Cheat the Grave

I considered giving Buttersnap some slack. Kimber’s glyph took on a faint glow, as if she read my mind, but I wouldn’t do it. I’d never get Buttersnap’s muzzle off quickly enough.

“Finished hiding?” she asked, tossing her long blond dreads.

“I was just taking a little siesta. Right, Carlos?” He nodded, and I nonchalantly kicked at some bramble. It tumbled over the invisible line, right to the toe of Kimber’s boot. “After all, I’m going to need my full strength to face Sleepy Mac.”

Kimber huffed so hard I doubted there was any air left in her lungs. It didn’t keep her from speaking. “In your mortal state? Better to stick to your siestas on that side of city limits.”

“Well, you’d think so, wouldn’t you?” I forced out my own mock sigh and patted Buttersnap on her great black head. Her body thrummed beneath my touch. She could barely stand being this close to the agents of Light without attacking. Io had done some sort of hypnosis on the dog, though, a mental prescription not to move from my side unless I expressly commanded it. “But unlike you, Mackie can actually get to me here. So going after him in Las Vegas is the lesser of two evils.”

She jutted out her chin, a nasty smirk widening her face. I hated smirks. “You have to get past me first.”

“Okay.”

And Carlos shot her with a tranq gun. We high-fived as she dropped like A-bomb fallout. It’d been my idea to plug her with a mortal weapon, and I’d have done it myself but this was more gratifying for us both. He never got to fire things, and looked pretty jazzed about his shot. Even Buttersnap was wagging her tail so hard her whole body shook.

Felix snickered, then sobered under Micah’s dark look. They could smell the drugs in the shot, and knew Kimber was fine. In fact, troop members routinely did worse on April Fool’s Day. It would be humiliating for her when she woke, but what was she going to do? Hate me more?

“Do you have an actual plan here, Joanna?” Tekla gazed up at me with soft eyes, her tiny frame lost in the folds of gray silk, her hair pulled back like mine, but more severely. Her voice was authoritative-she was shitstorm powerful-but permissive and fair. She wasn’t angry with me like Warren. And though I couldn’t scent their emotions, I didn’t think anyone besides Kimber was either. “Or are you going to drug every moving thing?”

“The plan,” I said calmly, mirroring her folded hands, “is to kill the Tulpa, gain the aureole for myself, thus preventing Mackie from killing me and allowing me to enter Midheaven without stripping away the last of my soul. Or, you know, dying upon entry, since I’m mortal.” I looked around. “Any other questions?”

“You’re going after Hunter.” It wasn’t a question. It was Felix at his most serious…and it sounded like he wouldn’t mind coming along.

“I’m going after Hunter.”

“We’re not going against Warren’s wishes, Joanna,” Micah said, shooting Felix a hard look before gazing down at me from his seven full feet. The soot and black fire festering beneath his skin shifted with every syllable, causing him to wince, but his eyes were still kind despite the agony. The look nearly brought tears to my own.

“I know he can be brusque, but he has reasons for everything he does. And he’s kept this troop together for a long time.”

I wanted to say the Tulpa did all of those things too, but had no desire to antagonize Micah. At least he seemed to have given himself something for the pain. His eyes were a bit too glassy and his words slid into one another where they didn’t cut off abruptly. I fought back a wince when he swallowed hard. So he’d turned his back on me. I still hated to see him like this. “I’m not asking you to go against him,” I said softly. “I’m just asking you to let me pass.”

“You mean defy his wishes.”

I yanked the old silver gun from its holster with my free hand and pointed it at Kimber, now sitting up. The liquid green vial atop the chamber caught the morning sun like it was drawing the light in. “I mean, live and let live.”

Tekla eased in front of Kimber. “There’s no need for that.”

Despite her gentleness, it reminded me whose side she was on. I used the gun to motion her aside. “Yes, Tekla, there is. Because a man is being held captive and tortured in another world, and he was driven there because of the things Warren didn’t tell him…just as he didn’t tell any of you.”

Micah shook his head. “I told you he has his reasons.”

“Yeah?” That reason was sounding more and more like an excuse to me. “Well, if circumstances were different, it could easily be any of you over there.”

“Hunter made bad choices.”

“We all make bad choices.” Most people made them in a vacuum, acting on what was known and doing the best they could. But if someone kept the truth from you, forcing you to act in its absence, then even a bad decision was a false negative. But again, it wasn’t the time. They’d come around to the same thought eventually. If they hadn’t already, I thought, noting Felix’s silent frown.

“Look, I know you have a job to do, you’re still in a troop, and Warren’s your leader. I get it. But I could use some allies.”

The ensuing silence almost sizzled in the air, and despite the coolness, it reminded me of a scorching summer day. Finally, Micah spoke up. “Where are you going?”

Tekla looked at him sharply. He continued watching me, sooty shadows sifting beneath his skin like black clouds.

“Valhalla. Noon. The wedding of the decade.” I smiled wryly, but none of them smiled back. “All the major players will be there. Show up. Help me.”

Only Tekla’s mouth moved. “No.”

It wasn’t said cruelly. No more animosity in the refusal than if I’d asked her to get me a pint of milk at the store.

“Then just let me pass.”

Nobody moved, and in that frozen moment, I unexpectedly began to feel sorry for them. Sure, I was the weakest, the outcast, the one most likely to be dead by day’s end. But I made my own decisions now, calling and controlling my own shots, and unlike any of them-dependent upon Warren’s whim and “reasons”-I could no longer be used.

Maybe they sensed something of my thoughts, because Tekla and Micah simultaneously stepped aside. Both silenced Kimber’s protesting whine with a sharp look. Felix only watched me.

“We’ll tell Warren,” Tekla said. “Immediately.”

Of course. “Thank you.”

Carlos and I started forward, shifting so we were back-to-back with Buttersnap taking the lead, but Micah veered as well, and shook his head. “Only you.”

I stared up at his looming frame from the distance of only five feet. It felt like miles. “The rogues are not your enemies, Micah.”

The liquid ash below the surface of that first layer of skin wavered as his jaw clenched. “They aren’t allies.”

“They could be.” The plea was in my eyes, if not in my voice.

Tekla cleared her throat. “Not today.”

Glancing from one senior troop member to the other, I decided not to press my luck. Rome, I thought, hadn’t been overthrown in a day. But I stared back into Micah’s kind, destroyed face. “I’m so sorry you’ve been injured, Micah. I’d never wish it for you. And I’m…I’m just sorry.”

Tears must have already been waiting because they spilled over his cheeks in light black streaks. “I’m sorry too.”

And he wasn’t talking about his own pain.

I nodded, then turned back to Carlos. “Wait until they’re gone. Warren will pull them all to come after me. There’s an employee entrance south of the parking garage at Valhalla. I’ll make sure someone knows you’re coming.”

He frowned, not liking it. But I had to go, and even though the rogues were more committee than troop, he still needed to keep their best interests in mind. Finally, he touched my cheek with one hand. The warmth made me realize how cold I’d actually been. “Be careful.”

“You mean the opposite of careful.” Because what I needed to be was effective. I had no idea how those two