Chapter 25

H arrow took Audrey home with him.

I was surprised I let him go. I hadn't been certain until I was sitting on the path with my arms around my groggy brother that I would. I hadn't even drawn blood. Even if he went about it the wrong way, Harrow had given me a lot to think about. Oh, I was still going to punish him. I only had to determine its severity.

"Do you believe her?"

Kierce had gathered Matty against his chest and carried him back to the truck. Carter would have done it had she not gotten distracted by a phone call. Me? I was happy to let anyone with superstrength help. It sucked that I couldn't use spirits to lift heavy objects. Or reach items on the top shelf.

Honestly, I had a ton of short-girl problems spirits could solve if only our bond worked that way.

"Her story fits what we know to be true." Carter sank into Matty's couch on the opposite side of Kierce.

The call had been Josie, who insisted she was fine and demanded to be brought home to see Matty. The fuming redcap declined with a snap of her bright-white teeth. Matty had been used as leverage, and she refused to put Josie at risk if Harrow decided to bait me again. So then Josie demanded Carter release Aretha to tend Matty. It got loud after that. Louder . I would have sided with Josie, if she had asked me. It was what sisters did. Even when they didn't want to. But I would be lying if I didn't confess I was grateful she had targeted Carter as her verbal punching bag instead.

"I feel like I already know this—" I dreaded Kierce's answer, "—but would Ankou bargain with a child?"

"Yes," he said without hesitation. "Ankou has committed untold atrocities to further his own schemes."

"We need Little." A bag of cheddar puffs crinkled in Carter's hand. "Only she can confirm who she sold the intel to or if she held on to it for Farah's sake."

"Others hoping to eliminate competition could have overheard as well." Kierce stroked Badb's head, the crow snug in the baby sling. "The position is a coveted one in such a hierarchy. Even those they saw as their friends would have envied them. Perhaps not enough to strike out in the open, but the odds are good more than one set of ears listened in on their conversations."

Especially during the times when they hung out after Audrey claimed Farah's title.

That was when they would have expected dirty laundry to get aired for anyone to hear.

A knock on the door preceded Aretha, who let herself in. She adjusted her bag, waved at us, then locked up behind herself. "I would ask where to find my patient, but you guys make it easy with this floor plan."

Our beds were positioned in the exact same spot, a concession to the size of our apartments.

"This makes you three for three on treating the Talbot siblings."

"Yeah." Aretha graced me with a brief smile. "But treating them isn't as challenging as treating you."

"In that case, I'll try to injure myself in new and exciting ways in the future."

"Please don't." She began her exam of Matty, who was asleep. "If you miss me that much, just call."

"You would go out for drinks with us?"

Fingers on his pulse, she moved her lips in a slow count. "Why wouldn't I?"

"You're Harrow's friend, and he's no longer welcome in this house."

"Ouch." She dug around in her bag. "What did he do this time?"

"You're looking at it," Kierce said darkly.

"Samuel did this? To Matty?" She fumbled her bag, and it hit the floor. "Are you serious?"

"As a heart attack." I went to help clean up her things. "Will that cause a conflict of interest for you?"

"Nope." She offered her palm, crisscrossed with purposeful scars. "I can offer magically binding HIPAA."

"Magically binding, I get." Carter glanced between us. "What the hell is a HIPAA?"

"Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act." I shrugged at Aretha's surprise. "Who do you think shopped company insurance policies for us? I did a lot of research before choosing our provider."

The premium was ridiculous, but that happened when a preexisting condition guaranteed a policy would get plenty of exercise. There would come a time when Matty needed a nurse around the clock. Oneiros I had questioned about his future health warned he might require a ventilator and other life support if we wanted a physical tether for him. Otherwise, his anchor in this world would erode, barring him access to this plane, until he became as insubstantial as the dreams he inhabited.

Breathe, Frankie. Dreams aren't taking him today. He's okay. He's right there. You can reach out and touch him. You still have time.

"I offer binding oaths that guarantee what is said or done to you and yours will never be shared with a third party." She gestured around the room. "There's also flexibility in coverage. We can add or remove contacts as they come into and out of your life. For example, I have a feeling you would loop in tall, dark, and…" A subtle wrinkle creased her nose. "He has a baby ?"

"Do you not want kids," Carter asked, "or do you only find men with kids by other women unattractive?"

Big talk from someone who almost had a stroke the first time she saw Kierce wearing a baby sling.

"Who are you?" Aretha snapped her gaze to Carter. "My mother? Or actually my grandmother? Even my aunts, honestly. And there's one uncle. Sheesh. A woman's success shouldn't be based on the number of kids carrying her genetic material. Children aren't a prerequisite for happiness, damn it."

"I did not mean to step on that emotional land mine." Carter held up her hands. "I'll be sheltering under a desk if anyone needs me."

"You were saying? About the coverage?" I tossed her a lifeline. "Are drinks with friends included?"

"We can tweak the verbiage." She sagged as she dusted off her hands. "If you want to cut Harrow out of your life, I can offer you a scalpel. Where I'm concerned anyway."

A twinge at her phrasing struck me, but I had sliced myself free of him once, and I could do it again.

