The buses were up and running again. The city had worked hard to clear the snow. I thought I saw non-uniformed people lining up with their shovels and helping out. I heard a couple of them talk about how the new mayor was paying regular people to clean the streets. If I weren’t caught up in this whole ordeal, I would have done the same, I think. We New Yorkers are a tough breed, and cleaning snow for a couple of bucks is an age-old tradition that aligns perfectly with the city hustler mentality.
Mina and I waited by the bus stop, shivering. Well, I was shivering. I think Mina had some workings inscribed into her clothes to keep her from feeling the worst of the cold. Or her expensive jacket actually worked. Maybe money can buy happiness after all. Well, at least warmth. Don’t even get me started on electricity and gas bills in New York.
“You’re sure she heard you?” Mina asked. She rubbed her hands, more out of nervous habit than the need to feel warmth.
“Mina, you were right there. Yes, she heard me,” I said with as much confidence as I could muster.
She jerked a shoulder, strapping the kendo bag, which contained her staff, higher up. “I saw you scream at a pigeon. Then people stared.”
I sighed and shared a look with Wol. He gave a sad little meow. Normally, he’d step in to explain on my behalf, but the black cat seemed tired somehow. There seemed to be a little less luster to his fur, with dull flecks around his usually bright eyes. Powering two powerful workings in the slums was coming back to hit him. And since Wol was the one powering a lot of those workings, it made sense that he was more tired than usual.
Hwari didn’t even bother rising out of the shadows.
I was feeling it too. As I predicted, my leg was hurting something fierce. The burns on my right arm felt a little better than before, but I knew raw touch would hurt to the bone.
“She heard,” I said, mustering up what little energy I had. “That’s her whole thing. Having eyes and ears everywhere. Have you ever watched The Lord of the Rings? Imagine the bad guy, with like a bajillion more eyes.”
She ignored the reference. “Okay. And you think she’ll help?”
I nodded absently. “I think so. She’s… kind of been nice to me. I think she wants me to owe her a favor or two so that she can cash it in for the future.” I felt around my back pocket, feeling the warmth of the knife there. It pulsed steadily. Even though I wouldn’t ever lose it, I caught myself checking, just in case I did.
“Do you know who she’ll send?”
Mina was starting to get on my nerves with the questions. “No.”
She swore in Korean. “We’re way too out in the open. Can we find somewhere else to meet up?”
I looked at her. “We’re in New York. Unless you want to go back in there, there’s nowhere else to really hide. Besides, all the people who were shoveling snow are gone now. There are barely any cars around. What’s up with you?”
“Nothing,” Mina folded her arms. “Just don’t want anyone seeing us together, that’s all.” She stopped, realizing what she had just said.
“What? You’re embarrassed to be seen with me?” I asked half jokingly.
She went silent.
Honestly, it wasn’t a big deal to me. Yeah, I liked Mina. Not like like her. But just like her as a person. Yes, she was kind of a bitch to me at first. But I felt like she didn’t have a bad heart. Probably just a mean streak stemming from… awkwardness? Lack of socialization? I couldn’t exactly see ‘classically trained Society practitioners’ sitting in a classroom full of regular people and being all buddy-buddy with them. Either way, she had stuck with me when I burned the school down. And that counted for something.
Mina suddenly spoke up. “It’s not you. It’s me.”
Whoa. “Uh, are you breaking up with me?” I asked.
She sighed, her gaze still on the floor, and kicked at some of the snow. “It’s not you I’m embarrassed to be seen with, Hallow. It’s whoever you might have called for help.”
“We don’t even know who it is that’s showing up yet,” I said.
“Yes, but whoever it will be, it won’t be someone that Society approves of. That my harabeoji or family approves of,” Mina said. Seoul gave a little whine, looking up at her.
I thought for a moment and turned to face her, leaning my back against the bus signpost to take some weight off my broken ankle. “You kept talking about that. How Society Practitioners don’t make deals with Yokocho the way I did. You talked really poorly about Rosefinch Valstein, too.”
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“As a general rule, we don’t like it when practitioners fraternize with creatures like them.”
“Fraternize? What is this, the Jim Crow laws?”
Mina stared at the ground some more, then nodded slowly. “I’m not going to give you a magic lesson, Hallow. But the way the world is shaped, the emotions and thoughts, they’re all connected to some degree. When hatred lingers in the air, it shapes our practice. Our thoughts, opinions—they all show up in one way or another. As much as we can bend the rules of the universe in our favor, it doesn’t mean we’re exempt. At least, that’s what most practitioners believe.”
I held up a hand. “Hold up. It sounds like you’re alluding to something like how if practitioners believe they’re superior to other preternaturals, it will give them an edge in their practice when facing off against them. Is that it?”
She glanced up and gave me a quick nod. “Yeah.”
“That’s…” I inhaled slowly. “…Okay. It has some merit. So what? You’re afraid that your practice will lose power by hanging around with preternaturals too much and start seeing them as equals?”
“Only boomers like my harabeoji believe that,” she said, scowling.
Wow, that was the first time I heard her say anything remotely negative about Grandpa Baek.
She continued. “I’m just laying it out, why there are these arbitrary laws against making deals with exiled bakeneko. Why we don’t like it when practitioners work too close to bloodsuckers. Prejudice aside, if there is an ounce of truth in that theory, it makes sense to be prepared, doesn’t it?”
