I caught Ronnie’s arm and pushed him back. Then I fixed Hjálmar with a stare that made him retreat a step. “The kid’s heart is in the right place. Are you going to stop baiting him, or will you be finding another supplier to help you keep your unmentionables itch-free?”
“My apologies, Ms. Winter. And to you, young Kensington.” He took a pair of coins from his pocket and gave them to me. He tossed a third to Ronnie, who caught it without looking.
I held one to the light to study the worn Latin characters. “Roman?”
He shrugged. “Do I look like Indiana Jones? All I know is they’re gold and they come directly from the bottom of the North Sea.”
“This should cover you through at least the end of June,” I said.
“Thanks, lass.” He turned to Ronnie. “And good luck to you, Ronnie Kensington. If you’ve the smallest speck of wisdom in that skinny body, you’ll listen to every word this woman tells you.”
Ronnie opened his mouth like he was about to protest that “skinny” crack. I jumped in before he could stir things up. “Hjálmar, have you heard any rumblings about the end of the world being nigh?”
He groaned. “Again?”
“What do you mean, ‘again’?” asked Ronnie. “How many times can the world end?”
“There’ve been enough near-misses to turn your pubes white, boy,” said Hjálmar. “My granddad was present for the second Ragnarok. When Jörmungandr stirred in the depths, the selkies helped deploy six tons of barbital to put the beast back to sleep. Killed everything else for a five-mile radius. ’Twas a tragic day, but it could have been far worse.”
“Lots of near-misses, but only three actual apocalypses that I’m familiar with,” I added. “Temple was pivotal in helping undo the latest, back at the turn of the century. Y2K was nastier than most people realize.”
Ronnie stared at me. “You’re telling me the world has ended before?”
“Not in this timeline.” To Hjálmar, I said, “We’re also searching for a missing boy named Sage, twelve years old, who went missing after taking magic-laced pills.”
Hjálmar’s face turned stormy. He was a grandfather, and he had a soft spot for kids. “I’ll keep an ear out.”
“Thank you.” I shook his hand. He grinned and squeezed hard. I matched his pressure, then gradually increased my own until he laughed and raised his other hand in surrender.
“Fare well, Hunter. May Ullr guide you to your quarry.”
Artemis wouldnotappreciate another god blessing her Hunter, but the thought was well intentioned.
Ronnie watched out the window until Hjálmar got into his pickup truck and drove off. “He’s dangerous. I can feel it.”
“You’re right. He used to sink ships in the harbor for sport in the late nineteenth century. He was a very angry young selkie.”
“You’re a Hunter of Artemis. You should be punishing him, not helping him with his rash.”
“I’m a retired Hunter of Artemis, and a Hunter’s job is to eliminate threats, not to punish.” It was a distinction I’d been unforgivably slow to learn.
Ronnie pointed at the door. “He looked pretty uneliminated to me.”
“Hjálmar isn’t a threat. He hasn’t deliberately harmed another sentient creature for at least thirty years.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
I walked out to the porch and beckoned for him to follow. Pointing to the doormat, I asked, “What does that say?”
“‘An it harm none, do what you will.’ That’s a witch thing, right? A Wiccan tenet?”
“It’s more than that. It’s the contract every one of my patients accepts in exchange for my help. Temple wove the spell into every doorway. Then, after an injured vampire showed up at my window, he added it to the window frames, too. Even the chimney, just in case Santa Claus shows up with a broken leg.”
He stared at me. “Santa Claus?”
Oh, he wanted so much to ask—I could see a battle playing out on his face, the wrinkling of his brow and the gritting of his teeth.Is Santa actually real?But he was too young and too insecure to admit to wondering.
“The spell is based on an old fairy contract,” I went on. “For my part, I’ll heal anyone and anything that asks, to the best of my abilities. In exchange for my help, they agree to do no harm for a year and a day. There are exceptions for self-defense and such, of course.”
