In the distance, I saw Maggie tossing the flute aside.
Rose intoned, “Midge, daughter of Rackham Thin, daughter of Fat Mam, drinker of blood…”
Midge found her footing, grabbed at the road where there was a pothole, and tore a chunk out.
Fell shot her until she dropped it.
“…Bound by the sixth seal, the second point of the star, marked Gula, marked Forente…”
Crawling on all fours, Midge found a storm drain grate beneath the snow, lifting it up.
Evan flew close.
She swung as she stood. He dodged.
“I bind you once more by this imperfect sealing. Until it is repudiated by the blood that forged it, you may never be perfectly bound. Let this suffice. By the Thorburn blood, return to the morass from which I called you!”
Midge dropped the grate.
A trick of the light, like a shadow passing over the sun, and the darkness was molasses thick as it collected her. When it passed, she was gone.
“Fuck me,” I said.
“No time to rest just yet. Trouble incoming,” Fell said. “I can sense it. More dolls, I think they’re making more batches. They’re going to be more clever about what they do next, especially if Conquest has a hand in it. And the Eye…”
I looked.
I could almost sense the Eye.
“It’s moving slower than before,” I said, as we rejoined the others.
“The big thing?” Maggie asked. “The monster that’s not even trying to hide itself?”
“That thing,” I said.
Tiff had gone silent. She was hugging herself, as much as she could while keeping one hand on my bike, as if it might tip over if she let go of it.
I didn’t ask if she was okay.
At moments like this, when we were least okay, the compulsion to go with automatic responses was a dangerous one for a person who couldn’t lie.
“We should move,” Fell said.
My eyes hadn’t left Tiff. She flinched a little as he said it.
“The dolls, the vessels, whatever you call them. Can we block them? A protective circle of some kind?”
“Yes,” Fell said.
“We saved your car, we can make a little distance with it. Let’s use the time we do have to set up the garage. Backtrack a bit, shore up our defenses, make sure he isn’t going to win a battle of attrition. If this keeps up, we’ll need all the safe havens we can get.”
He followed my gaze to look at Tiff. “Her?”
“Yeah. It’s why they’re on board, and it would be a help.”
He nodded.
“Okay?” I asked Tiff.
She looked rather relieved to have the option.
“Yeah,” she said.
■
We were down one ally, for all intents and purposes. Tiff was gone.
But we had Alexis, and we had Ty.
We also had Maggie. I wasn’t sure why, but when I took a headcount, trying to weigh the options and assets we had on hand, I had trouble counting her among our assets.
It was a hell of a lot easier to blame Rose for the lapse in judgment and control.
But I found myself paying attention to Maggie instead.
I looked through the window at a city that was burning. No less than six fires or glows of fire that I could make out from the balcony.
The apartment we occupied was one in a new construction. It looked better than a lot of the structures we’d seen around. The spirit world hadn’t had a chance to intervene. It gleamed with hope.
It was a good choice, symbolically.
“They’re going to change up their tactics,” Fell said. “The Sisters… I think those vessels were something of a one-size-fits-all solution. Something they could calibrate to send at virtually any threat. Whatever they send next, it’ll be more specialized.”
I nodded. It fit.
“If I could say so,” Fell said, “I would say that summoning was a clusterfuck.“
“I realized what we did wrong,” Rose said. “The terminology of the binding Maggie and I set up when we primed Midge to come when I gave the word, it was too narrow. She was supposed to defeat all enemies we had in the immediate area, then return… but when we defeated some of the enemies-“
“She couldn’t follow through,” I said. “Freeing her of the contract.”
“I thought, since I only had to ask to bind her and banish her, that it’d be a cinch. But it was hard, and by interrupting me, she took the power out of my words, forcing me to find stronger wording.”
I wanted more than anything to ask her just how much involvement Maggie had had in the choice of wording, but I couldn’t with Maggie present.
Forcing me to make a mental note of the possible sabotage and move on.
“Let’s forget what happened, past tense, and focus on what will or could happen. Future tense,” I said.
“Okay,” Rose said. “Fine by me.”
“I’m short my best goblin,” Maggie said. “The ones I do have are the most minor sort of gremlin.”
“Just add water?” I asked.
“No. Dismantlers, trapmakers,” she said. She showed me the folded paper slips. Each one had what I might have assumed was a sun scrawled on it, along with goblin names and basic labels. I belatedly realized the suns were supposed to be mechanical gears.
Screwloose and Douchegargler. Labeled junkyard dog one and junkyard dog two, respectively.
“Traps are good,” I said. “Can we put them to work?”
“They’re kind of what you might call ‘mad dog’ goblins. See? Written right there. Junkyard dogs. In practice, they’re sort of like the subhuman we just dealt with. You sic them on something, they do their work, then they’re gone. You don’t rein them back in without a lot of trouble.”
I nodded. “That’s all you’ve got?”
“All I can use, yeah.”
“Okay,” I said.
“What about the goblin sword?” Fell asked.
“The what now?” Maggie asked.
I hadn’t had a chance to tell him to keep it on the down-low.
Fuck.
I got the sword and unwrapped it.
“Geeeeez. I’ve heard about this sort of thing. Faerie used to enslave and bind goblins, during an era when the courts were changing over. Mixed up relationship between the two. Many powerful goblins agreed to take up certain forms, as part of treaties. This thing isn’t small potatoes.”
“It’s not the biggest potato either,” I said. “Middle of the road, though it’s hard to believe that after seeing it in action.”
“I want this,” she said.
“And you can’t have it,” I said, suddenly very glad for the promise I’d made to Evan. “Not without us jumping through some hoops first. Let’s table that for now.”