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“It’s like the whole damn bar went crazy,” the leader of the Gorgons answers. “I left for a few minutes to smoke and check on my wife and kid. On my way back from family quarters, I hear this weird-ass yell thundering from inside. I figured it was a shifter showing off.” She gestures toward the clash that’s being broken up by Furies. “The next thing I know, everyone’s fighting and throwing people out the windows, breaking down the door, tossing axes at each other.”
“What’d your bartenders put in their drinks?” the Muses’ coach asks.
“Same old,” the Gorgon says. “A few of the Muses and Nymphs flew off looking scared shitless, but the rest? Well, you see them trying to rip each other to shreds.” She glances at the leader of the Mad Maes. “Your House have anything to do with this?” The accusation’s veiled, but barely.
“Nope.” The leader of the Mad Maes wears red lipstick that I could swear is a shade from my brand. She’s in all red from her sparkly headband to her dress to short leather boots. “My maenads and I don’t do fighting. We bring a raving madness that’s one of dancing, revelry, and orgies.”
“Which is why y’all are invited to all our parties,” the leader of the Nymphs says with a giggle. These women are our fearless leaders? No wonder we’re a roller derby city and not a more conservative or classy venture.
At least Maizie stays on topic. “Could your Mad Maes have accidentally incited a riot instead of drunk sexy times?”
Their leader shakes her head. “We strive for ecstasy, not pain. Unless it’s in the pursuit of pleasure. This is panic, not rapture.”
“Barbarism,” Devlyn announces with full Huntress superior to thou snootiness. “You don’t see any of my House out there brawling. We save our aggression for roller derby. It’s why we win.”
“Anything helpful to add?” Maizie asks her.
“Ask your poison grower what plants would cause this violence.” Devlyn glances my way. “That’s why you brought her, isn’t it? What else would she be good for other than bedding down with shifters the same as her sisters?”
I step forward, ready to volunteer to show Devlyn exactly what I’m good at which is punching her in her face.
Maizie holds out her hand, stopping me. “Any poison you know of that could cause something like this?”
“No.” I keep my hands curled into fists. “I can kill, I can heal, but I can’t provoke anything like this. What about the noise she heard? Is there a roar or a noise that could drive people mad?”
“It’s a riot,” Devlyn says with a sneer. “Not a boxing match with rules and a bell.”
A bell. At least the bells have gone silent.
I keep my mouth shut while the Coaches go back and forth with possibilities.
“There’s an obvious solution at least for now,” Devlyn says. “A temporary stop gap. Keep the poisoner on House arrest. Interrogate the wolf marshal since he’s the only new addition to our town plus he wasn’t at the Hack and Ale. Destroy the poison garden in case someone else used her plants.”
My heart misses a couple of beats, and I can’t catch a full breath. “No, you can’t. I—”
“Sadie,” Maizie says. “Go help your sisters.”
“Yes, Coach.” I hurt from the inside out, a wound that I can’t see but oh, I feel it. The garden’s been my private sanctuary since I got here, the closest I’ve come to recreating a piece of my family’s home. Still, I do as I’m commanded. It’s the Fury way.
Landing near Kiva and Dottie, I check both for injuries. Dottie’s ponytail has come undone, but otherwise she looks the same as always. Kiva seems bored with the fighting which makes sense given she grew up battling actual monsters. She forces two Muses apart who seem intent on ripping each other’s hair out while Dottie deals with a crying Nymph and a Mad Mae who’s rocking back and forth as if she’s terrified the big bad wolf’s just around the next corner.
Speaking of wolves, at least Nolan’s far from here. Maybe Coach will talk Devlyn out of whatever waterboarding or other tortuous interrogation technique the Huntress has in mind for him.
On the outskirts of the mob, I wade into a wrestling pile-on to yank screaming Nymphs off Tisia, tossing them to other Furies to settle. The Gorgon is massive, and this will get bloody quick if she decides to come up swinging. Her braids have come loose, and she has a busted lip, but the Nymphs piled on top of her could’ve looked much worse than they did.
Tensing in case I need to react, I crouch next to her, holding up my hands. “You all right, Tisia?”
She stares at me, and her wide-eyed compassion breaks my heart. “It didn’t get you.” The hurt in her voice echoes my pain at possibly losing my garden to Devlyn and her schemes. “Wait, no, you weren’t here. The Furies didn’t come to Hack and Ale today.”
“Most of us had training at the House. I was working on something else.”
“This would’ve been a bloodbath if y’all had been here. I tried to stop it, but I could only do so much against the crowd.”
I hold out a hand. She eyes it as if I might have something contagious. “Just wanting to help you away from the fight. My sisters will finish breaking it up. Looks like you could use some first aid.” I point to the makeshift medic table some Huntresses are setting up down the way.
Tisia wipes her mouth with a gold bandana from her pocket. “I’m not hurt as badly as some of the others.” She takes my hand, and I pull her to her feet. “There’s no telling how many broken bones or stitches will come out of this.”
“What happened?” When she doesn’t answer, I tell her what I know from listening to the coaches. It’s not like they swore me to secrecy. “I heard there was a yell, and then all hell broke loose.” Which makes no sense. Who has a battle cry that makes people act insane?
