by Lori Devoti
Behind me, the dog scratched at the door.
I drew myself up to my full height and squared my shoulders. “Only in the gym-with the doors closed.”
“The spears-” Mother started.
“Are not being tossed around in full view of Monroe Street. Zery will have to figure something else out. She can use javelins or something. Same goes for anything they do outside this building-it has to be modern and one-hundred-percent explainable.”
Mother placed her hands on her hips. I steeled myself for a fight, but she nodded. “That’s reasonable.”
Relief flowing over me, I jerked open the door. The dog bolted out into the growing dusk.
Mother’s voice stopped me from dashing after him. “You know there will need to be trials-outside. You might want to think of something to tell the neighbors.”
I didn’t slam the door when I left the building. My life was a mess, but I knew who to blame: me. For whatever reason, the dead girls had been brought to me. I’d tried to deny my responsibility, but I couldn’t any longer.
The girls, the police, and now the Amazons. All swirling around me. I couldn’t stand back and wait for someone else to fix this. I especially couldn’t wait for Zery’s plan to become apparent. I was going to have to do it myself. Somehow.
I took a deep breath and watched cars speed down Monroe. A calm settled over me. I was going to do this. I was going to stop the killer. But where to start?
I didn’t have to go search for a starting place. It came to me at one in the morning.
I woke to shouts and dogs barking. I jerked open the window closest to my bed and looked out. This gave an unobstructed view of the side of the cafeteria and not much more, but the voices were clear and angry. Leaning out further, I could see flames shooting up from in front of the shop. Dressed in the cotton shorts and T-shirt I’d slept in and not bothering with shoes, I shoved open my back window-the one attached to the old fire escape-and scurried down the cold metal stairs.
All the Amazons were out of the gym and moving toward the fire. I followed.
At the bottom of the hill, about twenty yards from Monroe Street, a huge bonfire crackled and spat. A ring of Amazons stood around it. In the center of their circle, next to the fire, stood Zery, Bubbe, and Mother.
Soaring anger carried me down the hill and into their midst.
“What do you think you are doing? We can’t set a fire in the middle of the city like this.” I glanced around, frantic for something to douse the flames, but in my rush outside I hadn’t thought to grab a fire extinguisher. I yelled at a nearby warrior to go back to the shop and get the one mounted on the brick wall next to the front door.
“And shovels, get shovels.” I babbled out instructions for finding those, only to have the warriors stare at Zery as if I’d said nothing at all.
I bit back a curse, ready to turn on the queen, but she gave a nod and five warriors took up the hill in a run.
Before I could vent my full thoughts on their late-night fire, Zery held up a hand. “We didn’t do this.”
My mouth snapped shut as I glanced at Mother and Bubbe for confirmation.
Bubbe gestured toward the fire. “Devochka moya, the killer has found us.”
Then I focused, really focused, on the scene surrounding the fire. Ten spears protruded from the ground forming a semicircle around the flames.
I frowned. Ten. The number had no significance I could think of. Bubbe stepped toward the first spear and nodded to where the iron head stuck out of the soil.
Traced in the dirt with some kind of powder was an esoteric drawing of a deer. The design was classic Amazon, simple, but elegant, showing just enough of the animal’s definitive characteristics to leave no doubt of what it was-the kind of design preferred for givnomai tattoos because of their smaller size.
I swallowed hard and kept my eyes cast down, away from Bubbe’s prying eyes. I moved to the next spear and the next. In front of each was a drawing: lion, bull, hawk. I listed off the totems one by one-all present and accounted for except for two, the bear and the leopard.
“Two are missing.” Bubbe stared into the fire.
It was an obvious statement, not one I thought needed a reply.
“Do you wonder why?” she asked. The flames crackled, laughing at us.
“I-”
“The dead girls’ totems are missing, but they are not far, I don’t think.” She stepped toward the fire, stuck her hand into the roaring flames and pulled out a glowing metal spearhead. She dropped it on the ground at my feet and reached into the fire again-a second spearhead landed next to my bare toes. “He’s mocking us.”
