In-all Cat... - Searching For- Lily Labeau Rion King

All Cat tilted its head. “A trade. One song you’ll never sing again. One memory you’ll never recover. One tear from a lover you haven’t met yet. That is the price.”

“You ain’t the first to come asking for Lily Labeau,” he said, sliding a shot of amber liquid toward her. “Last one was a kid with a backpack and a ukulele. He asked for ‘Rion King, the lost prince of jazz.’ I told him—Rion ain’t a prince. He’s a key. And keys need locks.” Searching for- lily labeau rion king in-All Cat...

Mars had all three.

“You want Lily,” All Cat spoke—not in words, but in vibrations that landed directly in Mars’s bones. “And Rion. They are not lost. They are a single note now, folded inside me.” All Cat tilted its head

Gutter pointed a gnarled finger at the cat in the photograph. “All Cat don’t like humans. But it loves three things: raw shrimp, a lullaby sung in a minor key, and the scent of a person who’s truly alone. You got any of those?” One memory you’ll never recover

The trail led her through the alleys of the French Quarter, past tarot readers who shuddered when she showed the photo, and into a basement juke joint called “The Drowned Piano.” The air smelled of chicory coffee and regret. Behind the bar stood a one-eyed man named Gutter, who scratched a patchy beard and squinted at the picture.

“For what?” Mars asked.