Soul Cage (6 page)

Nona was there as well, seated in her
favorite fan-backed chair. A wicker monster she'd found in a garage
sale and insisted it be brought back to the House for her use. To
Rhonda it looked like a pauper's throne. "Rhonda—are you all right?
You look dreadful."

"I want him arrested and thrown out of
the Society. Now!" she pointed at Jason who turned and looked at
her as if he smelled something bad.

Then he smiled. She could see
Mephistopheles in his eyes, eyes that were now completely
black.

"Oh don't be ridiculous," Nona said
and waved at her to sit on the couch. "Come and relax and listen to
what Darren has to say."

Dags came toward her, stopped at the
coffee table and set his mug down. "Rhonda—"

"Don't you lie to me—"

"Lie about what? I haven't said
anything." He looked hurt. And seeing that look on his face made
her own heart ache. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a
small box. With a glance back at Jason and then one at Nona, he
closed up the distance between them and handed her the box. "I
wanted to get you this."

Rhonda stared down at the little
wrapped package. It was flat, and square. The paper was dark blue
with silver stars, and the ribbon was silver gauze. She took it
with a shaking hand and unwrapped it.

White box, with the logo of Crystal
Blue on the lid. She bit her lip and opened it. Inside, piled into
a corner, was the silver chain and light blue pendant she'd admired
when they'd walked around the small area last month. Before Zoë got
out of the hospital.

He'd remembered it. After all this
time, he'd remembered how much she liked it.

"Sorry if I made you angry, Rhonda,"
he was saying and she looked up at him. "But I wanted to surprise
you with it and I was in the archive and Jason was there and I told
him and well…" he shrugged. "He offered to take me to go get it."
Dags stepped forward and took the necklace from her. He opened it
and placed it around her neck, then stepped back and nestled it
perfectly between her breasts. "See? It looks great on you, just
like you said it would."

"Now, don't you feel like an ass?"
Nona said. "Dags trying to do something nice and you start accusing
people of working against you?" She arched an eyebrow. "Makes you
sound paranoid Rhonda."

She didn't believe them.
But she
wanted
to
believe them. That Dags had only left to get her this. That Jason
had only volunteered to take him out of the kindness of his
heart.

It's bull shit. They're up
to something.

She wanted to kill that voice then.
Destroy it. Put it in the box the necklace came out of and bury
it.

"Now, if you'll excuse us," Azrael
said and Rhonda had forgotten he was there. "I need to talk to
Jason and Nona on another matter."

Dags put a hand on her shoulder and
lead her out of the room. Once in the foyer the door to the sitting
room shut. She glanced back at it. "What're they doing?"

"I don't know. Azrael wouldn't say. I
think it has something to do with Manuel."

Rhonda's heart jumped. Didn't matter.
They weren't going to get far. Revenants were simply too stupid to
see the simplest solution was sometimes the answer.

"Let's go walk in the gardens and
talk," Dags said. "I have some things I need to say."

•••

As soon as the door closed a side
shelf full of books pushed forward and Lucy Mullhaly stepped
through. She was dressed in her teddy bear scrubs and a worried
expression. Nona stood, still dressed from her earlier interview.
"Lucy—this is—"

"Azrael," the lithe woman's eyes
widened when she saw the distinguish man in the suit. There was a
time when Azrael, so often called TC by her daughter, only appeared
in a leather trench and dark shades. But since entering the Throne,
his entire demeanor had changed. Oh she was sure he was still the
same TC Zoë had come to love in her own way, but there was a bit of
polish to him now.

After all, he was in a sense, an
official now.

"Nurse Mullhaly," Azrael said and
offered her his hand.

"Doctor," she corrected and stepped
back. "But it's okay. I usually don't look the part." She
blushed.

"Lucy, what have you learned about
Manuel?" Nona said as Jason came to stand beside her. She reached
out and took his hand. Unlike the trappings of Hollywood and
legend, his hand was warm. And his heart beat strong.

"Every indicator says he's in a coma.
All of his bodily functions are normal. We've hooked up a feeding
tube to keep the body alive, and an I.V… but," she shrugged.
"Umayma, Eriskegal, Sigyn and Dagda are all here—but they can't
reach Morgan." Her gaze slid from Azrael to Jason. "They want
Mephistopheles to join them."

Nona turned to look at her old lover.
He hadn't aged a day since she met him—thirty-odd years ago.
Handsome. Beautiful. Almost Ethereal in every sense of the word.
But where Zoë's real father, who was an Ethereal, was beautiful, he
was also dark and cold. Jason…Abysmal…was full of love. "Go ahead
and follow Lucy down to the infirmary—"

"No," Jason shook his head. "Not
yet."

Lucy protested. "But the
others—"

Jason held up his hand. "Not yet.
Manuel and Morgan are fine with the others there. My presence won't
make a difference. Please," he smiled and his voice changed,
deepened, echoed as Mephistopheles stepped forward. His eyes slid
into solid black. "Do your best and keep Manuel safe. I'll tell
Frejya why."

Lucy nodded. Nona watched the doctor
retreat down the hall and when she turned back to Jason his eyes
were unfocused and she knew the First Born was speaking to Umayma's
First Born, Frejya.

But Azrael wasn't going to wait. He
had a hand on Jason's shoulder. "What are you doing? Don't you care
about our sister?"

Jason's eyes refocused but
Mephistopheles remained in control. "Yes I do. But this isn't the
issue."

"Morgan isn't
there
."

