Page 17 of Saving the World and Other Bad Ideas (Grave Concerns 3)

I was smart enough to know my limitations, though. It seemed I might be able to destroy a reaper, but hanging out in rough tattoo shops was a step too far. Still, I sat in a chair, trying to not look so out of place as I waited for Grant.

As usual, he’d given me no real information. An address and a time—that was it. In fact, I wasn’t even entirely sure it was the rightday.

Isn’t like I’ve got anything better to do.

The hinges on the door squeaked, and relief hit me at the sight of Grant walking in. He fit in far better than I did, and he’d even worn a short-sleeve shirt so the expanse of the ink on his arms was on display.

“Grant,” the woman said, her smile honest but not flirtatious. “Unless you want me to touch that pretty face of yours, I’m afraid you’ve run out of room.”

He chuckled, then held his hand out to me. “Not for me, today, Hayleen.”

Damn it. She even has a cool name…

Hayleen looked at me again, a different expression on her face, as if she had to reevaluate me. “Wait a minute, is thistheone?”

I didn’t get the chance to ask what exactly that meant before Grant nodded. “Yeah.”

“Will she even take spell ink?”

Spell ink?

“She has before. That’s actually why I’m here—we need to look at removing some.”

I turned toward Grant. “Excuse me?”

He frowned. “You said you wanted the spells gone.”

“Yeah, I said that in passing. You don’t think we should have discussed this?”

“We’re discussing it now.”

Why he could continue to surprise me when he acted as he always did, I had no idea. I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “You’re supposed to talk to me about it before we show up at a place to do it. If I decided you needed a circumcision, do you think the exam room is the right place for us to talk about it?”

Hayleen laughed, a deep one that said she wasn’t the sort of woman to giggle demurely. “I like her. Come on back—I’ll take a look and we’ll talk options.”

Grant moved his gaze between the two of us, as if he wasn’t sure he approved of us being friendly. It wasn’t jealousy, but more like it was a bad idea or he was already seeing all the ways we’d end up in trouble.

Still, it gave me the courage to follow Hayleen back into a smaller room, one with a few chairs against the wall, a stool and a padded table. Artwork rested on the walls—page after page of tattoo ideas—along with photos of actual tattoos. On a worktable sat something that looked like a toolbox with pull-out drawers, and on the shelves were old leather books and jars of ingredients that didn’t seem like they fit. Flowers, plants, crystals…all sorts of things.

Grant took a seat in one of the chairs while Hayleen nodded at a more comfortable-looking padded chair. She sat on the stool and rolled over after I took my spot.

I held my arms out, twisting them to show the marks on my forearms—or what was left of them—while being careful not to accidently send her flying across the room. I was pretty sure she wouldn’t be inclined to help if I did that.

She made a soft sound as she traced the scars with her fingers. “These were put on when you were young.”

“Before I was three,” I explained.

“Whoever tried to remove them was a hack.” She turned her gaze to Grant. “You kill the idiot?”

“It was a human doctor,” Grant explained. “All he could do was try to pull the color.”

She shook her head, narrowing her gaze to study the marks. “This is good work. A spell like this,especiallyon someone who doesn’t take to magic well, isn’t easy.”

“Do you know whose work it is?” I asked, then immediately regretted it. Every time I thought I was beyond wanting a connection to my past, to my parents, a breadcrumb was all it took to set me right down that path again.

“There’s a pretty short list of mages who deal in ink magic like this, and the number who could handle a job like this is even smaller. My bet? Only three or four in the world. I can make a list for you in a few days. You want that?”

Yes.Except, the word wouldn’t come out, because did I? I had so many other things on my plate, so much uncertainty—did I really want to drag up any additional problems?

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