“Are you a reporter like your friend the redhead? How is she, by the way?”

  “She’ll mend, and I’m not a reporter.” Though, damn, that would have made a good cover. She’d used it often enough. But she didn’t want to lie. Was having a hard time not shouting the truth, like, I would really like your phone number. Or please go out with me. Or can we just forget talking and make out? “I banish ghosts.” She tried to say it off-hand, like it wasn’t a really awesome job. She’d never gotten to use it to impress anyone before, but she figured Helen of freaking Troy was already well-acquainted with the paranormal.

  “Just ghosts?” She tilted her head coyly.

  Chloe shrugged. “Mostly. Occasionally, there’s more dangerous stuff.”

  “Chloe,” Ramses said in a warning tone.

  “Like wyverns?” Helen asked, perfectly shaped eyebrows rising.

  “Shut up, Chloe.”

  But he didn’t know what it felt like to have a goddess so interested, so impressed with her, leaning forward as if she didn’t want to miss a single word. “Well—” She yelped as Ramses shocked her arm. “What the hell?”

  He glared at her. Helen’s expression had shifted from eager anticipation to wariness in the blink of an eye. Something was off. “She’s leading you on.”

  “Really?” Chloe said aloud, strangely hurt. “You were pretending to be interested to get me to, what, spill my guts?”

  Helen blinked, clearly taken aback and maybe even a little guilty before she shook her head. “You’re a monster hunter, aren’t you? A killer?”

  No one had ever called her a killer before. That hurt, too. “I protect people, yeah.”

  “From sick old creatures who never did anyone any harm?”

  “I didn’t know…” Chloe curled her hands into fists, remembering what Ramses said about defending oneself. “You don’t know that sick old wyvern never harmed anyone. And I didn’t hurt it, either.”

  “You stabbed it and threw it into a barn.”

  “That…well…yeah, but that was so we could get away from all the guns.” She pointed at Helen in victory. “We don’t shoot anything, so there.”

  Helen sneered. “You’re coming at me for using tranqs?” She waved. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t need to defend my actions to you.”

  “That’s all you should have said,” Ramses added.

  “Ditto,” Chloe said, mostly for his benefit. She pointed behind Helen. “And I don’t need your help. So there’s the door. Unless you want to try to tranq a ghost that has hurt people.”

  “You can’t dismiss me.”

  “Surely you have someone else to flirt with so you can get information out of them.”

  Helen drew back, affronted. “I was not flirting.” But her bronzed cheeks went a little darker. “I was feigning a slight interest to prompt a killer to confess.”

  “Oh, bullshit. You gave me one of these.” She made a show of looking her up and down.

  Helen’s mouth worked, but she couldn’t seem to find anything to say.

  Was she really that flustered? Holy shit, maybe that once-over had nothing to do with pumping Chloe for info.

  No, no way, it was Helen of freaking Troy. She couldn’t actually be interested in some mere mortal. Still, a pull began in Chloe’s chest, an even more powerful attraction, like Helen was the lodestone Chloe had spent a lifetime searching for before she even knew it existed.

  And she wasn’t any mere mortal. She had god blood in her veins. “I have a job to do,” she said more calmly. “Or more people could get hurt. I think I…know who you are.”

  Helen leaned back slightly as if fearing an explosion.

  The word Troy was on the tip of Chloe’s tongue, but something in those wary eyes made her hold it back. Maybe there were too many ears around. “And I’m really honored to meet you.” That was true, and it seemed to soften Helen’s stance a bit. “Normally, I’d have so many questions, but this doesn’t seem like the time or place.” And I’m still pissed at you for calling me a killer.

  And a bit too turned on for rational thought.

  “You must be busy lately,” Helen said.

  Chloe nodded. “You’ve heard of the extra paranormal stuff, too, huh? Seems like either lots of people are taking up the shit hobby of summoning ghosts, or a few are having a real spree.”

  That earned her a little smile. “I have heard that the veil between worlds has weakened.”

