In the back alley, Frankie and Levi waited for Hecate. The sun had begun to set and the two stood in the shadows behind the buildings lining State Street.
Hecate emerged only a moment after they had. Frankie was glad that they were able to draw her out, away from the crowd of innocent bystanders in the restaurant. The last thing Meyer’s Place needed was another brawl that would likely permanently shut the place down.
“Well,” she said. “It looks like we’ve finally reached a point where we can have a conversation.”
“What do you want?” Frankie demanded.
She raised her eyebrows. “Easy now. I believe I’m the only one in a position to be so aggressive.”
“You took our friend. We want her back.”
Hecate laughed. “Oh, trust me. I had nothing to do with what happened to your friend. If I had, then she’d be somewhere so much worse than where she is now.”
Frankie and Levi exchanged glances.
“But you do know where she is?” Levi asked.
“Of course. I’m the gatekeeper of the worlds.”
“Then where is she?” Frankie asked.
She shook her head. “You’re wasting your time on her. That’s not why I’m here.”
“I don’t give a damn why you’re here,” Frankie spat. “Unless you tell us where our friend is, then you can save whatever it is you came here to tell us.”
“Oh, is that so?” she asked. “So you wouldn’t be interested in making a deal?”
“No,” the witch answered easily.
“Really? Not even to return you to your own time?”
Frankie opened his mouth to reply, but stopped short. After a pause, he asked, “How?”
“Ah,” she said with a chuckle. “Now I’ve caught your interest.”
“Just tell us what you’re suggesting so we can rest assured we made the right choice when we turn you down,” Levi said.
Hecate shot a murderous glance his way. “I’m not here for you, mortal. You can just go somewhere else.” She raised her hand to flick him away, but Frankie was faster. He used his own power to knock her hand back.
“Don’t you touch him,” he warned. “Just tell us what you want to tell us.”
She sighed. “Oh, all right. You aren’t making this nearly as fun as I thought it’d be. I would like to propose a deal: I’ll summon Zanabar back to 1924 and negotiate an arrangement that will send you back to your time.”
“In exchange for what?” Levi asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, would you shut up!”
“You want my soul,” Frankie finished.
“Well, yes.”
Levi looked between Frankie and Hecate, then asked the goddess, “Why do you think he’d agree to that?”
“Because it’s the only way to get him to return back to his time, and it would ensure that no one else here is bothered by me again.” She rolled her eyes again, miming boredom. “You see, I’d collect your soul in exchange for Tommy’s.”
Frankie wasn’t surprised that she was hunting him. Not after what Eugene had just told them about Tommy’s strange behavior as of late.
“Forget it,” Levi said. “If Frankie doesn’t have a soul, then there’s no point in him going back to his own time.”
Hecate let out an annoyed sigh. “This isn’t up to you to decide.” She turned to Frankie. “I was asking him.”
The witch thought it over. It was very similar to the idea that he had had himself. Only, in this proposal, Tommy—and everyone else in Erie in 1924—would be safe. Sacrifice one to save many more? It seemed like it was a fair trade.
“Frankie…” Levi muttered, turning to his friend. “You can’t seriously be considering this. Remember everything we talked about.”
Frankie wouldn’t meet his friend’s eyes. He studied the ground. “I know. But…”
“I see you’re having a hard time deciding,” Hecate cut in. “So to show that I’m being sincere, allow me to summon Zanabar here as a way to flex my power.”
“No, wait!” Levi called to her, but it was too late.
Hecate swung her arms out, the skeleton keys in one hand rattling, while she pointed the torch in the other hand toward the ground. The flame from the torch erupted from the top and covered a giant area on the ground.
Frankie and Levi both jumped back, feeling the heat of the flame flick against their skin.
From the flames rose the manipulative sorcerer Zanabar. He roared in dissatisfaction at being summoned.
“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded, turning on Hecate.
She gestured toward Frankie. “I heard that you have some unfinished business and I may be interested in negotiating a trade with you.”
The sorcerer turned to the witch and snarled. “Ah. The betrayer.”
Levi took another step back.
“You weren’t honest about the terms of the deal from the beginning.” Frankie held up his hand, ready to use his magic if he needed. Truthfully, though, Zanabar very likely would’ve overpowered anything that Frankie could throw at him. The only hope was that Zanabar was somehow weakened and disoriented from the jump through time.
The sorcerer took steady steps toward them. “Thanks to you, I lost out on the genie half-breed and I was expelled from 1924.”
“And thanks to you, I was tricked into coming to 1924 and then left here as if my life in 1984 didn’t even matter,” Frankie countered.
Zanabar brought his hands out from under his robe and started muttering incantations in another language.
“What is he doing?” Levi panicked.
“Doesn’t matter. Just run!”
Levi led Frankie down the far side of the alley. Behind them, Zanabar’s magic took hold, sending an earth-shaking blast in their direction and knocking them to the ground.
Frankie spun around just as Zanabar was descending on Levi.
“Maybe I could kill your powerless friend here as restitution for your betrayal.” Zanabar extended his hand to grab at Levi’s shirt.
“Ah!” Levi shouted as he was pulled back by the sorcerer, who held an arm around his throat and pressed him close to his body, like a shield.
“Now’s your chance,” Zanabar said. “It’s you or him. What’s it going to be?”
Frankie looked around for something to use his magic on and his eyes landed on the bottom rung of a fire escape ladder. Aiming his hand up, he focused his energy on ripping the pipe off the ladder and toward the sorcerer.
It made a direct hit, slamming hard against Zanabar’s head. The impact caused him to collapse to the ground, right on top of Levi. Frankie rushed up and helped his friend get out from under Zanabar’s weight.
“You okay?” Frankie asked Levi.
He nodded. They both looked back toward the back entrance of the restaurant where Hecate stood, watching the encounter with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face.
“Let’s get out of here before she can do anything else,” Levi said.
“Good idea.”