Cursed Moon (Prospero's War) by Jaye Wells Page A

She’s been so enthusiastic about reliving every second of the event that I’d resorted to drinking another bottle of wine. By the time she’d waddled back home, it had been one in the morning. What’s worse, after only getting about five hours ofsleep, I’d had to drive Danny to school when Pen didn’t show up to take him. I’d tried calling a couple of times, but she hadn’t answered. It was unusual for her to ditch the kid like that, but I figured she just needed some space after our argument.
    The fact we weren’t having much luck finding the Wonder Twins didn’t do much to help my disposition. “Where the hell are they?” I said after about an hour of driving by all their usual spots.
    Morales shot me a sharp glance, but before he could call me on my mood, both of our phones buzzed at once. I read Gardner’s message out loud: “Get your asses to the gym ASAP.”
    “That doesn’t sound good,” Morales said.
    “You do anything to piss her off recently?” I asked.
    He shook his head. “You?”
    “Not that I know of.”
    “Guess this means some other shit has hit the fan.”
    I groaned and winced from the flare of pain in my head. “Next time I decide to drink a bottle of wine, remind me of this moment, okay?”
    Morales made a clucking sound. “Serves you right.” He shot me a sideways glance as he turned the car back toward the office. “What were you and Volos talking about out there anyway?”
    I kept my head down and sent Gardner a quick text that we were on our way.
    “Kate?”
    “Hmm?” I said, looking up.
    “Volos?”
    “What about him?”
    “What gives?”
    “He wanted to ask me how Danny was doing.”
    “You two were outside talking for a good hour.”
    I filed away the knowledge that Morales had been payingenough attention to time our talk. “Oh, then I asked him if he’d heard any gossip about the Aphrodite break-in.”
    Morales’s shoulders relaxed a fraction. “And?”
    I shook my head even as I patted myself on the back mentally for the evasive maneuver. “Hadn’t even heard about it. He and Aphrodite aren’t on good terms after John testified against Abe.” I paused to glance over and see if Morales looked suspicious. When he merely nodded, I continued. “I told him he might want to make sure his security is tight just in case.”
    “Why? Do you have a reason to think he’s a target?”
    “Just a precaution. Last time we had a Raven in the Cauldron, we almost had a turf war break out. Figured it was better to warn him in case someone was dumb enough to target him, too.”
    “What’s a Raven?”
    “That’s what we call rogue wizards who steal from other wizards’ labs.”
    “Ah,” Morales said. “In LA we called them Scavengers.”
    I nodded. “Right. Anyway, we don’t have proof the guy who knocked over Aphrodite is a Raven, but if all the coven leaders are on the lookout for one they might see something useful.”
    Morales laughed. “That’d be great if we believed for a minute a wizard would call the cops to report suspicious activity.”
    He had a point, but I wasn’t really trying to argue a case here. Mainly I just wanted to cover my ass so he didn’t keep asking about my conversation with Volos.
    You did that ten years ago, sweetheart.
    What game had John been playing anyway? Like I was supposed to believe he’d been heartbroken all this time? Give me a break.
    Luckily, it was about this time that Morales turned his car into the lot outside the gym, so I was saved having to analyze that train wreck of a thought.
    Moments later we walked up the steps to find Gardner tapping her sensible low-heeled pump. “What the hell took you so long?”
    I paused with one foot hovering above a riser. “We came straight here.”
    She pressed her lips together like she wanted to tell us that wasn’t good enough, but thought better of it. Gardner was tough, but she was fair. “In my office,” she snapped and walked away, obviously expecting us to