“Good call. Come on in and join the party.” I opened the door wide. Juke’s waist-length, pink hair was fishtail braided in green ribbons that matched the glittering throwing-up emoji on her T-shirt and her neon sneakers. She hugged me, and I coughed at the cherry oakmoss perfume she loved mixed with the scent of her blueberry bubblegum. I had met her at a concert after-party where she DJ’d, and I found out she’d overlaid some of her own digital tracks in a remix. We’d gotten to talking about beats and ended up having dawn matcha.
Ori nodded at Freddie. “Speaking of parties. Vivian is mailing me some stuff about the amulet. It sounds like it might be the kind we’re looking for.”
With the whole crew, maybe we could brainstorm some actual plan. They were excellent at plotting the demise of monsters in our monthly gaming night; maybe I could put theircombined skills to a more real-world use. I texted Rose to come over as soon as she could.
“Hey, Freddie, want to help me get some drinks?” I asked. He brightened up and gave a head nod to Ranth as we passed him on the way to the kitchen. Ranth raised his eyebrows and straightened up to follow us. I waved him off.
I closed the swinging kitchen door behind us, cutting off Ranth’s view. Ant mewed a greeting and leaped down from the counter. She twined around my legs. I reached down and petted her, and then she rubbed Freddie and walked to the cat door.
“Okay, Freddie. These Marahk, you know more about them than you are saying. Spill. And don’t bother. I paid you already.”
“Fine. That guy is super creepy.” He nodded at the living room.
“Creepy isn’t strange around here. Be specific.” I straightened up, and Ant trotted off to her water bowl.
“The Marahk are all secret society. They practice edgy stuff, but they’re organized. From what I can get, they’re based in Alexandria, the one in Egypt, but they have people elsewhere. A friend of a friend said he knows someone in LA. It’s not a big network, but they have cash.”
“Edgy? As in human-touch magic?”
“Yeah, and demon summoning stuff, I think. There are stories of people disappearing. They have resources, and they are on thefor hire, list.”
“For what?” I asked, pulling two jugs of kombucha from the fridge.
“Maybe thievery. They say they are trained for stealth.”
“Ranth doesn’t look very stealthy.” But I wondered about him. I handed Freddie the two jugs and filled a tray with glasses.
“Anything else?”
“There’s some talk about them being aliens. But you know I don’t believe in that stuff.”
I didn’t either, but images of Harold danced in my head. Then I realized I knew something that no one had figured out. Harold must be an Ahknim. It was the only thing that made sense.
By the time we returned to the living room, my head was swimming with ideas and questions. Stuff I couldn’t put together without food. Maybe with some takeout and the extra help, I’d get myself some focus.
The doorbell chimed, and I opened the front door.
Rose bustled in, in a cloud of rose petals and incense.
“Hey, honey, I was nearby when you texted. You caught me at a good time because I come bearing cookies,” Rose said, pecking me on the cheek and handing me a plastic container. Today’s black skirt was embroidered with red cabbage roses. “I see you still have your wizard problem.” She locked eyes with Ranth.
“It’s better and worse,” I replied, popping the lid on her signature rose-lavender shortbread.
“Sounds about normal.” Rose nodded at Ranth and went to greet Ori. I popped a cookie in my mouth and set the container on the coffee table. The delicate, rose-lavender, cashew butter divinity melted on my tongue. Goddesses she was an amazing baker. My stomach growled, seeking another one. It wasn’t like we’d had breakfast.
“Juke, how do you feel about Nepalese? They are open all day?” I asked.
“On it,” Juke replied with a toothy grin. With her heart-shaped face and the feathery false eyelashes defining her contact-enhanced emerald eyes, she resembled one of her favorite anime characters. She was flipping gorgeous. If she hadn’t already had a partner, I’d be up for dating her. But her partner Katrina was like the kindest person ever. Totally made for Juke.
“Use the wallet pay card. I’m buying, or rather Bud is.” I laughed. Looking around the room, we had people, history, research, tech, and the sketchier edges of magic covered. With this group’s mental headspace, we should be about to take over the earth, but the question remained if we could take over other worlds.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
We consumed an array of vegan curries and tandoor vegetables while I caught everyone up to speed on Ranth’s unusual arrival and the demons hunting us. When I got to the Harold part, I was at a loss.
“Harold wasn’t what we expected,” I explained. The whole other planar constructed place didn’t make sense in my head, so I was sure describing it wasn’t going to add to the discussion.
Rose rested a hand on my shoulder. “Honey, from what I hear, Harold’s not what anyone expects.”
