Nava Katz Box Set 2

by Deborah Wilde

  “Let me guess. I like Leonie and I’m mad at myself that I’m betraying Asha.” He pushed my hands off him. “I’m not some Hollywood cliché.”

  “You’re not mad about the betrayal, you’re terrified to care about someone, again. No, scratch that. Scared shitless because you do and that’s what you’re so mad about.”

  “Yeah, you’ve got me pegged.” He blew all his sarcasm points with how tensely he held himself.

  “There’s no way you didn’t know she was a half-demon,” I said. “So, why’d you lose it when you found out? Did you need plausible deniability? Because that’s a pretty fucking shaky defense.”

  He stiffened for a brief second. “You’re talking out your ass.”

  “That’s it, isn’t it?” I got up in his space. “You were hoping to bury your head in the sand and deny what was really going on, justifying it to yourself that Leo was a PD and didn’t matter.”

  He balled his hands into fists, his expression fiercer than I’d ever seen it. “She mattered, okay? Are you satisfied? Leonie mattered. And I hate myself for it because Asha’s lying cold and dead in the ground and my anger is all I had left of her.” His voice cracked. “I couldn’t even remember her voice until Hybris…”

  I caught his sleeve but he shook me off, his hands up, and disappeared into the crowd.

  I stood there numb and full of regret for pushing him, until the giggling couple returned, and I forced myself to move. I pushed my worry down into a tight anxious knot, and went to make sure I didn’t fuck things up with Leonie and Rohan.

  Getting Leo to forgive me cost me twenty-four dollars in dessert items, another thirty-three bucks humiliating myself at the balloon pop game with only a Pokémon-esque charm bracelet to show for it, and a burst of embarrassing photos of me posing in a dinosaur egg that immediately got posted to multiple social media channels. It also helped that I’d apparently totally failed with Drio and I groveled profusely.

  “I forgive you, but you’re on probation with my love.” She accepted the cotton candy with flashing pink LEDs embedded in it that I’d bought her like it was her royal birthright and flounced off toward the Pretty Nails stall, her faux-Pokémon bracelet jingling.

  “I’m out of cash,” I told Rohan. “Can I buy forgiveness in blow jobs?”

  “That’s… tawdry.” Rohan sounded even more affronted than when I used the “sidekick” designation.

  “You’re right.” I sighed, glancing around for any sign of Drio, worried about him wandering around this place, broken and alone.

  “Hey, Sparky?” Rohan mimed shooting me in the heart, fingers cocked like a gun.

  I pressed a hand against my chest, stumbling back with a theatrical groan.

  He caught my hand, swinging me into his chest. “I love you. And I love that you care enough about your friends to make sure they’re okay.” He kissed me.

  “You’d better,” I mumbled when I came up for air, but I rewarded him with another kiss for his honesty.

  “I’m still taking the blow jobs, though.” Winking, he slapped me on the butt and went after Leo.

  I could live with that.

  Shockingly, Drio waited for us by Leo’s car when we got there a couple of hours later. He stuck out his hand. “Sorry, man.”

  Ro shook it. “All good.”

  “I’m sorry, too, Drio,” I said. “Honestly.”

  “Forget it,” he said.

  There was no contact between Drio and Leo, but baby steps. I sat in the front seat with my bestie and cranked the heat to dry out.

  The rain had stopped, but rolling dark clouds imparted a claustrophobic tension to the night, the slick streets amplifying the whir of tires on concrete. Even Vancouver’s lights as we drove home over the Oak Street bridge were muted.

  “If I’m ever not-dead and headless, promise me you’ll put me out of my misery, Nee,” Leo said. “I’ll even anoint you in gold dust for your good deed.”

  “You think it’s funny?” Drio snapped.

  Leo honked at the slow driver in front of us and swerved into the next lane. “Yeah, I think me having to plan around that possible fate is pretty fucking hilarious. Besides, he was a PD. What do you care?”

  “I don’t.”

  “You really see the dark side of things, don’t you?” Ro asked her.

