Muscles ticked in his jaw, proving the jab had landed, but he only popped a fresh slice in his mouth.
“Frankie Talbot.”Anunit scurried across the floor in a black-and-gray blur.“The flayed man is here.”
“Ankou is here.” I stood and waited while Anunit, wearing the raccoon she’d found foraging in a dumpster, climbed up my leg to my hip. “I’m going down to see if he’s located Kierce.”
Cawing a rebuke right into my ear, Badb kicked off me and flew out the window and away from Anunit.
The crow had yet to forgive the goddess for chasing her around while wearing a taxidermied alligator.
“I’m going with you.” Harrow stepped up beside me, where Kierce ought to be, and his absence throbbed like a sore tooth. “We can’t trust him not to spirit you away if he gets you alone.”
“Count me in too.” Carter rose to her feet. “I’m interested in how he plans on?—”
“Oh, no.” Josie looped her arm through Carter’s, shackling her. “I’m a delicate little flower, remember? If a drop of rain taps my head, I might get a concussion, so you’ll just have to stay here and play umbrella.” She bared her teeth in a smile to do a shark proud. “Unless, of course, you take me with you.”
“Fucking hell,” Carter breathed, sinking back in her chair.
“I’ll pass along everything he says.” I crossed my heart with a finger. “Promise.”
“Whatever.” Josie cinched her arm around Carter until the redcap grunted. “You get to have all the fun.”
Humming softly to drown out our bickering, Vi brought Matty a steaming bowl of shrimp and grits, and my stomach perked at the rich scent of her home cooking.
“Fun is overrated.” Matty accepted the food and a kiss on the forehead. “I might never have fun again.”
“You’re not allowed to give up on fun—onlife—because you lost your soul one measly time.”
“Do you think she hears the words coming out of her mouth?” Matty indicated me with his spoon. “She says them with a straight face, so I want to think so, but those are valid reasons to hide in my room, lock my door, and never come out again.”
“Then who would go clubbing with me?” Josie tousled his hair. “Or inspire me to Frankenstein new fruitables?” That was what they called the fruit and veggie abominations Josie used her dryad talents to hybridize. “And who would taste-test each vintage?” The pair also fermented their own alcohol with themost promising fruitables in his bathtub. Yes. In his tub. Ick. “Or get falling-down drunk just to hear Frankie’s teeth grind?”
“Those are some of my favorite things,” Matty said, willing to be convinced. “Tell me more.”
“We’re in New Orleans. Hello, Bourbon Street? You haven’t been in ages.” Challenge sparked in her eyes as she glared at me. “Or, if you want to try someplace new, Frankie told me about a bar on Frenchmen Street. What was the name of it again?” She tapped her bottom lip. “Bad Beats?”
The notion to lock our sister in the roomwithMatty and ward the door until I returned from Abaddon tickled the back of my mind, but I had caused enough strife between us. She was a stick of dynamite looking for a match, and I had struck her the wrong way when she learned Harrow was coming with me but not her.
I found myself turning to Kierce for support only to get slapped with the reminder he wasn’t there. And God his absence hurt worse with every passing second. Even knowing he might not be on the same page with his feelings, it was too late for me. I was a goner.
You were…worth it. Worth everything. Always.
That was the last thing he said to me, and those words had branded themselves across my heart.
Calling Josie’s bluff, I strolled out of the room, Harrow trailing me. “Tell Pierre I said hello.”
Pierre D'Aboville was a bartender, an information broker, and a dead man walking if he hurt my sister.
“Cher,”Vi called after me. “There’s something…” She pressed her fingertips to her mouth as if holding in a confession. “Never mind. We can talk later. Find me when you’re done?”
Unease tingled in my nape, but I wouldn’t be gone long. “Sure.”
Harrow and I rode the elevator down to the garage level before crossing through the wards and out onto the street to find Ankou, wearing Armie’s face, feeding bread torn from his croissant to a mockingbird.
Food was a big motivator for Anunit, and raccoons, so I didn’t blink when she ditched me to go punch birds and steal their prizes.
“You’re back early.” I halted a good six feet away from Ankou. “You have news?”
Aside from lifting his eyebrows, he didn’t react to the raccoon, which spoke volumes about my life.
