Alone saxophone growled out “Baker Street” by Gerry Rafferty under the gallery, the rich performance sweeping up into Madam Vionette Fontenot’s kitchen through the window cracked open above the sink. Most homeowners in the Quarter discouraged busking in front of their homes, but not Vi. She supported the arts, going so far as to invite her favorite musicians up for a hot meal to thank them for sharing their talent and to let them rest their weary feet before they shuffled on to the next corner.
Badb, however, was a harsher critic. She sat on the windowsill flicking single grains of rice at the performer. Not even Jean-Claude doting on her, plying her with sweet treats, could ease her grief over losing Kierce.
“You’ve got that look.” Matty swept his gaze over my face. “Like when you’ve taken too big of a bite but you’ll be damned if you don’t chew and swallow without letting it choke you to death on its way down.”
“That’s a very specific look,mon chéri.” Vi tossed Badb a freshly peeled shrimp. “Very specific.”
The crow inhaled the treat then resumed pelting the musician with grim determination.
Sure, he was hanging around later than most, but it was almost ten on a Saturday night.
Not that Badb minded the hour or the day. She was just a terror in general.
“She wears it so often lately,” Josie cut in, sharper than the knife glinting on the cutting board. “See, Frankie believes the world is hers to save.” Seated across the oak table, she glared a hole in my forehead between the eyes she refused to meet. “God forbid anyone else—especially the people who love her most in the world—try to help her.”
“Matty is in no condition to help.” I ground my knuckles into the underside of the table, hoping the pain would center me. “He’s not going anywhere.”
“That’s right.” Vi tapped a wooden spoon against the pot bubbling on the stove, a judge calling her kitchen courtroom to order. “You’re stuck with me until Frankie gets back.”
From Abaddon.
Abaddon.
I could hardly believe I had volunteered to go, let alone with Ankou—Ankou—as my guide to the underworld. But just because I wasn’t perched in a window, pelting passersby with rice, didn’t mean I was coping any better than Badb with Kierce’s latest death.
Smearing my blood across the crow design Kierce had branded on my arm had had no effect, not that I really expected it to summon him across worlds. No. That had been the point of Elmo, the burning elm tree. Its fruit would have given me the power to call him to me no matter where he was in any world. But Ankou ruined that. He ruined everything. I could only pray he didn’t ruin this too.
This time there would be no quick fixes, no easy outs, no loopholes to exploit.
To free Kierce of his cage and his bond to Dis Pater, I would have to go after Kierce myself.
“I’m happy to be stuck.” Matty lifted his hands in surrender. “I may never go anywhere ever again.”
A jagged shard of regret lodged in my heart to hear him even joke about it when he had always been the most outgoing of us Marys. The life of the party. But I understood his hesitation to return to his lifestyle when this last party almost cost him his life.
“I’m not asking you to throw Matty into the line of fire.” Josie smacked her open palm against the table. “I’ve proven myself, haven’t I? I held my own against Ankou. I can do this. Please, Mary, don’t go alone.”
“Josie.” Gathering her cold hands in mine, I rubbed warmth into her clammy fingers. “You kicked his ass. Well, okay, youwhippedhis ass.” Those thorny vines had to hurt as she spanked him with them. “Which, honestly, was even better.” I tightened my grip, willing her to believe me. “I’m so proud of you.”
“And yet…” Her mouth crimped into a bitter line. “There’s abutcoming.”
“I’m not willing to risk you.”
“What ifI’mnot willing to riskyou?” Josie’s rising temper caused the herbs in the planter box under the window to writhe, spooking Badb onto my shoulder. “What if I’m done letting you take the hits for us?” She cut her eyes to the right as light footsteps approached us. “I’m my own woman, and I can make my own choices.”
Her tone broadcasted loud and clear that she and Carter were still fighting about their situationship.
“She’s not wrong.” Carter dropped into the chair next to me, the orange spots on her clothes giving her blouse a measled flare.Clearly Josie had driven her to stress eating cheddar puffs again. “You’re so hell-bent on protecting others, you don’t give anyone a chance to protect you.”
Mouth falling open, I shoved away from the table and my unhappy family. “You think I should bringJosieto Abaddon?”
“Well, no, I would never endorse that.” She pretended not to notice the nuclear bomb with her name on it about to mushroom us all. “But you could take me.”
“You don’t have any skin in this game.” Harrow strolled in eating orange slices and posted up beside me. It felt like a line being drawn. “You should stay here in case Dis Pater circles back.”
Though she made a clucking noise under her breath, Vi let us work things out between ourselves.
“You think I don’t know why you want me to stay put?” A bag of cheddar puffs materialized in her hand, and she ripped the top off with her teeth. Definitely stress eating. “Every time Frankie mentions Ankou, I see what you’ve got in mind for him written across your face. You don’t want me there when you go for his throat because you don’t want the reminder that you’re breaking the laws you’ve sworn to uphold.”
