guess they get their decades mixed up. The funniest is when they get a few centuries’ worth of slang and idioms all muddled together with today’s language. Once, my friend Hinge said, “I’ll get in the soup if I chew the fat with you any longer, bro. I gotta bounce, like, now, or Bit will be frosted and totally get in my grill.”
I still don’t understand half of what he was saying that night.
“Nice? It’sexquisite!” Mira threw up her arms and spun in a circle. “I love it!”
“You’re going to crash into something.” Rome put his hands on her hips and pulled her down onto his knee. “Yuri needs to finish you up so Kerry can have his turn.”
“Oh. Right.”
She sat still as Yuri spread petroleum jelly on her back, then covered it with a bandage. After he cleaned his gear and the table, he held out his hand and made a grabby motion with his fingers.
“Let’s see what you have planned for yourself.”
“Let us see, too,” Mira demanded.
“You can see it when it’s done,” I told her.
Glad my sketchbook had perforated pages, I tore it out and gave it to Yuri. He studied it in silence for a minute, then raised his eyes to meet mine.
“This is your lady?”
“Yeah.”
“I am sorry she was taken from you.”
“Me, too.”
“Castle works for the Alchemists.” He spoke slowly now and dropped his eyes back to the paper. “If theydohave her, I fear for her.”
Power glittered on my skin, and I couldn’t talk as I fought for calm.
“We don’t think they do,” Rome said for me. “I’ll tell you this because it’s not much of a secret anymore. Kerry’s asking questions too loudly. A djinni named Darius carried her off while we were in battle with his master’s forces. We think Darius is going to barter her for the seal that enslaves him and his brothers.”
“Solomon’s seal.” Yuri nodded. “Why would Fire barter a healer for it?”
So Yuri knows that Fire is the leader of the Alchemists.
“He thinks she’s that miracle worker the demon prince wants,” Rome told him.
“It’s a long story,” Mira added.
“Fire may be human, but there is no humanity in him.” Yuri sat on his stool and stared up at me. “He’d give up the seal without hesitation if it gained him the miracle worker. ”
My whole body shook with the strain of holding in the power. I wanted to blow something up. I wanted to burn down the world. I wanted to cut this old neph’s tongue out for telling a truth I didn’t wanna hear—
Water misted my face, then misted it again. After a second, the rage went to sleep and I could think again.
“We’ll get her back before that can happen.”
Mira stood a foot in front of me. She held up a tiny blue bottle with a squeeze trigger top.
“You need another spritz?”