The warriors arrived then and under Zery’s command began dousing the flames. Within seconds nothing but a smoldering pile of wood remained. Not having the same level of control my grandmother had over fire, I was forced to wait, to contain my nervous energy. As soon as the heat had died down enough that I could stand next to it without gaining a permanent sunburn, I grabbed the closest spear and began shoving ash to the side.
The white outlines of two beasts slowly emerged-a leopard and a bear. I plunged the spear back into the ground. Cursed and walked away.
Another message. Saying what? That the killer was targeting all of the clans?
“Did you do this?” Zery’s voice was low, controlled, barely hiding an anger that rivaled my own.
I turned on her. I was tired of her accusations and angry enough to challenge her to a fight right there. I held her gaze. What I saw in hers calmed me. She was as filled with rage as I was, but it wasn’t directed at me. She didn’t really believe I was the killer, probably never had.
“This is personal,” I said. The dead girls were tied to me now and their deaths, this fire, all of it was meant as some kind of message…for me.
“Has been since the beginning,” she replied. “There’s nothing more personal than killing someone.”
Unless it was violating them by stealing a patch of their skin, a piece of who they had been in life. I bit the inside of my cheek, reminded myself Zery didn’t know this piece of information.
“I want to help,” I said.
Zery raised a brow, then turned and walked back to the fire.
Hating every step, I followed her like a puppy. If I was going to find the killer, I needed to know more about the girls who had been killed. To do that I needed access to the Amazons who knew them. I needed access to the safe camp.
I was on her heels when she turned. “Why? You don’t even want us here. Why say you want to help now?” She waved at the smoldering mess. “Because of this? Why would this change your mind? Make you want to come back to the tribe?”
“I didn’t say I wanted back in.”
She grunted and shook her head, then ignored me again to start shouting orders to her warriors.
I grabbed her by the arm-a bold, probably stupid move. She froze and stared down at my hand.
I didn’t let go. “You made it clear the Amazons want me to be the killer. Wanted you to bring me back for trial. I have twenty Amazons living in my gymnasium practicing with broadswords. And now, I wake to a bonfire in my front yard-a bonfire it looks like the killer set. Why wouldn’t I want to help? It’s the only way I’ll get rid of all of you, and get my life back. Besides…” I dropped my hold on her arm, but she stayed put, twisted her mouth to the side.
I breathed in, then continued. “I’m not a monster. I don’t want any more girls killed either. And I can help. You know I can. I’m the only Amazon who really understands the human world and Madison, who has lived here.”
“That’s not important. We won’t let humans get in our way,” she replied.
“Do you want to endanger the whole tribe? There are laws, Zery. The police are already involved. A detective came here. He showed me pictures of the girls’ telios tattoos, wanted to know if I could identify them. You don’t know how to talk with the police, but I can. I can get information for you.” It was a big promise and not one I was sur
e I could deliver on, but I was desperate.
I’d interested her; I could see it on her face. “You think he’d talk to you?”
I nodded. “But I need something from you first. I need safe passage to the tribe’s camp, need to know more about the girls.”
Without warning, she grabbed my hand and squeezed. “Why ask for passage now? You didn’t the other night.”
My breath caught in my throat. The totems; they’d found them and sensed me.
She leaned closer, whispered in my ear. “I didn’t want to believe Alcippe when she said you delivered those totems, but it was you, wasn’t it?”
I licked my lips. Across the dampened fire, Mother and Bubbe watched us. I didn’t trust that Bubbe couldn’t hear every word.
Zery let go of my hand. I squeezed my fingers in and out of a fist, forced the blood back into the digits.
She stepped to the side, blocking my view of my family-and their view of our conversation. “How’d you get them?”
