I managed to walk down the stairs without Kincaid's help. He seemed amused by my attempts to keep my legs under me, but he didn't make any move to help me either. I didn't want him to. The time for being weak was past.
I reached the salon that took up the back of Jo-Jo's house, and my eyes swept over the familiar furnishings. Cherry-red salon chairs. Stacks of magazines everywhere. Combs, scissors, curlers, and dozens of other beauty tools on the counters. Bottles of pink nail polish and matching lipsticks cluttered together. It was all as familiar to me as my own face, and I drank in the scene, grateful I'd survived another battle I shouldn't have.
Then I focused on the two men in the middle of the room. Finn and Owen stood toe-to-toe, their eyes bright, their bodies tense, and their faces flushed with anger, while Eva, Cooper, and Bria sat in the chairs behind them. The men's shouts had woken Rosco, Jo-Jo's tubby basset hound, who eyed them with lazy disinterest from his wicker basket in the corner.
Footsteps padded in the hallway behind me, and Jo-Jo came to stand beside me in the doorway, her perfume filling my nose with its soft scent.
Salina might pretend to be a genteel Southern lady, but Jolene "Jo-Jo" Deveraux was the real deal. She wore one of her many pink flowered dresses topped off by her usual string of pearls. Everything about her whispered of feminine poise, from the white-blond hair that was artfully curled over her forehead to the perfect makeup that softened the lines of her face to the effortless way she seemed to glide as she walked. Jo-Jo might have recently turned two hundred fifty-seven, but she was aging gracefully.
"How long have they been like this?" I asked her.
Jo-Jo glanced at a clock that was shaped like her puffy cloud rune, mounted on the back wall. "Ten minutes now. Apparently, Finn wants to kill Salina as soon as he can find her, while Owen at least wants to see if she'll surrender peaceably."
I was of the same mind Finn was, but I could understand where Owen was coming from. He'd once loved Salina, had wanted to marry her. It was hard to let go of those feelings, even now, when he knew exactly what she'd become - or maybe what she'd always been.
I might understand, yes, but that didn't mean that I wasn't seriously pissed about it. The bitch had tried to kill me - Cooper too - and yet here Owen was, still trying to protect her. What was wrong with him? Anger surged through me, along with doubt, worry, and fear. Not so much that Salina might kill me, but that she was going to be the death of me and Owen - of us. Try as I might, I just couldn't shake the feeling that Owen and I were headed for disaster, courtesy of Salina - and what I was planning to do to her.
At the sound of Jo-Jo's footsteps, Rosco peered in our direction, hoping she had a treat for him. The basset hound gave a happy woof at the sight of me, and his tail thumped against the side of his basket. Then he turned in Finn and Owen's direction and let out a low whine. Their argument had interrupted Rosco's nap, and it was obvious he wanted them to shut up so he could get back to it, pronto. Couldn't blame him for that. I'd only been in the room a minute, and their sharp voices had already given me a headache.
"Enough," I said.
Finn and Owen kept arguing, with Eva occasionally putting in her two cents for good measure. Cooper sat silent. I looked at him, and he shrugged his shoulders.
"Enough!" I repeated, raising my voice.
Finn and Owen were too intent on yelling at each other to hear me, so I did something Sophia had taught me - I put my fingers between my lips and let out a loud, earsplitting whistle. That got them to shut up and look at me in surprise.
"Morning, boys," I drawled.
For a moment, the two of them just stared at me. Finn recovered first. He usually did.
"I'm not sure how much of that you heard, but he" - Finn stabbed his finger at Owen - "actually wants to give that water elemental bitch a chance to explain herself. Apparently, he wants to know exactly why she tried to kill you, other than the fact that she's just mean as a snake and bat-shit crazy to boot."
Owen bristled. "That wasn't my point at all, and you know it."
Finn glared at my lover, but Owen ignored him and looked at me.
"My point was that Salina needs help," he said in a quiet voice. "She wasn't always the way . . . she is now. I want to at least give her a chance to do the right thing."
I thought the right thing for Salina involved stabbing her repeatedly with one of my knives and then slitting her throat for good measure, but I wasn't going to tell Owen that.
"Why don't you all leave us alone for a few minutes?" I said. "Owen and I have some things we need to discuss."
Finn shot Owen another hot glare, but he stormed out of the salon. Eva got to her feet and followed him, with Kincaid trailing along behind her. Cooper stood as well, walked across the room, and held his arm out to Jo-Jo, who blushed a little.
"My, what a gentleman you are," Jo-Jo said in a soft voice.
"I do try," Cooper said. "Especially with a pretty lady who saved my life."
Jo-Jo blushed a little more at that. So she had healed Cooper with her Air magic too. Good. I was glad that Owen's mentor was okay, although I didn't know quite what to make of his shameless flirting with her.
Jo-Jo saw me looking at them and grinned. She let out a low whistle, and Rosco lurched up out of his basket and trotted after her, in hopes of getting a treat after all. Cooper leaned down to pet the dog, then the three of them set off down the hallway.
Bria stood up and came over to me. My sister gave me a critical once-over, then leaned forward and hugged me.
"I'm glad you're okay," she whispered.
I tightened my arms and returned her hug. "Me too."
She drew back. "What do you want to do about Salina? Cooper said he'd press charges against her, so I can arrest her for what she did to him."
I didn't want Bria anywhere near Salina and her magic, but I knew my sister was just trying to do her job. "I appreciate that, and I'm sure Cooper does too, but let me talk to Owen first, okay?"
She nodded, hugged me again, and left the salon.
Once she was gone, I shut the door for privacy. Then I turned to face my lover.
"So," I said. "Salina."
"Yeah, Salina."
Owen ran a hand through his hair and started pacing back and forth. I walked over, sat down in one of the padded chairs, and watched him. Waiting, just waiting, for him to let me in, to tell me exactly what was going on inside his head and his heart too - and wondering whether or not I'd like what he had to say.
I wondered if this was how Owen had felt when I'd seen Donovan again. If he'd felt the same ugly pressure in his chest, the same paralyzing fear, the same sharp, niggling worry that the harder I tried to hold on to him, the faster I was losing him to Salina.