Page 41 of The Last Slayer
Right on cue, Valerie’s phone rang from inside the Ferrari. It was the doom-laden tones of Verdi’s Dies Irae, sounding like a squadron of Valkyries on the attack.
I closed my eyes briefly. There was only one person who had that ring tone, and it was the one person I couldn’t ignore.
I grabbed the phone and pressed the button. “Jack.” I raised a finger to my lips to signal Ramiel to shut up. “Valerie’s not available right now.”
“No need to get her. I wanted to wish you happy birthday.”
This was new. Jack had contacted me on every birthday since I’d joined the firm, but it had always been to discuss a potential assignment, one that usually ended up with my getting a nice prize at the end, like the zaibatsu job that had earned me my daisho set.
So. What did he really want? To feel me out? He and Valerie had set me up with the “Selena” test.
“Thanks,” I said, keeping my voice neutral. This wasn’t the time to discuss the matter.
Ramiel looked down at the prone Valerie.
Antidote first. “Actually, I don’t really have time to talk right n—”
“How’s the job going?”
“Well, it’s—”
“Watch your step, my dear.” Jack’s voice suddenly took on an otherworldly smoothness. “Tiny ripples, huge effects.”
I had no idea what he was talking about. Not that I ever did, and not that he ever explained his visions. Not when he’d made vague comments on my sixteenth birthday about my coming of age being at least a decade away. Not when he’d muttered something about my being the death of Miguel. I’d asked about the latter, but Jack had claimed he didn’t remember saying it—Seeing could leave blank
patches in a diviner’s memory. Exactly four weeks later, I’d screwed up, and Miguel had ended up dead.
I stared at Valerie. “Are they bad? Maybe…fatal?” I asked, though Jack would ignore me as usual.
“Depends.”
Startled, I almost dropped the phone. It was the first time he’d ever answered a question about his visions. Despite the heat of the day a cold sweat broke out on the back of my neck. Everything that I could count on was no longer. I was supposed to be some dragonlady, Valerie was hurt while I was on the hunter duty, and Jack wasn’t ignoring me about what he’d Seen. I felt like I was stuck in a surrealist’s dream.
There was a moment of silence. “No major problems?” Jack asked, his voice back to its normal brisk clip.
I licked my suddenly dry lips. “It’s a little complicated.”
“I have faith you’ll take care of it.”
“Thank you.” Mindful of the audience, I resisted the urge to shuffle my feet. I wasn’t sure if Ramiel could eavesdrop, but he didn’t need to know how uncomfortable talking with Jack made me, especially when he was in Cryptic Mode. Dealing with a high-level diviner could give anybody a headache. “Have you Seen anything else?”
“No. Should I have?”
Yes. “No.” I forced a breezy tone into my voice. “Of course not. Hey, gotta go. Talk to you later.” I hung up, not knowing what to make of the conversation. Then I turned to Ramiel. “Are we going to ride the amphitere again?”
“Would you like to?”
“No.” Carrying Valerie and trying to ride the thing would be impossible. At least for me.
A corner of his lips curved upward. “Then we’ll use another way.” He extended his free hand.
I stared at him warily as I took it.
The force of the teleportation squeezed my eyes shut and pulled at my hair until I thought every strand would rip from my scalp. My lungs tried to get oxygen, but they couldn’t expand against the powerful winds battering me. My head began spinning. Just when I thought my ribs would snap, I collapsed onto the soft carpeted floor of Besade’s main hall. I gasped and stayed on my hands and knees.
Toshi immediately appeared, wings beating behind him so fast that they seemed to vibrate. “Lady Ashera! You didn’t tell me you’d revisit us today. Lord Ramiel said you’d gone home.” He began wringing his tiny foreclaws. “I haven’t even prepared a suitable banquet in your honor.”
I didn’t have the energy to tell him to shut up. Toshi was like a high-strung Chihuahua. It probably couldn’t be helped. He was too small a thing to live among the big dragons without getting at least a little paranoid about being stepped on.