“I get that,” I said. “But I feel like there’s more to magic. Laws. Principals. Yes, they’re affected by your mind, but your belief in the rules can’t completely discount them. For example, if there’s a sacrifice needed in a ritual, you can’t just go and trick yourself into thinking there is no payment required. Payment must be made. That’s a contract, a promise.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You’ve been studying. Again, not going to get into arguing about arcane theorem with you.”
I didn’t answer that, opting for a one-shoulder shrug. “From where I’m standing, it kind of looks like you don’t want to be seen hanging out with preternaturals that other Society Practitioners believe to be lesser. Like ‘bloodsuckers’, for example.” I made air quotes with my hand.
“Bloodsuckers are the last type of preternatural you want to team up with,” Mina spat. Literally. “Kang-shi, vampyrs, true-blood vampries, dhamphyrs… Look, the point is, I’m worried about who you’re bringing on board with us. Unlike you, Hallow, I have a reputation to keep.” She threw up her hands. “Whatever’s left of it.”
“Aren’t you literally tagging along hoping to make connections?”
“With table members, not these two-bit nobodies like the bakeneko.”
“Uh-huh. And where’d you send him off to? I noticed you whispered in his ear right before we followed Sana into the cafe.”
“To find the scum who grabbed my arm,” Mina said. “My point still stands. I came here to make connections with those that matter. I feel like whoever you’re bringing on isn’t exactly going to be the upstanding kind.”
“In for a penny, in for a pound,” I sang off-key. “Okay, if you’re that worried about being seen by your friends, we can wait inside that cafe over there. But you’re going to have to buy, because I don’t have any money.”
She stared at me. “What kind of practitioner doesn’t have money?”
“The one who can’t afford heating in a one-bedroom apartment in New York City, that’s who. Besides, have you checked out coffee prices lately? Might as well guzzle gasoline, though the way things are looking, people might invent coffee-run cars before long.”
Mina rolled her eyes. “C’mon then.”
We walked inside the nearby coffee store, and Mina ordered us a cup of coffee each. I also took the liberty of ordering a donut for myself. We sat near the window to keep an eye out. While we were waiting, the sun began to wane over the horizon, once more signaling the end of daylight and the beginning of something darker. I shuddered, feeling the tattoo on my left wrist itch. It was reacting with the winter night, growing with it. I could feel the cold pulsating from it, a stark contrast with the burns on my right arm, which ached with demonic memories.
I really needed to stop getting demonic influences into my body. Both physical and otherwise.
While I was watching the sun set, a limo pulled around the corner.
“Oh shit, that’s our help,” I said.
Mina frowned. “A limo?”
“Come on,” I said and stood up. Wol complained sleepily as I hoisted him and the backpack onto my shoulder. He really was tired. He was taking a catnap.
Haha. Get it? Cause he’s a cat?
Mina followed me out onto the curb where the Limo had parked. There was a barrier of snow between us, and the limo had found a spot where foot traffic had created a break in the ice wall. The window rolled down, and the hot goth baddie gave me a sly wave.
“Jain Shin Hallow,” Abigail said. “I heard you were recruiting.”
“Hey,” I said. I think I was smiling. Maybe I missed her or something. I don’t know. “Assad or Intellect Transit?”
“Favor from the Intellect Transit to Assad,” Abigail said. “The usual.”
“The usual,” I said. I peered through the window. “Just you?”
“For now,” Abigail said. “Will you be making introductions?”
“Oh. Abigail, this is Mina. Mina, this is—”
“Hallow, what the fuck is that?” Mina said, her words dripping with venom.
“Uh…” I slowly turned around.
I could sense the magic rolling off of Mina. By now, I was able to recognize when someone was trying to do an actual spell, or ritual, or activating a pre-built working. But that wasn’t what Mina was doing. The energy around her floated without following a particular pattern or rhyme. She was just using her Third Eye, the same way I did a lot of times.
I thought back to the time I used my own Third Eye on Abigail, recalling the amalgam of different creatures that rolled off of her aura like branches of a tree. That was what Mina was probably seeing.
“Mina, can we not do this right now?” I muttered.
“Do you even know what that is?” Mina snapped.
“She’s a friend. She helped me out. Saved my life, actually. We can trust her,” I said, my voice growing in volume.
“That’s not what I asked, Hallow. I asked if you even know what that thing is.”
“Is now really the best time to do this?”
Mina stared at me, her hands paused right on the zipper of her kendo bag to take out her staff. “You don’t even know, do you?”
“Look, does it matter? She’s a friend of mine. If that’s not enough for you, she works for Assad Xiaozhi Paris, a foot-fetishist Arabian vampire who’s part of the Table. You wanted to go networking? Well, she’s your best shot.”
Abigail stayed quiet.
Mina took her hands off the kendo bag and jabbed a finger in Abigail’s direction. “You don’t touch me. You don’t talk to me. You don’t breathe near me. Got it, detritus?”
“…Understood, practitioner,” Abigail said in a quiet voice.
What the fuck?
Before I could react, Mina rounded the back of the limo and entered through the other door.
Abigail gave me a mournful look before opening the door for me.