She shook her head like she didn’t understand the difference.
“He’s not following the rules,” I said.
“That’s all that matters to you, isn’t it?” she asked.
“Yes.” My answer was swift. Rules really weren’t the only thing I cared about, but for right now, she and Avnas needed to know I would absolutely die on this hill.
“But lucky for all of us, I’m going to simplify things.” I reached into my back pocket and pulled out Than’s calling card.
“Than?”
“Yes, Delaney?”
“I would like to hire you.”
“I see. When?”
“Are you free now?”
Avnas had gone a strange gray-green color, his face glistened with flop sweat.
“I am,” Than said. “Shall we agree upon the conditions and terms previously settled?”
“Yes.” I rolled up my sleeves and turned my hands so Avnas could get a gander at the tattoo and knife wound. “Should I call for backup?” I jiggled my hands.
Avnas was breathing hard now, his jaw locked, his nostrils flared. He looked like a man preparing to step off a plank into an awful lot of alligators below.
“I don’t believe that will be necessary,” Than said.
Good, because I didn’t know how I was going to fit the entire Wolfe clan in the building, and I didn’t want to deal with the years of hard time Bertie would put me through for interrupting her event.
“Shall I?” Than asked.
“What?” Avnas and Xtelle said in unison. The demons locked eyes.
Before Than could do whatever it was to break the spell, I held up a finger.
Than stilled, though he hadn’t done anything except fold his hands together.
Avnas must have known the jig was up. He’d been outsmarted, outmaneuvered. I had the Wolfes behind me. I had the Valkyrie on my side. They’d marked me as their own.
And here was Than, at my call, his services at my discretion.
All three ingredients of his binding were about to be corrupted. As soon as Than threw his weight behind my request—to break the spell, of course—Avnas was all out of leverage.
“I came here for you,” Avnas said in a rush.
Xtelle looked over her shoulder, at each corner of the room, at Pan, who shook his head in short jerks, and finally back to Avnas.
“Me,” she said. “You came here, to Ordinary. For me.”
Yeah, she did not believe him.
“Let me guess,” she went on, gathering steam. “The Brute wants to know what I’m doing and wants you to spy on me. Vychi wants to know my every move so he can kill me all the way this time? Is that what this,” she waved her hoof, “is? Are you trying to take me down so The Brute can rule without me in the way?”
I could see it, Amy’s struggle. It was all over his face. Also, we were still connected so I couldfeelhis frustration, his need to tell her the truth, and his utter survival instinct to lie, lie,lie.
“Tell her,” I said, gently. “What do you have to lose?”
