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“How about you give me the entire payment and I make sure your name doesn’t make it into the news?”
This was the moment I decided that Officer Biffi was an idiot.
“Are you trying to threaten me?”
Behind the wizard, his two ifrit bodyguards rose a little taller on their smoking tails. One of them punched his fist into his palm eagerly, ready to punch Biffi in the face.
Officer Biffi cleared his throat, backing away. “I-I’ll take seventy.”
“Good. Now get out of my sight before I change my mind.” The wizard turned his attention to me. “You, Witch, are going to do everything I want you to do. I have your brother down in my basement, and if you don’t, he is going to become dinner for my pet gators.”
My laughter clearly wasn’t what the wizard had expected. It wasn’t a nervous chuckle but a full-on cackle that hurt my bruised cheek. “Are you fucking serious?” I crowed. “You think I’m going to do what you want to save his sorry ass? Go ahead—feed him to the crocs, or the gators, whatever, I don’t give a shit. He’s the last person I care about. I can’t believe you even trusted a dumbass like him with something as important as this.”
I was feeling much the same way I had when Mateo had stormed into my home, accusing me of stealing a piece of a dragon’s hoard: kind of snarky and a whole lot of crazy. I didn’t understand why my brain refused to be smart and STFU in situations like these and instead insisted I go into mouthy bitch mode. Talk about how to get murdered by a supervillain 101.
“He is your only family. How can you care so little?”
“Let me ask you something.” I looked the wizard straight in the eye with more bravado than I actually felt. “You asked him for the locket. Did he deliver?”
The wizard pressed his lips into a thin line.
I held up my hand. “You don’t need to answer that. I know he didn’t. Tony never delivers. He’s a flake, and a liar, and I’ll bet he lived off your dime while he was doing his thing at the museum, didn’t he? Don’t feel bad, it’s not you. He takes advantage of everyone. Did you know that after escaping with Desmon’s locket, he came straight to my house, knowing he was being tracked? He threw me under the fucking bus!
“I had a manticore knocking on my door. I faced a dragon—a dragon! I’m sorry if all this”—I waved my hand at his setup with the medieval-looking weapons mounted on the wall and his two ifrits standing behind him, arms crossed, looking menacing—“is supposed to scare me. I mean, I can try to act frightened if it would make you feel better, but I gotta warn you, I’m a shitty actor.”
Ah! What the hell was coming out of my mouth? Why did my brain react to stressful, life-threatening situations like this? I would totally have been the one to taunt the tiger back in the caveman day.
Instead of becoming angry, however, Augustine looked intrigued. “My, my, my. You are an interesting one. I would much rather work with you than your brother.” He turned to one of his glowing red demon guards. “Feed that useless freeloader to the crocs. I have no more use for him.” The ifrit grunted and disappeared into thin air.
I found it disturbingly easy not to react to his words.
“I did not enjoy working with your incompetent fool of a brother.” He looked me up and down as I stood my ground, chin lifted despite the swelling that was starting to force my eyes shut. “I see why you have no fear of me if you have already faced down an angry dragon. Maybe I’m going about this the wrong way.”
He made a gesture to his remaining guard, who also disappeared. I wasn’t sure if they were both gone-gone or only appeared to be, but suddenly we were alone. The room changed, too; I couldn’t tell what exactly had changed, but it became a lot more welcoming and less threatening. Warmer.
“Let me introduce myself properly. My name is Augustine Venedictos Volesus, but you may call me Augustine.” He stuck out his hand, as if meeting me for the first time and desperate to make a good impression.
I didn’t know what type of game he was playing, but decided to play along. I took his hand and shook it. “Evangeline. But you already know that. I’m not sure why I’m here now that you have both pieces of the locket, but I do feel like you owe me an explanation.”
“Me?” He put his hand to his chest as if my words had wounded him deeply.
“Yes, you! This whole situation is a mess. My job is at stake. My house has been set on fire. I’ve been attacked by a ghoul, and kidnapped not once but twice. What’s so special about my damned locket?” I wasn’t sure if he’d just laugh in my face, but it was worth a shot.
“Interesting that neither you nor your brother knows anything about the Magus Scepter. They really did go to great lengths to hide its powers; even the people who are supposed to guard it don’t know what it is. It wouldn’t be how I would’ve chosen to do things, but I have to admit, it worked. For a very long time, everyone thought the scepter had been entirely destroyed.”
“What are you talking about? Is this something to do with the locket being some sort of catalytic talisman?”
He blinked in surprise. “Why—yes. So, you’re not as ignorant as your brother.”
I frowned, and the movement reminded me of the bruise on my cheek. I put my hand to it. “I forgot to include this in my list of grievances.”
“Allow me to help you with that.” He stepped in close and took my face between his hands. There was a cooling sensation, and then the pain was gone. “There. All better.” He turned my face to the mirror hanging on the wall.
The bruise was gone. He hadn’t just covered it up with magic; he’d healed it. There was no pain or swelling left, either.
He made a gesture in front of me, and suddenly, I was wearing a full face of makeup. My lips were red, my eyes artfully shadowed and ringed with a winged liner. But that wasn’t all. My face itself had changed too, becoming perfectly sculpted. My complexion was as clear as porcelain. Like Augustine himself, I looked beautiful but fake as fuck.
I’d tried makeup spells before, and they had always felt strange on my face. I swear I could feel them there, and I’d always been eager to get them off once the day was over. But this time, I couldn’t feel any of the changes. Was this the difference between a cheap mass-produced spell and one cast by a world-class wizard?
