Which, I suppose, wasn’t the same thing as being unarmed at all.
“There you are, Bijou.” Ankou made a cutting gesture at his sides, and the men stepped back. “I thought you were going to stand me up for a minute. Can you imagine how sad that would have looked?” He was using one of the men, a witch, to glamour the street. I could smell it. Must be a black witch. They carried a rotten odor about them. “Me standing on the street, heart in my eyes, staring up at the goddess divine while she glowered down at me from the balcony?”
“Romeo and Juliet was a tragedy, not a romance. You get that, right?”
“Threw the city into chaos for days. No matter how you slice it, it’s adeliciousliterary masterpiece.”
“Hmm.”
“Mind drawing us a circle?” He slid his gaze toward his companions. “We have business to discuss.”
“The favor.”
“Yes.” His lips thinned. “I am doing you a favor by coming for you myself.”
Message received. He didn’t want his buddies overhearing our chat and reporting back on whatever deal Ankou was about to barter. This should be interesting.
With Anunit acting as my ticket home in the event he attempted to whisk me away to Abaddon again, I drew a circle around us and invited Ankou to step in, knowing my siblings would be banging their heads against the wall if they could see me. Or maybe plotting to bangmyhead against the wall.
As soon as the circle solidified, Ankou exhaled slowly. “Ithas is not happy with you for stealing Dinorah.”
“I didn’t steal it.” I narrowed my eyes on him. “Someone gave it to me.”
“Yeah, well, if you think I’m going to confess my sins, you’ve got another think coming.”
“Tell me the truth. The whole truth. You didn’t only bring me to Abaddon to intimidate me.”
More than simple greed had motivated him, or he would have bounced at the first sign of opposition.
“Okay, okay. Fine. You caught me.” He raked a hand through his hair. “I was supposed to bring you right to Ithas, but you would have never seen the light of day again if I had done that. He would have kept you, played with you, and then broken you. You’re as close to perfect as he’s ever going to get, but as soon as he has asked you his questions and gotten his answers, he will scrap you. He can’t help but tweak everything he makes, and he’s worked on this project too long to stop.”
“There must have been wiggle room in how he phrased the command to let you get away with dragging your feet.” I read between the lines. “That’s why you chose Abaddon to negotiate with me, to satisfy the urge to obey him.” I turned his actions over in my mind. “You even ran from the mirashii with us rather than dump me on Ithas to give my family time to rescue me.”
“You can’t very well save me,” he sighed, glancing away, “if you can’t save yourself.”
“The omen ruined your plan to have your cake and eat it too.”
Otherwise, we could have freed Kierce and returned to New Orleans triumphant without Ankou breaking faith with his master. I’m certain, in this fantasy, he also expected me to be so full of good cheer and gratitude that I would grant his request to kill his master and free him too.
All without him ever confessing he would have turned me over to Ithas if I had flat-out refused his ask.
“I am what I am, and that is all I will ever be.”
“Then I pity you.”
Hands shoved into my pockets, I pierced my right index fingertip with a lancet.
Then, faster than he could clock what I intended, I drew a sigil in my blood on his forehead.
“What the hell?” He scrubbed at his skin. “What did you do?”
Having heard the chant only once, I could only hope I remembered the rhythm.
He switched faces, Armie and Ankou, Ankou and Armie, but the mark burnt bright.
There was no erasing it. No escaping it.
I had marked his soul for Dis Pater, and the crackle of lightning across the sky meant the god was coming to collect.