  She glanced back at him in the rearview mirror. “Sometimes I feel like I exist slightly off-center from everyone else. I might be at the beach and it’s this gorgeous day and I’m having fun, but on some level I’m aware of the dark cracks that run through the world. There’s not a lot of behavior that surprises me.”

  “Do all demons feel this?” I said.

  “I don’t know. I’ve always wondered if I see light and dark at all times because that’s what I am.”

  “Light and dark!” I grabbed the dashboard, causing Leo to swerve into the next lane.

  “What is wrong with you?” she said, wrenching the wheel and straightening the car out.

  I phoned Sienna, using the number that she’d called Ro’s phone from. “The wards.” I didn’t even give her a chance to say hello. “Magic is finite, but we’ve had it all wrong. Rasha aren’t the problem.”

  “Are you still defending—”

  “Shut up! Rasha don’t matter because they have witch magic. The wards are the balance between witch magic and demon magic, but then Lilith and who knows how many others dipped into dark magic, stealing from the pool of magic at large. Including demon magic. Every time any witch with dark magic fortified the wards, she was actually weakening them.” I scrubbed my hand over my face. “Yes, Rasha made it worse because they only had a fraction of witches’ magic to fight the demons and so more demons got through, pouring more poison into the wards. But they’re not the threat and you need to release them. The real reason the wards need to be reset is because magic needs to be reset. Our wards, our world is out of balance because of you. You and every single woman who worshipped at the cult of Lilith.”

  “Us,” Sienna said pointedly.

  “What?”

  “Your magic comes from Lilith, the biggest dark magic hoarder of us all. It’s just as problematic.”

  My hand drifted to the lighter in my pocket. “You’re right. I’m part of this problem as well, but I’m willing to get rid of any trace of dark magic that I have. Are you?”

  Sienna hung up on me.

  I texted my revelation to Raquel.

  “That’s troubling,” Leo said.

  Rohan leaned forward between the seats. “You sure about this?”

  “I’ll verify later. Go into the Zone, but yeah.”

  “Go into the right headspace?” Drio said.

  “No. The Zone. It’s what witches call the dimension or whatever where the wards—Holy crap. The End Zone.”

  “Is there a physical place the wards end?” Leo merged into the flow of cars on Southwest Marine Drive.

  “I dunno, but the other witches should.”

  Drio, Ro, and I parted ways with Leo at my parents’ place. I couldn’t stay at that disgusting motel again, especially not after the day I’d had. I’d risk it. The plan was to get a good night’s sleep, then I’d portal Ro and Drio to Dr. Markovic’s tomorrow, before coming back for Leo to take her to Los Angeles.

  The witches needed to pony up some answers.

  Ro’s bedtime routine took longer than mine, so I was flaked out on my mattress by the time he was ready.

  “You paying up tonight?” he said. “Oh. Nope. You’re drooling.”

  “Mmmmggghhhgbbh.”

  He climbed under the blankets with me, and might have said good-night, but sleep dragged me backward into its sticky embrace and I was out.

  Rohan was still asleep when I woke up, a curl of foreboding snaking through me. My dream danced just out of memory, but it hadn’t been pleasant. His breathing was even and slow, his long lashes a dusky sweep against his dark skin.

  I nuzzled his neck and he rolled over, throwing an arm over me. Tha
t simple touch unfurled inside me like a silk ribbon, blowing away all worry. His chest rose and fell under my cheek, our legs tangled together.

  Dawn melted away, the pink and orange glow through the slit in the curtains mellowing into filtered sunlight.

  We made quick work of breakfast and hit the road. I deposited Drio and Ro in Dr. Markovic’s apartment, which was a floor-to-ceiling clutter of books and papers.

  “My last driver provided bottles of water,” Drio said. “You’re getting one star.”

  “Ha. Ha. I’ll be back as soon as the meeting is over.” I kissed Ro. “Good luck getting through all this.”

  “Good luck to you, too.”

  I portalled directly into Leo’s apartment. After dragging her out of bed by one leg, I lured her into her galley kitchen with the lattes and muffins I’d brought, keeping a safe distance until the beast had been fed.

  “Remember that time we went camping at Hicks Lake, got really high, ate our entire stash of food, then found out we had a flat that stranded us for almost twenty-four hours?” I said.

