Molly scooted forward in her seat again, placing her head directly between the two of us. “Well…?” Her eyes sparkled in anticipation.
“Sit back,” I cautioned. “You need to wear your seatbelt.”
Cass snickered before he thought better of it. We both hated seatbelts, but now that I was prego and coffeeless, I was wearing one.
Molly sat back, but she wasn’t going to let this go, I could tell.
“Tell her,” I urged Cass.
“Fine.” He crossed his arms across his chest. “The underworld houses all kinds of nasty creatures. Anything whose natural way of being doesn’t include an overactive conscience.”
“Like?” Molly prodded. Either she didn’t sense Cass’ reluctance, or she didn’t care.
“Like trolls, goblins, demons, some of the darker fae—not my girls though. All kinds of monsters that don’t even have names because they’re one-of-a-kind, and scary enough to make you shit your pants. Sirens—”
“Sirens?” Molly’s voice went up two octaves. “Like the siren we’re chasing?”
“Yes.” Cass’ answer was short and sweet.
Turning, his eyes focused on Molly. “Shit’s crazier than you think it is. The underworld contains the worst of the worst. The things of nightmares, my sexy kind excluded of course. You don’t want to go messing with anything from that damned plane.”
“Which means we have to find the way to keep it closed—and get anything that escaped from it back in there,” I added.
Cass nodded solemnly, eyes back on the road up ahead. “Yeah, we’ve got to. And we have to get that siren.”
“You said sirens are from the underworld…” Molly reminded, her tone appropriately grave. “Are all sirens from there? Aren’t there some good mermaids?”
“Yeah, sure,” Cass replied. “There are some creatures, like goblins, that only originate from the underworld. But then there are others that are split. The ones with the coal chunks for hearts come from the underworld. Their kinder counterparts come from another place.”
“Whoa.” Molly sounded like a surfer who’d just smoked a joint.
Cass gave Molly an irritated look. “You don’t need to learn it all in one sitting, do you? Give an imp a break.” He rubbed his belly.
Silence settled in the cabin for a few beats. “Why do you think Calista wants to open the gate so badly?” I finally asked. “I mean, what’s it to her?”
Cass pursed his gray lips. “That’s a very good question. I wish like hell we had the answer to it. Because for a siren to turn down the kind of cash I think Brock was suggesting he offered her, she has to have some kind of personal stake in getting that gate open. And it’s never good when a siren gets personal.”
He was right. Money and power were usually what interested sirens, but this one seemed different, and different in this case wasn’t good.
“Well, we did capture her and her twin sister,” I reminded. “I’m sure whatever prison they have her twin in is max security.”
Cass chewed at his lip. He only did it when he was nervous, which he rarely was. “This doesn’t feel right. We’re missing something.”
“I think you’re right,” I sighed. Something about this siren scenario was off.
Well, we could just go ahead and add our spidey-sense feelings to the shit list that was only getting larger. We hadn’t even met Willemena Worst yet.
Picking up the speed I settled on the highway. The sooner we got this over with, the sooner we could start dealing with the rest of the crap that was as tall as a mountain by now.
I tried to relax, gave up, and pushed the accelerator as far as I dared. I didn’t have time for human speed patrol. I couldn’t shake the itch that time was running out on me.
19A Freaking Grimoire
Pullingthe truck right to the front of Willemena’s cabin, I parked. I was happy to see I wouldn’t be needing my hiking boots; her place was fully accessible. Gazing around, I scoped out our surroundings with a certain wariness, which was inevitable when dealing with a witch of considerable power.
Cass was out of his booster, on his knees on the passenger seat, and looking everywhere while fogging up the windows. “How come she let us drive all the way up to her house? That’s not right. You know witches.”
Yeah, I did.