  “That stuff your friend at the shop was talking about,” Chloe blurted, trying to think back through everything that had been said.

  “Oh, Chloe.” Ramses walked a few steps away, shaking his head as if she’d just missed the winning goal because she’d done something stupid.

  And Helen was now glaring.

  Because you just admitted to eavesdropping on her, asshole. “Oh shit.” Chloe put a hand over her mouth, but it was far too late.

  “So you were following me?” Helen asked. “You’re not getting your hands on that wyvern.” She drew herself up until she loomed like a coming storm front. “And I want my tarnkappe back.”

  “I didn’t take your—”

  “The helmet,” Ramses said.

  “—anything that I’m willing to give back to you right now,” she finished stupidly. “And you can have the wyvern. You keep it away from people, and we won’t have a problem.”

  Helen rolled her eyes so hard, she surely risked a strain. “By people, you mean humans, the only ones who really matter.”

  “Anyone it could hurt,” Chloe said from between her teeth.

  “In its condition, it couldn’t hurt a fly.”

  “That’s not true, and you know it.”

  Ramses cleared his throat. “You’re starting to attract attention.”

  Chloe didn’t care who was gawking this time. She kept her glare on Helen, wishing she wasn’t so easy to keep looking at. Helen glared, too, but there was something in the way her shoulders heaved, her mouth slightly parted, that gave Chloe the feeling that she wasn’t wholly angry. The little glance she gave Chloe’s lips said a part of her was turned on.

  Helen of freaking Troy was into her.

  What were the fucking odds?

  Chloe suppressed the urge to squeal. Just. She licked her bottom lip, not quite sure what she wanted to happen. Helen took a half step closer, and part of Chloe’s brain exploded. Was she about to make out with a pissed-off Helen of freaking Troy right beneath a haunted tree in an apartment complex in Houston that neither of them lived in?

  The world was a strange place indeed.

  Helen shook her head again as if emerging from a trance. She glanced to the side before taking a step back and smoothing down her already impeccable shirt. Chloe followed her glance to find a kid watching them from the mailbox while eating a small bag of chips. She swallowed the urge to dare him to take a picture. Her luck, he’d put it up on the internet, and her mother would find out she’d been fraternizing with demigoddesses. Fuck, that would be a world of hurt crashing onto her shoulders.

  “I’m going to focus on the ghost now,” she said quietly.

  To her surprise, Helen nodded but only once. “And I have no wish to see any innocent being hurt.” But her look said she included much more than humans in that one, no matter how un-innocent they were.

  “Is that you offering to help?” She didn’t need it, but she also didn’t really want Helen to go.

  “I’m guessing your ghostly companion spotted something in the limbs of the tree?”

  Chloe wanted to believe this was a genuine offer of aid, but her confidence was still a bit bruised from the feigned attention earlier. “I gotta climb it and look.” When Helen stared, clearly waiting, Chloe’s ears burned. She hadn’t climbed a tree in years and didn’t want her latest attempt witnessed by the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen. “You can, uh, you can take off. I’ll be fine.”

  Helen smirked but quickly ducked her head and looked a lot less amused when she raised it. “Once you remove whatever’s up there, the ghost will vanish?”

  “No, the ghost would be forced to follow it and would just move to another figurine or statue if I destroyed this one. That’s not a real solution,” she added before Helen could suggest it. “A ghost that’s summoned can be out of its mind with confusion and anger once it shows itself. Best to put it back to rest.”

  Helen held her gaze for a long moment, and Chloe resisted the urge to shuffle her feet. “Put it to rest,” she said softly, sounding as if she admired that idea.

  Even though she should have doubted the genuineness of that admiration, Chloe didn’t. The feeling warmed her way more than it should.

  “How do you put it to rest?”

  Chloe waved vaguely at her bag, not wanting to get into specifics, especially if it might set off another yelling match.

  “I feel like I can trust you, Chloe, at least in this.”

