want to do a spell that will go deep into you and your power to look for threads that shouldn’t be there.” Uncertainty flashed in her eyes. “Will you let me?”
My heart, shriveled as it was, beat a little faster. “Oh, sure, let a demon sorceress into the deep, dark recesses of a soul eater? What could possibly go wrong?”
“I promise not to do any damage,” she added with a wholly inappropriate grin.
The damage didn’t worry me. I devoured, and, apparently, I did it in my sleep too. If she got too close, went too deep, I’d likely do the same to her. She was the most skilled sorceress I’d ever hunted, but her magic came from her soul, and if she got too close, that’s exactly what I’d rip out of her, putrid and black as it was. These days, I wasn’t a fussy eater.
“Is this like the tracking spell you did on the girl’s arm?” I asked, keeping my thoughts to myself and my gaze lost in my drink.
“More like what Mafdet attempted, but this time, you’ll be active instead of a passenger in your own mind, and I’ll be coming along for the ride. You wouldn’t trust my results, so you’ll have to see for yourself, but—”
“There’s always a but.” More vodka went down, burning all the way and getting into those hard to reach places.
“It’s not vital, but ideally, you’d need someone here, someone you trust to keep you anchored, because you don’t trust me.”
That narrowed it down to an amount of people I could count on the thumb of one hand.
“What does my trusted person have to do?” I asked, failing to keep the suspicion from my tone.
“Nothing. Just be here so you’re not alone. Someone you can come back to if you get lost in your head.”
That sounded comforting. “And they won’t get hurt?”
“No. It’s strictly babysitting. I can do it without…”
Time was running out. I needed this done so I could focus on surviving Thoth. “Cujo’s the only person I trust this side of the underworld.”
Shu smiled a little, secret smile and poured herself a drink. “Call him. Let’s get this done so I can go back to snarling at you through the door.”
“You do that?”
“A better question would be: when don’t I?”
I eyed the phone on my desk. It was late, but Cujo would come. It’d take him forty minutes to call a cab and make his way over. Forty minutes to tell Shu that all this was probably pointless because I’d bargained our lives away when I agreed to kill Thoth.
I picked up the phone and dialed Cujo’s cell. When he didn’t answer, I left a brief message for him to call back and hung up. “There’s something else.”
She pulled the guest chair over and draped herself into it. I’d seen her relax like that once—right before whipping up a spell that turned a man’s insides into soup.
She waited for me to elaborate. This was going to hurt.
“I agreed to kill Thoth for Osiris.”
She blinked once. Twice. And pursed her lips. The silence grew thick and so cloying I could taste it. It tasted like burning asphalt, like restrained magic. Hers.
She smiled, but it wasn’t a pleasant smile. More like the type of smile you’d see on a crocodile. Her cool, calm response was the frosted layer over a lake of pain, and the floodgates were about to open. Her stillness, the level rise and fall of her chest, said she was holding back. “And when did you agree to this?”
“Three months ago,” I said. “Osiris wants it done in three days—two now. He’s pissed at me, more than usual. I may have…brought that on myself.”
She looked at me with a wholly unsettling calmness. Were she a person, I would’ve said she was about to snap, pull out a gun, and aerate my body. But this was Shu. She had imagination.
“Apparently, I ate the souls of his staff and set his house on fire, and he knows I’ve had impure thoughts about his wife.”
Shu’s top lip twitched. “You wanna bang Isis? Since when?”
I needed more vodka. “Since…since she somehow
My heart, shriveled as it was, beat a little faster. “Oh, sure, let a demon sorceress into the deep, dark recesses of a soul eater? What could possibly go wrong?”
“I promise not to do any damage,” she added with a wholly inappropriate grin.
The damage didn’t worry me. I devoured, and, apparently, I did it in my sleep too. If she got too close, went too deep, I’d likely do the same to her. She was the most skilled sorceress I’d ever hunted, but her magic came from her soul, and if she got too close, that’s exactly what I’d rip out of her, putrid and black as it was. These days, I wasn’t a fussy eater.
“Is this like the tracking spell you did on the girl’s arm?” I asked, keeping my thoughts to myself and my gaze lost in my drink.
“More like what Mafdet attempted, but this time, you’ll be active instead of a passenger in your own mind, and I’ll be coming along for the ride. You wouldn’t trust my results, so you’ll have to see for yourself, but—”
“There’s always a but.” More vodka went down, burning all the way and getting into those hard to reach places.
“It’s not vital, but ideally, you’d need someone here, someone you trust to keep you anchored, because you don’t trust me.”
That narrowed it down to an amount of people I could count on the thumb of one hand.
“What does my trusted person have to do?” I asked, failing to keep the suspicion from my tone.
“Nothing. Just be here so you’re not alone. Someone you can come back to if you get lost in your head.”
That sounded comforting. “And they won’t get hurt?”
“No. It’s strictly babysitting. I can do it without…”
Time was running out. I needed this done so I could focus on surviving Thoth. “Cujo’s the only person I trust this side of the underworld.”
Shu smiled a little, secret smile and poured herself a drink. “Call him. Let’s get this done so I can go back to snarling at you through the door.”
“You do that?”
“A better question would be: when don’t I?”
I eyed the phone on my desk. It was late, but Cujo would come. It’d take him forty minutes to call a cab and make his way over. Forty minutes to tell Shu that all this was probably pointless because I’d bargained our lives away when I agreed to kill Thoth.
I picked up the phone and dialed Cujo’s cell. When he didn’t answer, I left a brief message for him to call back and hung up. “There’s something else.”
She pulled the guest chair over and draped herself into it. I’d seen her relax like that once—right before whipping up a spell that turned a man’s insides into soup.
She waited for me to elaborate. This was going to hurt.
“I agreed to kill Thoth for Osiris.”
She blinked once. Twice. And pursed her lips. The silence grew thick and so cloying I could taste it. It tasted like burning asphalt, like restrained magic. Hers.
She smiled, but it wasn’t a pleasant smile. More like the type of smile you’d see on a crocodile. Her cool, calm response was the frosted layer over a lake of pain, and the floodgates were about to open. Her stillness, the level rise and fall of her chest, said she was holding back. “And when did you agree to this?”
“Three months ago,” I said. “Osiris wants it done in three days—two now. He’s pissed at me, more than usual. I may have…brought that on myself.”
She looked at me with a wholly unsettling calmness. Were she a person, I would’ve said she was about to snap, pull out a gun, and aerate my body. But this was Shu. She had imagination.
“Apparently, I ate the souls of his staff and set his house on fire, and he knows I’ve had impure thoughts about his wife.”
Shu’s top lip twitched. “You wanna bang Isis? Since when?”
I needed more vodka. “Since…since she somehow
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