That’s funny. Align myself with a group? The closest I’m aligned with would be Gabriela, and that’s more a mutual “watch each other’s back to make sure if anybody’s sticking a knife in it we’re the ones who put it there.” Nobody would give me the goddamn time of day and now they want to shoot me on sight.

“What’s that thing Groucho said? I wouldn’t be a member of any club that would have me? I’m not much of a joiner. And neither are the rest of us. You know what they call five mages in a room together, right? A bloodbath. I don’t think Werther was trying to recruit me.”

Interesting, though. Worrying if true, I’m not really up for being used as a pawn. Again. Not least of which because they’re wrong. I fucked up Santa Muerte’s and Mictlantecuhtli’s plans. I’m not the king of dead. At least, not anymore. I think.

And that bit about the bloodbath? Pretty much how it always works out. The really powerful mages, they don’t want to share and they’re really good at not sharing.

“It also makes you ripe for elimination,” she says. “You don’t have a great track record of not being in the middle of shit when it happens. A lot of people remember Boudreau, and some of the shit you got up to before you left L.A. And some shit after you left. Married to a death goddess? Not a big leap to assume you’re burning people alive.”

“What, I’m the boogeyman now? Come on. ‘Go to sleep son, or Eric Carter’s gonna get ya.’ I’m a goddamn teddy bear.”

“We know you’re not doing it. We can help you with the situation. Get people like Werther off your back. That’s at least worth listening to, isn’t it?”

I admit, it would be nice to have people not shooting at me quite so often, but let’s be honest, they’re going to anyway. If I jump in with anybody, eventually they’re gonna try to kill me. Letitia’s group, Gabriela, somebody else. It’s not something with good odds as a long-term prospect.

But it can’t hurt to talk, can it? If there’s evidence that this Councilman Chu has that I’m not setting all these fires, maybe people will calm the fuck down.

“All right, Scarecrow, let’s go see the Wizard.”

—

Councilman Chu lives in Encino. Letitia tries to tell me about his district, its borders, and all I can picture is reproducing amoeba, which, this being L.A., somehow seems to fit. But then she won’t shut up about it and my eyes glaze over and I finally have to tell her to stop talking or I’ll shoot her.