Free Switchblade Goddess by Lucy A. Snyder Page A

be—”
    “—Sara, our fearless acting mayor,” Poppy finished.
    Sara blinked, looking puzzled. A couple of her cats were starting to fluff up their fur, hackles and paws raised in wary confusion. “Yes, that’s me.”
    “Wonderful!” the sisters exclaimed simultaneously.
    “We’ve been meaning to have a little chat with you,” said Callie.
    “Over tea, and they’ve got a lovely pot of orange pekoe brewing in the sunroom,” said Poppy. “Just waiting for us.”
    “What did you want to chat about?” Sara asked, sounding suspicious.
    “The city’s almost free—” said Callie.
    “—and then the Regnum will be here—” said Poppy.
    “—and if we don’t have a plan for reconstruction—”
    “—they’ll surely give us one—”
    “—so if we want them keeping their pointy noses—”
    “—out of our local business—”
    “—we need a proposal for rebuilding—”
    “—and restoring city services—”
    “—and suchlike things,” finished Callie.
    Sara blinked. “Well, as acting mayor, all that
is
my job, I think …”
    “Wonderful!” the sisters exclaimed, and before Sara could protest they’d swept her away toward thesunroom in a flutter of true-blue sleeves and municipal chatter as the nonplussed devil kitties hurried to catch up.
    “Their kung fu is strong,” I whispered to Pal. “Do you think they’ll get her off the crazy train?”
    Pal shrugged, or at least made a passable effort at it considering he didn’t really have any shoulders. “I believe they’ll make a heroic attempt, at any rate.”
    He peered into the dining room. “Shall we go to the breakfast line? I think I smell ham. Perhaps you can’t eat, but I need my last meal if you expect me to fly to certain doom this morning.”

chapter
ten
Frittata con Gaga
    T he cooking Talents had worked a bit of magic with the dwindling kitchen ingredients, and they had savory black bean frittatas and flapjacks warming over Sterno cans in steel hotel pans at the buffet. And, as Pal’s sharp nose had detected, some fried slices of canned ham dressed up with a maple glaze. We filled our plates and found an unoccupied table.
    The two extra empty chairs at our breakfasting spot acutely reminded me of Cooper and the Warlock. Were they okay? Was Mother Karen okay? Feeling a fresh surge of anxiety, I pushed my plate aside and pulled my brother’s compact out of the pocket of my dragonskin pants.
    I opened the mirror and peered into the silver. “Devil in a black dress.”
    It took Randall a few moments to answer. His blond hair was mussed and his hazel eyes bloodshot, as if he hadn’t slept at all that night. Behind him, I saw a hand-painted scarlet and gray birdhouse hanging in the branches of a buckeye tree; he was in Mother Karen’s front yard.
    He smiled brightly at me just the same. “Hey, sis, how you feeling?”
    “Feeling fine, thanks to your potion … but how are you guys doing? What’s going on?”
    “Well,” he replied slowly. “The kid let Cooper and the Warlock into the castle, but they haven’t come back out yet.”
    “Do you know what’s happening in there?”
    He shook his head. “No clue, really. It’s been quiet. Mostly I’ve been helping the others keep up an illusion so the mundane neighbors don’t see what’s happened here; the kid keeps interfering with it for some reason, so we have to keep redoing the spell.”
    “What others?” I felt another pang of anxiety, wondering if the Regnum authorities had gotten involved in the situation. What would happen then? My heart began to pound as I imagined the authorities arresting Cooper and the Warlock to force me to surrender.
    “So far there have been some people from the local governing circle. One lady, I guess the head honcha, Riviera Borden—”
    “—Jordan,” I corrected, feeling a bit of relief. I still wasn’t convinced she was on our side, but I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and think she wasn’t our