It was my chance to share, to lighten my load, but as I looked at her, the smoke from the now-dead fire still hanging in the air behind her, I realized I couldn’t. At some point I was going to have to open up to someone, tell them what had happened, but I wasn’t ready yet-not until I understood why the killer had brought the girls to me.
I realized some part of me wondered if something I had done had cost the girls their lives. The killer hadn’t picked me at random. I needed to know more, do more, then I’d share.
I blew out a breath and stared my old friend in the eyes, prayed some of our lifelong bond still existed. “I didn’t kill those girls and I don’t know who did, but I want to find out-just as much as you do, more than you do.”
There was doubt in Zery’s eyes, indecision. I clasped her hand in mine. “Let me help.”
The expression on her face was serious, deadly serious. I thought she was going to say no.
Instead, I got, “I’m sorry for the loss of your son. I never said that before, and I’m sorry for that too.”
Damn her. My eyes began to leak. Tears hung on my lower lashes, threatening to fall.
She squeezed my hand, then dropped it and took a step back. “I’ll let Alcippe know you’re coming. You’ll have to deal with her. She doesn’t trust you, and she won’t like you being there.”
Alcippe, the high priestess who killed my son. The feeling was mutual.
Chapter Ten
I went to bed antsy and woke up feeling pretty much the same.
Sunday was my usual day off, when I took one. Today, Janet was scheduled to be in and in charge-making it a perfect time to head south to the safe camp. Unfortunately, in the early hours of the morning she’d left a message on voice mail saying she was sick. I alternated Sunday management between her and Cheryl. But Cheryl had her kids every other weekend, and this weekend was special. She’d taken them to the Dells, a city just north of Madison filled with water parks.
I wasn’t ready to ditch my plans, though. After pressing the 3 on my phone to delete Janet’s message, I scribbled out a short note and taped it to Mother’s door. She wouldn’t like being tied to the shop instead of being free to play Amazon warrior, but she’d do it. I just had to be out of the building before she got back upstairs from her morning workout.
One good thing…Harmony was still at her friend’s and probably would be most of the day. I had purposely not given her a “must be home by” time. I figured I wouldn’t see her until dark.
My business and home life were covered for today, but I was going to have to find some regularly scheduled activity to occupy my daughter soon. With the killer free and targeting Amazons-even if she didn’t know she was an Amazon herself-I couldn’t do the normal suburban thing and tell her to hang at the mall. I needed to know someone was watching her, would let me know if anyone approached her. And I couldn’t continually send her to someone else’s house. It broke the unspoken code of playdate etiquette that still applied, even though her playdate days were long behind us both.
I needed my girl watched, safe and away from warring Amazons. Something I’d have to work on when I got back from today’s jaunt.
I walked out the front door at nine fifteen. The black mark the fire had left on my lawn was impossible to miss-as was the over-six-foot-tall male standing beside it.
With a sigh, I walked down the incline, curious as to what brought Peter here so early, but more occupied with rehearsing my feeble cover lie for the burnt disaster that was my front yard.
He was rooting around in the ashes with the toe of his boot when I arrived. I’d made sure to remove all signs of the totem animals last night before deserting the site for my bed.
“Bonfire? Are those allowed in Madison?” he asked.
I brushed hair from my face. “I don’t know, and luckily no one showed up from the city to tell me.” Luck had nothing to do with it. Bubbe had cast a spell, similar to the ones used to keep safe camps secret, over the space. It had been a quick and dirty piece of magic, but I guessed it had done the job. At least no police or neighbors had called to complain. Obviously, it hadn’t been strong enough to keep Peter from noticing the mess, though.
“The new tenants got a little carried away.” I picked up a piece of charred wood and tossed it in the air. Soot rubbed off on my palm. With a frown, I dropped the wood and rubbed my hand on my jeans.
“Weenie roast gone wrong?”
“Something like that.” When he said it, it sounded even more lame than when I’d heard similar words come out of my own mouth.
“Listen, I’ve got some errands to run today. You want to keep an eye on things?” I asked.
