“Buddy, you shut your mouth about your mom right now,” he said. “She didn’t give up on this place. She didn’t give up on me. I let her down. I let both of you down.”

“I don’t understand, Pop,” I said.

“That last Parsnit duel with Bobby Felix,” he said, “the one I lost good and square, the one that doomed us all. I was pretty overconfident, you understand?”

“Arrogant is the word I would use,” said Marina.

“Fine, fine,” said Pop. “I was arrogant. I was as arrogant as the day is long. I figured there wasn’t any way on earth I could be beat, especially not by puny little Bobby Felix. So when he set the terms of our duel, I accepted them outright. What he made me bet . . . what I agreed to bet . . . well. Buddy, I don’t know how to say it. I was just so sure I would win. I didn’t even think. I didn’t even consider the cost.”

“What did you bet?” I said.

“I bet the lives of my friends,” he said. “I bet Marina’s exile to this house, never to set foot in the swamp again. I bet Sinclair to become the Creepy, a folktale passed down to scare kids to death.”

“What about you?” I said. “What did you bet about you and Mom?”

“I left your mom out of this, I did,” said Pop. “Bobby Felix wouldn’t have nothing to do with harming your mom, and that’s a fact. Your mom crying and pleading with Bobby Felix is the only way I left with the blood still in my veins.”

“You mean you bet your blood, Pop?” I said. “Your own lucky blood?”

“More or less,” said Pop.

“Tell him,” said Marina. “The boy has a right to know. Tell him the exact wording of your witch’s bond.”

“According to what I pledged,” said Pop, “I bet every drop of my blood on this earth. Every single drop.”

I heard Tally gasp over in the corner. The two old men sat staring close at me, and the pianist had stopped his banging. They were all keyed in to this conversation, all of them hanging on every word. I heard a bat chitter on the ceiling of Marina’s Place, and all else was still, all else was silent, all else understood what I still didn’t.

“But Pop,” I said, “that means the next time he sees you, you’re done for. I get it. And that’s why you got to leave.”

“It ain’t me I’m worried about,” he said. “It’s you. See, I bet all my blood on this earth, every last drop. You’re half me, aren’t you? Half that blood in your veins is mine, at least in magic terms. Boss Authority has every right to drain you dry, Buddy. That’s why your mom fled the Riverlands, to keep you as far away from Bobby Felix’s power as possible. That’s why I left my Parsnit deck with you that night, instead of lugging it along. I was hoping that maybe I would have a chance of survival if I hid out in Marina’s. Heck, Buddy, that’s why I had you hexed by the most powerful witch in these lands, Marina here, to curse your blood, so it wouldn’t be any use to Bobby Felix.”