“Is that thing real?” I shouted to Mac over the noise. I knew it couldn’t be, but it looked so lifelike, I had to ask.
“Yeah,” she shouted. “Totally real!”
“Yikes.” It defied the laws of science. But then, I’d entered a world of magic.
“Yeah, don’t fall in. Someone dies at one of these parties at least once a year. Usually a drunken idiot.”
Given the number of people dancing super-close to the river of lava that flowed through the room, I wasn’t surprised. “This would never happen in the real world.”
“The real world doesn’t have magic out in the open like this,” Mac said. “But then again, the Council of Guilds really doesn’t like that the witches do this, either.”
“How do they get away with it if the government doesn’t like it? I know they’ve got sway with the Council, but this seems over the top.”
Mac turned to me and raised her brows. “Can’t you guess?”
Of course. “The Devil of Darkvale.”
“Exactly. He either uses his mind control power or threatens them.”
I remembered the icy feeling of him. “My money is on threats.”
“Mine, too.” Mac turned back and kept pushing her way through the crowd.
We entered a Mardi Gras–themed room, complete with two massive floats and people on stilts. I squinted up at the performers towering over the chamber, admiring their feathery costumes in purple, yellow, and green. Gradually, it dawned on me that they weren’t on stilts.
They were floating.
Man, I hadn’t even had a drink yet.
In the next room, Mac muttered, “Bingo.”
The room was themed like the moon, with rocky ground and dark walls. Gravity seemed to lessen here, and my steps were so light that I could bounce across the ground. “Holy crap, this is amazing!”
“Right?” Mac grinned back at me. “They’ve always got a low-gravity room like this at their parties. Last year, it was undersea themed.”
“Nice.”
“This way.” She pulled me toward a table in the corner of the room against the wall. It was fairly normal looking, and I had a feeling it was here even when the room wasn’t decorated and ensorcelled for the party. A bust of a regal woman sat on top of it, her patrician features staring in disapproval at the crowd.
“Who is that?” I asked.
“Hecate, one of their premier goddesses. I think they worship her or something.” Mac pulled a vial of potion from her pocket and dumped it on Hecate’s head.
The statue glowed briefly, then returned to normal.
“What was that for?” I asked.
“Every time I gate-crash a party, I play a prank on them. Then they play one back on me.”
“What will happen?”
“When I say the magic words, Hecate here will start screeching, and she won’t quit until they turn her off.” She grinned widely. “It’s fun for me, but it’s also insurance.”
“What kind?”
“The only way to shut her up is to get the password from me. If we get into a pickle breaking into your morgue, I say the magic words, and Hecate starts howling. When the witches call me, I’ll demand their help in exchange for the password.”
“Oh, genius.” I held up my hand for a high five, and she smacked it.
“Come on,” she said, “let’s go find them.”
9
Carrow
We bounced our way through the moon room and entered a tiki-themed space. A massive pool sat in the middle, and palm trees grew around the glittering blue water. There were half a dozen people in the pool, all standing around a floating table. Each end of the table had about a dozen red plastic cups sitting on it, each emitting colorful smoke.
Two women stood at either end of the table, tossing ping-pong balls at one another. When one of them landed a ball in her opponent’s cup, the other woman had to drink.
“Holy crap.” I leaned toward Mac. “Are they playing beer pong?”
“Potion pong. Much more dangerous.”
The dark-haired woman on the left side of the table had green stripes through her hair and a bikini that glittered like black diamonds. She swigged back a cup of potion, then put it on the floating table. She grinned and shouted to the other woman, “That’s all you’ve got?”
The blonde woman at the other side laughed. “Oh, just you wait, Coraline.”
A half second later, Coraline grew a brilliant orange beak. Her masquerade mask shifted, and she chucked it off as she squawked loudly. It sounded something like, “Bitch!”
The blonde woman laughed like a loon.
“That’s Mary,” Mac whispered.
Coraline, still sporting her massive beak, picked up one of the small white balls and threw it at Mary’s cup. It landed, and Mary grabbed it and slurped it back.
