Fiona rolls her eyes and takes another bite. “Your step-mum’s fine. She isn’t the first person to have their head turned by the latest Chosen One. You know plenty about that.”
I sit up. “Wait. What do you mean.”
Fiona stops chewing. “Nothing. It was just a figure of speech.”
“Figure of bollocks. What do you know, Fiona?”
She sits back, sighing, and working her tongue at her teeth like something is stuck there. “It really isn’t our business, Basil.”
“Tell me anyway.”
She sighs again. “All right . . . Well . . .” She sighs one more time. “I’ve heard your stepmother might be caught up in one of those Chosen One groups.”
“WhatChosen One groups?”
“Is this actually news to you?”
“I don’t even know enough to know what you’re talking about!”
Fiona leans over the table. “The whole World of Mages thought your boyfriend had come to save them from a bad end, that he fulfilled thousands of years of prophecy . . .”
He isn’t my boyfriend,I think. “He isn’t the Chosen One,” I say—though I still half believe that he was.
She waves a hand in the air. “Well, we all know that now, don’t we? But thousands of years of prophecy don’t just go away. This is an excellent time to get into the Chosen One business. Everybody’s got a pet theory or a pet candidate.”
“So Daphne . . . what? Ran off with some new golden boy?”
Fiona shrugs. “I’ve heard whispers. There’s a lot of this going around. The Coven sent me to talk to Lady Salisbury last week—her son’s missing. It looked like vampires, but old Ruth is sure he’s joined one of these cults. They do prey on the daft and the gormless . . .”
“Daphne’s hardly gormless.”
Fiona raises her eyebrows like she’s refusing to comment.
“And you really don’t care?” I ask. “That she’s abandoned her marriage to chase some charlatan?”
“Who says he—or perhapsshe—is a charlatan? Someone has to be the Chosen One. Maybe your stepmum’s got it right.” Fiona pushes the rest of her sandwich into her mouth. “All I’m saying is, when someone runs off like this, they’re usually runningfromsomething as much as they’re runningto.I’m not telling Daphne Grimm how to live her life, even if she is as thickheaded as she is thin-blooded.” Fiona washes her last bite down with tea, then stands, brushing her hands on her jeans. “Right then, I’m off.”
“But you just got here.”
“I came by to check on you, and now I have. You look a mess.”
“Where are you going?”
She’s walking away. “Work.”
“Vampire hunting? On a Monday afternoon?”
“Something like that. Drink your tea, and mind your business.” She turns back to me. “And—”
“Don’t say it.”
“Eat something.” She winks.
16
BAZ
The good thing about my aunt’s terrible flat is that I can do some light hunting without even leaving the building. I just have to dispose of the empty rodents when I’m done.
