“Talk to you later.” Mikey turned toward the end of the street as Smokey drifted back toward the cemetery. “And don’t worry if you don’t see Mince,” Mikey called over his shoulder. “He’s scared of that woman and admits it freely.”
“Well, congratulations,” I told her as I opened the front door. There was no need to lock it with the ward in place. “You’ve done what no one else has been able to do.”
“Scare your friend?”
“No. Make the neighborhood crime-free. Maybe I can go back to parking Darius’s cars out front again.” The living room was roomier, longer, and equipped with more furniture. The kitchen was a different shape, too, and they’d added a dining room down the hall. A quick look revealed a huge library had taken the place of the rooms at the back of the house, and a stairway led up to the second floor, where the bedrooms had presumably been moved.
I stopped at the back door and looked out the window. The house behind me was gone. Darius had clearly bought out the shotgun-toting neighbor and extended the backyard into his lot, equipped with a training area and a lovely little oasis with what looked like a koi pond.
Shaking my head, I backtracked to the stairs and looked up. Then aimed for the kitchen. I wasn’t in the mood to see the new addition. That sonuvabitch hadn’t mentioned any of this. He hadn’t even hinted. He certainly hadn’t asked.
“They made it bigger.” The Red Prophet put up a gnarled finger from her position by the front door.
“Yeah, no shit.”
“You’ll need the space.”
“Great.” I checked my supplies. A little light—the vampires who came every night and stocked my fridge and pantry, not to mention cleaned my house and did my laundry, clearly hadn’t expected me back. Still, they’d left me with enough staples to get by.
I grabbed the bottle of whiskey.
“Want a drink?” I asked the Red Prophet.
“Sure. Have any Fireball?”
I paused in taking down glasses, then couldn’t help but grin. “Of course.”
After serving us each a generous pour, I brought the glasses over to the same kitchen table I’d had before, some things clearly having survived the rebuild. I fell into one of the chairs, and the Red Prophet sat down opposite me and reached for her glass.
“So,” she said.
“So,” I repeated. “I was supposed to meet with you.”
“Yes. Tomorrow you will finally take me to meet my nemesis. Then we will plan your trip into the Realm.”
I drained my glass, then got up, brought the bottle back to the table, and poured myself a generous refill.
“The Realm?” I asked.
“Yes. Your journey will converge with the Third’s for a time. You need the Second’s help. The Second also needs your help, though he doesn’t realize it yet. The Third cannot finish her quest without you, though they don’t know that yet. You have always been the catalyst.”
“Cool.” I leaned back, learning the new look of home. “You’re definitely a Seer, right?”
“Yes. Definitely. Also, I am becoming something of a ‘crackhead,’ I am told. As I work through all the drugs this new land has to offer, I have been given that label by the people of this neighborhood, though I didn’t much like that strain of cocaine. Still, it’s nice to be remembered.”
“Sure. And you learn things through your craft that you don’t share with others? Because if you told Romulus and Charity all of this, it would probably help them out.”
“I reveal that which needs to be revealed, when it needs to be revealed, so that it will do the most good. If you give away all the answers, no one will learn the lessons of the journey.”
“Yet you told Smokey and Mikey to invest in the stock market?”
“That’s different. They’ve learned all they need to about how hard and unfair life is. I figured it was time they got a payoff, and since this world didn’t intend to settle the debt, I figured I’d step in. I believe they call that insider trading here.”
“No, that’s something else, and it isn’t magical.”
“I learned of this sure bet while checking out some of the backyards in the Garden District. Very pretty, that area of town. It reminds me of a blue version of the Flush. Anyway, someone there will go to prison for the part he has played in tampering with the stock market, but No-Good Mikey and Smokey will just get rich. After a short investigation of their windfall, of course. They’ll hardly be affected. The rewards will be plentiful for their brief time of pain.”
I stared at her for a moment, then couldn’t help laughing. I doubted Mikey would’ve touched anything to do with the stock market if it meant he’d have the cops up in his business. Lessons of the journey, definitely. Mikey would probably never play the stock market again.