Page 72 of Cheater Slicks

Time. I needed to buy time. I had to keep him distracted. “How did you get to my brother?”

“All I had to do was put a drink in the hand of a pretty girl, and he was mine.”

And all Dis Pater had to do was dunk the bone in a liquid to create the enchantment potion, meaning he could do it on the fly. To anyone. Anywhere.

Even Rollo, who couldn’t have been dosed in the house, was an easy target while he was searching for answers in the city. Those nights he ate while he was out, which made tampering with his drinks simple.

The glass he remembered in his hand when I quizzed him in the parade hadn’t been in his office. I knew. I looked. Maybe his memories got jumbled and what he meant was there had been something off with a drink he was served but hadn’t realized until it was too late.

“Leyna helped you.”

“No idea if that was her name, but I like it. It’s gotlove interestvibes. I’ll write it down to use later.” He basked in my confusion, and I let him, knowing he couldn’t resist an opening to hear his own voice. “He went on a date with a girl in a band. A sylph. She bought him a drink at the bar where they were playing to thank him for his help loading and unloading their equipment.”

I could picture it with ease. Matty was precisely the knight in shining armor type who would help a damsel in distress. Though usually it was just in and out of her pants…

“What do you expect me to do? I can’t break my word to Anunit.” She wasn’t the forgiving type. “I don’t know how to raise or lower the wards on the burial grounds.” I spread my hands. “I haven’t exactly been trained up yet.”

“You want me to hand over your brother on the hope that one day, eventually, maybe, you’ll grant me access? With your brother in hand, you have no reason not to offer the same deal to one of my rivals in exchange for their protection.” He laughed darkly. “You’ve got twenty-four hours, mouthy girl.”

To boost his power? To allow him to ascend to the top of the death god food chain? Both options sounded like all-around terrible ideas. “That’s not enough time?—”

“That’s all your brother has left.”

Panic stabbed me through the heart, and I couldn’t breathe through the soul crushing force of it.

“Deadlines suck, right? I hate them.” He clucked his tongue. “But they’re a part of life.”

“If he dies, even if it takes me the rest of my life, I will find a way to kill you.”

“I love drama. In novels. In real life, threats come across as pathetic.” He lifted the cloche once more. “Help me, and I won’t need this. I can set everyone free, and then you can pat yourself on the back for saving your brother and your friend and the rest of them from a fate worse than death.”

As he lowered his arm, a blur of motion smashed into his side and knocked him to the floor.

Finally.

Anunit slashed Harrow’s blunt nails down Dis Pater’s face, drawing blood, and bent down to hiss.

“You will pay for your sins with your life.” She knocked the cloche from his hand. “How dare you?—”

Glass shattered, shaking me out of my stupor, and I lunged for the rolling finger bone.

“Get off.” Dis Pater struck Anunit with bolts of electricity that sizzled across her skin, his strikes ten times more potent than Kierce’s. “Who even are you?”

Anunit shouted in pain, the cry morphing into a vicious growl of determination, and Dis Pater’s eyes shot wide in surprise that he wasn’t slowing her down. Too bad it was Harrow’s body paying the price.

On my hands and knees, I reached the small metal stand and pried the bone from its fastener.

“Kierce,” Dis Pater yelled when he noticed what I was doing.“Kierce.”

For a few precious seconds, I thought Anunit somehow prevented him from completing his summoning.

But when the front door smacked into a far wall, and distant footsteps pounded closer, I remembered Kierce always appeared on the beach. He had to physically cross the wards. Only that had slowed him.

“We need to go.” I scrambled to my feet. “Anunit.” I reached for her. “We have to get out of here.”

As often as I told myself Kierce would never hurt me, I didn’t want Dis Pater to prove me wrong.

“Anunit?” Dis Pater recoiled, the color washing from his cheeks. “What are you?—?”

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