Poppy shakes her head. “No. It was in my hands the whole time. From you handing it to me till the demon was impaled.”
“And after?” I ask. “Has this been out of your sightat allsince we took it from the museum?”
“CJ and I took turns sleeping so someone could always keep aneye on it. Except there was this one time when…” She trails off, looking nervously at CJ.
“When what?” Tolliver asks.
Poppy’s cheeks darken. CJ chugs the rest of their energy drink.
I look between the two of them. “Oh my god, did you guys hook up?”
They neither confirm nor deny, but their shared look says it all. Tolliver reaches into his pocket and hands Ezra a twenty.
I grit my teeth. “Now we don’t know if the damage to the codex happened before or after we stole it.”
Tolliver nudges my hip with his toe.
I wave a hand. “But, you know, I’m also very happy for you, or whatever.”
Look, obviously I want them to be happy, but seriously? In the middle of a job? Letting your feelings get the better of you is amateur shit.
Rule #56: Feelings are easily manipulated, so don’t have any.
Followed immediately by:
Rule #57: Never get involved with someone on the crew.
It makes you sloppy. I hate to admit it, but my attraction to Rook is probably why I didn’t get suspicious of him sooner. I should have learned my lesson after what happened with Tolliver. And now, because CJ and Poppy couldn’t keep it in their pants, we have a gap in the timeline.
Rook clears his throat. “If a demon came in contact with the codex since we’ve had it, he would have taken the entire thing. Removing one page, especially untranslated, makes no sense. This had to have happened before.”
He makes a good point.
Too good. Like he knows what the Cult of Hades is thinking.
Poppy swallows, giving me a tentative smile. “Rook’s right. Besides, who even knows we have it?”
The syndicates do. The syndicates know we have it. And at least one of them has demons working for them. But again, why would they take a single untranslated page instead of the whole book?
I try to return Poppy’s smile, but I’m sure it looks like a grimace. “There was probably nothing important on that page anyway.”
Twenty-Five
Mom was really smart about setting up the protections on the house. Even if you know it’s here, you can’t get through the wards if you mean any harm to the occupants. And that doesn’t just apply to physical violence. If you want to steal from us, destroy our property, or even hurt our feelings, the wards aren’t letting you in. Which means Rook doesn’t have any of those intentions.
But just because he doesn’tintendto hurt us doesn’t mean it won’t come about naturally from his actions. So I’m assuming his role is to funnel information to the Cult of Hades and let them do the harming and the stealing.
No matter Rook’s involvement, I’m not giving up this job. I just need to get everyone else on board for Part Two.
The living room is a mess from our translation marathon, and there’s a sour smell that places get when too many people have gone too long without showering, but I can’t give the others too much time to think. The victory of translating the grimoire will only bolster morale until they remember that the second part of the job involves a descent into hell.
I clap my hands, too bright. “So. Part Two planning session? No time like the present.”
CJ and Poppy groan. Tolliver is back to tapping his prosthetic. Ezra looks between all of us, confused. At some point, Crowlene left to go hunting or whatever it is that she does when she disappears.
Rook tugs at his cuffs, leaning against the fireplace like he’s posing for a painting. “I know you all must be tired, but I am eager to save my sister.”
“So it’s his sister you’re trying to resurrect?” Ezra asks.
