Nope.
Ally was staring at her, mouth open, eyes wide. “No.”
“Yup.” She was still chuckling at their reaction. “Found the phylactery as we agreed.” She opened her arms wide to gesture at herself. “Tah-dah.”
“But—no—what—how—why?” Ally went through all the words without putting them together, shaking her head in confusion.
Okay, it shouldn’t be as funny as it was. Her life—correction, freedom—was at stake. They had snipers on the roofs and probably a dozen other operatives in the Order nearby ready to swoop in and shove her into the trunk of a car. She shouldn’t be sitting here laughing, enjoying watching the two holy soldiers grapple with her reality.
She supposed it was kind of fun to see somebody else put the pieces together for a change. “The how, I don’t still quite know the specifics. Simply that he shoved his soul in my body and turned me into his phylactery. Our souls are tangled up together now, indistinguishable from each other. That was why he was so desperate to ‘fix his phylactery.’ If I died one more time, my mind would have shattered, and I’d be in a coma. I think that would have been too much for him to deal with for eternity. He’d have destroyed me out of pity, and that would have taken him out.”
The two priests sat there, staring at her in silence now, trying to wrap their heads around the reality of her existence. She shrugged and continued to talk. There was no harm in telling them. “As for the why? I guess it’s jumping to the end of the story I owe you over vodka, Ally, but here you go. In—shit, I don’t even know the year. 1560? 1560-something? I jumped to my death after learning about everything he did to me. He was desperate to keep me alive. He didn’t want to be in love with one of his revenants. So…he did the only thing he could think of.” She made a click with her tongue and pointed at herself with her thumb.
Silence.
Ally spoke first.
“Holy shit.”
Maggie cackled again, unable to help it. She really, really liked the two soldiers. Even if they were going to cause her serious problems in short order. “About sums it up, yeah.”
Rinnie furrowed his brow and frowned, staring at her as if trying to fill in the gaps himself. “And you’re here alone. He just let you go?”
“I’ve been his prisoner for over four hundred years. It was trying to keep me leashed to him that got us into this mess. I think he finally learned his lesson. He’s…giving me space. It’s not like I can ever really be free of him. See previous comment about our souls.” The humor left her as the familiar sadness of the topic of Gideon came back to her.
“Do you…want to be free of him?” Ally asked, once more wary, as she knew she was asking a really sensitive question.
She took a moment to think about her answer. “I honestly don’t know.” She shook her head. “Complicated. Like I said.”
“You love him.” Rinaldo narrowed his eyes. “I can see it.”
Oh. Right. He could see auras. “Cheater.”
That got him to snort. “But you do.”
“Yeah, and he ruined my fucking life.” She rolled her eyes. “And he did it in a way that only a murderous, super-powered, evil lich can. I’m trying to reconcile that shit, Rinnie. Thanks for pointing that out. Really needed that put out on the table right now.”
Ally smacked him in the arm. “You shouldn’t have said that.”
“It’s fine.” She sipped her coffee. It was starting to get cold. She’d have to order a second one soon if this was going to be a long conversation. At least Rinnie stopped staring at the damn croissant it was clear he had wanted and was now munching away on it. “It’s true, anyway.”
“Still shouldn’t have said it.” Ally primly lifted her chin. “It’s a woman’s private business.”
God damn it, she really liked the demoness. “I really hope we get to stay friends.”
The sister chuckled. “Me, too.”
Rinnie, however, shook his head. “We’re going to need you to come with us, Maggie. We need to go back to the Vatican. You’re…you’re the phylactery of the most powerful necromancer in the world. We can’t just let you run loose.”
And there was the other shoe dropping. Leaning back in her chair, she watched him thoughtfully. “No.”
He parted his jacket, revealing the gun she knew he carried. “You’re immortal, but you still die. I can put you down and take you there in a box. But I really, really don’t want to.”
Maggie smiled at him. She put her coffee down on the table in front of her. And reaching out with her mind, she commanded every single patron of the café to turn to them and stand from their seats, metal chairs scraping on the sidewalk.
Ally and Rinnie froze. The priest’s eyes went wide as he stared.
“I told you I was getting better at this.” Maggie sat back in her own chair and watched them. “Here’s the one thing I need to correct you on, Rinnie. Gideon isn’t the world’s most powerful necromancer.” She smiled. “I am.”