“If Coop’s okay with it, then I am, too,” the Warlock said.
“I don’t know any of those people, but if Mother Karen thinks they’re good parents, then I’m fine with them taking care of the kids, too,” I replied.
“Did you have any more questions for me?” Riviera asked.
“Well, yeah,” I said. “There’s the little detail that your nephew burned down Cooper’s shack and took all our spellbooks and guns.”
“The house in Athens County is being rebuilt; the confiscated books and weapons will be put back where they were found once construction is complete. And you’ll be compensated for any other damages.”
She pulled another paper from her stack and pushed it across the table toward me and Cooper along with a quill pen; it appeared to be a list of everything that had been taken or destroyed by Benedict Jordan’s agents. “Does that seem to be an accurate account?”
“It looks like it, yeah,” I replied. The Governing Circle’s accountant had totaled the damages at ten thousand dollars, partly to compensate for my lost job and garnished final paycheck, withheld by my boss because he thought I’d stolen from him.
“Will you take a direct bank transfer?” she asked.
“I’d kinda prefer cash,” I replied.
“Cash, definitely,” Cooper agreed.
Riviera gave us a look. “Given everything that’s happened recently, are y’all absolutely certain that y’all want to be walking around with a great big wad of greenbacks in your pockets? If y’all lose physical money, I’m afraid the rules say I can’t replace it, but if the electronic transaction fails or gets hijacked, we can fix it.”
She reached into her purse and pulled out an iPhone. “I can show you the transaction right here.”
I looked at Cooper. “What do you think?”
He shrugged. “I guess imaginary money will spend just the same in the end.”
I signed the document, then passed it to Cooper. After he inked his name, Riviera logged into what I supposed was the Circle’s Ohioana Bank account, and then showed us that she’d transferred the money to Cooper’s checking account.
“What about my surprise criminal record, and our eviction?” I asked.
“The eviction has been remedied, and the fabricated conviction has been removed from the mundane criminal justice records,” she replied.
“Any ideas about what to do about this?” I raised my left hand, still gloved. Thin tendrils of smoke wafted from the cuff.
“I myself am no expert on curse removal, so I have arranged for you to meet with Madame Robichaud next Wednesday at her parlor.”
I knew Madame Robichaud by reputation; she was an accomplished Santeria priestess who’d moved north from New Orleans to help take care of her grandchildren. “Sounds good. What about Pal’s overseers, and the Virtus Regnum?” I asked.
“Since Friday night, we have sent several messages to the Regnum concerning you and Palimpsest, but they have not replied to or even acknowledged our communications.” Riviera looked solemn. “I will surely put in a good word for the two of you if I have the chance, but I don’t know if that will happen.”
That wasn’t a good sign. But if they weren’t talking to her, they weren’t talking to her. I believed what Riviera had been telling me so far; I guessed I would just have to wait and see what the Virtii had in store for me.
chapter
eleven
A Hole in the Sky
It felt wonderful to step back out onto the damp earth of the cornfield, to feel the sun on my skin. I took a deep breath of the summer air and turned around. The scarecrow was once again just an old black suit and a straw-stuffed burlap sack head hanging on a couple of old rake handles.
“Well, thank God that’s over,” I said to Pal.
An unseasonably cool breeze wafted across my shoulders, and I shivered, looking upward. The sky was darkening. A late summer storm?
“I’m sorry, dude,” the Warlock said to Cooper. “I … I just didn’t know what to say in there. I don’t know how to raise anything that can’t live in an aquarium, you know?”
“It’s okay.” Cooper gave the Warlock a brotherly slap on the shoulder. “It’ll work out. The kids’ll be fine. You’ll do better with the whole big brother thing when they’re a little older.”
“All the people Riviera mentioned will be very fine foster parents,” Karen added. “I don’t think you need to worry.”
The hairs on my arms and the back of my neck prickled as the wind rose, turned downright cold, rattling through the cornfield. Sudden scudding clouds blotted out the sun, and