“You make an excellent nursemaid,” I said.
“Don’t get used to it,” she said, filling my glass very full of Merlot. “So, what happened?”
I filled my bestie in, starting with being summoned to the police station, the fact that Yevgeny had likely kidnapped Gavriella, and the magic inflicted on the dogs.
When Priya heard that, she cuddled Mrs. Hudson close. The puppy lapped up the affection. Great. I was going to have to pry the dog out of Priya’s cold dead hands when it was time for her to go. Oh well, that would be an easy and almost eagerly anticipated problem, given what was on my plate right now.
Licking my fingers clean of grease from the savory onion pancakes, I pulled A Study in Scarlet out of the lockbox. “Then I found this.”
“That’s cool that Gavriella was into Sherlock,” Priya said, snagging the last of the chow mein with her chopsticks, “but beyond the nice edition of the book, I’m not really sure why we care.”
“Coded message. Look inside.”
“Ah.” She opened it. “Any idea what it means?”
“Not even a little bit. That’s not the fun part. Flip to the last page.”
She did and frowned. “A sunflower?”
I took a rather large gulp of wine. Then another one. “I drew that in my dad’s book when I was six. This is Adam’s copy.”
“Holy shit,” she breathed.
I held my glass up in cheers. “Here’s to my father, still fucking up my life fifteen years after he abandoned me. L’chaim!” I drained the rest of the wine.
“What if Chariot wanted you to think Adam had given the book to Gavriella and it’s their way of drawing you in? They know death triggers the next Jezebel.”
“Yeah, but to all outward appearances, the first time Gavriella flatlined, there was no new Jezebel, and they may believe she ended the line. If they did manage to discover my identity in record time and bait that particular hook?” I ate a piece of tofu. “It’s even more imperative that I confront Adam.”
Priya topped my glass up. “Where do you even begin on a trail that cold?”
“Rafael.”
“Your stuffy British Jezebel Attendant. He sounds like a delight.” Priya wasn’t overly fond of the man who’d snatched me away to a grove in an alternate reality and thrown magic tests at me to prove my Jezebel worthiness. To think most best friends only had to disapprove of exes.
The fact that I’d nicknamed him Evil Wanker probably did little to endear him to her either. Still, Rafael had an impressive ability to acquire information and despite his prickly exterior, he was really useful. It was going to be interesting when she met him for the first time.
“Attendants are the keepers of all Jezebel knowledge,” I said. “They’ve documented us down to the tiniest details. Hopefully, he knows whether Gavriella and Dad actually made contact or if this is a trap.”
If it was the former, how did Dad find her? Why did he find her? And how was it connected to him warding up my magic? Even if he’d done all of it with the best of intentions to protect me, he’d denied me my magic heritage, making all these choices about my life without my consent. He’d also taken a Jezebel out of the fight. I would have had years of training and been better equipped to take on Chariot at full speed instead of playing catch-up. Had giving Chariot the edge been part of his intentions? Had he outed me now for the same reason?
I ran a finger around the rim of my glass, eyes downcast. What a mess.
The buzzer to the building’s front door sounded.
“You expecting anyone?” Priya said.
I shook my head at her. “I have to pee anyway. I’ll get it.” My ankle had numbed out some, bringing down the ache to a tolerable level, but I still half-shuffled into the foyer. I pushed the intercom button. “Yes?”
“It’s Levi.”
How had he even—I dropped my head against the wall. Miles. Of course. My body just wanted to sleep and I couldn’t handle an angry Levi reaming me out tonight. I pushed the button again. “It’s been a really long day, and—”
“Miles told me about the book. I wanted to check if you were all right.”
I briefly closed my eyes. Not that sex was on offer, but the two of us ended up there more often than not, and I wasn’t up to it tonight. I was up to a non-sexual form of comfort from Levi even less. The more our relationship developed, the more complicated it became.
But he had come all this way. And as weird and new as it felt, we were friends now. You didn’t just send a friend away like that. “Come on up.”
“You want me to leave?” Priya called from the kitchen, once I got out of the bathroom. She was washing dinner plates.
I limped to the freezer and got a fresh ice pack. “No. I want you to crack into Gavriella’s phone. It’s in the lockbox.”
“Ooh.” She rinsed off a plate and placed it in the drying rack.
I grabbed another wineglass as Levi knocked on the door. “It’s open,” I called out, making my way into the living room and resettling myself on the sofa with the ice pack.
“Hey.” Levi smiled as he entered the room. The Head of House Pacifica may have been smart and kind—not to mention ruthless when it came to protecting his magic community—but he was also irritatingly attractive, with olive skin over the long lines of a soccer player’s physique and a sharp jawline softened by lush lips that one gossip columnist had deemed “the eighth wonder of the world.”
Reluctantly, I conceded they weren’t wrong. Memories of those lips still made me squirm.
He lay his hand on my cheek. “How are you holding up?”
Leaning into his palm for a precious second, I tamped down on the burst of warmth
