Page 24 of Wolf, Willow, Witch
“Nice dress,” he said.
She shimmied her arms, shaking out the long bell sleeves on her fanciful garment, decorated like blue and white Qinghua pottery. Small buttons were centered neatly on her throat and her wrists looked oddly petite shackled by satin cuffs. She’d roped the top of her hair into a French braid and the rest fell past her shoulders in tousled waves. The gold bands stacked on her fingers matched the thrifted crucifix strung around her neck. She felt like a beautiful fraud. Like Mary Magdalene, a reformed whore.
“Bet it belonged to someone’s grandma,” she said, sealing tinfoil over the dish. “Heels or flats?”
“Modest heels.”
“Yeah, I don’t own any of those, Clifford. What’s the point of cramming your feet into a pair of heels if they’re nothigh?”
Lincoln silently repeated the name, mouthingCliffordconfusedly.
“Fine. Yes, heels. But wear the cardigan, too,” he said.
Tehlor deflated, saddling him with a pitiful frown. “Seriously? The atrocity you found on the two-dollar rack?”
Laughter rumbled in his throat. “Yeah, that one. C’mon. Coat, rat, keys. We shouldn’t be late.”
She seethed at him as she rounded the breakfast bar. His hand ghosted her waist, just barely. She remembered kissing the side of his bony muzzle during a shared shower and tracing the autopsy scars carved into his torso.
People rarely imprinted on her. Rarely left a mark. Again, she thought of a Venus fly trap.
Her keen eyes snapped to his own, searching for any indication that she’d infiltrated his thoughts the same way he’d apprehended hers. Lincoln, like always, seemed steady and unchanged.Asshole. She shrugged on the depressing white cardigan, then followed it with a long wool jacket. When she clucked her tongue, Gunnhild scampered from her enclosure and crawled into Tehlor’s palm. She lowered her familiar into a leather purse and slung the bag over her shoulder. At last, she slid on a pair of beige heels and stuck her foot out at Lincoln, lifting a brow.
“See? They’re not hoochie,” she said, turning her ankle back and forth.
“Showing too much calf ishoochieto these people, sweetheart.” He grabbed the casserole and nodded toward the hallway. “Go on.”
Wind blew loose snow from fenceposts and rooves, and the chilly night nipped at exposed skin. Tehlor hurried to the truck and slid inside, shivering. She set her purse in the middle seat and revved the engine, glancing at herself in the rearview mirror. Mascara, rosy blush, lip balm, dollish and toned-down. She scrunched her nose. Lincoln watched the road while she drove, one hand resting on her purse, granting Gunnhild a finger to place her paws on.
“Don’t mention the relic,” he said. “Don’t hint at it, don’t look for it, don’t give them any reason to suspect that’s what we’re after.”
“The sweet one—Andy,Amy—already confirmed they’ll be pulling out all the stops at the revival; we need to know what that means.” Tehlor drummed her thumbs on the steering wheel, slowing down as they approached the cookie-cutter neighborhood where the gathering was taking place.
“Then let it be organic. Ask about the schedule, what you can help with—all the innocent shit. I’ll try to get close to Paul.”
“Phillip,” Tehlor corrected.
“Whatever. At this point, I highly doubt he’s pulling the strings, but I’ll still feel him out.”
“I thought you weresurehe’s the ringleader. If not him, who?”
“His wife participated in several publicized interviews after Haven split.” Lincoln slid a pointed stare in her direction. “Which means she’s the mouthpiece. In situations like this, the person addressing the media is usually the one in control. That’s all you. Don’t fuck it up.”
“Oh, c’mon, blondie’s harmless,” Tehlor said, snorting.
She parked along the sidewalk two houses down and turned off the headlights, idling in the heated truck-cab.
He shook his head. “I doubt that. She’s too cautious about us. Clearly, there’s something at stake for her.”
“Or she’s just a bitch.”
“You’re a bitch. She’s something else.”
Tehlor shrugged. He wasn’t wrong. “Fine. You good? We good?”
“We’re good, let’s go.”
“Stay in there,” Tehlor mumbled, fastening her purse closed with Gunnhild safely inside.