  Leo stuffed some muffin into her mouth. “I still have nightmares about it,” she said, spraying crumbs.

  “How close was I to being eaten?”

  She leveled me with a serious look. “You don’t want to know.”

  One thing about Leo, she got ready in no time flat. I’d barely finished my latte before she was flitting around her living room, putting on the last of her funky silver jewelry over her flirty polka dot sundress. “Alrighty, Jeeves. I’m ready.”

  “Still not an Uber.”

  Leo snickered. “I’m getting you one of those ‘Take Transit Home’ T-shirts.”

  “Enjoy the ride.” I picked up my suitcase that Leo had brought in from her car.

  “Mind the gap and enjoy the ride.” She jumped on me, piggyback style. “Move out.”

  The Rasha and witches who’d agreed to work with us had set up shop in a private boarding school in Brentwood, California that had gone under several years ago. The once wide lawns and neat rows of raised flower beds on the small campus were now scraggly weeds providing hiding holes for local wildlife.

  We waited at the front gates as directed.

  Ari let us in. “Stick to the pavement. There are magical booby traps all over the place.” He gave Leo a thin leather bracelet with distinct green beads woven into it.

  “Are we going steady?” She put it on, next to the fake Pokémon bracelet that I’d won for her. “Ooh. Can I tell Kane?”

  Ari rolled his eyes. “It’s from Raquel. The place is warded up, but this will let you stay here without any bad effects.”

  Leo blinked, like she was caught off-guard by the kindness. “I’ll have to thank her.”

  Rasha and witches patrolled the grounds in pairs, making no effort to be subtle about their presence. They’d also fixed the school’s security system, training cameras all over the property. Anyone attempting to enter the grounds who shouldn’t be there would regret it.

  “Any attacks yet?” I said.

  “Not on us,” my brother said. “Sienna took out some of Mandelbaum’s mercenaries in retribution for him stealing the rabbis.”

  “Someone’s bound to come knocking soon,” Leo said.

  Ari took my suitcase, grabbed me by the elbow and hauled me up the drive. “Guess who reached out to me?”

  I grabbed Leo’s hand, both of us jogging to keep up with him. “AT&T?”

  Leo snorted.

  Ari gave me a flat stare. “Malik. He had a little problem to work on with me. How to combine chemistry and magic and open a rift into the demon realm for witches and Rasha to get through. Sound familiar?”

  “Hypothetically, yes. And we’re calling it Hellgate. Any progress?”

  Geeking out trumped annoyance. “Two of the witches here are chemists who’ve done a lot of research into the intersection of chemistry and magic, so I asked the women to spearhead this initiative.”

  Poor Baruch. Seems he’d lost his fanboy to the witches.

  “Getting off on it so hard, you giant dork,” Leo said fondly.

  “What about using the existing giant rift that the demons are trying to open into our world?” I said.

  “The one crawling with demons? No, thanks,” Ari said. “It’s best to draw as little attention as possible to ourselves when we cross.”

  The graffiti-tagged main building had plywood boarding up about a third of the windows, and water stains running liberally down the outside walls. Had there been no available crack houses to move into?

  “In thanks for bringing you together with your fellow magic science tribe,” I said, “you may buy me no less than three waffle breakfasts at Stacked.”

  Ari made a pfft sound. “I deserve all the breakfasts. Working with Malik to put him on the throne? Seriously?”

  “Yes. It’s the smartest course of action, but if I’d known he was going to reach out, I’d have given you a heads-up. I’m sorry he surprised you.”

  “I’m not the one whose forgiveness you need.”

  Kane stalked out the front door of the boarding school and pointed at me. “You’re dead to me.”

  “Malik only wants him for his mind,” I said.

  Kane shot me a look dripping with disbelief.

  “Malik can’t compel Ari unless he kisses him, so how about a little trust for your boyfriend?” Leo said.

  Kane looked chagrined. Damn straight.

  Surprisingly, or maybe not, given the sheer number of magic-wielding women, the insides were pristine and the school was filled with the smell of baking cookies.

