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It took her a few seconds to realize that Janice had stopped talking.
“Pete is fine. He did not die, but his thigh is injured. He stayed the night at a friend’s house. He is still sleeping.”
“Oh, that’s so good to hear. I’m so glad. Ben will be completely relieved. Unless the friend was more than a friend, if you know what I mean. Then he probably wouldn’t be so much. But I’m sure that his boyfriend wouldn’t cheat on him like that. Ben’s not the kind of man to put up with that sort of nonsense. I would sure hope that red wolf knew better than to do something like that to him. He’s such a lovely man, you know?”
Liliana hesitated a moment to make sure Janice actually had stopped. “I have not yet met Ben Harper. Pete is very honorable. Pete was helping Sergeant Giovanni on a case last night in Raleigh, not cheating on his boyfriend.”
“A case, huh? Those women who murdered the missing soldiers? I saw on the news this morning that the Fort Liberty CID working with Fayetteville and Raleigh police caught them, but they were killed in some sort of firefight on the roof. I don’t suppose you helped on that case too? Is that why Pete didn’t die and you’re not so fine this morning?”
The spider seer blinked. Janice Willoughby sometimes gave the impression with her rapid-fire speech and high energy levels that she lacked intelligence. Liliana knew that impression was false, but Janice’s quick wit still surprised her now and again. “I made sure that Pete would not die before your husband needs him.”
“That’s…that’s just…” Janice swallowed loud enough that Liliana could hear it over the phone.
Normally, Liliana looked at people with her fourth eyes while she talked to them on her phone, but right now, her head hurt too much to open any more eyes. All she really wanted to do was close the two she had open.
“Thank you,” Janice said softly. “I, um, I just, thank you.”
Janice’s gratitude made Liliana uncomfortable. She had not saved Pete to help the Willoughbys. “Pete is my friend. I would not let him die if I could do anything to prevent it.”
“Of course you wouldn’t. He’s lucky to have a friend like you.”
“I am lucky to have a friend like him.”
Janice chuckled. “And I thought he was dangerous.”
“He is very dangerous.” Liliana had watched the red wolf rip a widow spider’s belly open with his bare hands last night.
Janice laughed outright. “Well, you know what I mean.”
Liliana did not know what she meant, but decided her best bet to get off the phone any time soon was not to ask. “I have an opening for an appointment day after tomorrow sometime between 10 AM and 2 PM. Will that work for you?”
“Sure, Madame Anna. Put me down for noon.”
“Done. Goodbye.” Liliana hung up. She had to pull the big book back out to write down the new appointment.
When the book was safely back on its shelf, she mixed some of the white powder with a tall glass of cool water and went back to bed.
She had only just barely survived saving Pete’s life once. Later, when her wounds were fully healed, she would have to find a way to help Pete avoid the other death she had foreseen when he protected Lou Willoughby.
Before that, there was something else she needed to do.
But not today.
It was her last thought before the medicine took her into a blessedly pain-free sleep.
Chapter 17
The Prince And The Old Oak
Near midnight after another day that Liliana had been forced to reschedule appointments by her inability to open her fourth eyes without dizziness and pain, Liliana crouched uncomfortably on top of a streetlight in front of Janice Willoughby’s house, holding her injured arm close. In her good hand, she held a line of her fine silk that ran to the ground and ended in a loop strategically placed, nearly invisible in the stark light and shadow beneath the streetlight.
Her injuries caused her constant irritation, especially the headache and the shoulder, which ached just from the weight of her arm. It should be in a sling, but she didn’t want her weakness to be visible tonight. The healing stab wound in her side itched maddeningly. The gash on her face had sealed shut at least, although one of her first and third eyes were partially swollen shut from it.
The light shining down from the streetlight made her imperceptible to the tall prince and the curly-haired wolf-kin with the embossed leather collar. They would have to stare into the light to see her, and she remained as motionless as the pole so as not to draw their attention.
She felt through the pole the gut-level vibration as the Fae colonel called the Wolfhound to him with a Latin command steeped in earth magic.
She watched curiously, with her first, second, and third eyes as he transformed into his tall, elegant demi-stone form, like something a master sculptor created from a giant dark jewel. The side of his face looked as if some idiot tried to sand his skin with a stone file the roughness of a cheese grater, leaving ugly, sharp-edged imperfections in the otherwise glass-smooth surface. The shifting shadows that wreathed the Fae as he spoke to the Wolfhound weren’t truly black as they had seemed in her earlier vision. Watching up this close, her second and third pair of eyes both recognized pure earth power. The Green in its darkest midnight shade, unseelie Green.
