Page 70 of Ink Blood Sister Scribe

Humoring her, Nicholas obeyed, but a second later snatched his hand back with a grunt. “It’s hot!”

“Yeah,” said Esther. “In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s heating this whole room.”

He looked closer at the rock and saw, barely perceptible if you weren’t looking for it, dark brown smudges that had to be blood. “But that’s...”

Esther nodded. “Magic.”

“You wouldn’t believe what that spell saves on heating bills,” said Lisa, coming out from the kitchen with Collins in her wake. He was holding a platter of sliced cake.

Esther said, “Propane or electric?”

Lisa looked amused. “Electric. Why?”

“Professional curiosity.” Esther stood.

“You have a book,” Nicholas said to Lisa, because he couldn’t think of the right way to frame this as a question.

“We have lots of books,” said Lisa, and glanced sideways at Collins. “No thanks to your employer.”

“His employer?” Nicholas started to say, but Collins shot him a sharp, silencing look.

“The cake’s really good,” Collins said, putting the platter down on a mirrored coffee table. “Have some.”

Sir Kiwi let out a yap so excited it was nearly a howl, and Nicholas saw a small white cat sashay into the room, tail high and swaying. It batted its green eyes at Nicholas and then let out a warning hiss as Sir Kiwi approached, flashing needle-sharp teeth. Sir Kiwi rolled immediately over onto her back.

Esther said, mouth full of cake, “How long does that heating spell work? I mean, how many uses can you get out of it?”

“That’s what makes it so great,” said Lisa. “Once it’s activated to the rock, it’ll stay hot until you end the spell. So we just keep it in the basement in an unplugged mini fridge during the summer and never deactivate.”

“Now that’s a spell I’d love to look at,” Nicholas said, and refrained himself from repeating Esther’s words:professional curiosity.

Lisa cut her eyes at Collins. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I promised not to take you upstairs. To quote Tansy, we don’t give tours to sellouts.”

Collins’s face crumpled a little, his expression folding on itself.

“Who’s we?” said Esther. “You and Tansy?”

Lisa was looking steadily at Collins. “I guess you’re still making a habit of keeping things from your friends.” To Esther she said, “There’s a lot more of us than just me and Tansy. Membership’s up to twenty-eight since our last meeting.”

“Membership?” said Nicholas.

Lisa nodded but didn’t elaborate.

“Hey, I know you’re already doing us a favor,” Esther said, “but you wouldn’t happen to have a computer I could use, do you? I need to send an email.” Lisa hesitated and Esther added, “I promise it’s nothing to do with... all this. It’s personal. You can watch me write it if it makes you feel better.”

With a shrug, Lisa went to retrieve a battered laptop covered in political stickers and opened it, typing her password onto its worn keys. The screen needed a good cleaning, Nicholas noticed. She opened a web browser and pushed the laptop across the coffee table to Esther, who leaned over it and signed onto her email, eyes scanning eagerly. Something on the screen made her let out a breath like she’d been punched, and Nicholas decided cat hair was a fair trade-off for curiosity and sat next to her on the couch.

The email Esther was reading was all in caps.

ESTHER ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS SHIT? YOU DISAPPEAR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND LEAVE ME THIS COMPLETELY INADEQUATE LETTER PROMISING “EXPLANATIONS”? “SOMEDAY”? I DON’T WANT EXPLANATIONS SOMEDAY, I WANT YOU BACK HERE, IN PERSON, YESTERDAY. WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GO? I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN WITH HOW ANGRY OR HURT OR HOW WORRIED I AM ABOUT YOU. I HAVE A BROKEN ARM FOR CHRISSAKE HAVE YOU NO PITY. THAT NEW GUY TREV IS MISSING AND EVERYONE THINKS HE WALKED OUT ONTO THE ICE AND DIED IN A HOLE SOMEWHERE. PLEASE TELL ME YOU’RE NOT OUT THERE ON THE ICE IN A HOLE. I AM SO MAD AT YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Esther glanced up, her cheeks pink. Lisa and Nicholas were both peering unabashedly over her shoulders, rapt.

“What?” Collins demanded. “Read it out loud.”

“Absolutely not,” Esther said.

“It’s from the girl she ditched in Antarctica,” Nicholas told him.

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