Page 23 of Midnight in the Garden of Okay and Meh
Behind her, the lanky young man reappeared and once again stormed a fire path across the room, loudly pronouncing his general unhappiness with the world, but this time he was accompanied by another man, one who I thought was Ysolde’s silent watcher. He followed behind, stamping out the fire. I couldn’t help but notice he was carrying two swords, and wondered what on earth was going on.
“Mabel?” Ysolde asked, ignoring the commotion behind her when the two men exited the room.
“Sorry,” I said, pulling my attention back to where it should be. “Unfortunately, even reapers have limits to our abilities. Under normal circumstances, we can guide spirits from wherever they are to whatever afterlife they wish to visit, but the Thirteenth Hour?” I shook my head. “I don’t have that sort of power.”
“Who would?” Allie asked.
I hesitated a second before saying on a sigh, “It would have to be someone very powerful. A demigod, for instance. I’m afraid that I’m going to be useless in this situation—”
“But he is a demigod,” Aisling said.
“I’m afraid that doesn’t matter,” I said, holding up a hand when both Tatiana and Ysolde started to speak simultaneously. “Even a demigod in the Thirteenth Hour would require someone of his own ilk to help free him.”
“And the First Dragon is being stubborn,” Ysolde said, looking disappointed.
“Maybe if we talked to this Dr. Kostich that Aisling and Ysolde told us about,” Allie said to her husband, who looked momentarily horrified.
“The Committee has little love for the Moravian Council,” he answered, his bright silver eyes almost glowing in the dim light of their room. “Even if we would accept such a thing, we have no idea if he has the sort of abilities needed.”
“An archimage wouldn’t do,” I said with another quick shake of my head. “I’m afraid it’s a demigod or nothing. That said, I’m very sorry I can’t be of help to you.”
Aisling tsked audibly. “Don’t be so quick to assume you can’t. After the Broker raved about how talented you are, I’m sure you’re just the person for us. We’ll simply have to get someone else, someone demigod, to kick-start the shebang. Let’s see. Who do we know other than the First Dragon?”
“There’s the Entity,” Finch said slowly. Tatiana thinned her lips. “Two of them are definitely in the demigod or related category, but they’ve made it very clear that they will not give us help with our problem.”
“They said it was out of their purview,” Tatiana added with something that sounded remarkably close to a snort. “It was their fault that we ended up blasting ourselves out of the Hour, which meant the thane got out, too, but heaven forfend they should help.”
“Heaven forfend?” Allie asked, her lips twitching.
“I’ve been reading Georgette Heyer while Finch is working on his book,” she answered. “But other than the Entity, I’m afraid we’ve drawn a short stick.”
“What about that anime girl ... what was her name? ... Sasha! What about her?” Ysolde asked.
Silence fell. I badly wanted to click on the Leave Meeting button, but knew that I’d hear from both the head of the Akashic League and the Broker if I severed the connection without permission from the client.
“Oooh, that’s a good idea,” Aisling said, pulling out her phone. “I think Thaisa gave me her number. I’ll shoot her a fast text with the link to this chat.”
I said nothing but, mindful of the clock, moved my tablet to the floor, so I could stretch and warm up my muscles.
Ten minutes later, after the discussion in which various persons of power were considered and dismissed, I decided that I’d given the potential clients enough time to escape without censure from my higher-ups, and, pausing in the act of rolling out my leg muscles, shifted the tablet from where it had just caught my head in the camera. “I’m afraid that I’m going to have to—”
“Hello! I can’t imagine what you think I can help you with, but yes, of course I remember you dragons. Oh, but I see we have some Dark Ones here, as well. Hi! I’m Sasha. Do you know Thaisa and Archer, too? Are you all planning for a surprise party for them? Is that why this is so secret? I can recommend a chocolate fountain if you are. Also, if you want me to ask a few of my sisters, they’d love to come. Well ... Bree would. Clover isn’t any too fond of Hunter —they dated for a few months. She’s gone off to find herself until another needy dragon hunter comes around. Put me down to bring the chocolate fountain. When is the party?”
I will admit that I stopped rolling out my thigh muscle to gawk at the screen. Unlike many of the leaders of the Court of Divine Blood, Sasha had no qualms revealing her identity, which made it all that much odder when you considered that she was the head of the whole organization. “Er ... ” I said. “If there is a party, I’m afraid I know nothing about it. And speaking of that, I should be running—”
“Hang on just a few more minutes, please,” Aisling said, and asked Sasha, “Would you be willing to help us get a man out of the Thirteenth Hour?”
“Whoa. I didn’t expect that,” she said, blinking rapidly. “Who are you after?”
Aisling looked to her dog and said softly, “You can speak, but no personal comments.”
“Sheesh, Ash, like I am anything but Mr. Suave? Heya, peeps, how they hangin’? Respectively, that is. How come you’re on the ground?”
It took me a few seconds to realize it was addressing me. “I’m stretching, and really, I do have to run. I need to be somewhere in seventeen minutes—”
“My dad’s name is Desislav,” Jim interrupted, obviously answering Sasha.
Her eyes got big. “You’re shitting me!”