  Her name on those lips? She could’ve swooned. “To banish ghosts? Hell yes.”

  That earned her another small smile. She turned as if to go. “But our discussion about the creatures of the world is to be continued.”

  Whenever you want, babe. But she couldn’t muster the courage to say it, could only wave dumbly as Helen left.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ramses was conspicuously silent as Chloe removed the figurine from the tree. It proved to be of a woman in a dress from the early nineteenth century, though Chloe didn’t recognize her. As she’d hoped, moving the figurine prompted the ghost to show herself. Her ringlets and clothing reminded Chloe of Ada Lovelace, and she hoped to God this wasn’t her. Especially after Ramses tackled her into the bushes while she growled like an animal, her eyes wide, teeth bared. She had to have been summoned very recently to be so out of her head.

  Chloe banished her quickly, hoping the kid with the chips hadn’t wandered into the shrubbery to watch.

  Afterward, Ramses stayed silent on the way to the museum. It closed at six, but they had just enough time to take a tour of his exhibit and find someplace to hide and wait for their second ghostly target.

  “I know you’re dying to say something,” Chloe said as they parked.

  “You already know what I’m going to say. If she doesn’t approve of what we do, that makes her our adversary.” He gave her a look down his nose.

  “And I shouldn’t be…admiring her.”

  He snorted. “Wanting to admire her naked, sure.”

  “Oh my freaking God, Ramses.” Though now that she’d started to imagine it…

  He only snorted again.

  Inside the museum, he loved the editions to his exhibit as much as Chloe knew he would. He beamed at the short films highlighting various battles and accomplishments, and as usual, he teared up at the little bits about his children and wives, especially his beloved Nefertari. He never spoke about her, and Chloe had been warned never to ask. It was one of the few tips about getting along with him that her mother had shared.

  Speaking of. Chloe checked her phone again, but her mother still hadn’t called or texted. Chloe had finally texted again, saying she wasn’t angry, but they did need to talk. Still nothing. Her last text had been an appeal to just acknowledge that she was all right, but again, nothing.

  The minute they were done here, Chloe was going straight back to Austin to check on her, ghosts, monsters, or demigods be damned.

  So to speak.

  Ramses wore a happy smile as they wandered the rest of the museum looking for any ghostly activity. “Do you sense anything in here?” she asked as they paused near the dinosaurs. She ducked her head as she spoke, not wanting to walk around all day with her phone next to her ear.

  “No. Did you notice the error that one video made about chariot combat? On the whole, I was quite pleased, of course, and I suppose some inaccuracies are unavoidable, but maybe you could write a letter suggesting a few changes.”

  That wasn’t going to happen, but it also wasn’t like he would have listened if she’d objected.

  “I remember driving over this one patch of road between cities. It was so rocky, I thought I was going to vomit from the vibrations alone.” He barked a laugh. “I had it fixed, and now people think I improved the infrastructure for altruistic or military reasons, both a bit true, but I really did it so I wouldn’t be heaving my guts out when I passed that way again.”

  Chloe chuckled along with him, but she was starting to get impatient for this ghost to appear so she could find out where her mom was or just begin to sort all the tumultuous emotions brewing in her like a thunderstorm. When closing time rolled around, she was tempted to just leave and hurry back to Austin, but her mother would much rather she do her duty, she was sure.

  Ramses short-circuited the electronic lock on one of the Staff Only doors, and Chloe hid behind a lot of boxed-up artifacts, mainly taxidermic animals, by the look of it, until everyone except security went home. Luckily, security relied almost solely on cameras.

  Too bad for them, Chloe thought as the overhead lights flickered and died. Ramses would be taking a stroll through the computers and consoles, killing the camera feeds. And the lights, apparently, since red emergency lights switched on in their place.

  Of course, now they had to search for ghosts in an empty museum that looked as if it had been painted with blood. Nothing like a horrific hellscape to make ghost hunting less terrifying. The occasional flashlight-wielding guard was almost a relief, even if Chloe had to duck and hide.

