Free Firebug by Lish McBride Page A

indication. I briefly considered setting Lock’s hair on fire just to teach him a lesson. There was enough product in there that it would only take a spark. I put my closed fist up by my forehead and pushed my fingers out like an explosion. “Snap, crackle, pop,” I sang softly.
    â€œDon’t you dare.”
    All the fun must have left the situation for Ezra because he was no longer doing his part of the flirting. In fact, he appeared slightly alarmed. “Where are my manners?” He surged out of the booth and damn near shoved me into it. “You guys must be ready to gnaw the leg off a buffalo, am I right?” He laughed a little hysterically. Before I could reply, he’d called over some waiters and told the group that it was, of course, on the house. The last was meant to mollify my companions, but all it did was take me from hot water to molten lava. Now I was going to have to explain why I was getting star treatment in a restaurant that no one at the table had ever been in and that I had tried avoid. Gah. This is why I hate surprises.
    I should have feigned Ebola and stayed home.

4
    F OR S AFETY’S S AKE, H IDE THE C UTLERY
    I MET LOCK and Ezra about a year after I showed up on Cade’s doorstep. That’s the time the Coterie gave me, and it wasn’t out of softheartedness. It wasn’t for mourning purposes either. They wanted my powers to finish developing. You could almost choke on their goodwill, right? Venus showed up at our cabin, all glamour and manicured nails, to tell us how lucky I was to be joining her organization.
    During the conversation, two things became evident. First, my mom hadn’t been exaggerating when she said firebugs are rare. I’ve met a handful during my lifetime, but then again, we wandered all over the fifty states and occasionally had to seek help from other supernaturals. Statistically speaking, we were bound to trip over a few of them. But as Venus sat at our table and shoved her deal down my throat, it clarified for me how valuable I was to her. Venus was the head of the Coterie organization. For her to do this personally was like the president showing up at an army recruitment office in Dingle, Idaho.
    I slouched in my chair and looked at her. Venus’s face was friendly, unlike the stony faces of her guards outside, or the creepy face of her sidekick, who’d been introduced as Owen. She wasn’t taking any chances on losing me by sending henchmen. The way she’d lost my mother. I interrupted her spiel about the benefits of Coterie life (protection, safety, power, and cement shoes for anyone who tries to leave) with a question. Well, it was more of a statement, really.
    â€œYou killed my mother.” I said it matter-of-factly, because everyone there knew it was true. I wanted to get it out into the open air, to test it and see how it felt.
    Venus assessed me with her emotionless eyes. I’ve seen warmer expressions in the eyeballs of carp . I’m not sure what she saw; I certainly wasn’t intimidating at the age of fourteen. Almost fourteen. I was all elbows and knees and big hair, but for whatever reason, she decided to go with the truth.
    â€œYes,” she said simply. “Though her death was not my intention.”
    Nope, just garden-variety kidnapping and enforced-labor. “Still your fault,” I said. The anger in my voice didn’t even touch her. We could have been discussing my shoes or the annual rainfall in Switzerland.
    â€œThat little snafu cost me greatly. I appreciate your saving me the trouble of executing my team by doing so yourself.” Venus pulled out a cigarette in one of those long holders you see in pictures from the 1920s. She placed the stem between her lips and waited only the slimmest of seconds before the tip lit. Behind her, Owen smiled. “Ava, I’m going to cut right to the thick of things, since you seem to be a girl who appreciates honesty. My offer?