“I am ready. Hit me with them.”
“What is the matching branding on our waists and what does that coin we won have to do with Ethel?”
I gasped a little. I didn’t think he saw the coin, but he must have looked down as I was staring at it. “In gods’ honest truth, we have no idea on either question.”
He didn’t say anything for a few minutes. He only stared at the wall behind my head. I don’t understand how I didn’t notice this before, but James was incredibly expressive. Just like he did after the maze, his eyes lit up when he got the grasp of the situation. “Well, the way I see it, we have two controllable factors. Figure out the coin, and we save Ethel. The branding? We will deal with it later.”
When we finally made eye contact with him, I couldn’t help but notice he wasn’t mad at me for holding him hostage or keeping secrets from him. This time, his green eyes were serious. For the first time in a few weeks, I really felt like we could save Ethel
Chapter Thirteen
James
“Well, good talk and all. I still don’t really get it. But whatever you say. Here’s the deal. You want me to help you save Ethel? We work on my record first.”
Violet smiled, flipping her hair and batting her ridiculous fake eyelashes in my direction as if I was supposed to be impressed. For a woman who claimed to be my perfect complement, she sure didn’t get what I was into. I told myself not to think of Jenn, fertility, or even the baby. We had shit to do and the only way to move forward was to forget about the past.
Life was like that. Like the stupid portal layers Mistress Pain had described. I was like the guy being hit in the head with buckets of poison.
“You never heard ladies first?” Violet said, crossing her leg slowly over the other and slightly leaning forward so I could see straight down her shirt. Fuck, it had been a long time.
Immediately, I turned my attention and heavy eyes to Ethel, who was rolling her own. “You sure we aren’t related? Created at the same time? Some wacky twin situation or something?”
“Not related. But maybe it’s best you pretend you are. We aren’t going to get very far with you two flirting. Besides, it’s rude.”
“Oh Ethel, we’re just having some fun, right James?” Violet said, licking her crazy plum painted lips.
I cleared my throat. “She’s right. No time for fun. Even on the 98th portal or some crap, I bet cats only have nine lives.”
Violet didn’t blink at my smart remark. It was as if she came from a whole other planet and spoke a different language than me. It’d been easier to learn the unsaid lingo of the Big House than it had been to keep up with Leash Girl.
“How do I know you won’t leave again,” Violet asked, leaning further back into the leather chair against a tiny hotel desk.
I extended my wrists. “Leash me again. I don’t even care. Just toss the record.”
“What happened to you? Where did you go? I thought you were going to Ray’s.”
I shook my head. I didn’t see any reason to lie to her. I spit out, “My old cellmate’s place. Syracuse.”
She didn’t ask for more. Instead, she sprung from the chair and moved right in on me. For a second, I expected a Death Flame to whip around my chest. Instead, her warm hands encircled my waist. Gently, she tugged at my T-shirt. “I want to see it. I want to know for sure it’s there.”
“See what?”
“Your brand.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her about the prison tattoos or even the time Ray convinced a group of us to go upstate to get some ink on Friday the 13th. That had been a kick. Jenn didn’t speak to me for two weeks—leaving me to sleep on the couch—when she realized I hadn’t chosen her name.
I tried to gently nudge her away. But Violet was persistent. I knew it wasn’t the brand that messed her up. She’d clearly expected that. What screwed her up was what she saw on my back. Frankly, after hearing her story, it was messing with me too.
There was no sense in fighting her off as she took in the full view of it. It had been Ray’s idea to go for a Helm of Awe, not mine. But there was no way Mistress Pain would see it that way. Cat Girl either. I cracked my neck as I waited for one of them to finally break the silence. Instead, Violet stepped back, dropping my shirt.
Fuck if I knew what it all meant. I’d only gotten the thing because Ray—who read too much and collected stupid facts the same way he did everything—said it was like a shield of protection. I figured it might protect me from the whole death curse. Besides, it looked cool. Obviously, it hadn’t worked and I hadn’t put much more thought into it until now. Under the stunned eyes of the ladies, I felt like a living freakshow spectacle. So much for her checking out my brand.
“Protection, steadiness, virtues—” Violet stopped before she even got started. Half expecting her to rattle off five more words to name the spikes, I turned back to look at her. “You can’t be beaten. That’s the true symbol of a warrior.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake. It was just a cool design. Are you done analyzing me?”
I wished I could take the words back, but it was too late. Violet’s eyes dropped to the ground. She crossed her hands over her chest, shaking her head and mumbling something to Cat Girl about me being a lost cause.
“You picked him,” Ethel said.
“No. Not exactly.”
“Okay, true. Either way. It’s him. So let’s run with it.”
Hoping to pick the mood up before Mistress Pain pulled out the Death Flames or threw me into another portal, I tried to crack a joke. “Got a tramp stamp?”
She cocked her head. “Your mother would be appalled to hear those words! Didn’t she teach you manners?”
“My mother isn’t around. I was trying to make you laugh.”
For some reason, even if she did, I’d have loved it. Violet was the first and only women I’d ever met who could cake her face behind globs of make-up and even body glitter and I hardly noticed. On top of my being unable to work the curse on her, she sure did know how to keep my attention. For as much as I wanted to tell myself I’d only come here to fix up my legal situation, I was full of it. I came back for Violet and just wasn’t ready to fully admit it – not even to myself.
“You know what? You’re right. You both are. We should probably get going now.”
“Where?”
“Yeah, good question,” Ethel said, “And in what form?”
In a way I hated myself for, I kind of wanted her to turn into a cat. I wanted to watch it happen.
“Parole.”
“Wait. You want me to just march right in there? Are you kidding? They’ll pick me right up and I’ll be right back where I started. I won’t be able to help you with anything.”
“Oh, Honey. Have some faith. People like me, you’ll see. It’s not like I’m sending you there alone. Trust me.”
The only thing I trusted about the idea of throwing myself at the law was knowing that Mistress Pain could throw a Death Flame out and stop anyone. In a strange way, it wasn’t the worst thing to hang out with that kind of freak. In fact, it was almost hot.
“Did you call me honey?”