  Having Ramses at her side made it less spooky, thank goodness, though his sudden appearance made her leap into the air again. “Which way first?” he asked.

  The article Chloe had gotten an alert about hadn’t mentioned a specific part of the museum, only reporting on strange noises and theorizing about grisly crimes committed on the spot, perhaps a ghastly battle, all the usual nonsense. “It has to be somewhere with a lot of statues,” she said. “The regular Egyptian exhibit is a good bet. Our summoner probably thought they won the jackpot. They wouldn’t even have to sneak a figurine in.”

  She hoped like hell that the ghost wasn’t anyone in Ramses’s family, though most of the statues in his exhibit were of him. Hell, most of the statues in Egypt seemed to be of him. Maybe they’d get lucky and find nothing but a waste of time and have a nice, creepy walk through a museum bathed in red light like a vision of Tartarus.

  Fun. Made even more so by the fact that Chloe’s mom still wasn’t answering her damned phone.

  They took another few passes through the Egyptian wing, and Chloe was resigning herself to the fact that they might have to wait for the witching hour when she spotted a flash of light from Ramses’s exhibit.

  Oh shit.

  He didn’t speak as they turned in that direction, and it seemed almost inevitable when a dark-haired woman in a pleated white gown walked through the central room. She wore the bird-shaped crown of an Egyptian queen, and her dark skin gleamed even through her ghostly glow.

  “Fuck,” Chloe whispered. She didn’t need to see the beautiful face, clothes, or crown to know who this was or why this mission was so screwed or that Ramses was going to tear the summoner to little pieces. She only thanked God that this ghost wasn’t foaming at the mouth like the last one.

  “Nefertari,” Ramses whispered.

  She blinked as if she didn’t quite hear him, her eyes on Chloe. The dead were often confused, but she didn’t seem angry or even that unsettled for a summoned ghost. Chloe’s bullshit meter pinged. This couldn’t be what she’d always thought of as a natural haunting. All the times she’d seen this exhibit, and Nefertari only showed up at one of her statues now?

  Ramses stepped forward, tears in his eyes. Chloe put an arm out, even though he could walk right through her if he wanted. He stopped and gave her a pleading look.

  “She has to have been summoned,” Chloe said. “If she was just a wandering spirit, we would have encountered her before now, but look at her. Where’s the anger?”

  He looked pained before turning thoughtful, then dark blue with rage. “Who would dare?”

  Whoever had summoned her wanted to hurt Ramses for sure, but their reasons didn’t matter. They were gonna pay big time.

  Though something still felt off, Chloe took a few steps closer and decided to play along. “O Queen, who has summoned you from the realm of Osiris?” It was best to lay it on thick with ghosts when one wanted answers, and Nefertari didn’t seem inclined to flee or attack. Chloe slipped a hand into her satchel and gripped the baggie of salt and cayenne, ready just in case.

  Nefertari cocked her head, delicate brows furrowed. “I await my king.”

  “I’m here, my love,” Ramses said, his voice thick.

  Nefertari still didn’t look at him. What the hell? “He has forsaken me.”

  “Never, never.” He took another step.

  Chloe frowned. It was like she couldn’t hear him. Or even see him, but ghosts could see one another. They didn’t need the god blood that a living person apparently did.

  Or a living creature.

  A living trap.

  Chloe chucked the salt and cayenne at Ramses’s feet, freezing him in place.

  “Chloe,” he barked.

  She stepped in front of him and glanced at the museum case, the wall, the floor. There, the pattern in the carpet seemed different in one spot, like something added to trap a ghost since there only seemed to be one here. “Who are you?” she said, taking hold of the hunting knife that had recently stabbed a wyvern’s ass, but she didn’t draw it, not yet. “You’re not Nefertari, not a ghost at all.”

  The faux ghost rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me you didn’t even bring your ghost friend.” She waved toward where the salt and cayenne had settled on the carpet. “Or does he have something to do with your little spice explosion?”