Ghost Light

Chapter 36

I stumbled into the alley and braced my gloved hands on my knees. A person may not tire while in Mag Mell, but the return trip was a doozy. I sucked in air and looked around for my unlikely travel companion. Torn rested against the dingy brick wall and waved.

“I’m famished,” he said. “Later, Princess.”

He grabbed hold of a rusty fire escape and pulled himself gracefully off the ground.

“Wait,” I said. “I have one more question.”

“What now, Princess?” he asked. “You’ve already ruined a perfectly good trip to the Otherworld. Give a man a break.”

Right, like the druid’s divination was all my fault. It’s not like I chose to have the door to my kingdom accessed through an Otherworld realm of the dead.

“This question is easy,” I said. “No death gods, just access to your information network. I need to find someone by the name of Inari. I think she’s fae.”

“THE Inari?” he asked. “As in, Inari, queen of the kitsuni?”

“Um, yeah, I guess so,” I said.

“Count me out, princess,” he said. “Inari and me, we have a history. I learned a lesson from my time with the kitsuni queen.”

“What lesson is that?” I asked.

“Don’t date chicks with nine tails,” he said.

Torn scampered up the fire escape and onto the roof of a neighboring building. I’d gotten all I could from the cat sidhe for one day. It was time to head home.

Time.

I bit my lip and pulled out my phone with shaking hands. Torn had said that time in the Otherworlds moved at a different pace from the mortal realm. How long had I been gone? I checked the time and date and let out the breath I’d been holding. I’d only lost six hours in Mag Mell. My human friends were still alive.

The downside? I was late for my date with Ceff.

I’d hoped to pay Jenna a visit at the dojo. I needed to see about scheduling a date to begin training again. I couldn’t afford to get rusty, not now that I’d be spending the summer solstice breaking into the home of a death god.

I didn’t have time now for a trip to the dojo, but at least I could give the Hunter a call. I squeezed the bridge of my nose, a headache building behind my eyes, and punched in Jenna’s number. The Hunter answered on the first ring. There was nothing wrong with that girl’s reflexes.

“You on a new job already?” she asked. “Jinx said you were on bed rest all week.”

Jenna sounded out of breath and her words were interspersed with the clanging of metal against metal. The Hunter was talking on the phone while sparring. Show off.

“No, I’m taking it easy,” I said. “Just working on something personal at the moment.”

“You need someone to provide backup?” she asked.

I heard a loud thwap and a grunt and the ringing of metal ceased. Jenna had struck a victory against her opponent while chatting with me on the phone. The pint sized redhead made being a badass look easy.

“No, I’m good,” I said. For now. I’d need Jenna’s help to survive passage through Tech Duinn, but I wasn’t ready to talk about that yet. Kaye said I had to keep the door to Faerie secret from humans and the last thing I wanted was to put Jenna on the fae’s hit list. “I wanted to thank you for the replacement blades and see when I can return to weapons training.”

“No thanks necessary,” she said. “I’ll add the cost of the blades to next month’s training.”

That was Jenna, always practical.

“So I can return next month?” I asked.

“Sure,” she said. “Stop by next week and we’ll try running you through some drills. Once I assess where you’re at with your recovery, I can give you some flows to practice as homework. Last thing you need is to stiffen up or lose muscle tone.”

“Thanks, Jenna,” I said.

“Anytime,” she said. “And Ivy? Try not to get bitten by anymore lamias?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” I said.

That was one promise that I hoped I could keep.