“It’s complicated,” I admitted.
“Complicated,” Flora echoed. “Obviously, it’s got something to do with Cedric. And maybe, if I had to guess, that missing soul?”
Mm. Seemed Flora and Johann had conferred to compare some recent notes.
“You know,” Flora said, her voice tight and small, like she knew she was about to tread onto paper-thin ice. “You might consider changing tactics with him. Cedric has his flaws. Guess you could say we all do. But Grim. Is there really any harm in allowing him to come with you a time or two? Who knows? Letting him see the grittier side of the job might make him realize it’s not for him after all—and then he’ll find something else to obsess about.”
Anger surged inside me. Rage hadn’t done me any good with Johann, though, so I did my best to let it go.
Johann and Flora—they saw something in Cedric that I didn’t. Maybe if he wasn’t always so keen to usurp me, I’d find some tolerance for him.
“Would you say that if it was you who he was trying to sell out?” I challenged.
“I think Cedric is a big talker,” said Flora. “Says he wants yourjob, but he’s so keen on annoying you, I have to wonder if it’s your company he’s truly after. If you ask me, I think he secretly looks up to you. Must be lonely, too, if you think about it. Being immortal.”
Flora and Johann babied Cedric. They saw the best in him because they hadn’t provoked his worst.
Iprovoked it. But just, it seemed, by being.
Regardless, this wasn’t an argument I was going to win.
Therewasa battle with Cedric that I still had hopes of defeating him in.
For a long moment, I held my silence, letting it stretch on, biding my time so that I could phrase my next words as carefully as possible.
“I need a favor,” I told her.
“If you wear the cheese hat for one whole night,” she said, “anything.”
Slowly, I turned my glare her way—even if I couldn’t, in my current form, technically glare. Still, she would feel the heat of my stare.
“Flora, I’m serious.”
She shrugged. “So am I!”
“I’m not wearing that thing.”
She smiled at me. “Then I can’t make any promises I’m going to be of any use to you.”
“I need to know how to get into the realm of the White Basin without… going through the Basin. Being detected.”
Flora’s smile fell. She turned her gaze forward, eyes scouring the cityscape and the Hudson as it shimmered under the moonlight.
“Johann said he thought it might be you,” Flora whispered, the mirth gone from her sprightly voice. “With that confirmed, it’s not hard now to guess what Cedric’s up to, either. He’s trying to get you caught, isn’t he?”
Nowdid she see why I hated his ass so much?
“Do you know how to get into Sir White’s realm or not?” I asked.
“I don’t,” said Flora. “But… I think I can find out. I have… a friend who might know.”
“A friend,” I repeated. “This a friend who is going to want something in return for your help later?”
Flora smiled again, more mischievous than before as she resumed kicking her bare legs, the cold having no effect on her even though she wore a cream drop-sleeved blouse paired with a green calf-length frock. “I guess I’ll have to let you know and pass the bill along if so, huh?”
“I would be indebted to you, too,” I intoned.
Again, Flora’s smile fell. She blinked at me, taken aback, and then she removed the cheese hat.
