Chapter 17

J osie, who was still hiding from my wrath at closing time, had a new devotee. Little adored her. Likely because Josie let her plant strawberries then used her gift to make them grow fruit and ripen the berries before Little's eyes. Then Little got to snack on her labors in a display of instant gratification only dryads could produce. Paying her twice what she asked for probably helped too.

"Don't worry, mija ." Pedro stood in the doorway to my office. "They'll come."

The shop had closed a half hour earlier, but I stayed at my desk and stared at the chair across from it as though I could make a client appear from sheer will. No such luck. I had zero takers. Which meant Mr. Collins, who I hadn't seen since the asrai incident, remained my only client.

"I've never had a dry spell this long." I locked up on our way out. "Maybe I should have a coupon day."

"Your skills are worth your fee." He opened the door on the wagon for me. "Things will pick up soon."

For our sake, I hoped so. The shop covered its own bills, but my clients kept our emergency fund healthy enough to guarantee we wouldn't have to start over from scratch if we ever had to run. And, after years of being the breadwinner, I couldn't adjust to twiddling my thumbs, waiting for paying gigs to roll in.

A few minutes later, Kierce slid in the back with Little beside him.

"Josie said to tell you that you have to forgive her eventually." Kierce observed Little fasten her seat belt on Pedro's orders then mimicked her motions. "She also offered to cook dinner for us."

"She meant no harm." Pedro chuckled at my scowl. "She was bonding with him, in her way."

"She rubbed him—" I snapped my teeth closed. "We'll pick this up later, okay, Pedro?"

"I wasn't rubbed," Kierce protested, which made Little giggle beside him.

"I smell the sunscreen on you."

There wasn't much difference between its scent and the product she used in his hair, but it was there.

"Ah. That. Yes." Pedro drew a hand down his face. "I can only imagine what Josie told you."

A popping noise in my jaw warned I would be heading to the dentist if I didn't chill out soon.

"The sunscreen was the spray kind Matty likes. That's where she got it. From his locker."

Embarrassment creeping up my spine, I focused on the short drive and parked us in our usual spot.

Pedro kissed my forehead before I released him from his host to a standing ovation from Little.

Used to the production, I hadn't considered how it would appear to her. She couldn't see spirits, but she was a clever girl. She had to be observant to stay alive, let alone pickpocket with enough success to keep her spot with Ian. So, after Pedro left, and Matty woke, she noticed the shift. His posture was looser and more familiar as he invaded my space with a stretch. His expressions grew more animated as I explained the situation, and the curious glint in his eyes was pure Matty as he aimed his full attention at Little.

Hooking his elbow over the seatback, he asked her, "Have you ever been to the cemetery at night?"

"No." She turned red as a beet under his gaze. "The gates get locked at dark."

Either she wanted to impress him with her haughty denial, as if she had never broken a single rule in her life, or she drew a hard line on breaking and entering. Or maybe just breaking and entering cemeteries.

"Then you'll get a kick out of this." His infectious grin was one I recalled from childhood. He always wore it seconds before he suggested a bad idea I never had the heart to deny him. With gusto, he threw open his door. "Race you to the river."

"To Heaven's gate," I called as they leapt out and ran away laughing.

Had Matty not cast a wink over his shoulder, I would have thought he was distracting Little for her own sake. But that damn wink told me Pedro let him in on the rubbing incident, and he must feel I needed a moment alone with Kierce to sort through it. Face-to-face would make this easier, I hoped, so I stepped into the parking lot and waited for him to do the same.

"I'm sorry for what Josie did to you today." I twisted my fingers in my shirt. "You could have told her no. I'm not victim-blaming. I just want to make sure you understand you don't have to indulge her whims."

"You were upset at the idea of Josie putting her hands on me."

Through a locked jaw, I admitted, "Yes."

"I don't like-like Josie."

Heat licked under my skin. I was a dirty, dirty eavesdropper. And I knew exactly what he meant. "Oh?"

"I came back to this world for you." He cuffed my wrists, pinning them behind my back. "I like-like you ."

Heat as slow as sun-warmed molasses poured through me. "Maybe I like-like you back."

With gentle pressure, he bowed my spine until I arched against him. "I would kiss you if I remembered how."

"It's like riding a bike." I wet my lips, ready to taste his. "You don't ever really forget."

"I never learned to ride a bike."

"Then it's like riding a horse."

