Circle of the Moon (Soulwood #4 )- Faith Hunter Page 0,118
binding to it. And even though I don’t know all it does, I’m pretty sure if it’s invoked on the dark of the moon, all hell will break loose.”
True. Beneath it appeared the word Uncertain. Mixed messages from Tandy, resulting from mixed messages from Loriann. She was still standing in the doorway like a supplicant. This didn’t feel like the Reid interrogation technique. It felt like something else.
“Summons?” Rick asked. “For what?”
“I don’t know.”
Lie. Uncertain.
“T. Laine?” Rick asked. “Evaluate.”
“Nonspecific,” T. Laine said in her best cop voice. “Ambiguous. And comprising little we don’t already know. Who will be cursed? Who will be summoned? Who will be bound? And what part of hell will break loose?”
“I don’t know.” Loriann’s fists bunched.
Lie.
Loriann knew a lot more than she was telling us.
“We don’t need you here for this,” T. Laine said, her tone insolent, a shade from insulting.
“You do. You’re a lone witch. You need a coven to fight this, even if it’s only a small coven. A coven of two is better than none.”
True.
Rick said, “Step out into the hallway. Close the door. Wait.”
Loriann opened her mouth to argue, closed it. Followed orders. The door shut with a soft snap. “Secure us,” he said to T. Laine and JoJo. Our witch nodded, withdrew a small moonstone from a pocket, and tapped it three times on the table. A small hedge of thorns leaped up around us, tingling on my skin. The hedge made sure our magical visitor couldn’t hear. JoJo switched off Clementine so there was no recording.
“I don’t know if she can be believed about anything relating to this case.” Rick sat back in his chair, relaxing for the first time since he woke. Thoughtfully, he shifted his eyes around the table. “Assessment. Kent?”
“If it was up to me, I’d set her tail on fire and put her on a flight back to New Orleans,” T. Laine said.
“I’m not rich, but I’ll pay her way myself,” JoJo grumped. “That girl sets my teeth on edge.”
“Occam?” Rick asked.
The werecat shook his head, his eyes still haunted. “We got some bad stuff happening, boss. Too much bad stuff. If she has a snowball’s chance in hell of helping out on even a portion of it, then let her stay.”
“Tandy?” Rick asked.
“Loriann Ethier is lying. She is so full of anger, guilt, and jealousy that the emotions swirl around her like a slow-moving, dark tornado. But—” Tandy looked at JoJo, and she nodded at him to continue, as if there had been some silent communication between them, question and answer. “But I think the tornado is destroying her inside, rather than a landscape outside of herself. I think she’s profoundly self-destructive and utterly, dreadfully dangerous.”
Rick nodded slowly, his head moving against the windows. “Yes. Yes. She has always carried those emotions, always been turned against herself. I think it started when she couldn’t protect her family from Isleen. Nell?”
“If she stays, someone has to watch her. And I don’t want her at Soulwood.”
“Why?” Rick asked.
Because the land will view her as a threat and eat her. But I didn’t say those words. Instead I said, “Because Soulwood will magnify everything she’s feeling and it will affect everything that we do.”
A single word appeared on my cell phone. True.
I looked at Tandy. “Stop assessing me.”
Tandy tilted his head in a tiny shrug.
Rick sighed and said, “Open the door, please.”
I was closest so I stood and opened the door. Loriann stepped from the hallway lights into the darkness of the unlit room, blinking.
“You have a car?” Rick asked her.
Loriann bobbed her head. “Yes. Rental.”
“If a liaison position is approved, you can stay,” Rick said. “JoJo, you have her number. Make a hotel reservation and text her the particulars.” To Loriann, he added, “We’ll see you at four p.m. For now”—he gave her a heartless, unamused smile and rested his arms on the chair arms, a king at ease—“you are dismissed.”
I held in my grin. Rick had learned a thing or two from vampires and dismissing a lesser being was one of them. It put Loriann in her place. She frowned at us, whirled away, and left the building.
Rick’s shoulders relaxed as he looked us over. “Well done.” Everyone blew out a breath and the overhead lights came on, making us all squint into the brightness. Rick stood and slid the donut box around the table. The others tossed in a few dollars and took a donut.
I took another of the fantastic pastries and bit in, studying