Chapter Seven
THE HOUSE WASempty when he got back.
Jonah tossed his jacket over the nearest chair and stood there for a second as he tried to decide whether he cared or not. He’d spent his whole day on Luke’s problem. Even on minimum wage, that would pay off breakfast.
Call them even, then. Jonah didn’t owe Luke anything, and Luke had made his own bed when he decided to do the one thing—leave the house—that Jonah had asked him not to.
It sounded great. Except—Jonah rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed to himself—when was magic ever that simple?
Last night Jonah had gotten the hex all over himself when he interfered. Fair or not, that made him part of this. The hag would come for him one way or another, whether he was collateral damage or a postscript for her.
That wasn’t how Jonah intended to die—he’d never live it down, for a start—even if he had to break his hex-sobriety to survive.
If he wanted to keep that box locked shut, and he did, Jonah needed to keep Luke alive long enough to work out a nonlethal, non-magical way of lifting the curse.
So it turned out he did care. That meant that Jonah needed to find Luke before the sun went down, and while Jerusalem was a small city, it wasn’tthatsmall.
In Babylon, it would have been easy. Nothing happened there that couldn’t be tracked back through the spiderweb of local gossip. Here, Jonah needed at least a starting point.
He checked through the house quickly. There was a stack of scrubbed-clean pots and dishes next to the sink, and there was a twenty and a Post-it stuck to the freezer.
Thanks, was written on the yellow Post-it in neat letters,but I can’t do this. Jonah pulled the money free. He folded it up and stuck it in his back pocket, and something thin and sharp jabbed up under his thumbnail.
Jonah yelped in surprise and pulled his hand out. He stuck it into his mouth on autopilot, the taste of blood and ink heady and familiar. Temptation spread back through his jaw and into his skull like a migraine, a viselike grip of possibility. It would be so easy. He had the blood, the will, and he could use the money—which Luke had owned—to seal the hex to.
The hex would be so easy it might as well have training wheels on it… and it wasn’t even selfish. The only reason that Jonah was doing it was for someone else, out of the goodness of his heart. That meant it would hardly count.
Right?
Come on, the old Jonah Carrow nudged at him,take the out when you can. You know you want to.
Jonah chewed on his thumb to make it hurt and wished he could. Instead, he reached back into his pocket and pulled out Shiloh’s card. Blood stained the wrinkled corner, soaked into the thick card stock, and nearly obscured the telephone number.
But not quite.
Witch answered when Jonah called.
The sound she made when she heard his voice was somewhere between a sigh and a hiss. It made Jonah’s skin itch.
“I need to talk to Shiloh,” he said.
“Again,” Witch said. “I told you, you’re too old for him.”
“I’m twenty-nine,” Jonah said before he could remind himself that wasn’t the point. The last thing he wanted was any more interest from the—
“He’s nineteen.”
Jonah winced. Of course he was. That was just what Jonah should have expected. Maybe the next thing he should give up was his lousy taste in men.
“Well, that’s old enough to use the phone,” Jonah said. “Is he there?”
There was a pause. The background noise of the call dimmed as well, and Jonah’s memory of the bar conjured the image of her tucked into the back corner, beneath the head of something that was probably a deer.
“You think he’s the heir apparent?” she asked. “I’m the Crow’s go-to girl. You want the Crow to know anything, you tell me. You want anything from the Crow, I’ll ask for you. Nothing there requires a dick, not unless you need me to piss up something for you.”
“I need to know if Shiloh ever followed anyone else home from Deborah’s AA meetings,” Jonah said. “Any idea?”
There was a moment’s silence, and then Witch clicked her tongue against the back of her teeth. “So you’ve got nothing, and you need more help from us,” she said. “I’m going to get to wipe the pretty off your face yet.”