With him in control, I couldn't link my fingers behind his neck or guide him.

Kierce would have to figure it out on his own.

"You brought Little here."

The interruption dragged a groan out of me. Out of Kierce too. Which, yes, gave me a thrill.

"Farah." I regretted the instant he traded his grip on my wrists for a single hand resting on my hip. "We've got catching up to do."

"Do you know how much trouble she'll get in if Ian catches her?"

Had a spirit possessed the ability to blanch, she would have turned bone white.

"We paid her take for tonight so she could visit you."

"How did you find her?" Farah blurred in her panic. "Who told you about her?"

"I spoke to Maggy." I hadn't wanted to break it to her like that, but I had to calm her. "She told me."

"Of course she did." Farah fell still in the way only the dead or undead can manage. "You spoke to her."

"Yes." I heard what she wanted to know. "She's dead."

"God." She plopped down in the grass. "How?"

"She drowned," Kierce told her. "The same as, we assume, you."

The second she saw him—really saw him—she scrambled backwards on her palms to escape.

"What are you?" Fear caused her form to shiver. "Are you Death?"

A spirit had described him as radiating black light around his head, almost like a halo. She must see it too. I wished I could, but I was starting to believe only the dead could perceive that aspect of his nature.

"I'm his personal assistant." Kierce kept a straight face. "I won't harm you."

"You two are…?" Her gaze ping-ponged between us. "You're together ?"

"Yes." He dug his fingertips into my skin. "We are together."

Blame it on the way he held me, like he didn't want to let go, but in that moment, he struck me as realer than he had been before admitting he wanted to kiss me. Sentimental? Possibly. But I didn't think it was the hormones talking. Not just the hormones anyway.

The more time he spent among the living, the deeper he sank into his own skin.

The more he experienced, the more alive he became, and the more sensation he craved.

Drawing her knees to her chest, Farah sighed. "Maggy told you where to find the others then."

"We spoke to Ian." I hated how fear unraveled her edges. "Audrey isn't there anymore."

"He would never out her to the cops." Farah snorted. "She's too valuable for him to lose."

"I believe him." I wished I didn't have to share this part. "He asked if I had talked to her too."

"Talk as in…" she gestured between us, "… talk ?"

"Yes."

A sob blasted from her chest like a gunshot, confirming Maggy had been wrong about their friendship.

"Shhh." I focused on Farah until she solidified enough for me to embrace her. "This doesn't mean it's too late for her. Between your death and Maggy's, she might have gotten spooked and ran. Do you have any idea where she would go? Does she have anyone else she might turn to for help?"

"The Houwaards." She sagged in my arms. "Only as a last resort."

"The couple who wanted to adopt her."

After I gave Harrow their information, he called them to demand an explanation for the lack of a missing persons report. They claimed not to have seen or heard from Audrey since she left their house without a word. They were hiding something, maybe that they kept cashing the checks to care for a child no longer in their home, but he didn't think it was the girl herself.

"Yeah." She sniffled into my shirt then pulled herself together. "They saw her do something unnatural ."

"That's why she left?" I released her, wishing I had more to offer. "She worried they wouldn't want her?"

"Oh, no." Farah rubbed her arms. "They still want her." She shuddered. "Dan is a pastor. Her affliction excited him. He was convinced it was proof of demonic possession or Satan working his evil through girls or some other nonsense. Holly wanted to adopt Audrey all along, but Dan wasn't sold on the idea until it occurred to him that, if the devil was working through her, then she was also proof God existed. From an argument I overheard, a day or two before Audrey came home with me, Dan wanted her to allow him to exorcise her demon at his church. In front of his parishioners. During a livestream."

Low moans rose in concert around me, my temper riling the dead beneath my feet.

Whispers curled around me, hissing in my ears as phantom fingers dug into my skin.

"Enough," Kierce barked, and the unhappy dead returned to their slumbers.

Crossing her arms over her stomach, Farah darted frantic glances around, but there was nothing to see.

"Let's go find Matty and Little." I gave myself a forced cheer injection. "Lead the way, Farah."

A flash of blue light announced her departure, leaving me and Kierce behind.

Once it was obvious to him I was in avoidance mode, he asked, "How often does that happen?"

The voices. The chills. The…episodes.

Every path was familiar, so I chose a shortcut for us. "How can you tell it's not the first time?"

"You weren't taken by surprise." He tucked his hands into his pockets to stroll. "They felt your anger and rose to meet it."

