Dead Jack and the Old Gods by James Aquilone

Author:James Aquilone [Aquilone, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781946346087
Publisher: Homunculus House
Published: 2021-08-11T22:00:00+00:00

25

When Redheads Collide

The bouncer must have sensed that Zara meant business. He didn’t try to stop her when she barged into Finn MacCool’s.

“Where is she?” Zara asked no one in particular.

The bartender shot me a look and then looked up at Zara. She was a good foot taller than most of the patrons, in some cases two feet taller. I shrugged at the barman.

“She’s down the stairs,” I said, and walked toward the door beside the bar.

“That’s the pixie-witch?” asked the bartender, who jumped in front of the door.

“Open the door,” she said, looking straight ahead as if her eyes could burn the door down. The bartender didn’t say a word. He opened it and waved us in.

“Do I need to go?” Herb asked, his eyes darting back and forth. He rubbed his thighs like they were dirty. “I don’t want to be near it any longer. It’s giving me palpitations.”

He didn’t look in any shape to help us. “Sure, Herb, you can hang back. We can take it from here.”

“Thanks, Jack. Good luck. I think I’m going to head over to the Fairy House for a little while.”

I patted him on the back. “It’s going to be okay.”

Someone must have alerted the Queen that we were coming, because the door to the throne was open and one of the guards stood at the entrance. Zara strode in ahead of Oswald and me.

The Queen still sat at her throne. She gave us all a queer look as we entered. She seemed slightly amused but a bit interested in Zara, who was fuming.

The guard from the door took up position between Zara and the Queen, which was a good idea. The second guard stood beside Dana.

She waited for Zara to speak. She didn’t wait too long.

“You’re not getting my hammer,” Zara said.

The Queen smiled, raised an eyebrow. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Zara. Even before you started turning up in the tabloids. You’ve made quite a name for yourself. You and your hammer.”

“It’s gone.” Zara pivoted and showed the leprechaun queen the blank spot on her arm. “And if it wasn’t, you still wouldn’t have gotten it.”

Dana grimaced. “What happened to it?”

“I tried to destroy that stupid book and it was my hammer that got destroyed.”

The Queen laughed. I watched Zara’s face. It burned. I had to cool things off. “We’re out of options, Your Majesty. The IDBs are the only ones who can help us or we’ll all turn to dust like Zara’s hammer.”

“You people aren’t very smart, are you?” the Queen said. “It’s a shame about the hammer. I could have put it to good use.”

“My hammer isn’t the only tattoo I have,” Zara said. “I can put a few of them to good use right now. Have you ever seen the trauma a katana can do to a person? It’s not pretty.”

The Queen laughed again, but this time there was more joy in it. She ran her eyes over Zara. “You have some interesting body art, Zara. Are those Enochian symbols?” She pointed to Zara’s left forearm.

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