Page 44 of Warlocks Don't Win
“Clarinda,” she said, brows furrowing as she puzzled out what I was doing in her sushi shop. I made a point to not hang out with other witches very often. Sushi also wasn’t my obsession.
“Rynne. I’m here to pick up the Librarian’s order. She said it was under Libby.”
Her eyes narrowed at me. “What are you doing with The Librarian? She’s trouble.”
I flashed a smile at her. “How long have you known Portalia?”
She tilted her head. “As long as I’ve been alive.”
“She’s always been the voice?”
She shrugged. “My parents moved here when I was a kid. Why are you asking?”
I leaned my elbows on the counter so I could look deep into her eyes. There was bits of earth magic in her, goblin magic. Could I trust that with Winston’s secrets? He’d been playing me from the beginning so I wasn’t feeling particularly loyal. At least I shouldn’t be feeling loyal. “There’s something weird about her. Did you know that she hired a sorcerer to make a portal to get to Salem and ask me questions?”
She blinked a few times, pulling back. “Salem? No, I haven’t gone to the circle for awhile. Being married to a goblin makes it slightly awkward.” She glanced down at my left hand and then her eyes bugged. “You’re married?!”
I looked down at the enormous diamond. Oh, right. I’d forgotten about it. It had faded to the back of my mind like it had tried to be unnoticeable. Or like a master manipulator wanted me to forget about it. “It’s nothing,” I said, pulling it behind my back.
She yanked my arm, bringing it back to the counter. “It’s not nothing. That’s the biggest rock I’ve ever seen.” She leaned closer and sniffed, flaring her nostrils. “Smells like big magic. Old magic. Respectable magic. Manipulative magic.” She raised a brow at me. “It seemed like you and Winston the Warlock had unfinished business, but I didn’t think it would end in a church.”
I snorted. “There was no church. We just temporarily got married to beat a death spell. It’s temporary.”
She flashed a smile. “You said that. Twice.”
I shuddered at the way she was looking at me, like someone who’d been tricked into marrying a goblin. “That’s because it is. Very temporary. So temporary it’s not worth mentioning.”
“I hope you’re at least getting mountains of money out of it.”
I winced. “He’s having me buy his train tickets. Manipulators are the worst.”
She gave me a sympathetic look, but beneath it was the glimmer of sadistic pleasure. “The worst. If only there were some way for you to get the upper hand so that you were the one manipulating him.”
I slumped on the bar, staring at the ring. “If only. I tried faking a relationship with him for closure, but it ended up backfiring.” I wiggled my fingers so the diamond reflected the light in a glittery flash. So ridiculously fancy. Like the death spell.
“Faking a relationship for closure? What kind of closure do you need?” She nudged me and leaned her face on her hands so she could stare at me from my same level. We probably looked like idiots. Thankfully I hadn’t worried about that for years.
“I’m Clary Sage, of Sage House in Salem. He testified against me and sent me to jail. We were engaged at the time.” I drawled the words so they had as little emotional impact as possible.
Her eyes widened then narrowed. “You murdered your mother?”
“Yep.” I popped the ‘p,’ still staring at her without flinching from her obvious discomfort. Respectable people didn’t murder their parents.
“Huh. Well…You were acquitted because your lawyer wasn’t licensed?”
“That’s what they say. While I was in jail for five years, his grandmother wrote to me every month. Turns out it was actually him trying to get clues out of me.”
“He wrote to you every month for five years for clues? To what?”
“His parent’s murder.”
She snorted. “You weren’t even alive when his parents were killed.”
I frowned at her. “What do you know about his personal life?”
She smiled slightly. “Everyone knows about the details of Winston’s personal life. He’s a celebrity, or didn’t you know? Wait.” She sat up. “Clary Sage is old. How old are you? You seem so young.”
I rolled my eyes and sat up. “Just immature. It’s the stripes. Do you have Libby’s sushi or not?”
