“What are you doing?” Daniel asked, moving closer and gesturing at the partially opened minivan door.

Riordan hissed and gestured for Daniel to be quiet, trying to listen carefully to Jimmy’s phone conversation. He didn’t see Kent, his whiny sidekick, this time, but that didn’t mean the man or some other member of the group wasn’t around.

Jimmy raised a hand to rub his temples and spoke again. “I know, Gloria. The boss made it clear she’d string me up to replace him for this mistake, except apparently she needs specifically him back. You know more about how the magic miracle thing works than I do.”

Gloria. Riordan had heard that name before, but couldn’t quite place it. He glanced at Daniel and mouthed the name, wondering if Daniel remembered. The ghost’s eyes widened in recognition and he leaned closer to whisper to Riordan, either affected by the habit of hiding or worried that the death mage’s people could hear ghosts. “Gloria? The mother ceremony lady? She’s here?”

It came back to Riordan. That was the woman Kimberlee was going to report to after the weirdness with the creepy cursed women statues. Well, that was someone in the upper level of that cult group who knew about the murders at least. It seemed unlikely to be another Gloria with the death magic link they already had.

“Not her,” Riordan answered Daniel in a whisper, “One of the guys who grabbed us, talking to her on the phone.”

One of the men who killed Daniel. The ghost went pale and whipped around, looking around them until his eyes focused on the man talking on the cellphone. A strange mix of emotions played across his face. Rage, fear, sadness, confusion, helplessness. Riordan instinctively grabbed for his friend to restrain him, but his hand slipped right through his arm with a wash of chill air.

It was enough to grab Daniel’s attention though. The young man turned back to Riordan, loss and grief writ large in his wide eyes. “Don’t do it,” Riordan whispered, “Don’t go after him. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

His words implied a very valid fear of death magic traps, but Riordan knew there were other kinds of hurt. Daniel wasn’t a naturally violent person, but he was under extreme emotional distress at the moment. He might try hurting Jimmy. It would either fail, leaving the ghost feeling helpless and frustrated, or would succeed and be something Daniel couldn’t take back. Revenge wouldn’t bring Daniel back to life, but neither of them could know if there was further Daniel could fall as a ghost. Riordan didn’t want to find out.

The interchange had distracted Riordan and he’d missed some of Jimmy’s words when he started speaking again. He managed to catch, “--check in with Helena and the others. I’m sure one of us will call you again with updates.”

The call ended and Jimmy turned, opening the door to the car he’d been leaning on and reaching inside for something. He hadn’t looked up yet. Riordan quickly closed the van door as quietly as he could, getting off the seat entirely to move into the cargo space where the third seat normally was, keeping low to peer out the back window.

He updated Daniel. “From what I could catch, he’s definitely here looking for me and he’s not alone. Their boss needs me back, probably because I fucked up her spells. He mentioned the name Helena, I think for one of the other searchers.”

“No mention of me?” Daniel asked, voice quiet and tight with stress and worry.

Riordan focused on watching Jimmy through the window, not wanting to look at Daniel. “No. I think the tracking spell told them that only one of us was alive. And the people who chased me when I escaped the tree knew it was the bigger one who was up and walking.”

That was met with silence initially. Jimmy re-emerged from the car with a beverage can of some sort and a ball cap to shade his face. He popped the can before heading into one of the shops near where he was parked. Riordan didn’t have a great angle on the sign, but he thought it said “Auto” at least.

Riordan kept a close eye on that shop’s entrance while he waited. His instincts urged him to go investigate himself, but the same concerns that stopped him from sending Daniel out stopped him as well. The death mage needed him. That meant he shouldn’t be stupid and throw himself into their arms, especially without backup. Especially when backup should be returning momentarily.

It took another minute or two before Mark and Lucinda returned. Mark was happily licking an ice cream cone and holding another dish of ice cream piled high with dark chocolate scoops. Lucinda was empty handed, but Riordan wasn’t sure if that was because she let them assume the dish was for her or if she simply was too good for ice cream.

Lucinda opened her door first while Mark juggled his goodies. She glanced back at Riordan and visibly startled when he wasn’t still seated where they’d left him. Before she could panic much, her sweeping eyes spotted him crouched behind the seats. “What are you doing?” she snapped.

“I saw one of the people who grabbed me,” Riordan informed her calmly, “You should appreciate that I’m still here, waiting for you. He went into that auto shop down the block a few minutes ago. I haven’t seen him come out again yet. I heard part of a phone conversation he was having. He’s here looking for me and he’s not alone.”

That was where Riordan would have sworn, but it said a lot about both Mark and Lucinda that neither was inclined towards that. Mark was too nice and Lucinda too controlled for such an outburst. Instead, Lucinda glanced past Mark towards the auto shop and Mark clearly suppressed the urge to turn and look himself. He began eating his ice cream cone faster, wincing as that brain freeze sensation sank in and then quickly passed. By the time Lucinda moved around to his side of the van, the cone was gone and Mark was licking his fingers clean. He looked mournfully at Riordan’s dish of ice cream and then tucked it in the shadowed foot space in a futile attempt to keep it from melting.

