“Men!” he shouted, gesturing to a cluster of individuals waiting for us. “I want four of you guarding my soulmate at all times.”
I swiveled to give Andre a look. “You can’t be serious.” I was essentially a goddess. Of the Underworld. My powers were unparalleled, and, more importantly, I couldn’t die. His soldiers could.
“I will not watch you bleed out again, you hear me?” he said, turning those intense eyes on me. The air blew his hair and his coat about him, and my God, he was the most staggering man I’d ever seen. “It will not happen while I have power to stop it. That means I will have you protected, no matter how ridiculous you think that is.”
I could tell by the set of his jaw that on this subject, he wasn’t going to budge. I gave him a sharp nod, my mood worsening as my attention moved to my new babysitters.
“I need to debrief my men, but I will find you once I’m done. And when I do, I will show you just how much I missed you.” He gave me a final heated look, then left me.
“Well that was exciting,” Oliver said when we headed into his and Leanne’s room. The door clicked shut behind us, leaving my four guards out in the hallway.
Leanne was stretched out on the floor, her deck of tarot cards spread out before her. “So glad the last twenty-four hours are behind us,” she said. She glanced up at me. “Hi again.”
Apparently this was what Leanne had been up to while Andre and Oliver had broken me out of jail.
“No wonder you gave me the pep talk,” I said. Oliver and I plopped down on the bed, and wrapping my arms around a pillow, I peered over the edge at Leanne and her cards. “Thanks, by the way, for all the visions.”
“That’s awfully appreciative for the anti-Christ,” she said, her lips twisting in a wry smile.
I grinned back at her, though even now I struggled with my increasingly trigger-happy temper. “I’m trying to channel my inner Positive Polly. I’ve heard that no one likes ho-bag Holly.”
“I do,” Oliver chimed in.
Of course he did.
“Hey, where’s the love for your rescuer here? I was in fact the one that got you out of that death trap holding cell. I don’t care what that goblin of yours says.”
“Thank you, Oliver,” I said.
“Hmph.”
I threw my pillow at him because sometimes, when it came to fairies, you needed to keep it real.
“Ow,” he said as it whacked him. I bit my lip to keep from laughing.
I couldn’t even begin to describe how good it felt to do and say normal teenage things.
He picked the pillow up and cocked his arm back.
“Dude,” I said, rolling onto my back and putting my hands up defensively, “I’m a wrathful goddess now. You can’t hit wrathful goddesses. Those bitches will go crazy on you.”
I was only half-joking.
Oliver’s arm wilted as his eyes narrowed. “Well played, Corpse Bride, well played.”
I sighed at the name.
“I spoke with Nona.” Leanne’s words stopped me in my tracks.
“What?” I said.
Nona—or Cecilia, as I was fond of calling my former nanny—was dead as far as I knew. At least this incarnation of her was.
I didn’t know how long it took other immortals to regenerate. Perhaps they returned just as quickly as I did.
“Where is she?” I asked, scrambling to sit up.
Leanne shook her head. “Not like that. I spoke with her in a dream.”
That was no less spectacular, but I deflated a bit anyway. I missed her; there was no helping it.
“What did she have to say?”
Leanne gathered up her tarot cards. “Things,” she replied cryptically. “Are you in the mood to sneak out?” she asked, setting her deck aside.
“Do you really even need to ask that question?” Oliver said for me.
In response, a devious smile spread across Leanne’s face. “That’s what I thought.”
Chapter 20
Gabrielle
We huddled in close, keeping our voices down just in case someone with supernatural hearing passed by the room.
“What’s the plan?” Oliver asked.
“Gabrielle needs to speak with the messenger before she can use the celestial request quill.”
I did? Well, that was news. Hopefully that would go a little bit better tonight than it had last night.
“The who?” Oliver asked. Loudly.
“Ssh,” Leanne hissed. “The messenger. Jericho.”
“Jericho … ?”
“Aquinas,” Leanne said. “Jericho Aquinas.”
“That rings zero bells,” he said.
“It doesn’t need to ring any bells,” she said. “He’s waiting for us along the ley lines.”
“Not at his shop?” I asked.
Leanne shook her head. “Oliver, we need you to take us to him. You should be able to sense him from his divinity.”
The fairy huffed. “I’m nothing but a glorified cabbie.”
“You’re the best, and you’re the only one who can do this,” Leanne said.
“Buttering me up won’t get you anywhere, Leanne. Anyway, Corpse Bride needs to shake her shadows,” Oliver said, glancing meaningfully at the door in question.