There was Antimony, a scowl on her face and a gun in her hands. This one was bigger than the one on the ground, and the safety was most definitely not on. She looked like she was ready to start shooting people. It was a mood I could absolutely support.
“Hey, cuz,” I said. “You okay?”
“You mean after James hit me in the head with an ice cube the size of a golf ball? Oh, I’m dandy.”
“You don’t sound dandy. You sound like you’re about to kill somebody.”
Annie’s smile was more like a snarl. In that moment, it was easy to see why she was Sam’s perfect girl, even if I would have sooner gotten involved with a live wolverine even if we hadn’t been related. She was way too scary for me. “That’s probably because I’m about to kill somebody. Sam! Get off the fucking cuckoo so I can shoot it!”
“You can’t shoot her,” said Sam, and slammed Heloise’s head into the lawn with a sharp shove of one foot. “No. Stay down. This is the part where you stop fighting so my girlfriend doesn’t kill the living shit out of you.”
James clutched the sides of his head with both hands, bending almost double. “Can you please, please knock her unconscious?” he moaned. “Half of me still wants to save her from you because she’s been my best friend since grade school, and I know that’s not true.”
“Listen to your sister, meaning me,” said Antimony. “She’s not your friend, she’s not your long-lost bestie, and she’s not the secret to bringing Sally home. She’s just a complication we didn’t ask for. Sam?”
“On it,” said Sam, and gripped Heloise by the hair, pulling her head far enough off the ground to snake his tail around her throat and squeeze.
The effect was immediate. Her eyes bulged as she reached up and clawed at the offending appendage with her one free hand, trying to break what looked like a fairly unbreakable grip. She began to thrash and wheeze.
“Cuckoos breathe, right?” asked Sam, as casual as if he weren’t choking a woman right in front of us. “Like, I’m going to knock her out if I squeeze long enough?”
“Or you’re going to kill her,” said Antimony. “It’s not like we strangle Sarah for fun. James, why the hell weren’t you wearing your anti-telepathy charm?”
“I was in bed,” he said, still holding the sides of his head, like he was afraid his skull might fly apart at any moment. “You said Sarah’s room was warded to keep her from wandering into our dreams at night.”
“More to keep our dreams from wandering into hers, but yes, it is,” said Antimony. “That doesn’t mean taking off that charm was a good idea. There’s no bathroom in her bedroom.”
“Go easy on him,” said Sam. “Not everyone’s as paranoid as you are.”
“It’s not paranoia when you find an actual cuckoo in your living room.”
“Fair,” allowed Sam. Heloise wasn’t thrashing anymore. “Hey, James, you still have a weird lady in your brain telling you to kill us all?”
“No,” said James, shoulders sagging in relief. He dared a glance over at Annie. “I’m sorry about the hailstone. I don’t know what came over me.”
“Don’t worry about it. The cuckoo came over you. Sam, can you get her out to the barn?”
“Not back inside?” asked Sam, as he uncoiled his tail from around Heloise’s neck and stooped to pick her up. I finally realized that he’d stopped to put on a long-sleeved sweatshirt at some point; except for the very brief moment where he was grasping her arms and hoisting her over his shoulder, he was never touching her skin directly. The fur on his tail was thick enough to insulate him.
“Did you take so long coming to my rescue because you felt the need to stop and change clothes?” I asked.
Annie rolled her eyes at me. “You’re a Price, nerd. You can take care of yourself.”
“Against a sorcerer and a cuckoo?”
“You’re still standing, aren’t you?” She gave James a measuring look. “But that’s not his blood. Artie, what did you do?”
“He gave me frostbite on purpose and took off the top layer of my skin.”
“I didn’t do it out of malice,” protested James. His cheeks and the tips of his ears were red, like he was embarrassed or running a fever. “The cuckoo was in my head. Everything she said sounded perfectly reasonable.”
“Sure, it was just the kind of reasonable that ends with me in a shallow grave somewhere.” I glanced to Antimony. “That’s my blood. He probably needs some aconite, and maybe a cold shower.”
“That would be . . . welcome, yes,” said James stiffly. He didn’t look at me. Whoops. “I’m not currently fit for polite company.”
“Sorry about that,” I said.
He dared a glance in my direction, the tips of his ears flaring an even deeper red, until he looked like he was on the verge of a stroke. “Please, don’t apologize,” he mumbled. “You did what was necessary to break that woman’s control over me. Honestly, I prefer this. At least I know you won’t take advantage. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need that shower now.”
“Meet us at the barn!” Antimony called as he fled for the house. She turned and looked at me, nodding approvingly. “Nonstandard approach, but you’re alive and only bleeding a little, so we’re going to call it a win. Now let’s go. Your sister should be done patching up the hole in your dad by now. Oh, and did you know my dad’s bi?”
“I did not know that and I did not want to know that and why do you know that?”
She shrugged. “He made a pass at your dad when he started bleeding. Now come on. We need to figure out what we’re going to do next.”
Sam started across the lawn, heading for the barn. After a moment’s hesitation, Antimony and I followed. We were definitely not going to get any more sleep tonight.
Fifteen
“I thought I’d seen the worst of what this world had to offer when I saw the Covenant. Then I saw my first cuckoo, and I knew I’d been wrong.”
—Alexander Healy
In the barn, preparing for war
WHEN I WAS A kid, I’d thought everyone had a barn filled with taxidermy and weird, wonderful tools, like a mad scientist’s lab crossed with a veterinarian’s office. I’d giggled at Vincent Price movies, both because he looked like he should be a distant relative—he wasn’t—and because he’d been moving through a world that looked so much like the one I had at home. He’d been familiar in a way so few things were.