Hold Me Closer, Necromancer - Lish McBride [40]
I looked at Ramon. “Why can’t he stay?”
“Not that friend.” She pointed at the bag. “That one.” Maya smiled at the look of panic on my face. “It’s okay,” she said, “I know what she is. I’d welcome her, but she’ll muddy my reading.”
Dessa picked up the bag.
Maya motioned at her to unzip it. “You understand, dear?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Brooke said.
Maya nodded kindly, and Dessa took Brooke out of the room. Any doubt that I’d had about Maya LaRouche being the real deal completely disintegrated.
Once she came back into the office, Dessa didn’t sit down until her mother nodded at her. More out of respect, I think, than subservience.
“Dessa tells me that you may have a problem that I can help with,” Maya said. Her voice rolled with a hint of an accent that I couldn’t place.
I looked at Ramon. I didn’t know what he’d told Dessa over the phone, or how much I should tell them now. He shrugged at me. I guess he didn’t know how to handle this, either.
Maya followed our back-and-forth with those new-penny eyes, assessing us. “I see,” she said. “Why don’t I do what I do while you boys think it over a little?” She leaned in to refill her tea. “But first, boy, you’re going to have to take off your juju bag. That thing is messing me up as bad as your friend was.”
I blinked at her.
“Your medicine bag. Take it off.”
I reached for it, but hesitated. “How did you know?”
“I’m a seer, boy, not some third-rate carnival psychic, and right now I can’t see anything with your juju blocking me.”
“You can’t?” I pulled my pouch off and set it on the table.
“I’m sorry, I’ve had it forever.” I frowned at the bag, suddenly uncomfortable with it. “I didn’t realize that it actually did anything.”
“Makes you invisible to me is what it does, and probably other things.” She closed her eyes and sat back. I didn’t know what to do, so I took a sip of my tea, which turned out to be chamomile. It’s a little unnerving, being focused on like that. Which made me think that the oh-so-soothing lavender walls, lace curtains, and chamomile tea were strategic. No one likes being dissected.
A few minutes stretched out, filled with the tiny sounds people make when they’re trying to be quiet. I kept my eyes on Maya, examining her face for any hint of what she was thinking. Her brow creased a little and then went flat.
“There you are,” she whispered, mostly to herself, I think. Her eyes opened, and she tilted her head toward me.
“Who bound you, boy?” she asked.
“Huh?” I felt like I’d been saying that a lot recently. My mind seethed with unanswered questions. I hadn’t gotten used to one thing, and now Maya was telling me there was something else? “Does that have anything to do with the dead thing, because—”
“I know you’re a necromancer, Sam,” she said. “That’s not what’s troubling me.”
“It seems to trouble everyone else,” Ramon said.
“Look, Mrs. LaRouche—”
“Maya.”
“Maya, this week’s been full of people who seem to know a lot more about what’s going on than me, and it’s getting old,” I said. “So, if you could just pretend that I have no idea as to what you’re talking about and start over, I would really appreciate it.”
She patted my leg sympathetically and took a sip of her tea. She cradled the cup in her hands, resting them in her lap.
“I know what you are, Sam, because I can see signs of it all around you, and because I’ve seen them before. What I do find strange is that only the outline of your aura is visible. That’s not normal. It’s as if someone has bound you, and all I’m seeing is what’s leaking out.” I opened my mouth, but she stopped me. “It’s exactly what it sounds like, dear. Someone has tied up your magic. A binding is usually done to keep a person from, or from causing, harm.” She frowned at the teacup in her hands. “I’ve never seen it used to harness like this. It’s as if part of you has been locked away.”
Her words echoed in my head. Someone had locked part of me up, and the idea that they might have done it because they thought I was dangerous made the tea heavy in my stomach. You don’t hobble nice beings. I’d always considered