Southwest Days (Semiautomatic Sorceress Book 2), Kal Aaron [book recommendations based on other books .txt] 📗

“Does that bother you?” Jofi asked. “Do you think they robbed you of a proper choice?”

When Jofi asked a question like that, she wondered if he was baiting her about his situation. On a subconscious level, he might know he wasn’t free. That situation would need to be handled, but not before she closed out the investigation on her brother.

Lyssa shook her head. “I’m not sure. I cared less about being a Torch at the time than learning to fight like everyone else. I wanted to be a strong Corti. I wanted to continue the family tradition.” She sighed. “I don’t suppose it’s different than coming from a family of athletes or musicians and starting to play or train in a sport at a young age. But it’s weird now to think that everyone took it for granted I’d become a Torch, including me.”

“That’s not true of everyone,” Jofi replied. “From what I’ve overheard in previous conversations, Tricia Bennett attempted to stop you when she took responsibility for you. She argued on more than one occasion that you becoming a Torch was unnecessary.”

“That she did.” Lyssa pulled out the spoon and slid the lid back onto the pint. She picked them both up and headed toward the kitchen. “She didn’t push that hard, but that was out of respect for me.” She tossed the spoon into her sink, walked toward her refrigerator, and opened the freezer. “She could have pushed harder and maybe stopped me, but it’s not a problem. Let me make that clear. I like what I do, and I always have. I’m cleaning up the world one scumbag at a time, and things are more dangerous since M-Day. It’s only…”

“What?” Jofi asked. “I have more difficulty inferring sentence endings than you might expect, even after all our time together.”

“I never thought it would take this long for me to find a lead on Chris. I’d gotten so used to the years passing that getting pictures and the message so close together rattled me. An embarrassment of riches, I guess you could call it.” Lyssa put her ice cream away. “And Samuel’s cut me off from work, which means I can’t follow up right away. It’s like I have this energy ready to explode out, and I’ll pop soon if I can’t vent it.”

“Please do not consider it rude of me to point out you were complaining not all that long ago about Elder Samuel giving you work,” Jofi said. “Given the extensive injuries and resources you used in completing the previous contract, it’s not surprising he’s not eager to give you new assignments immediately. In another context, you might be grateful for his consideration, and it appeared to me you were grateful in the immediate aftermath of the Houston incident.”

“In another context, I might be the Queen of Mars, but in this world, I’m only Lyssa Corti, Torch and professional paranoid bitch.” She slammed the freezer door. “And now I’m healed up and ready and have piles of ammo aching to meet new scumbags.” She slapped her chest. “Serafina even made me a new vest with my last batch of ammo. Samuel knows I’m ready for new contracts.”

“You suspect his actions are motivated by conspiracy?” Jofi asked. “Or at least more conspiracy than usual?”

She snickered and headed into the living room. “I don’t know. It’s frustrating. Things have been happening I could have handled. I could have understood the first couple of weeks, but not after that. The timing of the message from Last Remnant only makes it worse.”

“I thought you felt Samuel would not conspire against you in that kind of way,” Jofi said. “You seemed rather certain on that point before. I will defer to your evaluation of the Elder.”

Lyssa settled onto her couch. “I still believe that, but it doesn’t mean he’s not benching me out of a misguided attempt to protect me or the Society. If he believes there’s a conspiracy going on, at least more than he’s letting on, he might think I’m making too much noise and could make things worse.” She furrowed her brow. “I mean, come on. Remember last week?”

“Are you referring to the incident in New Mexico?”

“Yeah.” Lyssa nodded. “Requesting Theodora send Aisha, of all people, to handle something in my backyard is rubbing salt in the wound. I could have handled that.”

“From his perspective, your relationship with Miss Khatri has improved significantly. His response in that incident was consistent with your previous complaints and recommendations. He wanted to make sure you were settled in. From my perspective, Elder Samuel is doing his best to meet your previous needs.”

Lyssa snorted. “So now he chooses to care about me? Perfect. I think I liked the guy who didn’t care better.”

Lyssa sat cross-legged on her bed and put her hand to her mouth to fight a yawn. She was surrounded by small dry-erase boards filled with names written in black marker.

Although she teased Samuel and the other older Sorcerers about their resistance to technology, she understood the dangers of depending too much on technological devices and being vulnerable to hackers and government spies. The Illuminated lagged in fusing their arts with Shadow technology, and she didn’t have the inclination, essence, or skills to be the woman promoting that change.

She ran her finger across the first name on one of the boards and then to the side containing a date followed by carefully written notes. It was the first because it was the most important.

Chris Corti, Northern Trickster. Last known location: USA.

Town? State?

Lyssa had, with the help of her knowledge and casual asking around spread out over numerous contacts, identified every single Sorcerer and Sorceress on the memory card along with their regalia and essences. That had proven easier than she expected.

It had been a nice bit of sleuthing, but it hadn’t led to any useful conclusions. She couldn’t discern a pattern among the names, essences, regalia, or countries. Someone could have picked