“Daisy!” Jen was standing in a small cluster that included her sister, Lee, Casimir, Sinclair, and, unfortunately, Stacey Brooks. Jen waved me over, and I saw that Lee had retrieved the spirit lantern and had it tucked into the crook of one arm. “We kept it safe for you.”
“Thanks.” A belated wave of guilt swept over me. In the heat of the moment, I’d forgotten I’d set it down. “You guys were amazing tonight.”
“You totally saved my life,” Stacy said to Sinclair. She shuddered at the memory, the plush cat ears on her headband trembling.
“Totally.”
He glanced at me. “Actually—”
“It’s okay,” I said. There was no way in hell I was going to try to explain to Stacey that I’d nearly gotten myself killed saving her stupid life with an invisible bullwhip of mental energy. Other than the members of the coven, no mundane human could have guessed what had happened there. “I’m just glad no one but Jojo . . .” A lump rose to my throat, and I couldn’t finish the thought.
“I know,” Sinclair said softly, touching the sprig of joe-pye weed drooping over his breast pocket. “She was a brave little thing.”
“She was a foulmouthed, obnoxious little shit, and I’ll miss her.” I rubbed my eyes and nodded at the seemingly empty pickle jar that Sinclair held tight in his other hand. “So what happens now?”
“I’ll take my grandfather’s spirit home and lay it to rest where his bones are buried,” Sinclair said in a grim voice. “And I’ll tell my mother and my sister that if they want me to have any part of their lives, they’ll never, ever threaten me or the people I care about again.”
“Amen, brother,” Casimir murmured.
“Is it safe?” I asked. “I mean . . . isn’t going back to Jamaica exactly what they wanted you to do?”
“Oh, I’m not staying.” Sinclair hoisted the pickle jar, contemplating it. “And after tonight, there’s no way they can make me.”
“Young Mr. Palmer here showed a considerable amount of strength tonight, Miss Daisy,” Casimir said to me. “And gained a considerable amount of power in the process.”
Interesting.
But speaking of strength and power, now that everything was under control, I was feeling the acute drain on my own reserves. Also, Bethany Cassopolis was staring at my throat, a spark of vampiric hypnosis in her gaze. Feeling my pulse quicken under her gaze, I kindled my shield with an effort. “What?”
“Nothing,” Bethany said unapologetically. “It’s just that I’m hungry. And you smell . . . interesting.” She smiled, showing the tips of her fangs. “Funny, I never noticed how cute you were.”
Gah! And yet . . . goddamn eldritch Kinsey scale. My shield flickered as I stared at my best friend’s sister’s gleaming fangs, trying not to imagine them piercing my skin.
“Okay, ew!” Jen said in a firm tone. “Beth, cut it out. If Chief Bryant’s done yelling at the Easties, I’m taking Brandon home and you’re riding with me.”
“You’re my ride,” I reminded her.
“I’ll drive you,” Lee offered.
“Will you give me a ride?” Stacey Brooks asked Sinclair in a pleading voice. “I’m too shaky to drive.”
I laughed again; and again, I couldn’t help it. At least it was only a little hysterical this time. Sinclair gave me an uncertain look. “It’s okay,” I said to him. “It’s fine. Go. Take her home.”
Before taking Lee up on his offer, I touched base with Chief Bryant. He looked as tired as I felt, the streetlights above the intersection throwing the dark pouches under his eyes into stark relief. “Daisy.”
“Sir.”
“I should have listened to you and Cody.” He smiled wryly. “I’m sorry I didn’t.”
“You had your reasons, sir,” I said. “I made mistakes. Big ones.”
“Not tonight. And I appreciate your enlisting the help of the eldritch.” The chief paused a moment to rub his chin. “I, um, don’t suppose you want to tell me exactly who or what that half-woman, half-giant snake creature was?”
“She’s, um, a lamia. Or the lamia.” I wasn’t entirely sure if Lurine had peers, and it had always seemed impolite to ask. “Otherwise . . . I’m sorry, but no.”
“Never mind.” He clapped one meaty hand on my shoulder. “You did a good job, Daisy. Go home and get some rest.”
“Thanks.”
It didn’t feel like well-earned praise, but I didn’t tell him about the one big mistake I’d made tonight, or about the mistake Cody and I had made the morning after the Tall Man’s remains vanished. Maybe that was a cop-out, or maybe there were some things the chief didn’t need to know. Either way, I was just too tired.
