“I do all right.”

“I’m sure you do.”

“Masters of the motherfucking Universe.” Matthew leaned his head back against the chair as though it were too heavy to hold upright, his eyes half-slitted. “The true sons of Triton. You know who Triton was, Trask sisters?”

“Some Greek god, right?” Lurine, who was in all likelihood related to the deity in question, hazarded a guileless guess.

“Like in that movie?” I added. “Clash of the Tritons?”

He laughed soundlessly. “Old Triton blowing his wreathed horn, right? Blowing his horn over the waves, summoning all the sea nymphs, every one of them bowing down before him, every one of them hoping to be chosen, every one of them hoping to get fucked by a motherfucking god. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what it means to be a Master of the Universe.”

Lurine and I exchanged a glance.

“Is that how Thad died?” I asked softly. “Trying to become a Master of the Universe like you?”

“Yeah.” Matthew’s eyelids flickered, sinking closed, then opening again. “I mean, I don’t know. Hell, I wasn’t there. But I think so.” He hoisted his glass, scotch slopping over the rim. “He died trying, anyway.”

I felt sick.

Chapter Twenty-six

Twenty-six

Half an hour later, Lurine and I made our exit from Triton House.

We didn’t get anything more out of Matthew Mollenkamp or the other Tritons. Having divulged that much, they retreated from the subject and settled for drinking themselves further into oblivion. But as far as I was concerned, it was a good start.

I concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, steadied by Lurine’s hand beneath my left elbow. “You think he was telling the truth?”

“No.” She steered me over an uneven patch of pavement. “But I think he was telling the truth wrapped in a lie.”

“Oops.” Despite Lurine’s guidance, I tripped over a jagged crack. “Yeah, me, too.” I peered into the darkness. “Hey, is that my car?”

“It is.” Lurine held out her hand. “Keys, please.”

Rummaging in my straw satchel, I found my car keys beneath dauda-dagr’s deer-hide-wrapped length and handed them to her. “Thanks.”

“Your mom would kill me if I let you drive in this condition.” Lurine slid behind the wheel. Glancing in the rearview mirror, she eased Stefan’s pendant over her head. The subtle glamour faded, restoring her features to their usual unsubtle beauty. “Ah, that’s better.” She handed me the pendant. “Put that somewhere safe for the head ghoul in town. Been seeing a lot of him, have you?”

I tucked the pendant in an inner pocket of my satchel. “Not a lot.”

“Hmm.” Lurine turned the key in the ignition and began easing the Honda out of the parking lot.

“What does ‘hmm’ mean?”