“I’m afraid so,” Poppy said. She repeated the story as I’d told it.
Azure listened, but kept her gaze on me the whole time. So did her owl. “And here I was thinking you had the Lord of the Blessed managed,” she said, when Poppy finished.
“I did.” I paused, thinking of Daniel. “I do. But no one expects the dead to come to life.”
“The dead are always with us,” Azure said.
“Yes, well, the dead are not always showing up on Broadway and in swimming pools. At least not in my experience.”
“Your experience is largely in running restaurants,” she said, mildly.
“So was my grandmother’s. Didn’t stop her from solving everyone else’s magical problems.”
Azure steepled her fingers. “And now your mother has magic, too.”
“Call it the family business,” I said.
“It’s not very much magic,” my mother added.
“She launched a fireball and melted a dozen cupcakes into slag,” I said, unable to keep the pride out of my voice.
Azure gave my mother a new, appraising look.
“Look,” I said. “All I want to do is figure this out. If you have something to help with that, I’m all ears. Otherwise I’ll just try to stay out of your hair while we figure it out on our own.”
“You and who?”
“The usual crew.”
“A handful of the Blessed, a sprinkling of the Gentry, and Miss Poppy, here?”
“And me,” Mom said.
“Mom, you’re not getting involved.”
“I’m your mother—who are you to tell me what to do?”
Azure was trying to hide a smile.
“There you have it,” I said, gesturing to Poppy and my indignant mother. “The best of the best. Plus a poodle and an Irish wolfhound.”
“You don’t need my permission,” Azure said. “We’re a social club, not a governing body. However,” she continued, “I’d like to keep the hostile beings—aliveordead—out of our building. And if you’re the one who brought them in…”
“I’m the one who cleans them up,” I finished.
“Precisely. But since Poppy is one of us, and we all have an interest in the general peacefulness of Manhattan, I will also put the resources of the LWW at your disposal.” She gestured to the shelves.
Mom’s eyes lit up. “We can borrow books?”
Azure gave a royal nod. Her owl twisted its head sideways until it looked like it might snap off.
“Great,” I said. “I’ll take anything you have on summoning—and banishing.”
12
Poppy,mymother,andI sat in Victorine’s parlor, surrounded by half a dozen open books, as Victorine paced the floor. Claudette, Victorine’s housekeeper, quietly rolled in a cart of something that steamed.
“Tea, thank God,” Poppy jumped up from the couch and rushed for the teapot.
