Sitting at a table in the far corner was Cecil.
Cecil ran a hand through his short gray hair, pulled on his neatly trimmed goatee, and gave us a tight smile as we approached. A large mug of mead sat on the table in front of him, the sweet smell of honey filling the air as he took a long pull.
“Thank you for coming on such short notice,” Monty said, taking a seat. “Were you able to procure my request?”
“I don’t understand it, but yes,” Cecil said, as his hazel eyes shone with latent power. “How’s the Goat? Still intact, I’m assuming.”
“Still,” I said, apologetically. “Sorry, I think you’ve created a monster with that one. I don’t think we can destroy it.”
“On the plus side, I’m not getting requests for non-melting cars or the vehicles that don’t explode,” Cecil said. “For that, I thank you. It doesn’t fix the Beast situation, but I’m still working on that.”
“Cecil? Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course,” Cecil said. “Do you need extra explosives to see if you can overload the defensive runes? I know we have a small-scale tactical device at the shop you can use.”
“You have a nuke? Back at the shop? Really?”
“Not nuclear; runic, much stronger, but no radiation,” Cecil corrected. “We could try that, but you’d have to be in the car when we detonated it.”
I stared at him for a few seconds.
“What? No, I don’t need extra explosives or small tactical devices, thanks,” I said, raising a hand. “I thought you owned the Duezy.”
“Ah, that,” Cecil said, looking from Monty to me before taking another pull from his mug. “You’re wondering about the delivery tonight.”
“It did cross my mind,” I said. “I thought there was only one Midnight Ghost made?”
“Two,” Cecil said, holding up two fingers. “One I own, the original. The other…Well, you know who owns that one. Best not to mention names, even in here.”
“Emmet and Armand made two? Amazing.”
“I never said they made two,” Cecil answered. “They made one. SuNaTran, I, made the second, identical to the first with some minor adjustments.”
“Adjustments I need you to implement tonight,” Monty said. “Can you do it remotely?”
“It won’t be easy, but yes. Do you have a timeframe?”
“Shortly after your delivery for a window of thirty minutes.”
“Thirty minutes means we can lose the automobile,” Cecil said concerned. “Are you certain? Replacing that one won’t be fast or inexpensive.”
“Yes,” Monty said. “If it’s lost, I will commission a second one to be made. How soon can you make the other delivery?”
“Moving that many tons of premium chocolate underground to an undisclosed and abandoned subway station without attracting attention will take some time,” Cecil said. “Are you certain it has to be tonight and one drop? There are only so many refrigerated trucks in the fleet.”
“Yes to both,” Monty said. “Can you do it?”
“I need at least three hours. I can’t guarantee less than that.”
“Three hours will suffice. Call me the second the delivery is complete.”
“Done,” Cecil said, taking one last pull from his enormous mug, before turning to me. “If you manage to destroy the car, try to survive long enough to get me some notes and the method of destruction.”
“If something or someone manages to destroy the Dark Goat,” I said, “I don’t think I’m going to be worrying about taking notes. Have you tried asking some of the heavy-hitters to take a crack at it?”
“No one wants to get close to either that car or the Beast,” Cecil said, standing as a red Lamborghini Urus pulled up outside. “That’s for me. I wanted to apologize about the blacklist, Strong. Dragons are bad for business, which is why I stay away from them. It’s not personal.”
“Except for tonight.”
“Tonight is the rare exception, and it only happens once every few decades,” Cecil said with a small sigh. “It’s an honor contract, which is the only reason we fulfill it.”
“You may not have to, after tonight,” Monty said. “If all goes as planned, you will be free from the obligation.”
“That would be the desired outcome, but I’m dealing with you two,” Cecil said, shaking his head as he walked away. “The chances of this happening without things exploding are slim to none. Good luck.”
“Great to hear how much confidence he has in us,” I said as Cecil left the Rump, the door closing softly behind him. “Tons of chocolate?”
“Payment for the shift, which should leave the sorcerers at Haven without victims,” Monty said. “James? The back room, please?”
Jimmy pointed to the back.
“Make sure she leaves the way she came,” Jimmy said, sounding upset. “I don’t want her presence lingering in here. Scares the customers and screws with the defenses.”
“Understood,” Monty said, heading to the back room. “I will convey your concern.”
“Monty?” I asked as he opened the door to the back room. “Who is Jimmy talking about?”
I felt a chill in the air and turned as Monty closed the door to the back room, pressing the runic sequence that would seal us in with an energy signature that kicked my limbic brain into flight overdrive.
“He’s talking about me,” a female voice said. “Hello, Simon.”
I followed the sound of the familiar voice across the room and my blood decided freezing in place was an excellent idea. Dressed in all black and sitting on one of the chairs around the large table, I could just make out a figure obscured by a dark nimbus of energy.
“Do I know you?” I asked, opening my jacket to give me access to Grim Whisper. “Who are you?”
“You don’t know me in this form, no,” the woman said. “But you know of me, and his uncle knows me”—she pointed to Monty—“intimately.”
It was the Morrigan.
TWENTY-FIVE
Worse—it was the Badb Catha.
“Monty, why are we in a locked room with the scary aspect of the Chooser of the Slain?” I asked, barely keeping my voice under control.
It wasn’t fear I was feeling exactly.