She shot out of the water, propelled by an unseen force, and landed in the top of one of the palm trees growing from the hardwood floor. She laughed hysterically, then jumped into the pool with an enormous splash, upsetting the beer pong table. The colorful potions in the red cups spilled into the water, sending purple and pink and green streaks bleeding outward.
Coraline’s beak had disappeared, and she shouted. “Hey! No fair! I had some good potions there!”
Mary surfaced, her hair wet. “It’s cool. We’ll set them up again.”
Coraline scowled at her. “You’re ignoring the point.”
Mary was about to respond, but her gaze landed on us. A huge smile lit up her face, and a shiver of unease went through me. It wasn’t an entirely friendly smile, and when I looked at Mac, I realized that she had the same expression.
They were friends, but…
It was kind of a murdery friendship.
Mary waded over and hopped out of the pool. Her swimsuit was ridiculous, bright yellow with sopping yellow feathers and an eye over each breast. She was dressed like a slutty Big Bird, and I choked back a laugh.
“Mac! Have you pranked us?” she asked.
“You better believe it.” Mac grinned. “But we need some help.”
Mary crossed her arms over her chest and raised one eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Yeah.” She nudged me. “My friend here can read the future and the past through objects. She’ll trade you that for—”
“Nope!” Mary held up a hand. “She’s got to play us in potion pong first, and if she survives, we can negotiate.”
“Survives?” I asked.
Mary nodded. “We don’t do business with just anyone.”
“That’s not true,” Mac said. “You guys have basically no standards.”
“Ha! We have weird standards, not no standards.” She gave me a look up and down. “And I can tell this one is trouble. Her aura screams it. So she’s got to earn an audience.”
“I can do it,” I said. “In the pool?”
“Yeah.” Mary grinned. “In a suit?”
“I don’t have one.”
“You do now.” She waved her hands at me, and my glittery slum queen outfit disappeared, replaced by a bikini that was blue and fluffy.
I was the Cookie Monster.
Fantastic.
I touched the chain around my neck. At least I still had the truth serum.
“Come on.” Mary hopped back in the water.
I looked at Mac.
“Good luck,” she said. “If you can avoid drinking the potions, I would. If not…well, good luck.”
“I’m going to grow a beak, aren’t I?”
“You’ll wish.” She shook her head. “I think this will be a little tougher. Just try to keep your wits about you.”
“Got it.”
I strode toward the pool, watching as Mary and Coraline set up the potion pong table.
Coraline looked me up and down, studying me intensely from behind her pink mask. “I’ve hooked you up with some of my potions to make this fair.”
“Thank you.” I climbed into the water. It sparkled and bubbled against my skin. Colors swirled through it, and every time I walked through a cloud of pink or purple, the water seemed to tingle strangely.
The crowd cheered as I stepped up to the potion pong table.
A brief image of my lonely, lame flat flashed in my mind, along with the memory of how everyone in the London police force thought I was loony.
How the hell had my life changed so much?
Whatever, I was going to enjoy it.
As much as I could, at least. Mary’s smile was making me uneasy. She looked like a cat who was about to play with a mouse…in a way that punctured a few of the mouse’s vital organs.
I looked down at the red plastic cups full of potions. There were fifteen in front of me, all lined up to form a triangle. A ping-pong ball sat nestled against one of the cups, about to roll off the rocking table and into the water. I picked it up.
“I’ll let you go first,” Mary said.
“Get ready to have your ass kicked.”
Mary laughed, sounding slightly crazed.
Oh, she was definitely getting her ass kicked. I aimed my ball and threw it, holding my breath as it sailed through the air and landed in one of her cups.
She groaned and tilted her head back, then picked up the potion and drank it.
Immediately, her head shrank to half its size, and she screeched, the noise much higher pitched than it would normally be. “Coraline, you bitch!”
I laughed, and the sound drew Mary’s attention. Despite her tiny head, I could see the murder in her eyes, and it was enough to shut me up. She squinted her little eyes and tossed the ball. It sailed through the air, landing in a cup full of gleaming black liquid.
Shit.
“Drink up!” Mary shouted.
I picked up the cup and fished out the ball, then slugged the potion back. It slithered down my throat, and I nearly gagged. The taste was a combo of old shoes and gummy bears, and I was damned certain I’d never eat another gummy bear ever again.