My jaw felt numb for a moment as I thought back. Ari getting sick. Me getting mugged. The elevator.
Clara tossed me a card. Ace of spades. “Grimm, slaughter a few bunnies and ask if magic was involved in any of those ‘accidents’ you’ve been telling me about. Or don’t. You know the answer as well as I do.”
Grimm disappeared and I waited as the minutes ticked by. I took the deck from the table and began to deal cards to myself. Aces, kings, and then queens. Always. I went through the cards and picked out the two of diamonds, then turned it back over. I focused on it while I reached across the table. At the last moment, something pushed my hand. What I came up with was a ten. The best card left in the deck.
“See?” Clara crossed her arms and looked at me like I was a schoolgirl.
Grimm reappeared in the mirror, and he looked worried. Almost afraid, though he’s never afraid.
Clara looked up at him and grinned. “Could’ve saved you a few rabbits. What did you always say? ‘Clara is right.’ So nice to hear that again.”
“Marissa is not responsible for the potion’s failure,” said Grimm.
I waited for him to speak. And waited. And I knew a defense wasn’t coming. “I didn’t do anything,” I said.
Grimm ran his hands through his hair. “My dear, I’ve used enough rabbits to keep Alice in Wonderland for the rest of her life. You have powerful forces acting on your behalf.”
“Grimm, you know how blessings work,” Clara said. “You want her involved when something like this is going down? This is a conjunction. You’re several thousand years old. Act your age for once. Or if that’s too much to ask, act mine.”
I looked at Evangeline, and saw the word didn’t mean anything to her either. I waited until Grimm glanced at me, and I asked, “Conjunction?”
“Something nasty,” said Clara. “Every so often magic goes head-to-head with magic, and the rest of us try to survive. Imagine the world is a silver platter balanced on a ball. Now imagine they’re playing soccer with that ball, and we try to keep the platter from tipping over and killing everyone. Now imagine you are tap dancing around on the platter with a couple of live bowling balls at the same time. Grimm, ditch her.”
“Or you could send her back to the nursing home,” I said, and smiled as a look of anger crossed Clara’s face. “I’ve never let you down before. Say the word, and I’ll go get her walker.” The clock ticked the seconds away, and I began to get nervous. “Grimm?”
He closed his eyes for a moment, like he does when he’s trying to read the auguries. “I’m sorry, Marissa. I’ve pushed you so hard, and asked so much of you, and you’ve always delivered. I asked you to deal with Queen Mihail, so this is my fault as much as anyone’s.”
“And?”
“I think it is time I reevaluated how I use your services.”
I bolted upright in the chair, stiff as a board. “You’ve used my services for six years without complaining. Everything you ask, I do. I do it right, every time.”
“Not every time,” said Evangeline.
“Go get the Root of Lies, and we’ll do this again. I told you what I saw, I did what he told me to, and now you want to sit there and tell me to be more careful?” She looked away.
“And you,” I said, turning on Grimm. “You wanted me to deal with the queen and I did. I have nothing outside of this job. I do nothing but work for you, and I do it well. So don’t send me off somewhere like I’m the latest kid whose parents pawned them off on you.”
Evangeline refused to look at me. Grimm stayed silent for a moment before answering. “Marissa, I know what your life is like. That’s why I’m doing this. I’m taking your company card and removing your access to the Agency. You will not be allowed to work here until I agree you are ready.”
I felt my purse shift and I knew he’d taken the card. “I pay my debts,” I said, rising to my feet. “I may not have magic, and my mother might not have been a djinn’s whore, but I’m the best agent you’ve ever had. Admit it. You ask me to kill an imp, I shoot it till it’s dead. You ask me to climb a beanstalk, I put on my climbing gloves and climb for days. You ask me to break someone’s heart and I do it every time, even if it kills me.”
“Marissa,” Grimm said, “I think it is time for you to leave.”
Tears mixed with white-hot anger. “You can’t kick me out. I have to work. It’s the only way.”
He didn’t answer.
“So how does this work? I leave? You just send me away? I’m the first debt slave to get fired?” I swung out of the chair.
“My dear, you are not fired. I’m changing your assignment to give you time,” said Grimm. “Take Princess Arianna home.”
My jaw was clenched so hard my teeth hurt as my insides roiled. “What if I say no? What are you going to do to me?”
He looked out at me, his lip pursed. “You won’t. We have a bargain.”
“You want to kick me out, at least do it right. Take everything.” I rummaged through my purse, dumped the gun on his desk, and yanked the Agency bracelet off. Finally, I took the vial from my neck and threw it at the mirror, cracking it along the bottom. I walked away. I could lie and tell you I held my head up, but I didn’t.
Ari was sitting in the lobby, which looked a bit emptier than before. Grimm had obviously told her to wait for me.
I kicked her bags as I walked past. “Come on. I’m leaving.”
We got in the car and I drove fast where the traffic let me. I was angry but not suicidal. At the gates of the Avenue, I slammed into the curb and threw the car into park.
“This is as far as I go. Take your bags and walk.” I’d been crying the whole way there, and she’d at least had the good sense not to say anything about it.
Her mouth hung open, and fear crept into her eyes. “I don’t understand.”
“Fairy Godfather said for me to take you home, and I am. Get out. Walk.”
She looked at me again, her face adrift with something between horror and disgust. “I can’t go back.”
“I’ve heard that a dozen times before, princess. Walk in, say ‘I’m home,’ and you’re back.”
She grabbed her bag from the back and stopped. “She’ll kill me.” Ari’s lip began to quiver. Something in her tone said that wasn’t a metaphor.
Ari sat on her bag, staring at the curb. “I ran away from home. I paid Fairy Godfather with every bit of Glitter Father gave me. Fairy Godfather said he would find me a prince. He said everything would work out.”
“He says a lot of things.” It didn’t make sense. I’d spent enough time listening to people lie in this business that I could see it coming. Ari was telling the truth, and Grimm had to know. He’d never send her someplace that wasn’t safe. I thought about Grimm’s words. “That bastard.” I’d never seen a birth certificate, but I’d put money on that being his first name. I knew this was something I’d regret. “Get in the car.”
She tossed her bag into the back and slid into the shotgun seat. “Where are we going?”
“Home. Mine.”
Sixteen
I HATED GRIMM some days. It wasn’t the debt-slave thing, because labor laws made that more like a job than a sentence. It’s because he knew I didn’t like Ari. I’d never been able to stand princesses, with their natural luck and expectations that the world revolved around their rose-scented navels. I waited at the apartment door while she carried her bags up.
She walked into my apartment and wrinkled her nose. “Do you ever open the windows?”
I walked to the living room and pulled at the window shade. “When I moved in I had this idea I would look out the window and watch the stars at night.” The shade finally retracted, showing my fabulous view of a brick wall.