Shame’s phone rang. He dug it out of his pocket. “Flynn.”
I had good ears. But I couldn’t quite make out the words. I knew who the speaker was, though: Terric.
I recognized his voice, and also I knew it had to be him from the way Shame tensed up.
“Where?” A pause. “Unbelievable. Fine. We’re stopping by Mum’s place first.”
He snapped his phone shut and stuffed it back in his pocket.
“I hope you didn’t have plans for today.”
“Other than hunting down Greyson and Chase?” I shifted so I was sitting facing forward again and buckled my seat belt.
“Sedra has ordered everyone to go out to St. Johns.”
“Why?”
“They’re setting up some kind of storm rod, to try to divert as much of the storm as they can and to channel it into one place when it hits. St. Johns, probably because there is no magic there. It’s the one place that could handle a huge blast without blowing out the networks. I have to admit, it makes sense.”
“You’re surprised Sedra is making sense?”
He licked his lips. Stared at traffic for a second or two. “She’s been. . different. I don’t know if it’s the storm, or your dad dying-which, by the way, I’ve been meaning to ask you-what the hell happened back there with Violet?”
I rubbed at one eye. “I’ve told people he’s in my head. I’ve told you. Jingo Jingo doesn’t believe me, so no one else in the Authority does-”
“Jingo is a one-man freak show. And he’s been lying this entire time about not knowing your dad is in your head. I believe you. After seeing your dad glaring out from behind your eyes? Oh yeah. I’m convinced.”
“Good. Now help me get rid of him.”
Shame shook his head. “Magic. And not even your pretty pink crystal can hold enough for the kind of magic it takes to draw a soul out of a body. Even if the soul doesn’t belong there in the first place. Plus, it will hurt. A lot.”
“I don’t care about the pain. Greyson did it, and I held up pretty well.”
Shame glanced over at me. “Greyson did what?”
“He sucked Dad out of my head.” Should have left you in him. Let him eat you, I thought.
“So he’s really in Greyson?”
“No. He’s in me. And maybe some of him is in Greyson.”
My dad shifted in my head, as if uncomfortable. That was how I knew it was true. Part of him was still in the Necromorph, in the man who had tried to kill him. Who had tried to kill Zay.
Shame was quiet a moment. “You know how you said you were really fucked a few minutes ago?”
“Yeah?”
“I’d like to change my response to ‘and how.’”
“Wonderful. Thanks for that, Mr. Good News.”
“If your dad is in Greyson, or a part of his soul is in Greyson, then you are tied to Greyson through him. He’s spanning two minds, two lives. It makes for an interesting state of being for him. I can appreciate the advantages, though.”
My dad in my head went very still. He listened to Shame like he had just found an expert in the one subject he could not figure out.
Yes, that scared the hell out of me.
“Uh, I’m not sure that you should tell me right now. Dad’s listening.”
Shame laughed. “You are such a creepy girl. Not that I mind. But I just never expected Jones would go for the whole goth-chick-possessed-by-the-dead-guy thing. Talk about Daddy issues. And I’m not at all sure what that says about Zayvion, psychologically speaking. Tell me, does your dad know when you and Jones are, you know, doing it?”
“Do you want me to puke in your car? ’Cause if you keep it up, I will destroy your upholstery.”
Stone, in the backseat, growled.
“And then my gargoyle will eat you.”
“Aw, c’mon. A hint?”
“Zay’s been helping me find ways to block him.”
“Ooh. Nice. Can you block your dad without him?”
“Yes. Most of the time.”
“But back with Violet?”
“It’s always worse when I get around her. Dad. .” I couldn’t believe I was about to say this out loud. “He loved her. And even though I do not know why, Violet loved him too. So when he sees her, hears her voice, we get into sort of a wrestling match over who gets to run my body.”
“Do you always lose?”
“Not for long. We’re not going to St. Johns, are we?”
“I don’t think skipping out on this party is an option.”
“Then you go. I have a Necromorph to hunt.”
He wiped his hand over his face, then rubbed his palm over his jeans. The pressure of the building storm was growing strong enough now, I was starting to feel it like a migraine behind my eyes.
“I want Greyson dead,” he finally said. “No questions. But if we don’t deal with the magic, with the storm, we’ll lose the chance to get Zayvion back. Until the wild magic passes, all bets with magic-how it’s going to work, when it’s going to work-are off.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “I can handle myself. With or without magic.”
“I know. And if you’re set on it, on the hunt, then I’ll go with you.”
“That’s not how this works. I’m making this decision for myself. Alone.”
“That is exactly how this works. You don’t go anywhere without me. You don’t go anywhere alone. I won’t let that happen. Like it or not.”
“Get off my back, Flynn.”
The corner of his mouth quirked up. “You’d rather I get on your front? What would Zayvion say?”
“He’d tell you to shut up and hunt.”
“Planning on it. But even he wouldn’t be stupid enough to go into a hunt without weapons. And until we have magic-until both of us have magic at our disposal-hunting Greyson is a waste of time.”
He had a point. And it finally soaked through my stubborn head. Magic first. Because once I had magic, was filled with it again, it wasn’t going to take me any time to find Greyson and kick his ass.
“Fine,” I said.
“Fine,” he agreed.
“Why are we going to Maeve’s and not straight to St. Johns?”
“I need to pick up a couple things.”
I was glad. After having my dad run roughshod over my body and emotions, I wanted to look in on Zay. Tell him I was okay. Tell him he was going to be okay too, and to not give up on us. Tell him I hadn’t given up on finding Greyson, no matter what I told Shame.
It didn’t take long to get across town to the other side of the river. But even in that short time, the sky changed. Clouds, lots of them, all the shades of gray and black, gathered. Some of them tinted with a watercolor wash of green and blue and burnt orange. There was magic in the sky. And it was coming to kill us all.
Shame pulled up beside his mother’s inn. The inn seemed to be doing business as usual. A dozen or so cars were in the parking lot, and when we walked through the front door, the dining room had only a few empty tables. The one thing that was different was I didn’t see Maeve anywhere in the room, talking to patrons, or pouring coffee.
One of the other girls who worked the place, Kathy, looked up at us. Shame still had his hood up. He raised his hand in greeting, and she nodded. We walked along the outer edge of the room and through the arch to the hall beyond. I started up the stairs that led to the rooms above.
“You coming?” I asked when I didn’t hear Shame’s footsteps behind me.
“Downstairs first. See you outside?”
“Five minutes?”
“That should do.”
I took the stairs a little faster. If I only had five minutes before I went off to fight a storm of wild magic, I wanted to spend those five minutes with Zay.
I hesitated at the door to his room. Thought about knocking. Knew it would only hurt more when he didn’t answer, so instead, I just opened the door.