In the intersection, Cody and Ken Levitt had donned latex gloves and were carefully shifting the Tall Man’s bones onto a tarp.
Cody glanced up as I passed, his expression a complex mixture of regret and affection. He lifted one latex-covered hand to give me the little two-fingered salute we’d developed during our ghostbusting forays. “Later, partner.”
I returned the salute, pretty sure my expression echoed his. “Later.”
On the drive home, I gave my mother a quick courtesy call to let her know everything was more or less all right, which she’d already heard from Lurine. I promised more details in the morning. Lee insisted on escorting me up the stairs to my apartment. I’d left the door to the screened porch ajar so Mogwai could come and go, and the place was as cold as a meat locker now that an autumn chill had replaced the unnatural balminess. On the plus side, Mogwai was there, winding around my ankles as I closed the door and turned up the thermostat.
“Are you all right, Daisy?” Lee hovered uncertainly. “No offense, but you look like shit.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll be okay.”
He frowned. “What happened to you out there?”
“I’ll explain later.” I yawned, the kind of huge, gaping yawn that feels like your jaws might crack. Attractive, right? “Now that this is over, I need to talk to you anyway.”
“About what?”
“Using the Internet to find a guy,” I said wearily. “A mysterious lawyer.”
Lee’s eyes lit up. “On a Venn diagram, the intersection of ‘Internet’ and ‘mysterious’ is where I live.”
I blinked at him. “What?”
“Nothing,” he said gently. “We’ll talk about it later. You’re sure you’re okay?”
“I’m sure.” I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t think there was anything Lee or anyone else could do about it. I’d acted without thinking and I’d learned the hard way that it was dangerous to trifle with death magic. I’d used up all my reserves and now I felt drained to the dregs, as surely as Cooper’s victims. Except at least I was still myself . . . just a very, very tired version of myself. “Go home.”
“Okay,” he said. “Call me if you need anything.”
“I will. Oh, and, Lee?” I added as he turned to go. “You should ask Jen out on a date. I’m pretty sure she’s willing to consider it.”
“Gee, thanks.” His tone went flat. “I’m honored.”
“Oh, don’t be like that.” I yawned again. “You know you like her. Now get out of here.”
After Lee left, I stowed the spirit lantern atop my nightstand, unbuckled
dauda-dagr
from around my waist, and collapsed onto my bed without bothering to undress further, assuming I’d fall into a dead sleep. But letting unconsciousness claim me felt too much like what I’d felt when I was linked to the old obeah man’s duppy by an invisible tether, feeling my life force ebb away from me. Every time I came close to falling asleep, I awoke with a jerk, my entire body tensed at the memory.
Exhausted as I was, it seemed I couldn’t let sleep claim me. Not yet.
So after a futile hour I staggered out of bed and drew a hot bath, stripping off my clothes and sinking into the soothing warmth. Mogwai perched on the side of the tub, reaching out one cautious paw to bat at drops of water dripping from my leaky faucet. It was an old building with old plumbing.
I mulled over the mistakes I’d made, evaluating them without dwelling on them, hugging my knees and swishing my tail back and forth in the warm water. Bit by bit, my tense muscles relaxed.
I let myself grieve for Jojo in all her ridiculous, foulmouthed valor. If I hadn’t screwed up, Jojo would still be alive. Hell, I hadn’t even known fairies could be killed. Not like that.
But Jojo had made her choice, too. I hadn’t asked for her help, I hadn’t promised her credit in my ledger this time. If she’d offered, I would have told her to stay far, far away from Sinclair tonight.
Her choice, her sacrifice.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured, brushing my fingertips over the Oak King’s talisman, the silver acorn strung around my neck. “She died bravely.”
Somehow, I thought he would understand.
The water was tepid by the time I finally hauled myself out of the bath, dried off with a towel, pulled on a clean tank top, and crawled under the covers.
According to the glowing red numbers on my clock radio, it was almost three in the morning. Midnight had long since come and gone. Halloween was over and I’d beaten its deadline with time to spare. Downstairs, I could hear the sounds of Mrs. Browne bustling about efficiently in her kitchen. From the warm, yeasty smells of bread rising through the vents, I could tell she’d already fired up her ovens for the first batch of the day. I was one of the few people who’d ever been privileged to witness Mrs. Browne at work in her bakery.
Oh, in case I haven’t mentioned the obvious, Mrs. Browne isn’t human. Mrs. Browne is a brownie.
