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“You lost your head!” the colonel accused.
“I don’t have a head, old man, and neither do you!” she said snippily. “And I wasn’t trying to hurt anybody, just to hold them until I could find out who they were. But then those horrid vampires arrived and blew me up. And by the time I came back here and got my other body and got back out there—”
“We were there, remember?” the colonel demanded.
“Then stop blaming me,” she huffed.
“But you’re a ghost,” I said, stating the obvious. “And ghosts can’t move things. Well, maybe a piece of paper, or a paper clip. But nothing like . . .” I gestured at the metal suit she was wearing, which was more intricate than the Tin Man outfit, almost like an old-fashioned diving suit. “No way you’re lifting that.”
“Well, no, of course not,” she agreed. “I’m only directing it, dear.”
“Then how—”
“Can we discuss why you’re here?” Roger broke in.
“No,” I said, and not just because I needed to stall until my mother joined the party. I’d thought I knew everything about ghosts, but this was a new one. “Are you telling me you just . . . made them new bodies?”
“I like to think of it as a whole body prosthesis,” the colonel said.
I looked from him to Roger. “You—how does that work? Because I don’t—”
He made an irritated sound. “Does it matter? It was an experiment, one that never quite panned out. But that’s not—”
“What kind of experiment?” I looked around at the ungainly creatures. I could see a bit of Big Red outside, through a window by the door. Maybe because it was even larger than the green one and took up too much room, so had to be left in the drive like the family car. Only there was no such thing as a car for a ghost. “Who does this?”
“The Black Circle,” Pritkin said harshly, from behind us.
Chapter Ten
Pritkin’s voice was strong, but it looked like that was the only thing that was. He needed an arm underneath himself in order to sit up, and it was trembling slightly. Bruises had blossomed all along his rib cage, he had a good start on a black eye, and his skin tone was a grayish white that I didn’t like at all. But he didn’t appear to be interested in his health. He appeared to be interested in my father.
“You’re Roger Palmer,” he said flatly.
It wasn’t a question. He’d had plenty of time to figure out who we were visiting, and no one had ever accused Pritkin of being slow. Including to anger, judging by his expression.
“Does he always state the obvious?” Roger asked me, pushing a fall of limp blond hair out of his face.
I didn’t answer. I was too busy tensing up. I wasn’t sure what happened when high-ranking light and dark mages met each other, but I didn’t think it was likely to be fun. Even when one had no weapons, and the other . . . Well, at least he wasn’t reaching for any.
Yet.
“This is what you’ve been working on for the Circle, isn’t it?” Pritkin demanded, not helping matters.
“I’m retired,” Roger said mildly, but failed to offer him any tea.
I passed over my mug. It didn’t have milk, because I am a barbarian. But Pritkin took it anyway. He didn’t drink it, though, being too busy staring Roger down. Which would have worked better if the man hadn’t had his long nose stuck in the cookie tin.
“And yet you have at least three of these things, perhaps more!” Pritkin rasped. “For what purpose?”
“For whatever purpose I choose, war mage.”
“For security,” I said quickly, because Pritkin’s pale face had just flushed purple. And because it was true.
I didn’t need to be told that much. My parents had been hiding with Tony the bastard because, believe it or not, there were worse things out there. Like a bunch of leftover demigods from antiquity with long lives and longer grudges. The Spartoi had been the children of Ares, left behind when the gods were kicked off earth due to their mixed blood giving them a foothold here. They’d used it to do their father’s bidding, which was to hunt down and destroy the person responsible for his exile.
My mother.
They’d failed, but not before giving it the old Olympus try. And right now Mom and her strange protector didn’t realize that Tony the petty and rotund would one day be a lot more of a problem for them than any ancient half gods. All they knew was that her power had diminished considerably over the years, and that they needed a hideout no one would expect.
