“Why didn’t he shield the whole house?”
I’d asked the same thing. “This way, it also prevents Sage and Morgan from communicating with each other. And binding the whole house could affect Temple’s magic. If he left the house, the circle would shut him out and cut him off from most of his power.”
Squidward made a wet chirping sound and crept toward the window, watching a sparrow on one of the power lines outside. His tails and tentacles all lashed back and forth.
“Why are there toothpicks sticking out of the cat?” asked Annette.
“The mice are not happy about him being here. They’ve snuck down from the attic three times so far to shoot Squidward with their little bows and arrows.” I shrugged. “I guess the wainscoting spell doesn’t keep out mundane toothpicks.”
The next room was Sage’s. He was sleeping on a small futon. He’d kicked down the covers and peeled off his T-shirt, and even from here I could see more blisters had formed since I’d been through an hour before. The wainscoting in his room was fancier, with white textured panels and a similarly enchanted top trim piece.
I quietly closed the door. “Are you ready?”
“I want to see him.”
I opened the door to Morgan’s room.
Annette’s breath caught. Morgan was curled in a ball on the floor in the corner. The sheets from his house were still partly wrapped around his legs. His skin was black and rubbery, and tendrils had begun to grow from his arms. My necklace rested on his chest.
Annette grabbed my hand. “You put your amulet on him?”
“He needed it even more than Sage.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
It wasn’t enough. I’d measured the tendrils twice. They’d grown close to a centimeter since Morgan got here. “Did you find anything at Alex’s...lair . . . that might help?”
“I brought everything I could find. It’s in my car.”
“Get it all and meet me downstairs. I’m going to tend to Hob, then we’ll figure out how to stop Alex.”
• • •
“You can quit your fussing. These little pinpricks won’t kill me.” Hob’s voice was muffled as he licked the last of the rocky road ice cream from his bowl. I didn’t ask how he’d talked Ronnie into feeding him ice cream.
“You’ll still heal faster if you don’t have foreign dirt and germs getting into the wound.” I flushed the largest wound with saline, then pulled the stapler from the first aid kit.
Hob gritted his teeth as the staples snapped into his flesh. “You’re a Hunter. I recognize the stink of Artemis’s power.”
“I always thought Artemis’s magic had a woodsy smell.”
“If you mean wood that rotted after being shoved up a goddess’s ass, then sure.” He looked me up and down. “Why are you here playing doctor instead of putting an arrow through that motherfucker’s face?”
I reminded myself that Hob couldn’t help being obnoxious. Hearth devils existed to provoke. Dogs barked, mosquitoes bit, and hearth devils spewed toxic insults. “If I did that, who would be here to help people like you?”
I moved to the second hole in Hob’s chest. He gasped and jerked back. “That hurts, you rancid shit blossom.”
“Don’t talk to her like that,” Ronnie snapped.
Hob laughed. “Aw...does someone have a boner for the old Hunter?”
“Don’t let him get to you,” I said. “It’s their nature. They have to commit a certain number of evil acts to stay among humans. As hearth devils go, this one’s on the mild side.”
“I know,” said Ronnie. “I read all about them. Including how to kill them.”
“Big man, threatening a devil half his size,” said Hob.
Ronnie smirked. “You wish you were that tall.”
