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Police didn’t really care if you claimed, “No, but I’m trying to create a focus spell.”
Santiago was watching me carefully as I used my free hand to push aside a few items and pick up a heavy gold object about the size of a fist. It was a squat little statue depicting a god—I assumed—with disc-shaped eyes and an open, laughing mouth. The squared edges of the idol and its overall heft called to mind a specific style.
“Is this Mayan?” I manipulated it with my fingers the best I could, turning it over in my hand to get a look at the back.
This wasn’t some cheap store-bought reproduction. The scuffing on the surface and the way it had been carved positively screamed this is the real deal.
“That’s Zipacna.” He took the idol out of my hand and set it back on the island. “The Mayans thought he was a demonic incarnation of the earth’s crust. And that statue is where we’re going to trap Gamigan, so I’d suggest touching it as little as possible, unless you want it to bear your mark.”
“How the hell did you get something like that in only a day?” I didn’t think even Ezekiel kept thousand-year-old golden idols lying around. And if he did, they’d cost a pretty penny more than the seven grand I’d shelled out for supplies today.
Santiago grabbed a reusable shopping bag from next to the island and started loading herbs, candles, small mason jars filled with bugs both living and dead—was that a black widow spider?—and ignored my question.
“Santiago?”
“Mmm?” He was busy sorting through a drawer near his hip, and withdrew a stone ceremonial knife not unlike the ones Memere made.
I paused.
“Wait, is that…?” I pointed to the knife, not finishing my sentence.
He slipped it into the bag, smiling slyly. “You think just because she didn’t train me that she didn’t teach me anything?” He clucked his tongue. “You might be her favorite now, bruja, but there was a time she thought I’d be the one taking over from her when she was gone.”
“You still might.” I spoke the words before I’d realized I was thinking them. When I glanced up again, he was staring at me. “Forget it.”
“Let’s get Gamigan taken care of, then you and I can have a nice, long discussion about what you meant.”
“Yeah, super looking forward to it. Is it too late to hope the demon brings hell on earth first?”
“You know, Genie, there’s only so long you can pretend everything will work out on its own. There’s no magic spell that’s going to enable you to live two lives. You don’t get to be both the Alpha and the witch.”
“Sure I can. I’m greedy like that.”
“Joke all you want, but someday soon you’ll need to realize you only get one life, and that life needs to be lived, not endured.”
He reached across the island easily, taking the jar of blood from my hands and wrapping it in a kitchen towel, then adding it to the bag.
“What does that even mean?”
“It means you do too much, take on too much, say yes to too much. You’re turning yourself into a candle with seven wicks. Do you know what happens to a candle with seven wicks?”
“It burns out.”
“It destroys itself.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Where are you?
I’ve been here for twenty minutes.
Jesus, Genie, answer your fucking texts.
If you’re not here in ten minutes, I’m leaving.
I called Cash back two minutes before his deadline expired. “I’m so sorry.”
“You ask me to drive out to the middle of nowhere, and then you don’t bother to show up? This is bullshit, Genie. Bullshit.” He sounded really, genuinely mad.
