A’ight, I thought. I’ll do it. I’ll do it.

“I accept those terms,” I said.

Right then the witch’s bond appeared on my finger. It burned it did, I wanted to holler out and cry it hurt so bad, but I didn’t want to embarrass myself. For what it’s worth, Boss Authority winced too, I saw it on his face.

“The bond is set,” said Marina. “There ain’t any other option now.”

“Enough gabbing,” I said. “Let’s sit down already and play.”

17

ON MY LEFT SAT DRUSILLA Fey, dainty as at a dinner party, and to my right Marina, still clutching her bare arm, glowering down like she was out for blood. I felt like no matter what happened between me and Boss Authority, the real battle was here, between witches, a grudge that went deeper and longer and fiercer than even I was aware of. The rest of them—Tally, Pop, Cecily Bob and Mr. Hugo, Lawrence and Johnson—gathered around us, watching, ready.

I sat there scared out of my mind, facing Boss Authority himself—muscled and tattooed and strange-eyed, magic running like little snakes in black lines through his skin. He would quiver and twitch with it, something sparking in him, like he’d sucked in so much power his skin could hardly contain it. I didn’t know what a man had to go through to want something like that, all the power in the world, so much power it twisted him weird and raw. On his fingers glittered jewels set in bone, around his neck were strung pouches filled with the dust of organs and eyeballs, magic stuff, enchanted all of it, dirt from a thousand-year-old grave, dirty scraps from a bride’s torn veil. He was a fearsome man, I knew that, his ponytail flickering through the air behind him, like it was ready to strike. I didn’t even think he was in control of it all anymore, if there was even a Bobby Felix there left under all that gathered magic. He had hexed himself into something more than human, that’s for sure, but he had lost something in the bargain, you could tell just by looking in that ruined eye of his.

“Stop gawking and shuffle,” he said.

We exchanged decks, Boss Authority and me. I touched his and yanked my hand back. It was like the cards had moved, they had flinched under my touch, they were a living thing, like a spider or a rat. I was scared the sucker had teeth. Boss Authority sat there grinning at me.

It only then occurred to me just how outmatched I truly was.

What in the heck was I even doing? This was a terrible idea. I was gonna die, Pop was gonna die, Tally would probably die. Heck, the whole swamp would fall under the control of a maniac with a magic problem.

Well, it was too late now. Might as well make a good show of it, go out with some kind of a bang.