Plague Cult by Jenny Schwartz

Author:Jenny Schwartz [Schwartz, Jenny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BluA
Published: 2016-06-26T23:00:00+00:00

“Thank you for the text, last night.” At the diner, Helen greeted Ruth with a kiss to the cheek and sent Shawn a warm smile. Before sending her report to the Collegium, Ruth had sent her mom a quick text, home safe. “Now, what would you like for breakfast?”

“Buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup.” Ruth didn’t even need to think about it.

The kitchen had a quiet breakfast bustle going on. Shawn waited out of the way near the door from front-of-house to the kitchen. “Sounds good. And bacon, please.”

“Ugh.” Ruth wrinkled her nose. “I hate mixing sweet and savory.”

“You always were fussy.” Peggy walked into the kitchen, making a point of how she had to walk around Shawn, and sighing about it.

“Ruth simply knows what she likes,” Helen defended her daughter. “Just like Mason won’t eat his fried eggs if the yolks are broken.”

Peggy took a step back at Helen’s vehemence.

Shawn caught Ruth’s wide-eyed gaze, and grinned faintly. He ambled out to claim a table.

Ruth just hoped he’d choose a table in Erica’s station, not Peggy’s. She patted her mom’s arm.

Helen ceased glaring at her sister-in-law. Apparently, after yesterday, she’d decided to stand up for Ruth more. “Your dad’ll be out some time later this morning. He has a few more things he thinks you—or Shawn—could use at Rose House.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Ruth didn’t need her mom protecting her, but it felt good.

Out front, she found Erica pouring coffee for Shawn. There were dark circles under the woman’s eyes, dark enough that the concealer she’d used failed to hide them. Ruth checked Erica’s aura. It was dim, but not magically-compromised or attacked. It seemed Erica had simply slept badly.

Unlike Ruth, who had slept like a baby in her haunted house. She thanked Erica for the coffee and watched the woman move away to top up other customers’ coffees. “Dad’s going to bring some more stuff, tools or something, to the house this morning,” she said absently.

“I’ll get his opinion on what to use to get the lino up. Whatever they glued it down with is tenacious, but judging by the floorboards in the rest of the house, they’re worth saving, so I don’t want to destroy them.”

“If Dad doesn’t know, he’ll have a friend who does.” Ruth smiled suddenly. “I’d better pop into the supermarket before we go home. I’ll need more cookies for the Duct Tape Club.”

Shawn raised an interrogatory eyebrow.

“It’s what Mom calls Dad’s friends. Any home repairs, and they start showing up, giving opinions on how the job ought to be tackled, and in the end—”

“Duct tape,” he finished.

“Exactly. The temporary fix that endures forever.”

Shawn’s expression lost its laughter and Ruth had to fight the urge to turn around. But when she listened, she could just hear the whisper of Mason’s wheelchair tires and the slow swoosh of the door closing.

“Good morning, cousin. Shawn.” Mason stopped at their table.

Erica had been about to put down their plates of pancakes, and had to detour around him.

“Morning, Mason,” they all chorused.

“I’ll get your order in,” Erica added.

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