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She didn’t answer, but I felt a palpable sense of endary blues musician Muddy Waters would say, E A trickle of ice water ran the length ofry "Seriously?"

She glanced across the restaurant at Sinclair, as ive you a aze returned tolittle town here It doesn’t need my brother and neither do you"

Her ultiave me only a split second to decide whether to respond in public and make a scene or suck it up and deal with it later I chose option nu to my feet so fast it startled Sinclair

"Daisy? You okay?" he asked

"Yeah, fine I, u to rinse it out"

I got halfway to the bathroo with the effort to control it I turned the cold water tap on full blast, leaning over the sink and splashing ot a nice little town here Be a sha happened to it

Jesus! Seriously? I ent in Pemkowet Emmeline had insulted me to my face, then demanded that I help her drive Sinclair out of town That took a hell of a lot of nerve Or stupidity

But what exactly could I do about it? She hadn’t made an explicit threat She hadn’t broken any mundane laws and she wasn’t in violation of Hel’s rule of order At least not yet, anyway

What I could do was talk to Sinclair, which I fully intended to do But not here, not now What I wanted to do was ventdown on our heads if that’s what it took The old pipes in the bathrooan to rattle

Uh-oh

I took a deep, tre out of the tap, swirling down the drain, willing it to carry ht I had lanced up into the mirror--

--into a sea of flames

Double uh-oh

That h for or’s face swa into hter His voice echoed inside my skull, deep and amused and, weirdly, alripped the edges of the sink, shaking my head "No! Go away!"

The bathroom door opened "Are you okay, honey?" a woly on the back "Had a little too o of the sink and straightened It was one of the frureen with sunflowers on it, and she had kind eyes

"I’ a peek at thebut my reflection "Thank you I just--"

My sentence trailed off into nothing, because I wasn’t sure what to say I justwhat? Needed a minute to collect myself because my boyfriend’s secret twin sister had threatened me with obeah? Because I had accidentally invoked the specter of or?

Fortunately, it didn’t seem toas you’re okay"

I turned off the tap "Thank you I appreciate it"

"Don’t ave ot to take care of one another, honey"

Her kindness gavetendrils of my temper under control and venture back out into the bar to face the prospect ofpolite conversation with my boyfriend and his twin sister, who I wished had stayed a secret but as apparently le" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>