Chapter 7

ChapterSeven

“You know you don’t have to do this. Say the word, and I’ll drive you home. Right now. Today.”

Jesse looked at Mal in surprise. “Your firm has been begging me for months, years, to take care of this safe deposit box. Now I agree to do it, and you’re trying to usher me out of town. What gives, Mal?”

“I didn’t know what I was asking.” He kept his tone low as he pulled her deeper into the library for privacy. “We were concerned about magic leaking out of the box, but if it summoned up gremlins, or lured them, or woke them up, whatever it is that went on, then who knows what will happen if we open it all the way? Perhaps we can seal it in a bigger vault. Iron perhaps. Encased in steel. There has to be something that can contain it.”

Jesse went to the window and looked at the destruction on the front lawn. “You want me to leave Lily and Dante with this mess? My mess? I might not have chosen it, but Marigold dropped this on me. They didn’t abandon me when we were little, sleeping in a car. They were just kids themselves cleaning up Marigold’s mess. I’m not abandoning them now when it’s my turn to protect them.”

It wasn’t just living in a car. It was being left in the cold without food. Lily and Dante had scrounged for scraps and always fed her first. They didn’t think she remembered as much as she did, and she would never tell them otherwise. They seemed happy to think she’d forgotten the worst of it. But Jesse remembered the feeling of hunger. She remembered that fear pressing in on the window in panted breaths from toothless grins. She remembered seeing things a child should never have to see within those dank alleys.

In many ways, Marigold abandoning them had been the kindest thing she could have done. Because she absolutely sucked at being a mother.

“I’m going.” Jesse looked through the glass for signs of the creatures. “Are they gone?”

“Yes, I was just out there,” Mal answered, placing his hand on her shoulder.

She drew comfort from his touch, just as she had when he lay in the bed on the other side of the pillow wall.

“The sooner, the better,” Jesse determined. “I want it to be over. I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to talk myself out of it. Let’s open that stupid box and be done with it once and for all.”

“Great. We’ll go now,” Nolan said behind them.

Jesse turned to see Lily’s boyfriend in the archway. Nolan had always been friendly enough during their video calls, but seeing him in person gave her a whole new perspective. She’d imagined him as a manly man contractor, a working-class man who labored hard and liked watching sports on television. Knowing he was a werewolf didn’t exactly tamp down her impression of him. She felt an energy coming off him, something restless and wild that was held back with a tiny ribbon of control.

But she also felt that Nolan loved her sister and wanted nothing more than to make her happy. Those two things meant everything.

“I need to borrow a change of clothes from Lily,” Jesse said, looking at the work uniform she’d slept in. “I’m not dressed for a bank visit.”

Mal exhaled what sounded to be a small laugh and said wryly, “You might be for this bank.”

“Still, I want a shower.” Jesse moved toward the hall that would take her to the kitchen. “Lily in the kitchen?”

Nolan nodded but didn’t move out of the way to let her pass to the hallway. “You shower. I’ll have her bring you something.”

Jesse sensed he was eager to get this done and didn’t insist on talking to Lily herself. She made her way up the stairs. She took a shaky breath when she was alone on the top landing. Fear rolled into her at the thought of what she had to do—fear of the unknown, fear of facing what people thought was her destiny, fear of being torn open by angry gremlins.