He raised his chin and said snootily, “I know what I’m doing.”
She laughed and turned to go inside the store, leaving us staring at each other. Peter’s expression said it was all my idea to come to the crazy lady’s magic shop and now I had to suffer the consequences.
It had been my idea, and I still stood by my reasoning. It didn’t make this situation any easier.
Screw it. I didn’t care about the undercurrents right now. I had a task. Find the items and get the draugr back into his grave. Everything else could wait.
I caught the door before it swung fully closed and followed Miriam into the shop, trusting Peter to follow or not as he wished.
Miriam had left the front lights off but the ones in the back were on. In this lighting, her shop took on a sinister edge. Merchandise that had seemed kitschy and harmless earlier in the evening was now vaguely threatening. Or maybe that was because we were hunting an undead monster who could cause madness and rip me apart with its bare hands.
Once again, the break room had changed. This time reverting to the back-room lunch area found in most stores throughout America.
She shot me a warning look when I opened my mouth to ask why it had shifted its appearance. I shut my mouth and glanced back as Peter tugged aside the beads hanging over the entrance.
She didn’t want him to know about the other room. The one where she kept all the witchy stuff. She must be pouring some serious magic into it right now to keep him from peering behind the veil.
Either way, it was her secret. If she wanted it kept, I wouldn’t go out of my way to expose it—unless I needed to for some reason.
I took the seat she’d indicated at the table, turning and giving Peter a significant look when he hesitated. He cast an arrogant glance around, comparing it to his own conference room and finding it inferior, before taking the seat next to me. His obvious conviction of his superiority was grating. It made me want to set him straight just to wipe the smug look off his face. Maybe it was the fact he looked like a teenager that meant I found his expressions supremely obnoxious.
Miriam smiled to herself as she shuffled a deck of cards before laying them out in the familiar solitaire pattern.
Time to get this conversation started. I had a feeling it might be difficult to convince her to help us. If I had known she and the sorcerer had such a bad relationship, I would have given serious thought to dropping him off somewhere. His presence would just make this more difficult.
I already owed her a favor and that was for something relatively minor. What was something that used actual magic going to cost me?
“Your help last time was invaluable,” I started, hoping flattery would soften her up a little.
I ignored the snort of derision next to me as Peter leaned back in his chair and folded his arms.
“We’ve found out that the creature is a draugr.”
“That’s odd,” she said, seeming interested for the first time since I’d sat down. “The deaths have been spread all over the city. They don’t usually travel so far afield of their gravesite.”
I relayed what else we discovered, including the draugr’s name and the items he was searching for.
“Interesting. Do you have a photo of these items?” Miriam asked, flipping another card.
I did. Peter had distracted Caroline while I made a copy. Copiers had gotten a lot more complicated in the few short years since I’d been out of school or maybe my skill with them had just gotten rustier.
Whether I wanted to share that copy with her was another matter.
I’d already told her most of it. I pulled the paper out of my pocket and flattened it on the table in front of her.
“Here, we think it’s the necklace she’s wearing and the watch fob in his vest.”
Miriam stared long enough at the locket the woman was wearing that I thought about asking if she recognized it. She studied the man briefly before handing the paper back to me.
“What is it you want from me?”
I shared a glance with Peter. His mouth tightened, and he looked away from me.
“Peter here thinks it’s possible to perform a summoning spell that will call the items to us.”
I didn’t mention how we thought the items would give us some control over the former Jackson Miller. I trusted her but only to a point.
“What good will that do?”
