“Grandma, I’m an adult. I will sort it out. I love you, but you have to butt out of my relationships.”
“Well, I am an older adult. I’ve lived a long time, and when I look back, I don’t regret the things I’ve done. I regret the things I didn’t do, chances I didn’t take. Because you can’t get those back. At least give him a shot.”
The timer on the stove went off. I grabbed two cutting boards and slid pizzas onto them one by one.
“Nobody is saying you have to marry him.”
I sliced the pizzas and brought the cutting boards to the table.
“Are you listening to me?”
“Yes, Grandma.”
I put two plates on the table.
Grandma Frida shook her head. “How did I end up with all these smartass grandchildren?”
“Genetics.”
“Ooo.” Grandma Frida wagged her finger at me and took a slice of pizza.
I winked at her and bit into my slice.
Bern walked into the kitchen. “I smell food.”
“There’s plenty,” I said.
He went to the cabinet to get some plates. “I ran the statistics on the Pit. It’s been steadily growing, at about three to five feet per year. Three months ago, the rate of erosion quadrupled. It’s no longer uniform either. Stretches of land disappear in random places. It’s not natural.”
The Abyss was expanding its territory. If it just stayed in the Pit, it could be contained, but it wouldn’t. As Regina said, the Abyss would grow, because it was no longer a construct. It was alive. Life expanded, devoured, consumed, and expanded again. A cold, slimy surge of anxiety squirmed through me, dragging nausea in its wake. We had to stop it and I had no idea how.
Bern brought two plates over. I made a point to look at them.
“You realize this is silly, right?”
Bern shrugged and reached for Grandma Frida’s pizza slice. She slapped his hand.
“Mine. Get your own.”
I got up. “You can have mine. The antivenom shot isn’t sitting well anyway.”
Grandma Frida blinked at me. “Why did you need an antivenom shot?”
“Love you, Grandma, gotta go.”
I escaped and went to my room. My body felt heavy and tired. Brushing my teeth and changing clothes was almost too much. I forced myself to do it anyway, and then I called Marat.
“Kazarian,” he answered.
“This is Catalina Baylor. I’ve learned more about the being in the Pit. Marat, we have to shut down the site.”
“Out of the question,” he said. “I gave you everything you asked for.”
“This isn’t about the investigation. This is about your safety. The creature in the Pit is extremely dangerous. It’s been enlarging the Pit, and it will attack you.”
“Every day we don’t work, we sink deeper into the hole.”
“Would your wife and children rather have you or a pile of money? My father died and I would do anything for just one more day with him. Please shut it down. At least until we figure out how to kill it. Please.”
He heaved a sigh. “Okay. I’ll get our people out of there tomorrow.”
“Thank you.”
I hung up and crawled into my bed. Shadow jumped up, made three circles on the covers, and settled by my feet.
“What are we going to do?” I asked her.
Shadow drummed her tail on the covers.
I wished Alessandro was here. I wished I could kiss him and feel his arms around me. I missed him so badly, it hurt.
Everyone was allowed a moment of weakness once in a while. I decided not to beat myself up over it. Instead, I closed my eyes and sank into sleep.
I walked into the kitchen at eight and made a beeline for the electric kettle. Someone had already warmed up the water and put my loose black tea into my tiny glass teapot. This almost never happened.
I poured hot water into the teapot, turned around, and looked at the three people sitting at the kitchen table. Cornelius, Leon, and Arabella gazed back at me. All three wore business clothes. Cornelius chose slate-blue trousers and a light blue dress shirt with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. A pair of shades hung from his collar. Nevada told me that when they first met, Cornelius was perfectly put together. In the three years he’d worked with us, his style had evolved into dressed-up but laid-back. He always wore formal clothes, but he somehow managed to look casual in them.
Arabella picked a blue dress with a plunging neckline that miraculously exposed no cleavage. It had lightly padded shoulders and lines that signaled trench coat rather than dress, with lapels, fitted sleeves, which she rolled up, and a skirt that reached to midthigh. She cinched the whole thing with a light gold belt that should have been gaudy but somehow looked elegant and paired it with high-heeled gold sandals. Her hair framed her face in gorgeous waves, her makeup was professional photoshoot quality, and she had hung a light pink purse on the back of her chair. Gold-rimmed sunglasses sat on her head. It was a killer outfit and she made the most of it.
Leon wore light grey pants cut like jeans, a matching sports coat, and a blue-grey dress shirt. He’d combed his hair, but hadn’t shaved, and his stubble was just the right length to be fashionable. Leon never cared about fashionable and he was usually clean shaven. Barely twenty-four hours had passed since we found out Audrey had died.
I poured my tea into my cup, blew on it, and sipped.
My sister raised a plate. “Would you like a muffin?”
“What are the three of you up to?”
“I would like to accompany you to Tatyana’s interview,” Cornelius said.
Arabella raised her phone. “Questions for Stephen Jiang. I worked very hard on them. I won’t say anything. I just want to be there.”
I looked at Leon. “And you?”
“I’m tired of sitting around the house. I’ll come for protection.”
He’d only had to sit around the house for a day.
I sipped my tea. “I understand all that, but why are you all in blue?”
The three of them looked at each other.
“Did you plan this? Am I supposed to coordinate?”
Arabella opened her mouth.
My phone rang. I glanced at it. Linus. I held up my hand and put the phone to my ear.
“I’m borrowing your Italian,” Linus said. “You will have to do without.”
What did he mean, borrowing? “For how long?”
“Until we’re finished.”
He wouldn’t tell me. Whatever it was had to be dangerous, because Linus Duncan didn’t require backup. He was the backup, the strike team, and the field artillery, all by himself. Anxiety pinched me. My pulse sped up. Linus must’ve calculated the odds and decided he needed Alessandro. I wanted them both to come out of this alive.
“Do you need my help?”
“No.”
Argh. “I need to talk to you about the Pit.”
“It will have to wait. Carry on.”
He hung up. I resisted the urge to slam the phone down on the counter. It was a very strong urge and I had to resist very hard.
I looked up at the three in blue at the table. I had to give Cornelius his moment with Tatyana. Arabella couldn’t transform in city limits without causing panic and massive problems for us as a House. If the telekinetic made an appearance, having Leon could mean a difference between life and death.
“Will you please come with me?” I asked.
The Pierce Building sat on two beautifully landscaped acres off Wilcrest Drive, just north of Westheimer Road. Unlike most Houses, pyrokinetic mages were barred from owning commercial real estate inside the Sam Houston Tollway Loop, because they tended to start fires. Even outside the Loop, the municipal regulations dictated a certain distance between their buildings and others, which is why the Pierce Building rose in the middle of a park all by its lonesome.