Page 89 of Magic for Nothing

He did, easily, the crossbow in his hands. “First the gun, now whatever the hell this is—is this how you normally rearm yourself?” he asked. “You punch people and take whatever they drop?”

“It works in video games!” Chloe was now behind us, presumably no longer on fire, and definitely pissed off. I’d be pissed off, too, if someone I thought was an ally set me on fire and stole my stuff. I kept running.

There were four Covenant operatives at the carnival—at least. The bomb had clearly been their big plan, the thing that was supposed to turn the tide in their favor. They hadn’t been expecting it to be defused, and they definitely hadn’t been expecting me to evacuate the place before they could get down to the business of killing people. That was good. The element of surprise was no longer on my side. After knocking two of them on their asses and throwing a flaming dart at a third, any chance I might have been able to sneak up on them was well and truly spent. That was fine. “Subtle” has never been my specialty.

We ran until we reached the big tent and ducked inside. “Crossbow,” I said, holding out my hand to Sam. He dropped Chloe’s crossbow into it. There was already a bolt in the channel, waiting to be notched. Convenient.

“You said there was a bomb.”

“Not the time.”

“It’s always the time when there’s a bomb involved.”

“They’re going to catch up with us any second. Chloe’s furious. Robert’s . . . well, he’s probably more furious. Mega-furious. You need to get out of here and let me work.”

“You need to tell me where the bomb is.”

I lowered the crossbow and frowned at Sam. “Have you ever worked with explosives? Do you know how to defuse a bomb? Can you recognize Semtex when you see it?”

He scowled. “No. I still want to know where the bomb is.”

“I got rid of it.”

“How?”

“I gave it to my Aunt Mary.”

“Yes, you did, and we are going to talk about that right now, young lady,” said a stern voice. I winced. Sam stared.

“Hi, Aunt Mary. This isn’t a good time,” I said, turning around and trying to see her the way Sam did. White hair and highway eyes that never seemed to settle on a color, but always gave the impression of looking at pictures of a road trip. She had somehow managed to get stuck in the 1970s where fashion was concerned, which probably felt very modern to her, since she’d died in the 1950s: she was wearing bellbottoms and a white peasant blouse with stalks of wheat embroidered around the neckline. And then there was the whole “suddenly materialized out of thin air” thing to consider, which probably made the rest of her appearance creepier.

“Annie, I do not mean to alarm you, but I think your aunt is dead,” said Sam in a strangled voice.

“Anyone can have a dead aunt,” said Mary cheerfully, before laughing at her own joke. The merriment only lasted for a second; then she was back to glaring at me. “You threw a bomb at me.”

“You caught it. I needed it to go away.”

“You could have given me a little warning!”

“No, I really couldn’t have. Not unless I wanted to wind up in debt to the crossroads or exploded and haunting this field for the rest of eternity.” I gestured between Mary and Sam. “Sam Taylor, meet Mary Dunlavy, one of my two dead-but-still-here aunts. Aunt Mary, meet Sam. He’s the carnival owner’s grandson. Now, if we’re done with the niceties, the Covenant is outside, they’re coming here, and I need to get back to work.” I paused before giving Mary a hopeful look. “My mice . . .”

“Sweetie, you know it doesn’t work that way,” said Mary. She looked genuinely regretful. She’s been with the family since my grandmother was born, and if anyone loves the Aeslin mice, it’s her. “Nothing living can go into the twilight with me and come back out again. If I took them out of here, they’d die. At least with you, they’ve got a chance.”

“Great.” I shook my head. “Can you at least scout the Covenant for me?”

“You know better than to ask me for useful things.”

Her calm declaration hung between us, bitterly cold and absolutely true. It was the difference between my two dead aunts. I would never have chucked a bomb at Aunt Rose without asking first. With Aunt Mary, I would never be able to ask.

“All right,” I said. “Then I’m asking you to be useless. You can’t fight and you can’t help and I don’t have any more bombs to throw at you. You need to go. The Covenant is coming. This isn’t your fight, but it’s mine, and I need to finish it.”

“Okay, baby.” Aunt Mary disappeared. She reappeared next to me, planting a kiss on my cheek and whispering, “You have no idea how much you remind me of your grandfather.” Then she was gone entirely, leaving only the distant scent of baked asphalt in her wake.

“How normal is she for your family?” asked Sam. “On a scale of like, one to fucking weird?”

“She’s about a three.” I resumed aiming my stolen crossbow at the entrance to the tent. “You should go. Your grandmother will kill me if I let you get hurt.”

“I should stay. I’ll never forgive myself if I run. Or we could both go.”