Hexed

her spleen. The head trauma that put her in a coma is something I can work around for now and perhaps mend with time. Of course, the muscles are atrophied and I still tire easily, but they will strengthen with a little work. «
    » Fascinating, « I said. » Let’s continue talking in the car. We’d better go before the TSA guys get impatient with us. «
    As Granuaile got us on the eastbound Loop 202, Laksha announced she was hungry for Mexican food.
    » I know just the place, « I said, and gave Granuaile directions to Los Olivos, a Scottsdale landmark since the 1950s. It was on our way to Satyrn, and it would give us a chance to talk.
    Laksha was fondly anticipating a divorce from Mr. Chamkanni. » Taking off like this without his precious masculine permission will drive him to irrational behavior, « she said, smiling. » He will think he’s lost all control—not that he ever had any—and his friends will egg him on to put me in my place. He will make demands of me when I return. That’s when I will serve him with divorce papers. «
    » You already have them after a week? «
    » Granuaile suggested a background check on him before I took Selai’s body. He’s been keeping a mistress, as one might expect of a man with a wife in a coma. We have photographic proof and a divorce lawyer already on retainer. I will be keeping the house, I think, « she finished smugly.
    Once at Los Olivos—in a room of blue glass and gray stone, with an indoor fountain splashing in the background—we chatted amiably over chips and salsa about the myriad charms of North Carolina. Over plates of green chile burros, enchilada style, the conversation turned as serious as the food.
    » All right, Mr. O’Sullivan. Tell me what you wish of me, « Laksha said.
    » I want the Bacchants out of town. «
    The witch cackled at me, making a belated attempt to cover her mouth politely. » I see. We begin with the humanitarian option. You imagine I have such powers of persuasion? «
    » I hoped you would at least consider it seriously instead of laughing at it. «
    » Mr. Chamkanni said much the same thing in bed the first night home from the hospital! «
    Granuaile nearly spat out what she was chewing and slapped the table repeatedly as she struggled to control her mirth. I steepled my fingers over my plate, elbows on the table, and waited patiently for the women to wind down.
    Laksha finally said with an expression reserved for small children or idiots, » Mr. O’Sullivan, you know I am not the sort of witch who changes minds. I’m the sort that ends lives. That is why I am here, yes? «
    » It is. «
    Granuaile abruptly ceased to find our conversation amusing. » Wait. « She looked at Laksha and then at me. » Are you suggesting that Laksha should kill the Bacchants somehow? «
    » You know precisely how she operates, « I said.
    » Atticus, how can you? « asked Granuaile, scandalized. » That would be murder. «
    » Not to mention very bad karma, « Laksha added airily. This was a fight I’d seen coming, and I wanted not only to win it but also to teach Granuaile that she could and should question me, especially on questions of morality. Just as the Tuatha Dé Danann look at the world from a Bronze Age perspective, I look at it from the Iron Age, and though it’s tempered by a whole lot of modern scruples and centuries of experience, my original Celtic cultural values don’t always square with American laws and mores.
    » Look, they’re not fully human anymore, « I explained. » They’re more like walking disease vectors, spreading madness amongst the hoi polloi. They have absolutely zero chance of becoming the persons they used to be, now that they’re thralls to Bacchus. «
    » But that doesn’t mean they’re monsters, does it? It sounds to me like they’re victims of Bacchus or his magic, and they shouldn’t be punished for that. «
    » They may have been victims at one time, but what you have to focus on is what they are now , and what they are is a dozen superhuman women immune to iron weapons and fire. They can turn a dozen more women into creatures just like them tonight and ruin whatever human potential they possess. And the madness will spread exponentially if someone doesn’t stop them. « I thought of a modern analogy and laid it on her: » It’s kind of like those zombie movies. The humans in those movies don’t look at a brain-eating zombie and let him go because he’s a victim. «
    » Okay, fine, but these