Warmth grazed my ankle, and I yelped as a foreign object slithered over my skin.
“I can’t let you go yet.” Ankou twisted his fingers until the bone collar once choking Anunit now adorned my ankle. A honed spur longer than my finger emerged, pressing its sharp tip into my flesh. “Not until you agree to my terms.”
“Jewelry.” I curled my lip as the spur dug into me. “You shouldn’t have.”
The promise of violence revved up the back of Anunit’s throat as she took one lethal step toward him.
“That’s her anterior tibial artery.” He indicated the point of contact with a jerk of his chin. “Do you want to see how fast she’ll bleed out if I nick it? Most only last a few minutes.”
Unsure if it would kill me, since I had already died once, I wasn’t curious enough to find out.
Apparently Anunit wasn’t convinced I would survive it either because she stood down.
“Frankie. Frankie. Frankie. Talbot. Talbot. Talbot.”
“Um.” I craned my neck, searching for the source, afraid to make any sudden movements lest he decide I was attempting to run and followed through on his threat. “What is that?”
The keening chorus rose around us, the mournful cries tapering into eager chittering.
“One of the many reasons you should never venture into Abaddon alone.” He withdrew a second bone from his pocket, unsurprising for an osteokinetic, and willed it to lengthen andsharpen until he held a sword with a cruel edge. “It’s the mirashii.”
No clue what that was, but it couldn’t be good. “How do they know my name?”
“I have not seen one in centuries.” Anunit perked her ears. “They are quite delicious.”
“We need to take cover before it reaches us.” Ankou flicked a glance at my ankle. The pressure on it disappeared, but the anklet remained. “Otherwise, you’re going to be dinner. The name thing? They call out to their next victim.”
“That’s nice of them,” I mumbled, cold sweat dappling my spine at their eerie recitation.
“They speak the name of their prey,” Annuit explained, “so that the others know who to hunt.”
“And, because it’s not creepy enough that they lift your name straight out of your brain, they use that same quirk to spread it to any and all mirashii they encounter. You’re marked for life, Bijou. Congrats.”
“Thanks.” I kept my head on a swivel. “Shouldn’t we be, I don’t know, running for our lives?”
“Mirashii can also cast their voices like fucking ventriloquists.”
“Without knowing their location,” I realized, gut churning, “we might walk straight into them.”
Where was Badb when I needed eyes in the sky? Oh. Right. Ankou ditched my scout in NOLA.
“We need to reach higher ground.” Anunit set out at an easy lope. “Stay close, Frankie Talbot.”
Grateful to be given direction, I launched into a brisk jog. “You don’t have to tell me twice.”
Footsteps pounded behind me as Ankou elected to join us rather than argue with her instincts. Or, you know, accept hisblackmail gambit had failed and return us all to New Orleans before we got ourselves eaten.
“There are mountains to the north.” He kept pace with me. “We can reach them within the hour.”
“Anhour?” I shivered as the mirashii issued more eerie calls. “Get this anklet off me so we can get out of here.” Though I could already tell it was a losing battle, I had to try appealing to his sense of self-preservation. “We can talk once we’re back to NOLA and these mirashii things aren’t trying to eat me.”
“It’s too late for that,” Ankou said, almost to himself, making me curious if they were deadly to him too. “We have to reach higher ground first.”
“How far are we from Kierce?” I could run for my life and question him. It was called multitasking. “Or were you lying about knowing where to find him so you could leverage his location against me?”
“There’s no challenge to finding him. He always returns to the same place.”
“You were riling me up with the birdseed comment.” I took a stab in the dark, wishing it was a literal jab with a pointed weapon aimed where his heart ought to beat. “You haven’t seen him, have you?”