Eyes closed, I inhaled deeply. It smelled like warm bread baking, it smelled like comfort, it smelled like normalcy; at least in Pemkowet, where Mrs. Browne bakes her supernaturally delicious crusty bread, meltingly flaky pastries, and cinnamon rolls like spicy clouds with cool drizzles of icing.
Curled against my side, Mogwai purred loudly in approval.
All was well with the world.
The gate between the realm of the living and the dead was closed. I was Hel’s liaison, and I had kept my town safe.
At last, I slept.
Forty-eight
F
or about a week
afterward, Pemkowet was crawling with reporters.
To no one’s surprise, Amanda Brooks managed to spin the Tall Man’s return from beyond the grave to carry out the curse of the Cavannaughs into an enthralling, multigenerational ghost story, glossing over the finer points of how and why it had occurred.
At my insistence, she also made it clear that the episode was over and that Pemkowet’s days as a destination for ghost hunters had come to an end.
Okay, she may have hinted that the cycle could repeat itself in another generation, but I could live with that.
Although my image was out there, thanks to Stacey Brooks’s earlier ghostbusting footage, not to mention a handful of spectators who’d had the presence of mind to document the battle with the Tall Man, I kept a low profile. So did Cody, my partner in ghostbusting, and Stefan, whose skill with a broadsword was drawing a fair amount of attention in historical reenactment circles. In fact, everyone in the eldritch community kept a low profile. Whatever else may be true of us, none of us are media whores.
Well, in another day and age, Lurine may have been an exception, but times change. There’s a big difference between being immortalized in prose by John Keats and being outed by Gawker.
Anyway.
Once it was apparent that Pemkowet’s dead were staying put, interest waned and the town was left in peace again.
The coven took up a collection to buy Sinclair a ticket to Kingston to lay his grandfather’s spirit to rest. He was gone for four days and quiet upon his return, saying only that it was done and there would be no more trouble from his family, living or dead.
I’ll admit it, there was a part of me that felt a little cheated by the lack of resolution in my own confrontation with Letitia and Emmeline Palmer. Obviously, there wouldn’t have been any point in my going all the way to Jamaica with Sinclair, even if I could have afforded a ticket, which I couldn’t, but it would have been nice to know that they were smarting at their defeat.
But that was just pride talking, and pride was one of the Seven Deadlies. I had to tread carefully there. I reminded myself that it was enough to have kept Pemkowet safe, that I’d made mistakes, that a member of the eldritch community had paid the ultimate price for them.
Speaking of Jojo, after Sinclair returned from laying his grandfather’s spirit to rest, we went together to do the same for the fairy’s remains.
On an overcast November day, we took the limp sprig of joe-pye weed to the meadow where I’d first summoned a gaggle of fairies with cowslip dew last summer. It had been lush and green then, filled with indigenous plants and wildflowers. Now the meadow was brown and desiccated, dry grass and the thin stalks of weeds crunching underfoot. I stood shivering in my leather jacket while Sinclair cleared a patch of earth. He dug a hole in the dirt with his bare hands, laying the ragged bit of joe-pye weed in it and covering it tenderly. Side by side, we gazed at his handiwork.
“Maybe she’s not gone for good,” Sinclair said. “Maybe she’ll return in the spring. Do you think?”
“I don’t know,” I murmured.
He shook his head, beaded dreadlocks rattling. “I don’t know what I did to deserve that kind of loyalty.”
“She loved you,” I said simply. “Why not? You’re a pretty awesome guy.”
Sinclair smiled, but there was sorrow in it. “Thanks. You, too, Daisy. An awesome girl, I mean.”
Hands in my pockets, I nudged him with one elbow. “You should say something.”
He took a deep breath. “Jojo . . . thank you. Wherever you are, I hope you’re at peace. I promise, I’ll never forget you.”
Inside my jacket, the silver acorn strung around my neck on a chain tingled against my skin. Overhead, the gray clouds parted to let a single shaft of sunlight angle across the meadow, illuminating the shadows beneath the dense pine trees, pinning a gilded mantle on the tall figure that stood there, crowned with antlers.
It was the Oak King.
Although he didn’t move, the meadow seemed to contract around him, growing smaller. From where we stood, I could see the bottomless wells of grief and knowledge in his deep, deep brown eyes, and I understood that although he was older than history, older than the written word, he still mourned for the least of his subjects.