  Wait. I only knew one person who could make cookies that smelled that good. I ran down the freshly painted corridor.

  “Other way,” Ari called out.

  I pivoted, ran back the way I’d come, and hit a dead end.

  “They’re for everyone,” Ms. Clara said, in her breathy voice that was tinged with steel.

  A whip cracked, and some guy yelped. I sped around a corner and skidded into the kitchen, hoping to find her and Baruch in some kind of kinky disciplinary power play.

  White tiles gleamed behind Baruch, who sat on the stainless-steel counter blinking, his equivalent of smirking, at Wangombe, the Rasha from Kenya.

  Wangombe rubbed the back of his hand against his blue AFC Leopards football club jersey, as Ms. Clara wound the whip back up and placed it on the counter.

  “She warned you,” Bao, one of the Vietnamese Rasha, said. He wore a fitted white T-shirt and gray sweat pants with his signature bright red runners, while his brother, An, was his spiffy self in a moss green linen shirt and rust-colored linen pants.

  “My people!” I jumped into the middle of everyone, dispensing hugs.

  Ms. Clara got the longest one.

  I held her out at arm’s length. “Are you okay?”

  “Right as rain, doll.” She handed me a cookie. Then reconsidered and added a second one.

  “That is unfair and unjust,” Wangombe pronounced.

  “When you have to dethrone Satan, you can have two.” Ms. Clara winked at me.

  “Oh goody. Everyone knows.” Well, it would save me having to tell them.

  “Quelle bêtise as-tu faite la?” Pierre stomped into the room.

  “It’s not stupid. It’s practical,” I said. “C’est pas si tant pire. You get to kill a lot of demons and we install someone who wants our continued existence.”

  Cisco poked his head into the kitchen. “Hey, kiddo. It’s meeting time. You’re up.”

  18

  I pulled back the stage curtain and peeked out.

  That night at the compound, there’d been almost forty men fighting alongside me. They’d initially escaped with Ari, but now there were barely twenty-five, along with about a hundred witches. The room was depressingly empty.

  Were these the only women Raquel trusted, or the only ones who’d answered the call to arms?

  “Where are the rest of our Rasha?” I said.

  “S
ienna recaptured five of them. The rest?” Cisco shrugged. “They weren’t man enough to handle joining up with witches or couldn’t stomach working with a demon.”

  Ms. Clara carried her laptop with the whip coiled on top of the closed cover and sat down in the front row, presumably to take minutes.

  Some of the Rasha and witches around her glanced uneasily at the whip. Ha.

  Rivka, Catalina, Elena, and Shivani sat in a group. My refuge if the crowd turned on me. Not a hair of Shivani’s white bob was out of place, and her pink sweater looked very soft and very pricy. Elena had taken out her Monroe piercing, but she’d shaved more of her head which worked with her latest steampunk getup.

  I let the curtain fall back into place. “Did we lose those Rasha she didn’t capture to Mandelbaum?”

  “Connor, Mason, and Luca said they weren’t getting involved one way or the other,” Cisco said. “The other seven defected to the rabbi’s side.”

  “Damn it.”

  Rabbi Abrams shuffled backstage. “Navela.”

  I hugged him as tightly as possible without causing bodily harm. He was more wrinkles, beard, and old man knuckles than anything else, but otherwise appeared healthy. “Are you staying here?”

  “No. I’m going home. I’m on my way to the airport now, but I wanted to see you first.”

  “Are you sure that’s wise?”

  “Who can say? But I’m an old man and I want the familiar around me now.” He patted my cheek. “The first time I saw you, Navela, I thought you were the worst thing to happen to the Brotherhood.”

  I winced. Wow, way to drop that truth bomb on me right before I had to take center stage, Rabbi A. “There are those who would still make that argument.”

  “I admit there were growing pains. Many growing pains.” Rabbi Abrams winked at me. “But we came out of them stronger. You were exactly what we needed. I’m proud to have had a hand in your development as an adult. You’ve done remarkable things, and if other people disagree then they’re fools. You’re quite possibly the best thing to happen to us.”

  The grin on my face was a mile wide.