Page 91 of A Shade Too Far
I checked my signal. “Hello?”
“It’s not a possibility anymore,” Ryann said curtly.
A slither of unease snaked down my spine. “Why not? Because I said no before?”
“One moment,” she said. There was the sound of footsteps and voices getting fainter. Then I heard birds and the heavy slam of a door.
“You don’t have a car,” I said, totally confused.
“It belongs to the department. I came out here because I didn’t want to be overheard. You’re playing a dangerous game, Miriam.”
I blinked. “What are you talking about?”
Upstairs, Evani yelled about wanting to wear blue shorts, exactly like Sadie. Oh, dear.
“Contacting Saps about the Torquemada Gloves? You’re skirting the line of violating the prime directive.” Ryann had taken a lot of tones with me: ditzy, sad, supportive, but never stern.
I sat down hard. “You’re right and I’m sorry. That honestly didn’t occur to me at the time. I was trying to get information about a relic.”
“A demon-cursed one,” Ryann said.
“How did you even know?”
“We have people who scan all digital mediums for certain keywords.”
I smacked the table, sending pancake crumbs flying. “You spied on my private correspondence?”
“I did my job and made sure that magic remained hidden. Do you know how hard it was to get Lonestars in a foreign country to take care of this without revealing your name?”
Upstairs, Daya’s soothing tone turned more heated. “For the last time, Evani, those shorts are in the wash. You can wear the green ones or a dress.”
I’d have gone up to offer my sympathy if my head wasn’t reeling about this new development. “What did you do to them?”
Ryann made a sound of impatience. “Erased their memories about the gloves.”
Hitting the button for the speaker, I scrambled to check my emails. All correspondence on the matter was gone. I’d spoken to Veronica only a few hours ago. How was this even possible?
“Pink shirt!” Evani wailed.
I glanced at the ceiling. Good lungs on that kid. And no soundproofing between floors.
Naveen told Evani to take a breath and use her words, which resulted in the three-year-old screeching.
Plugging my ear, I jacked the volume up on the phone to better hear Ryann.
“Elizabeta knows someone requested assistance with a ward against demons,” she said. “There’s no reason this gloves incident should get on her radar, but if we push forward with the ward, it increases the likelihood of her finding out what you did. You don’t want her getting involved.”
“Which was exactly what I said from the beginning.” Pacing the length of the kitchen, I gestured in short jabs even though Ryann couldn’t see me. “You and Eli were the ones pushing for her when I explicitly told you that Zev would take care of it. I keep being accused of not knowing what I’m doing, but I was right in this case. I just wasn’t believed.” It was bad enough I was playing catch-up, but how was I supposed to fight against people’s preconceptions that I was clueless?
Ryann was silent.
Naveen marched into the kitchen, a screaming Evani in green shorts and nothing else tucked under his arm like a football. He plopped her down at the plastic kids’ table. “Time out.”
Her tantrum almost drowned out Ryann’s words.
“You still brought those Sapiens into this matter,” the Lonestar said.
“I understand not wanting to start a witch hunt by revealing magic,” I said, moving out onto the porch, “but fuck, Ryann, we live in the real world and lines get messy. The gloves are a real item that were named after a historical figure and Torquemada skinned other victims. Are you positive there were no other resulting demon relics?”
