I stared at the spot where Laveau had been. Demonic creatures skippered away, abandoned here in the mortal realm by the closing of the Hellmouth. It could’ve been far worse, but there were still many loosed upon Earth to terrorize this area and beyond. Enough future work to keep a Black Badge busy for centuries.

  I’d known Laveau was powerful. Being able to singlehandedly close a Hellmouth put things in perspective. Living in a city and serving as little more than a healer was far below her talents. She could’ve owned the entire place with such ability. And now none of her city would ever know what she’d sacrificed to save them from a complete demonic invasion, though I think that’s how she’d have wanted it.

  Timp neighed and nudged me with her snout. I must not have noticed a few times, because she was insistent. Downright irritated, honestly.

  “Rosa,” I remembered. I checked her again, and her state hadn’t changed. I patted her cheek. “Rosa, wake up.”

  “Crowley.”

  I whipped around. Judas and Chapelwaite stood side by side, watching, the former’s black robes billowing.

  “Can you help her?” I asked Judas.

  “Traveling between realms is not a task meant for mortals,” he replied.

  “I didn’t ask that. Can. You. Help. Her?” Each word was punctuated with half the urgency I felt inside, but I was tired, and my undead heart had suffered as much strain as it could handle.

  “Perhaps,” he said after long contemplation.

  “Will you?”

  The corner of his mouth rose in what I might’ve called a wicked sneer. “That, James Crowley, is the right question. And one I cannot answer here.”

  I got right in his face. “She’s hanging on by a thread, you son of a bitch. Where else?”

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  “Someplace safer than a swamp surrounded by demonkin. Do you think this went unheard? Mortal officers will be on their way, if they aren’t already. Soldiers next. Anonymity is my peoples’ resource.”

  “More than her life?”

  “More than any life. You are not in a position to argue. But, you did deliver Tourmaline’s unworthy heart.” He touched his own chest, the self-righteous son of a gun. “And so, our affairs are not concluded. I did not place myself in Chekoketh’s crosshairs for nothing.”

  I swallowed, then spit off to the side. “You know him well?”

  “I know them all, on both sides of their veiled war. Now come, we will go someplace only the dead can hear.”

  He pulled his hood up over his head, the only part of him not already protected from the sunlight by heavy robes. Thick as the fog was here, and with the canopy of trees above, he was safe from it, but once we entered the city…

  I had to wonder if he was less concerned about human lawmen, and just worried about the sun, like Tourmaline. Too proud or whatever to admit to how great a weakness he carried. Either way, it didn’t seem like I had much of a choice—again. So, I followed him.

  Chapelwaite gave me a slap on the back. “Trouble clings to you like shit on a stick, Crowley.”

  “Yeah,” I grumbled. “Sure does.”

  I took Timp’s reins in one hand and walked her. The other I placed on the small of Rosa’s back. She kept breathing, which meant there was still time. But, as we started off, I couldn’t ignore my predicament.

  Judas practically floated in front of me, unafraid. An easy target. I could stab him in the back with my silver knife since I was all out of ammo. I could wait until we hit sunlight and rip his hood down. Fulfill my promise to Shar.

  Only, I couldn’t yet. Not with Rosa’s life hanging so precariously in the balance. Luckily, Judas being so close kept my actions hidden from curious angels.

  And I suppose Judas was aware of all that. It explained his leisurely pace, like we were in an old English Garden and not some frost-bitten swampland now infested by demonic beings as much as mosquitos.

  I heard a hiss and looked down. Timp sidestepped and stomped. I held her back. Damballah lay on top of a fallen tree-trunk, gazing up at me.

  “You did good, snake,” I said.

  It rose, half its body upright and swaying. She tilted her head.

  “I’ll miss her too.” I looked around. “Might make a better home for you out here, though. You can find a mate.”

  She hissed again.

  “I’m sorry.”

  I stepped over the log and clicked my tongue to get Timp moving again. Damballah slithered down the trunk and followed along beside me.

  “Alright. I guess you’re coming too, then.”

  A grumpy old horse, a house-trained snake, and a Black Badge… We were one odd fellow away from forming our own circus.