Page 97 of Too Cursed To Kiss
“Hello, you must be Harlan,” she said, clicking across the floor with three-inch platforms, which matched the rose color of her two-piece Jackie Onassis suit. The pillbox hat matched.
“Yes, Harlan, nice to see you Aga—I mean, meet you, Agatha,” I said, holding out a hand.
She ignored it and sat on the ottoman. “I understand the Klyngore has injured you?”
I patted my side. “Yup.”
“And you don’t know how?” she adjusted one of the four pink Lucite bangles on her wrists.
I paused, unsure of what the hell to say. I could probably get away with fuzzy since no one appeared to know any of the details. “It’s all murky. Sorry, the pain was intense. I remember the blade and the blood, and that’s it. I woke up here.” I winced at the memory.
She looked at me as if I were lying, which of course I was, and snapped her clutch purse open. Her fingernails were the same rose pink of her suit.
The Tarot deck she pulled out was the same one from my jacket. “The cards never lie, my dear,” she said with an emphasis on the lie. “Let’s see what they have to say.”
She offered me the deck. I shuffled it and handed it back. She fanned it, and I drew a card.
“Take two more,” she said, pushing the fanned deck at me. I took two more and handed them to her.
She laid the three cards down on the throw covering my lap.
I sucked in a breath.The Lovers, Death, and The Wheel.What was the big surprise?
“These have significance to you?” she asked, but it wasn’t quite a question. Her false eyelash-framed amber eyes were watching my every move.
I nodded. She put her hand on my leg. It tingled a little, then pulsed and warmed, as if I recognized her touch. Weird.
“Oh honey, I think you’d better tell me the whole story before Devlyn gets here.” She pointed at the door with her other hand, and it slammed shut on its own.
I spilled my guts while she sat silently, nodding where appropriate. Her fingers rubbed across the faces on the cards as I spoke, as if she were recording every word.
When I’d told her the whole alternate history, she placed the three cards I’d pulled out on top of the deck, then put the deck back into her clutch, closing it with a snap. “Well, that’s it then. You’ll have to be sure not to tell anyone else what you’ve done. If Devlyn wishes to save you, then he can. The Klyngore is his. Only he can undo the curse of the wound.”
“Curse? The sword is his? I thought it was Wald’s? I thought the curse was on Wald?” My voice had risen to a broken glass edge.
“Oh, the Klyngore is Wald’s now. They fought over it. Wald didn’t want Sert to have access to it. He’s been watching over Devlyn ever since they got together. Sert has a reputation for being rather manipulative and very unpredictable. Dangerous traits with a blend of power from mixed Eim. Not to say Devlyn’s mixed blood doesn’t cause concern. The curse from using the blade is a different one from being wounded. They stem from the same darkness, though.”
“Jeezus, well that’s not ominous.” I laughed and then groaned as my side spasmed.
“Everyone has different gifts. Passing on their gifts in offspring often creates unexpected results. In Sert, it’s a kind of insanity mixed with a power to raise the dead.”
“Necromancy?” That made clear sense now. The memory of the zombie-dead things from the painting would haunt my nightmares forever.
“Well, not the classic kind, honey, but yes. His focus isn’t on raising them so much as having them functional when they’re up and running, and that takes more finesse. But he’s been studying his father’s texts, and I think he’s come to some new levels of understanding.”
“So, his father is a raise-the-dead guy too?” I was making mental notes to avoid necromancers in general.
“No, his father is an Eim.”
“That’s impossible. Wald said Eim existed before humans.”
“They did, but they don’t die.”
“Wouldn’t that make Sert centuries old?”
Agatha patted my knee. “Yes, which doesn’t help with the insanity.”
“Oh perfect.” My ticket to a long life was in the hands of a madman who hated me more than Devlyn. Maybe he wouldn’t remember me but with my luck? “Well, he can stay outside while Devlyn fixes this up,” I patted my side, attempting optimism.
