“Done. Be safe.”
“You too.”
I stared at Fabra, my brain running through scenarios.
“What?” she asked, standing up. A fountain of crumbs showered onto the floor. She set the glass down beside the older empty glass. I guess she didn’t do her own dishes. That made me reevaluate her. Her outfit wasn’t cheap. The black nails were short but salon painted. Her hair had been cut recently by a pro.She had rings on her fingers, and the boots were from the famed leather place in the Mission; I’d bet on it. Either the Ahknim bankrolled her, or she was from money.
I texted Ori to look up the email with a reference to Fabra, a twenty-five-ish, white female from a wealthy background, along with the direction to meet at Zeke’s café around the corner.
“What’s the plan, ‘Rel? Can I go now?”
I rubbed my moon necklace. “You’re taking me to Ranth.”
“No can do, babe. He’s in the secret zone. Members only. You understand.” She brushed a couple more crumbs onto my floor and kicked some of the wormwood as she walked toward the door.
“Leaving? Time to go? Do your remove-the-hex thing.” She waved at the entrance, and I considered exactly what my options were.
To go to the cafe, I’d have to leave Fabra here, which would weaken my spell since my own energy would be removed from it. I could bind her to me, but that would be magic I wasn’t comfortable using. I could let her go and follow her. Or I could attach some sort of tracking device.
She was tapping her foot and looking at me as if her next option would be to kill me. Honestly, I didn’t know why she hadn’t tried that. According to the quick glances I’d had at the emails, she had been told to “do what it takes” to get Ranth back. I wasn’t used to dealing with ruthless human beings. Demons I had no problem killing, but harming humans went against everything I’d been taught. Call me a good witch or whatever you want. As far as magic was concerned, if it didn’t help in a positive way, it could be used for positive defense, and that’s where it ended.
I went with the tracer. Fabra already had my food inside her. With the wheatgrass and bee pollen, it shouldn’t be too hard tocast a spell to find her. It was going to weaken me to a dangerous point, but I had no choice.
“I’ll let you leave, but I want your necklace or your jacket. Your choice.” I might not even need those, but it was satisfying to watch Fabra’s face go from desperate-to-leave to abject displeasure.
“Not a chance ‘Rel, I need both for the job.”
“Bet you don’t. Give up one and you can go. Otherwise, I’ll let you rot here, and I’ll go see my friends.”
“I doubt you’ll do that,” she said. Walking over to the framed family tree on the wall my grandmother had water colored, she slung it across the room. It smashed into the prized Guiana chestnut tree Mrs. Finnegan pampered like a second child, the glass shattering into spiderwebs.
I almost lost it. I closed my eyes as she picked up a vase my mother had hand thrown.
“Fine, you can go before you become more of a pain in theastragalus. But don’t think you won’t be seeing me,” I said as I walked to the door and opened it. Fabra made aharrumphas she stepped around me, shoving the vase into my arms. Before she made it over the threshold, I grabbed a handful of her hair.
She screeched, “Fuck you,” and attempted to backhand me. The house shifted, and the floor rattled, throwing us both off-balance, but I had gotten a couple of hairs and stuffed my treasure behind my back. She flew out the door and down the stairs.
Next time, I’d be seeing her on my terms.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The low-level conversation at Zeke’s Café soothed my worry, but even my lavender glasses weren’t helping the pounding in my head. Fortunately, the café sat in its quiet midevening lull between dinner and the night-bird coffee crowd. I spotted Ori right away. I grinned at the chai waiting for me in an oversized white teacup and slipped into the chair across from her.
“Are you okay?” Ori asked, her forehead wrinkling with concern.
“Yeah, worried, but yeah.” I lowered my voice and leaned toward her. “They attacked us and took Ranth, but I have a tracker.”
“Breathe, girl, breathe. He’ll be okay.” She rubbed her cheek against mine.
“I hope so. I’m worried because he’s far away too, and we’re not sure how that even works. Like he walked Mrs. Finnegan to the car, and we were apart in the graveyard, but we don’t know how far is too far or if it’s still a thing.” My hands were shaking.
“You’re really worried about him.” She pulled back a little but took my hand. “Is there more going on? I’m getting a vibe when you two talk, like there’s something deeper.”
“Really? But yeah, I don’t know what it is. It has been days, hours really, but it’s like I’ve known him my entire life.”
“Like you were meant to be together?”
I tugged my hand out of hers and playfully buzzed my lips. “There you go, Ms. Romance, always finding the fated mates trope in life. I don’t know. It’s weird but good. Like when we kissed, he was so sweet, but it was intense, as if we’d done it before. Like I knew him before.”