Given he was an expert on death, I would be a fool not to get his opinion. "Three or four times a week."

"Did these episodes begin before or after we met?"

"Before." I was relieved to confirm he wasn't the trigger. "It started maybe eighteen months ago."

As I firmed up a time frame to the best of my memory, I regretted it meant Ankou was off the hook too. The power flares began before Armie integrated himself into our lives and had continued in his absence. They hadn't been much to start with, but their potency and frequency kept increasing.

"Do the spirits touch you or only speak to you during these episodes?"

"They touch me." I got chills thinking how real they felt when I had always been the one who gave them substance if I wanted to initiate contact. "Any idea what's causing it?"

"I would hazard a guess that you're entering a metamorphic stage."

"You're saying I'm a caterpillar and no one told me?"

"Caterpillars are remarkable." He cut his eyes toward me. "So are you."

"I just want to state for the record I'm open to sprouting butterfly wings. Oh. Moth wings."

Josie could pull off going full-on Monarch. I was more of a Luna.

"I doubt there will be physical manifestations, but new powers or heightened senses may emerge."

"Well, that's both disappointing and terrifying."

"Without knowing the other half of your heritage, it's only a guess."

"A guess from you is worth more than a doctoral thesis from anyone else. Will the episodes keep getting worse?"

"Until your full potential is met, yes." His mouth tipped down. "I'm afraid they will."

"All good, Mary?" Matty stood with Little next to the gateway. "I was getting worried about you."

"Little was too fast." I faked flicking sweat from my brow. "It took us this long to catch up to you guys."

The girl in question beamed until the hoot of an owl reminded her where she was and wiped her expression clean.

"This is your friend?" Alyse stepped from her mausoleum to join Farah. "Audrey, was it?"

With a gesture down at my side, I warned Matty we had company, and he alerted Little.

"This is Little." Farah's excitement waned at the reminder. "She lived with me and the others."

"She's precious." Alyse patted Little's head, though she couldn't feel it. "Who is your friend, Frankie?"

"This is Kierce." I took his hand to steel my nerves. "He's staying with me for a while."

"One presumes he has his own quarters." Alyse studied him. "One can never be too careful."

"One is being very careful, I promise." I crossed a finger over my heart then called Little closer to where I stood, angling her to face her friend. "Who wants to go first?"

"Me." She bounced on her toes. "I want to go first."

"This is how it works." I let her get a few more jumps in before I broke down the rules. "She can hear you, but you can't hear her. I can hear both of you, so I'll repeat what Farah says to you. Understand?"

"Yes." She clutched her hands at chest level. "Did it hurt when you died?"

Not a surprising question, and the answer from Farah was just as bland. "She doesn't remember."

"Oh." Little hummed. "Can you fly? Do you haunt people? Will you haunt me? I'd love a pet ghost."

"You can't keep people as pets." Farah raked her fingers through Little's hair, but it did nothing to untangle the mess. "Not even dead people."

The girls went back and forth for a half hour before Little ran out of rapid-fire queries.

The temporary lull was my best shot at getting answers, so I pushed Little for details on Audrey in case I only got this one chance. I quickly learned she hadn't been allowed to speak to Audrey after Ian claimed her, and since Little was human, she had no standing in the gang. Aside from Ian's slip, which told us he thought Audrey was dead, we had learned nothing.

"You need to get home," Farah told her through me. "Ian will be watching you."

"Yeah." Little scuffed her foot. "I don't want to get in more trouble."

"We'll drive her," I promised Farah. "We'll make sure she gets back safely."

"Don't get caught," Farah cautioned. "Ian's always paranoid for days after cops come around."

After facilitating their goodbyes, I left Farah once again in Alyse's care, but I had no doubt there would come a time when she refused to stay put. The helplessness she found in death was chafing her, and I hadn't helped matters with this visit. All I had done was remind her of what she stood to lose.

The four of us returned to the wagon in much lower spirits. I dropped Matty at the shop, wanting him as far from this latest case as possible, then Kierce and I returned Little to a place of her choosing. One that should protect her from discovery.

As we backed out of a defunct laundromat, I heard a faint rumble and checked the darkened sky.

Not the promise of an oncoming storm.

An engine.

A vintage one.

One that coughed and spluttered as it idled just out of sight.

Then again, maybe those ominous clouds did herald an oncoming storm.