Riordan couldn’t bring himself to care about his wasted comfort food right now. Fear and anger both screamed at him in his head. His logical human side wanted to run, hide, and keep them from getting their hands on him while plotting their downfall. His badger wanted to rip them to shreds with his bare teeth.

“I want to see who else he’s working with,” Riordan declared, “I need to know who the threats are. They shouldn’t recognize you two if you go look, but I want to see too. And we probably don’t have long.”

Lucinda studied him, her thoughts hidden behind her neutral expression. “What’s your animal form?”

Riordan was surprised Norris hadn’t already told them, but animal form was sometimes considered a private thing, given it played into some personality traits. He didn’t hesitate in this situation, “Honey badger.”

“Well, that’s not native around here,” Mark observed. “And it’s too bright out for someone to mistake you for something else if you just wandered off shifted.”

“How heavy are you as one?” Lucinda asked, brushing Mark’s concerns aside as if they didn’t matter.

“Around thirty pounds of pure muscle.”

That seemed to satisfy Lucinda because she started rummaging through her casting satchel. “I can work with that.”

“What’s the plan?” Mark asked, curiously watching what she pulled out.

“Do you have your own kit?” she shot back to him.

“No,” the young apprentice grimaced at that, looking sheepish, “I didn’t think I’d need it.”

“Grab some of the supplies we bought. Check the packages too. I will cover shielding and disguise. You have our offense if needed,” Lucinda ordered, starting to combine some herbs in a little stone bowl. She muttered to herself as she worked, “Sage for warding. Mugwort for illusions. Vervain for balance. Aloe for luck.”

Mark’s attitude was no less hurried as he came around to the trunk of the van. Riordan was already opening the mail packages for the apprentice, wishing he knew how to do what they were doing. The depth of his ignorance showed clearly, because Riordan suspected that he could be at least as effective as this pair if he only knew what any of this stuff meant.

Grabbing the packages from Riordan, Mark started sorting through a collection of small bottles of liquids and baggies of dried or powdered herbs, each carefully labeled. Behind them, Riordan heard the flick of a lighter and then smelled the scent of burning plants, Lucinda chanting softly in a language Riordan didn’t know. Mark pulled his attention back with a quick, “I’ll need the basil and peppercorns, from the earlier shopping.”

Riordan was glad that everything was labeled in the bag from the earlier herb shop as well, even if he theoretically recognized both those things from cooking. He placed both near Mark who had a handful of other herbs nearby. Riordan spotted labels saying Calendula flowers and Cedar leaf before a burst of spiritual energy behind him had Riordan whirling to stare back at Lucinda.

A spirit that looked like some sort of giant octopus filled the space of the van, its tentacles curling and uncurling around the seats and ceiling. As Riordan watched, the colors on its skin morphed rapidly, shifting through shades and textures until it matched the interior of the minivan with surprising accuracy. Lucinda sat in front of it, communicating with a series of carefully orchestrated hand signals and words Riordan didn’t understand.

“Octopi are great at disguise,” Mark whispered, drawing Riordan’s eyes back to the young apprentice briefly. “She’s negotiating to use that aspect of its spiritual form for a specified duration and in a carefully negotiated manner. Some other type of magic would be able to craft the illusion directly. Spirit magic is versatile, but unpredictable if done fast and tedious otherwise.”

“Are you going to be summoning a spirit too?” Riordan asked, his voice just as quiet even as his eyes strayed back to the spirit sitting so close by. The inside of the minivan felt cramped with that inside. Daniel had already slipped out through the walls to give it space, the ghost staring at the octopus with awe in his eyes.

“No,” Mark assured Riordan, “I don’t have the training to try that on my own yet. I’m going to be boosting my own animal form. Frankie said she showed you how to use your animal when spirit walking. This is similar, except overlaid on top of my physical body.”

Riordan wasn’t sure what that would mean or what effects it would have. Hell, he wasn’t even sure what Mark’s animal was. He glanced back down the street at the auto shop and the car still parked in front of it. He knew that they were running out of preparation time. Asking questions and casing places didn’t take terribly long when the answers were a bust.

“Riordan,” Lucinda’s sharp voice snapped his attention back to her. The apprentice summoned him over with a jerk of her head while commanding, “Shift.”

His well of energy still wasn’t full after all he’d been dealing with, but if anything, shifting felt smoother and more natural to Riordan after learning how to mantle his animal in spirit form. In a second, a large grumpy honey badger clambered over the minivan seats, merrily tracking dirt everywhere. Riordan saw Lucinda’s nose wrinkle at him but she didn’t call him on the mess right now. Instead, she completed three more hand signs and gestured at herself and Riordan.

The octopus spirit reached out as she finished. Its tentacle laid itself over Riordan’s back, eliciting a hiss that the octopus ignored, and also over Lucinda. Something magical settled over them both like a strange skin over their spiritual and physical selves. It felt uncomfortably tight for a moment before he forced himself to stop fighting it and the effect snapped into place. The octopus vanished, leaving what appeared to be a bland middle-aged woman and her little fluffy yappy dog.