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Before she could collapse to the ground, I reached out and caught her. Johnny and Gideon rushed to her side, lowering her down and placing a pillow under her head as she lay blinking up at the ceiling.
I sat up and stretched my limbs. Angel was more powerful than I’d thought. She’d managed to close up every wound and take away most of the pain. The stinging burn marks had faded into pink new skin. I still had some purple and blue bruises left, but overall, I felt remarkably better.
“Amazing,” Gideon said, watching me flex. “Almost as good as new.”
I smiled at him, but he looked away. For a second there, before Angel and Johnny came barging in, I thought we were having a moment. But, I must’ve imagined it. Swallowing my disappointment, I resigned myself to examining my limbs while Angel smiled weakly up at me from the floor.
“You’re the best, Angelina José Rodriguez.” I crawled down to the floor to kiss her cheek.
She waved me away, smiling again. “Anything for my sister from another mister.”
Squeezing my knee, she closed her eyes. The spell had taken a lot of effort. For a nymph, Angel looked aged and tired lying on my striped floor rug. She’d be feeling the effects of that spell for days. I tried not to feel guilty and grabbed a t-shirt from my room, pulling it over my newly pain-free shoulders.
“Now, would somebody mind filling us in on everything we missed?” Johnny stood up from his position on the floor next to Angel. His eyes flicked back and forth between Gideon and me. “And would somebody please tell me why Aya’s brother – who I never knew about, by the way – hit me over the head while I was leaving work, before he tied and gagged me? Then, hauled me to the train station to use as a hostage?”
My gaze fell to the floor. I didn’t know how to explain it to my friends. If they knew I had a homicidal brother, they might think twice about having me in their lives. But, it was too late to come up with a believable lie. Nicky had made his presence known, loud and clear.
“Aya’s brother is like a serial killer among the supernatural.” Gideon looked at me as he spoke, his eyes softening. “The SI has been tracking him for years. At first, we thought he was responsible for taking the Yonas family from your apartment. But from what we learned tonight, it sounds like Nicolo’s student is the one to blame.”
“He said his name’s Theo and that he’s a Gorgon,” I said while avoiding Angel and Johnny’s eyes. They’d have to process this news and decide whether to dump me as a friend later. “Now my vision makes sense. That’s why I saw those snakes drown the Yonas family. It’s a Gorgon that’s killing them. Nicky had sent a dagger to me at the museum. It’s the only weapon that can kill Theo. It had been dipped in venom from Medusa’s snakes. He wants me to get it for him.”
“And where’s this dagger now?” Gideon asked.
“At the museum. I wanted to analyze it before we put it on display. We do that with all our new items, so that we have the proper security in place for dangerous assets.”
That was a new policy I’d instated two years ago, after a harmless looking sixteenth century coin was added to our display by Mr. Jones after his trip to the Netherlands. It wasn’t until Angel and I started breaking out in blistering red skin sores did we discover that the coin had been enchanted to spread leprosy. That was a painful lesson which took dozens of healing spells and enchantments to contain.
Gideon rubbed his temples. He paced the room between the kitchen table and the bookcase. “So, Nicolo says he can find Theo? But he won’t tell us because he wants to go after him with the dagger. We’re stuck.”
Angel’s eyelids fluttered. She leaned her head off the pillow, her eyes wide. “Wait, do you mean this dagger?” She pulled the ornate dagger in its sheath from the depths of her Prada bag. “I took it home with me to examine, but I didn’t get around to it yet. If Theo’s a Gorgon, it makes sense that this could kill him. Medusa and her sisters were Gorgons. He must be a descendant.”
Inwardly, I sighed. That thing could’ve been enchanted to bring about the apocalypse, for all we knew. Angel shouldn’t have been carrying around such a weird object in her purse. But, that was a lecture for another day. Now, we had the weapon. We just needed to find the monster responsible for Mr. and Mrs. Yonas’ deaths.
Just as Gideon was taking the dagger from Angel, the
apartment door flew open again. This time, Agent Silva came hustling through. Her perfectly pressed shirt was now wrinkly and stained. A dark red bloom across her side was probably dried blood. The ponytail that held her hair back was loose, and strands fell around her face. As soon as she entered, her gaze went directly to Gideon. She only paused for a moment before grabbing his arm and inspecting the scratches on his skin.
“I was afraid you’d be laid up in the hospital,” she said, turning his palms over.
He tried to wave her away, but she would have none of it. Instead, she moved on to examining his face, taking in the bruises that were beginning to form along his cheek.
“I don’t know how you survived that fall, Gideon, but you’ve got an angel looking out for you.”
He grabbed her hands and pulled them off his face. “Aya saved me. She’s the only reason I’m still standing here.”
“No, Aya is the reason you had to be saved.” Agent Silva turned to me, fire blazing in her eyes. “If she’d contacted us and told us about the hostage situation, we could’ve gone in prepared. Instead, we had to find her empty apartment to realize she’d gone ahead to meet with Nicolo. She was stupid and careless and I should arrest her right now.”
I felt my jaw fall open. No smart comeback came to me. My mind was blank.
“Easy, Rita.” Gideon’s low growl didn’t hide the warning in his voice.
“No, I won’t go easy on her. She’s had enough easy.” Agent Silva stomped toward me, her fingers resting on the cuffs at her belt. “Your brother was involved and you said nothing. You obstructed justice, got your friend kidnapped, nearly got that guard and Gideon killed, and delayed our investigation. If Michelle or her son dies, that’ll be on your head, too.”
A moment of shocked silence followed Agent Silva’s tirade. Then, all at once, my friends and Gideon began to shout. I couldn’t hear what they were saying above the racket, but it didn’t matter.
Agent Silva was right. I was no better than my brother or the Harpy family I’d left behind. I’d tried to manipulate things in my own way to go above the law. If Kit and Michelle died, I’d never forgive myself.
Pushing off the couch, I ran into the hallway. I wasn’t sure where I was going. Even a chance encounter with crazy old Mrs. O’Conner sounded better than staying in that room.
