Page 35 of Crown of Tides and Fury

Kitch agreed with a nod. “Or maybe they have enough witches to ransom and won’t be collecting more.”

We moved together, so we could pop home, and I stepped on something, lost my footing, and went down. My hand splashed on a puddle of thick blood. The item I’d stepped on was a chunk of skull with an ear still attached and a dried lump of gray matter clinging to the opposite side.

Urban pulled me to my feet just as I started puking. I was still puking when we landed home.

I fell to my knees and I did terrible things to the carpet inEngineering II, which included the attempt to wipe the thick black stuff from my hand. Urban waited for me to finish, then led me downstairs and to my room. I swore I’d go back and clean it all up. Once I’d showered and returned, though, the carpet was thick, fluffy, and pristine, like nothing had ever happened.

Everly leaned in the doorway, watching me crawl on the floor, looking for spots and puke that might have been missed. I could tell by her expression she wanted to wrap her arms around me and cry, but she knew me well enough to know I wouldn’t appreciate it, especially if it made me lose it again. So she just stood there, smirking.

“Do you remember Bewitched?”

“Yeah.”

“And you know how Meral and Reem have a talent for cleaning?”

I stopped crawling. “You’re going to tell me all they have to do is twitch their noses to clean a room?”

“I’m telling you all they have to do is twitch something to clean a room. You can stop feeling guilty. It was clean in two seconds.”

I crawled to the chair in the corner and laid my head on the seat. I might have spread out on the carpet had my memory not been so clear about what had been smeared into it a half hour before. Everly laughed lightly and walked away, giving me what I wanted, giving me space. And when a tear dripped off my nose and onto the embroidered seat, I wasn’t losing it a second time. I was just moved by the fact that someone on this earth knew me so well.

I would willingly die for these people.

* * *

With Kitch’s help,I got into Griffon’s email. Plenty of incoming, nothing outgoing since The Covenant had gone missing, since we’d had our…falling out. I pointed out that he wasn’t reading his emails either.

“He probably is,” Kitch said, and pointed to a box at the top. “All he has to do is mark them as unread.”

“So…if I sent him a message, he might get it?”

He looked at me for a long time. “Aye. But just remember, I’ll be readin’ it too.”

I sighed and headed for the door. “You’re no fun at all.”

“Are ye jokin’? If anything happened to ye, on my watch, Persephone would turn me inside out and set me afire.”

I paused in the doorway to lift a brow. “Persephone, is it?”

“Get out.”

* * *

It was Day 11.Wickham couldn’t put off his trip to the past any longer, but no one had the balls to actually say it out loud. At least not yet. I was trying to work up the courage but hoped someone would beat me to it.

Brian and Flann had searched what resources they could without leaving the house, looking for mentions of Moira’sMuireachor the DeNoy. That night, since our body clocks were out of whack, Flann and I saw a tv show about hieroglyphics and Egyptian mythology. One of the locals pointed to a picture with fangs and I could have sworn he said DeNoy, or something that sounded really close.

Flann jumped to his feet. He’d heard it too. We replayed the moment a dozen times, just to be sure. We continued watching, ears straining, and the next time the symbol popped up, the same man said, “These were killed off a t’ousand years ago, but at one time, to find one unlocked was the greatest treasure of all.”

“Unlocked?” Flann and I repeated it in unison, then looked at each other.

“But he never said DeNoy again,” I pointed out.

“Aye, well, we might have heard what we wanted to hear.”

“And just how do you find an unlocked monster with fangs?” The image of one of Orion’s dogs popped into my head. The fangs on the show weren’t so different from the ones on the blue-black beasts. The hieroglyph was only about four inches square, so there wasn’t room for more detail, but I couldn’t help linking them. When I said as much to Flann, he agreed.

“Tomorrow, I’ll start looking for mentions of theUnlocked.”

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