I narrowed my eyes at Narcissa.
“I was worried for her safety,” Narcissa claimed with a shrug. “That horrid zombie doesn’t need teeth to swallow this one whole. It’s frankly a miracle those succulent little legs of hers are still attached.” Narcissa coughed, then gagged and spit up a black furball.
I rolled my eyes.
“You’re cleaning that up,” the woman at my side told me. Then looked around us, pointing at the man who’d stopped to gawk at the scene. “Back to work, all! Show’s over.” To me, she said, “If you do stay on, I expect you’ll be less of a distraction to the crew.”
“Of course,” I agreed.
The woman knocked sharply on the door before us as Therese hopped up to my pack, where she nestled into her preferred pocket. I couldn’t say I was happy to see Therese. She would have been much safer under Lexi’s care, but I was glad to have my eyes on her. Xander had been a niggling worry. Now I only had to worry about all of the other things that could kill her.
“If it’s not whiskey, I’m not interested,” came a muffled reply to the knock.
The woman rolled her eyes and opened the door, gesturing us inside. “You should consider yourself lucky. You caught her in a good mood.”
“Thank you,” Auggie told the woman, who quickly returned to her duties, washing her hands of us.
I stepped into a dimly lit room that stunk of cigar smoke. As I walked farther into the room, blue smoke swirled around me, burning my eyes. Freya waved her hands in front of her face to clear it, but it did little good. Auggie merely smiled politely.
“Ugh,” Narcissa grumbled. “I detest smoke. It dulls the senses.”
“Then why do I still hear you lot bumbling through here like a herd of rhinos?” came a husky voice from deeper in the room.
Narcissa’s tail twitched. “I said itdullsthem,” she clarified. “But Callum is a rather heavy walker.”
Was I a heavy walker? I tried to step more lightly across the room.
A woman sat at a desk before a porthole, light streaming into the room from behind her so that I couldn’t make out her features until I was much closer. She was middle-aged with blonde hair and hazel eyes, the lines around her mouth pronounced, likely from partaking of cigars, one of which was currently dangling from her mouth. As we drew nearer, she stubbed the cigar out in an ashtray and leaned back in her chair, arms folded across her lap. “And what have we here? I’m guessing two witches, a virgin boy, a flying cat, and a talking toad.”
I glanced at Auggie. “Areyou a virgin?”
“That’s none of your business.” He gestured to the woman. “And how would a total stranger know anyway?”
“She doesn’t know everything,” Therese protested, pushing herself out of the pocket of my bag. “I’m afrog, not atoad.There’s a big difference.”
“Is there?” Freya asked.
Therese hesitated. “I assume so.”
“Howdidyou know about us?” I asked the woman, crossing my arms.
She ashed her cigar. “Erik told me to expect you.”
“Oh. Right. So, he told you we were coming? And that we needed passage to America?”
She nodded. “Oh, yes. And good timing too. We were going to shove off in just a few hours. I hope you have everything you need on you.”
“We do,” I said. “And how much will this cost us?”
“Oh, look at the pretty fish,” Narcissa interrupted, leaping up onto the captain’s desk and lifting a paw to an aquarium. “Such lovely teeth, like little warriors. What good sport it would be to battle one.”
I glanced at the aquarium, then did a double take. It contained a dozen silvery fish with red bellies; they clumped together in a group and seemed to be staring out through the glass at us hungrily.
Piranha. I needed piranha teeth for the spell that would reverse Therese’s condition. What luck!
“Be careful,” the captain warned, watching Narcissa with a frown. “They haven’t been fed yet. And I hear that curiosity doesn’t end well for your kind.”
Narcissa scoffed. “I believe I can best a fish, thank you very much.”