His eyes widened. “Me?”
I flushed. I shouldn’t have asked him. I had left the note on Mother’s door, even unwilling she was a better choice than Peter. He’d only worked for me a few days. “Never mind.”
“No, I’d love to.” He wrapped his fingers around my biceps, but softly, then just as quickly he pulled his hand back. His fingers trailed over my skin. A shiver passed over my body.
“Anything I should be watching out for?” he added.
Lost in the sensation of his fingers drifting over my skin, I almost missed the question. “N-no…n-n-othing…special.” The words came out in a stutter.
“What exactly were they doing last night?” He opened his fingers, lying flat on his palm was an iron spearhead.
I reached out to grab it. His fingers closed, cutting off my view of the weapon’s head.
I laughed, tried to cover my stupid move. The spearhead told him nothing. “That’s theirs. Some kind of initiation rite, I take it. I didn’t ask too many questions-just told them not to do it again.”
“Then I don’t need to stand guard with an extinguisher?”
I hoped to hell not. I shook my head, laughed again. “No, Zery and I came to an understanding.”
“Zery?” He angled his head, like a dog trying to pin down the source of some sound.
“The woman in charge; that’s her name.” I held out my hand, silently asking for the spearhead.
He tossed it in the air, let it settle back on his palm, then tucked it into the pocket of his pants. “No worries. I’ll take it to her. You’re in a hurry, right?”
I forced my lips into a smile. “Thanks.” I hadn’t gone over my cover story with Zery, but I couldn’t imagine her opening up to Peter. She’d probably do no more than grunt, no matter what he said to her.
I stood there a second longer than felt comfortable. Peter watched me, waiting.
“Uh-oh, and my daughter, Harmony. She’s at a friend’s. I should be back before she gets home.”
“Good to know.” His face wore a what else? expression.
“Guess I’ll be going.”
He nodded.
I glanced at my watch. He had hours before his shift started. I couldn’t order him to work. I glanced at my watch again. “You’re here early.”
He shrugged and slipped his lips into one of those s
miles that made my hormones smile with him and told my brain to agree to whatever he said, whatever he wanted to do. “Still getting settled. I have some paperwork to go through, some new designs to add to the flash. And, honestly, I’ve got nowhere else to be.”
“Oh, sure.” I searched for a reason to order him to the shop, away from the burnt circle of earth. The little gears that ran my brain were clacking so loudly I was surprised he didn’t ask about the noise. “I left a note on Mother’s door that she would be in charge. Maybe, since you’re here, you could go up and let her know she’s off the hook.” If Mother had made her way up from her workout and found my note, she’d probably done no more than wad it into a ball. If she hadn’t stopped working out, she wouldn’t welcome an intrusion from Peter. But really, was that my problem?
“Walk me up?” I nodded toward the hill and tried a smile of my own. The flirtatious move felt about as natural as breathing under water.
His hand drifted to the pocket where he’d stashed the spearhead, but he just shoved the fingers of both hands into his front pockets and started moving with me up the hill.
“Speaking of Harmony…”
I jumped, my mind far from my daughter at that point.
“If you’re looking for something for her to do after school, I might know something.”
“Why would you think-?”
“I noticed since your new tenants moved in that she’s not been around much-had a lot of ‘friend time.’ Then with-” He jerked his head back toward the charred spot we’d left behind. “If I’m wrong…”
“No.” Why deny it? “I rented the space to them and I’m locked in now, but after last night…I’m thinking it might be better if she wasn’t too influenced by them.”
Peter bent at the waist to help propel himself up the hill.
The roar of a lawn mower and the scent of cut grass drifted from one of my neighbor’s yards. A moment of normal in an insane world.
“My client, Makis, the man in the wheelchair?” Peter held out a hand to help me up the incline. I stared at it, not getting for a second what he was doing. Then realizing what he was offering, I shook my head and plowed ahead, moved ahead of him.
