“We’ll arrange for a contingent of sentinels to help us herd them,” Bishop told him. “Give me the coordinates for the area you have in mind, and we’ll make it happen.”
“Time,” Siobhan called. “You’ll have to finish your scheming via text or video chat.”
Extricating Smythe from his new true love proved difficult, but he got with the program after I hooked my arm through his and dragged him from the room. Unimpressed with me, but unwilling to pick a fight, the shadow dog trotted at his master’s side.
“I know it’s the height of rudeness to ask,” I started, “but what is Eustice?”
As the not-so-proud owner of my own animate shadow, I was curious how a fae ended up with one.
“Questions are always welcome.” He beamed. “It’s fascinating, really. I was attempting to cure multiple personality disorder in a friend’s carpenter bee when I mixed up the enzyme for its treatment with that of another project and accidentally ingested the formula.”
“Mmm-hmm.” I already regretted asking him. “Yes, fascinating.”
“I haven’t told you the best part.” He patted Eustice fondly. “The enzyme reacted to a spell an associate cast on me later in the day to remove boils and voila. My shadow split from me into its own sentient being. Totally harmless of course, but great company and excellent at spooking the riffraff.”
“That is fascinating,” I said again and meant it this time. “Do you think you could duplicate the results?”
“I tried, for the friend I mentioned in fact, but no such luck.” He deflated a bit. “I suspect there to be a species component to it. He was a witch, and his shadow remained firmly stuck to him. Who is to say it wouldn’t work on another witch or another faction? I haven’t tried again. No time and no funding. And, to be honest, it’s not my area of expertise.”
A dybbuk wasn’t the same as a simple shadow, not even close, so it was ridiculous to get my hopes up for a miracle cure.
Once we tucked our scientist friend safely behind his wards with his promise to be ready for a full-on roach assault at dusk, um, I mean, our eco-friendly and totally humane roach relocation program, Bishop and I called it a night.
“Don’t even try it,” Bishop warned. “I’m walking you home.”
I don’t have a home almost popped out, but I kept a tight lid on the pity party.
With my apartment a smoking crater and my personal life a disaster movie, I had trouble remembering why it was so important to keep on keeping on. This was the sequel, after all. I had lost my home, my friends, my family once before.
“Suit yourself.”
I hadn’t decided yet if he was worried that I might keep walking one night, right out of the city. Just walk until I got tired and start a new life wherever the blisters on my heels burst. More than likely, he feared I might get cornered by citizens who’d learned my identity and wanted a piece of me. Dybbuks exist outside Society laws. We’re the product of a broken rule. Therefore, they don’t much care what happens to me.
Halfway to the Faraday, I got tired of the silence and engaged. “You’re not going to let the man have his roach sanctuary, are you?”
“Do I look crazy to you?” He pointed a finger at me. “Don’t answer that.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, but yes.”
“I have plans.” He rubbed his hands together. “Big plans.”
Oh goddess. “Make sure you clear those with Linus.”
“You are the boss.” He cackled. “What Linus doesn’t know won’t hurt me.”
“I have been considering a lengthy vacation, somewhere tropical, without roaches.”
Or friends who got that certain glimmer in their eyes when the opportunity for mass destruction arose.
Flamethrowers were the tip of the iceberg as far as his official arsenal went, and they had been a wish list item. Most of what he owned was just neat crap he had amassed over the years without real purpose. Given an actual goal, I couldn’t begin to imagine the ideas whirling through his head.
“Keep telling yourself that.” The edges of his amusement frayed. “Do you regret any of it?”
“You mean the bargain that brought me here?” The Faraday loomed, and I cut between buildings to avoid the front entrance. “Ford is a good man. He deserved a second chance more than I did.” I suspected he meant the Midas situation too, but I played dumb. It wasn’t hard. “The coven has to be taken out, so I’m good with that too. Hunting them down would have landed on my plate eventually.” I shrugged. “I don’t see how I could have done anything differently and been able to live with myself.”
The matter of the hearts, however, worried me. There had to be a workaround that didn’t involve giving Natisha access to so much power, but I could afford to let that be Future Hadley’s problem. Right now, I had one heart to my name. Until I had the other six, I had time to figure out how I was going to pay the debt without dooming the city to a worse fate down the line.
“Night, kid.”
I waved him off and climbed the fire escape up to my old apartment. I didn’t feel like going in, so I sat on the metal grate, propped my elbows on the railing, placed my chin in my hands, and swung my legs.
The Faraday had hired an all-witch construction crew to make the place habitable again, but it took time to gut even a small box. Plus, the hall was wrecked, and my closest neighbors’ apartments had been emptied for the foreseeable future. I didn’t mind giving their spaces preferential treatment over mine since I was the bomb’s target, not them, but that also extended to dibs on the vacant apartments.
I had nowhere to go but up—to the penthouse—but it reflected Linus’s tastes, not mine. That was easily rectified, I knew, but I wasn’t in the mood. Besides, I was
