“I bet you say that to all the girls.” I had to hand it to Flick, at least she appreciated a classic.
Sofia did in fact shut her eyes.
“See anything?”
“Only after-images.”
I felt a sudden closeness as Flick sidled around the table towards me. “If she goes into a trance, let’s draw on her face.”
I was much too classy to respond to that. “Okay, you’ve done this before. All you need to do is get back into the same frame of mind you were in then.” Of course that frame of mind had been in the middle of an arcane blood ritual designed to usurp the throne of the sun with an ancient vampire priestess about to eat her, but maybe she could get close.
She sat in silence for a while. I was almost convinced that I could also feel the room getting warmer, but like with Sofia, it might have been the wine talking.
“Anything?” I asked.
The candle flared, and the air chilled. I smelled a sweet scent that I didn’t think was the incense, which had been old and slightly insipid.
Something, then.
“Felicity?” Sofia’s voice was quiet, her eyes still closed. I was fairly sure this hadn’t gone terribly wrong yet, but only fairly.
“Still here, babe.” She reached out a hand and Sofia took it cautiously.
“I’m scared.”
I didn’t want my job to involve pushing teenagers into terrifying supernatural experiences, but if she could get a grip on whatever weird magic powers she’d been gifted-slash-cursed with she’d be safer in the long run.
“Keep it together, you’re doing really well.”
“I don’t know—” Her head snapped back and a golden sunlight brightness washed out from somewhere in the region of her heart. The light only lasted a moment but when it was gone the room was bathed in a summer’s-day warmth and Sofia sat across from us with a new, slightly strange confidence.
“Ho. Ly. Shit.” I’d suspected that Flick’s up-to-this-point blasé attitude had come from her not having to actually confront the reality of this kind of thing. It’s easy to shrug off magical crap when it’s described to you, it’s harder when you see it burst out of your friend’s body.
“Ask,” she said—her voice was distant, definitely still Sofia but also … not Sofia. “And be answered.”
“What the fuck just happened?” That was Flick. I hoped we didn’t get a limited number of questions.
“The priestess is a vessel. For power and wisdom. Beyond containing.”
“She’s not a vessel, she’s my friend.”
I nudged her. There was a time for sassing deities, and this wasn’t it. “How do I protect Sofia and everybody else from the Prince of Wands?”
“Trust in the sun. Look to the moon. Search for the sea.”
When would I learn that consulting cryptic prophets never, never helped. “Okay, and—and sorry in advance, Flick, because this is going to sound incredibly fucking out of left field—how do I find the Holy Grail?”
“It has had many keepers. You have known some but not others. The bright one will light your way.”
Perhaps I was getting desperate, but I was starting to think this might be making something perilously close to sense. “All right. Last question. How do I save Elise?”
“At a cost.”
Well that figured.
12
Sofas & Otherwise
The candle died and Sofia slumped in her seat. Flick was on her feet, round the table, and picking her up before I had a chance to say something supportive. Although admittedly that probably said as much about my ability to say nice things as her ability to move quickly.
“Did it work?” asked Sofia. She looked noticeably drained. I hoped that this had been worth it.
“I think so,” I told her. “We got some cryptic information and you went all false dawn again, which is a trick I’m hoping you’ll be able to repeat when Yelena comes around to eat you. Which I’m honestly expecting any time in the next now.”
“I can’t believe my flatmate is a legit prophet.” Flick seemed genuinely slightly starstruck. “Damn, I should have asked you if I’d look good with a lip ring.”
Sofia patted her gently on the cheek. “You know I think you look pretty as you are.”
“I’m not going for pretty, I’m going for hot. It’s completely different.”
I shouldn’t have had an opinion on this one, but there was a definite right answer here. “As a rule,” I said. “Bottom lip: go for it. Top lip: be careful you don’t wind up looking like you’ve forgotten to wipe your nose.”
“I think I might go to bed.” Sofia got to her feet a little unsteadily.