Page 68 of Midnight Auto Parts

“What possessed you to stick your hand into a ward?” She crouched over me. “Are you trying to get me killed?” Her glare raked over me. “Your sister knows you’re involved in my case. Do you really think she’s the forgiving type?Josie?I would come home to find that damn plant fromLittle Shop of Horrorswaiting for me in my bedroom.” She sucked in a breath through her teeth. “I get that you’re a demigoddess, and that’s great for you. The rest of us aren’t so lucky. I haven’t lived this long to be taken out by a vengeful dryad. Can you imagine the shame? I’m a fucking redcap.” She wiped sweat off her brow. “Why am I so afraid of her?”

“You’re smart.” I patted the top of her head. “That’s why.”

“You could always ask her to return home,” Kierce suggested, eager to put distance between her and me. “I could find somewhere else to stay.”

“Oh no. No, no, no. She’s made friends with my plants.” Carter’s gaze held a manic gleam. “I didn’t even have plants untilshe bought them. They’rehers. They’re on her side. Who knows what they would do to me if I kicked her out? I might wake up with a vine wrapped around my neck.”

As gently as possible, I asked, “Should you live with someone who terrifies you?”

“I…” She swallowed hard, her throat bobbing. “I think that’s what I like about her.”

“Um. Well. Yes.” I cleared my throat. “Just make sure you’re open about where you stand, okay?”

“I’m not going to hurt her,” she growled at me, which wasn’t a great sign.

“Perhaps you ought to walk off your temper.” Kierce tightened a hand on my shoulder, like he could pick me up and snatch me away if she showed signs of aggression. “You’re Frankie’s friend, but you’re still a potential threat.”

Either Carter was getting better at ignoring my blood, or I had healed before she got a chance to catch a good whiff. She hadn’t seemed affected by my minor injuries. Just angry at herself getting stuck between a rock and a rabid dryad. Unless… Had godhood cured that problem too? Altered my blood until the scent no longer attracted her? “She’s not going to murder me and wet her cap in my blood.”

“He’s right.” She rose and took a step back. “I shouldn’t come at you in anger when you’re weak.”

“Injuredsounds nicer thanweak.” I pushed into a seated position. “This was my fault. I wasn’t thinking.”

What transpired between Kierce, Dis Pater, and me wasn’t a level of transparency I could offer friends or family yet. Too much of it was Kierce’s private business. I had been swept along with him, not given the tasks myself. Until I got a handle on that part, I owed it to Kierce to conceal aspects of his duties.

Otherwise, I would be as good as volunteering those same friends and family for erasure when the time came.

Mouth set in a grim line, she demanded, “You’re sure this wasn’t another out-of-body episode?”

“No.” I flexed my fingers. “This was me learning how mosquitos feel when they hit the bug zapper.”

“We need to mark the boundaries of this ward,” Kierce told her, his tone apologetic. “The next person to touch it might not be as fortunate.”

Hard to tell with me as the control whether it would kill a normal person. Or if it had spanked me harder because it was forged with god bone, and I had god blood. Most wards of this magnitude included a spell component that repelled the curious. Because they couldn’t very well hide a secret with a stack of bodies piling up outside their front door.

“We have a few good witches on the 514 payroll.” Carter palmed her phone. “I’ll get them out here.”

“This will only get harder. The secrets.” I owed her the warning as well as myself. “Between you and me, and you and Josie.”

“There have always been aspects of the job I can’t share with others. Josie will have to understand that.”

“She might not forgive you for withholding information relevant to Frankie’s safety,” Kierce said softly.

“Yeah. I’m aware. Trust me.” She tapped out a message. “That’s why I don’t do relationships.”

“I don’t want to get in the way if?—”

“Something would have to be there before that concerned me, and there’s not.”

Had she not sounded so certain that she was telling me—and herself—the truth, I might have dumped a bucket of ice-cold reality over her head. But she had a big case on her hands, one with missing officers she ached to locate, so I decided to let her puzzle it out for herself in her own time.

Before she finished texting, her phone rang, and she answered with a growl. “What?”

An idea was forming, one she wouldn’t like, so I was glad for someone else providing her with a target.

“We need to know what’s in there, and I’m thinking if the ward repelled me, it’ll repel the witches too.” We might be in it for the long haul if we hoped to break through. We could be there for hours. Or days. “We only found one set of human remains. The other victims could still be alive. If there’s even a slim chance they’re in there, we need to extract them as soon as possible.”

Stormy gray eyes growing darker, Kierce didn’t miss a beat. “You want to attempt astral projection to the other side.”

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