“No matter the relationship, my little bird form is outside of that agreement.” He pushed back from the chandelier, deliberately making it swing, like a kid on a playground. Yeah. Amused. Enjoying himself.
I shifted on the pile of pillows and the Anzu feathertickled my bare stomach. So far as I could tell, I was out of options. “Fine. I have something to offer.” I stopped. I had to be careful. A lie in the midst of a parley might ruin any outcome or negate the terms of the agreement.
“What haveyouto offer”—the Anzu placed one hand on his chest—“thatIwould desire?” As if saying he was out of my league when it came to things he might want.
I gave a slight shrug. “If you agree that what I have to offer is vitally important, then I want the following: For you to go on a hunt with me, in your Anzu form, for EJ, right away, today, at the close of this agreement. That you will help me locate and rescue EJ, wearing any form you may have, using all the weapons and contacts at your disposal. That such rescue would include fighting Mithrans, humans, witches, Onorios, andsenza onore, using mundane and magical weapons, workings, and curses. And that you help me get arcenciel help,” I added. Not that they had followed through at any other time we had an agreement. “Oh. And you help keep the other arcenciels off Soul’s back.”
The chandelier stopped rocking. The Mercy Blade to the NOLA Mithrans, and one of my Enforcers, dropped to the floor, a twenty-foot drop, and landed easy, crouched on toes and fingertips, just outside the circle. His hair was longer than I remembered and it flew forward as he landed to make a veil around him. Behind the hair, his eyes glittered. “What have you to trade for such perilous services, services that might mean my death?”
I wanted to blast out to him that this was urgent, wanted to shake him, skewer him for making me parley when all I wanted to do was get on the road. I shrugged, aping Leo Pellissier for nonchalance. “The location of a new... rift.”
Gee’s muscular, compact body tightened all over, giving away his shock.
I let a tiny Eli-worthy smile escape. “One not catalogued by Soul’s arcenciels. One not hidden beneath the oceans, or in the possession of the Mithrans, or that opens into a mountain.” But known to the one who came through. Not said. Not a lie to break the pact. Not exactly.“One I found some time ago.” To imply, though not to state outright, that I found it long ago. Lying by prevarication.
“I would sell my body into slavery for a thousand years for such knowledge. Every misericord on this planet would.”
“Would the arcenciels fight at our sides for such knowledge?”
“I cannot speak for the goddesses, but it is possible that the ones you call Opal and Cerulean and Pearl would assist for this knowledge.” He tilted his head, oddly like a vamp, or his lizard. “But if you have found such a rift, you are asking for more than this. Do not play games, little goddess. Not with the location of a new rift.”
“A few more things. That you help me find the time circle that’s allowing the Flayer of Mithrans to alter his body. Help me destroy the time circle. And help me save any witches still alive.”
“Is that that the limit of our bargain?”
“Soul said that stepping into a rift would heal me, if it didn’t kill me. After EJ is saved and his captors killed and the boy returned to his parents, I want you to make sure I survive stepping into and back through this rift, safely and not killed, and that I return tothisworld, at thecorrecttime, through that same rift, healed, with my Beast self and my human self intact. With no loss of abilities or knowledge and with no loss of time.” I didn’t want to be returned a hundred years in the future with everyone I knew dead and gone.
“You would have me step through a rift. With you,” he clarified. There was something in his tone I couldn’t place, but I let it go for now.
“Yes. You or an arcenciel of your choosing, one who will abide by this agreement, if that’s what it takes to get me back safely and healed. I have one of Opal’s scales,” I added, to sweeten the pot, “that I will return as part of this agreement. And lastly, that you will swear this to me by blood.”
“I do so swear. But if you are foresworn, and if there is no rift, I will break all oaths of fealty and honor and take you as my slave for the rest of your life.”
“I do so swear,” I repeated his words back to him.
I blew out the candle. Wrapped my fingers around Soul’s chain and forced myself to stand. Pain ricocheted through my body like a musket ball made of lightning, shattering and cutting and burning. I scuffed out the circle, not that magics had risen when I closed it. In fact, I was pretty sure it had all been for show. But the Mercy Blade was all about show, and I had... I had acquired his help. Under my own terms. Leo had taught me well.
“When do we leave?” he asked me.
“I have a gobag to pack. Say, fifteen minutes?”
“Yes.” He looked me up and down. “Do you remember how to fly?” His tone said he doubted it.
“I do.”
“Remove your clothing and meet me at the deck outside your sleeping quarters. We will rescue your little witch, save your buried witches, and heal your illness. Then you will give me the keys to the world.”
Keys to the world?I didn’t like the sound of that, but there was nothing I could do about it. “Fine.”
Gee vanished, like a magician’s trick, poof. I looked at Alex, who was still leaning against the wall, his face wearing a half grin, as if I had gotten away with pirate’s plunder. Brute was sitting at his side with a grindy clinging to his fur. “He’ll kill you when he finds out you don’t have a rift.”
“I have a rift. I can take him straight to it.”
Alex’s face went through a series of emotions. “No shit?”
“None at all.”
“Daaaang.”
