“Here in Pemkowet,” he clarified. “It’s different on the island. Look—you know what, never mind. We can talk about it later. What happens now?”

I laid my hand on dauda-dagr’s hilt. “What happens now is that Hel’s liaison needs to tell Emmeline Palmer to leave town.”

“And if she doesn’t?” Sinclair asked.

I hesitated. “It gets ugly. Which for your sake, for our sake, I don’t want. Which is why I’m here.”

“You want my help in convincing her to leave?” he asked. I nodded. Sinclair held the wanga bag balanced in the palm of one hand, contemplating it. Various emotions I couldn’t read passed behind his dark eyes. “All right,” he said at length, closing his fingers around the leather sack. “Let’s go see my sister.”

We rode in silence back to downtown Pemkowet. Emmeline was staying at the Idlewild Inn, which was the most expensive B&B in town. I’d never even set foot in the place before, but it was pretty much what I would have guessed from the outside, all English cottagey, comfortable and tasteful, with framed nature prints on the walls and overstuffed floral cushions on the furniture in the lobby. The hostess’s smile faltered at the sight of us, me in a T-shirt and jeans with dauda-dagr on my hip and Sinclair with bits of wallpaper clinging to him—he hadn’t taken the time to tidy—but she directed us to a charming little interior courtyard where dear Emmy was sitting on a bench in the sunlight, reading a book and enjoying a cup of tea.

It made for a pretty picture. She glanced up at our approach, her face brightening briefly at the sight of her brother. “Sinny! You’re early—”

And then she saw me, and her expression changed. It was like a thundercloud had blotted out the sun.

Without a word, Sinclair tossed the wanga bag at her feet.

“Ah.” Leaning over, Emmeline picked up the leather sack. “I see.”

A fountain in the center of the courtyard burbled cheerily. I held up my rune-marked left hand. “Emmeline Palmer, as the agent of the goddess Hel’s authority in Pemkowet, I’m ordering you to leave town.”

Her gaze was stony. “I don’t take orders from you.”

I met it without flinching. “Maybe not outside the sphere of Hel’s influence, but within this ten-mile radius, you do.”

Emmeline cocked her head slightly. “And if I don’t? Do tell. You’ll make me wish I had, right?”

“Emmy.” There was a raw note in Sinclair’s voice. “Don’t do this. You crossed a line. Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be.”