"Morgan and Manuel are the diversion
from something else, Azrael." He smiled at his brother. "If we all
divert our attention toward them, it allows something else to sneak
in. Think about it. There is no reason this should have happened to
Manuel, inside the Society House…"

"Unless," Nona took up the thought.
"Whatever did it is already here."

Mephistopheles/Jason pivoted and
nodded to her. "Exactly. I've asked Nick to look at the House
logs—there's really only a few places in this building that aren't
covered by a camera. Manuel was found in one of these
places?"

Nona nodded.

"And the last thing Morgan said to me
was that Rhonda was angry."

"But," Azrael shook his head. "No
witch—not even one as powerful as Rhonda—has the power to do this
to Revenant. Not unless they're using—" His eyes widened.
"Magic."

Again,
Mephistopheles/Jason nodded. "The spell to destroy us is within
that
Grimoire
.
And she is the only one who has access to its magic. Perhaps she's
found a way to silence a Revenant."

"But if she did," Nona said, her mind
working. "Why didn't she use it on you? Or any of the others? Why
Manuel?"

"I don't know…" he sighed and rubbed
at his chin. "I think it might be that Manuel pushed her too far.
Neither he or Morgan like Rhonda. And given the opportunity, I can
see them backing her into a corner."

"Not a good idea," Azrael said. "She's
probably the most powerful witch I've ever met."

Nona smirked. "You really haven't seen
me work, or Joe."

The Phantasm returned the look. "Joe?
Powerful?"

"Don't count him out yet."

"Yeah well…Rhonda's powerful and just
a little bit insane," Jason said, once again in control. He related
to the two of them the things he and Nick discussed with Dags, and
then described again what he saw when Dags manifested the
sword.

"And the sword had flames," Nona
said.

"Yes."

"That's Abysmal. Could mean Maureen's
trying to exert herself finally."

"Maybe," Jason shivered. "I just can't
see how he can do that, you know? I told him what Rhonda's done.
What she did to him. What she took away from him. And you saw how
he was with her. The woman creeps me the hell out, to quote
Zoë."

Nona could understand Jason's
inability to understand. In fact, Rhonda creeped a lot of people
out lately. "You have to understand, his memories of Rhonda are
more than likely good ones. In cutting out Zoë, she probably cut
out every bad memory of her as well, as least as well
as…she….could…" her expression relaxed as an eyebrow arched
up.

"Nona?" Azrael said.

The answer was right there—given what
Jason described with the sword, and the images Dags had seen. His
commenting about seeing himself with Zoë in his head but not
remembering it. Images of two other women, one younger, one older..
"Could it be that simple?"

Jason and Azrael were in front of her.
"What?" they said in unison.

"Memories. Rumors generated by the
memories of others set this off for him. Dags started seeing
himself with Zoë because Rhonda couldn't cut all of those memories
out and risk destroying some of the best memories of she and Dags
together."

"I'm not following," Jason
said.

She patted his shoulder.
"Zoë and Rhonda got to know Dags because of the Bonville
Grimoire
, but it started
off as an investigation into Shadow People."

"Oh I hate those fuckers. They're like
hobos—" Azrael's eye widened. "I remember that! She wailed the fuck
out of me that night. Shot me all the way back to the
Abysmal."

"And it was also the case that made
Dags into a Guardian. There are good memories there. And I'm going
to sort of tangent out into thinking—that Maureen's using those
memories to reach out and gain a bit of control."

Jason shook his head. "Still lost in
the forest here."

"Dags' memories are pages now, written
words in that book," Azrael said just as Geist showed up beside
him. The entity didn't speak so he continued. "Magic is manifest
inside of Dags. He controls an amalgam of physical, mental and
astral power. Those pages that have memories of that time of Dags'
life would also reference pages of memories he has with
Maureen…"

Jason's eyes widened.
"She's accessing her own pages of the
Grimoire
."

"I knew that girl was smart," Nona
said. "I bet she's accessed maybe one or two memories, which is how
the sword manifested. I'll also bet she's ready to gain more
control next time she has a chance."

"So—how does that happen?" Jason
said.

"Sir," Geist interjected.

"Yes Geist?"

"You told me to alert you the next
time there is a surge of magic."

"Yes?"

Geist paused. "There is a surge of
magic. It is emanating from within this structure."

They all looked at each
other. "The
Grimoire
!" Jason said.

"
That's
how," Nona said and smiled.
"Let's hope she succeeds."

-6-

"I told you she was gonna
pop that sucker open first chance she got! I'm thinking she cracked
him in the head before they even got to her room," Maureen said as
the book illuminated the beach around it. Golden light poured out
in beams like those found in a meadow of a children's tale. The
previously dark hole Maureen had torn in the page was so brightly
lit it hurt to look at it.

They watched as the book's
pages started to flip, then stopped and fell back to where they
were. Several more times the book vibrated and tried to change the
pages and repeated the same direction back to the torn
page.

"I think your little hole
is stopping her from getting to where she wants to go." Alice said.
"And if you're going to chance this, you'd better do it now. If she
is checking the book to see if it got tampered with, then she's
going to think
this
is the tampering—that Jason did this. And you know how much
she already doesn't like Jason."

"Yeah," Maureen looked at
Alice. "I'm not really sure what's going to happen. I mean, I can't
see where it goes."

The older Familiar tilted
her head to the side and winced. "
Now
you're worried about that?
Get
in
there
before she realizes what's hanging the book up."

"But—"

Of all the things Maureen
expected of Alice, shoving her head first into the tear wasn't one
of them. In fact, she figured Alice would try and talk her out of
it. But apparently she was just as tired of being inside this
mental state as Maureen was.