As the song goes, "The First Cut is the Deepest."

"I'll take you up on that." A smile flickered and died on my lips. "Let me think on the conditions?"

"Until then, you still have med-witch/patient privilege." She hesitated. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault." I tasted ash picturing Matty at Harrow's feet. "You didn't kidnap my brother."

"I don't have a death wish," she agreed and set to work on him, as if the reminder jarred her into action.

While she did her thing, I rejoined Kierce and Carter. I sat next to him, dropped my head on his shoulder, and rested my eyes.

A sharp jab in my side dragged me from my accidental nap, and I really wished it hadn't when I took in how I had crawled from the couch into Kierce's lap and nestled against his chest. While I slept—I checked my phone—for five hours like a babe in his arms. Arms that tensed as he sensed my alertness. His eyes opened a full minute later, leaving me debating if he required the time to surface from the depths of his meditative rest. If so, he might as well be logging REM the same as the rest of us. It was an oddly humanizing thought.

And a distraction from my current predicament.

"Good morning," he rumbled, his voice rough with not-sleep.

"I seem to be in your lap." I might as well take the direct approach. "I'm not sure how that happened."

"I'm not sure either." He inhaled slowly, fully expanding his lungs, almost yawning. "But I don't mind."

A foot kicked me in the butt, drawing my attention behind me, to where Carter stretched out her legs.

"I needed more room." She snuggled into a pillow stolen from Matty's bed. "So, I moved you."

"When did we decide on a sleepover?" I was slow to move. "I don't remember deciding to sleep period."

"You conked out before Aretha left." Her eyes drifted lower. "Kierce figured you would want to stick close to Matty, so he stayed to keep an eye on you." She read the question in the quirk of my brow. "I claimed a spot to avoid going home. I'm woman enough to admit I'm slightly terrified of your sister. She's had an opportunity to cool off and start to plan her revenge, and that frightens me."

"You should be afraid," I commiserated, familiar with the sting of Josie's wrath.

A hard pinch to my hip startled a yelp out of me, and I toppled off Kierce's lap onto the floor to escape it.

"Is that a crow in your pocket," Carter chortled, "or are you just happy to see Frankie?"

Sure enough, a sleek black head with a sharp black beak emerged from a slit in the fabric on the side of the baby sling he wore. Had I not been so busy admiring Kierce and stealing extra lap time with him, I would have noticed the very pink baby sling was in place, if pushed off to the side.

"Oh no, Badb." I braced an elbow on Kierce's knee to scratch her cheek. "I didn't mean to squish you."

"She said she didn't mind." He pulled down the material. "She just has to use the bathroom."

"I'll let her out." About to rise, I paused with my palms on his thighs. "Can she fly yet?"

"She says yes." He narrowed a scowl on her. "I would prefer she not test her wings for another day or two."

"Hop on, girl." I held still while she walked up my arm onto my shoulder. "I'll take her down."

"I'll go with you." Kierce unwound the baby sling. "Just in case."

"It's fine." I patted his leg. "We'll be back in a minute."

With Badb tucked close to my neck, I took the stairs down to the parking lot. I sat on the lowest step and set her on the ground to handle her business. I was studying Elmo, thinking on how the tree had saved Badb from certain death, when movement caught my eye.

Down the road, in the direction opposite Bonaventure, I spied a blonde head ducking under an old Coke sign our nearest neighbor had tacked to the side of their barnlike supply business building. I watched for a minute, but I lost sight of whoever it had been. Though I had a guess.

Footsteps thundered behind me as Carter took the steps two at a time. "Harrow called."

Twisting around, I rested an elbow on the metal tread. "And?"

"The house where Ian and the others were squatting burned to the ground last night."

"The same night we solved the mystery of the missing Audrey."

With the fingers of my right hand, I made a gesture toward the last place I spotted the blonde.

A wrinkle gathered across Carter's brow and then smoothed as she grasped my meaning.

"I doubt Ian would torch a place he could fall back on later," she murmured. "What do you think?"

That the timing stank to high heaven. That Audrey might have double-crossed us. That Harrow might not have the first clue what she was capable of or whose side she was on. Despite Audrey painting herself as the victim, she stood to benefit greatly from usurping her best friend. Had she killed for security? For her place in Ian's bed? Survival whittled us down to the bone. Some of us picked up the bone, sharpened the tip, then shanked the person next to us.

"Kids scatter after a scare like that," I admitted. "Especially if they already know something's hunting them."

"True." Carter thinned her lips. "Do you think they would take Little with them?"

"Audrey and Farah make it sound like Little is tolerated more than accepted."

"With neither of them to protect her, she's got a short shelf life unless she proves herself useful to Ian."

"Hold on." I hadn't cottoned to it the first time. "Harrow told you about the fire?"

Harrow, who was on bereavement leave. Who shouldn't have been looped in to any new reports, even ones pertaining to the case he had been working.

"He had the brilliant idea to drive out and surveil the house while there's an active APB on him. It was an inferno by the time he got there. A house that old? It was a matchstick waiting to be struck. He called an anonymous tip in, after scouting for survivors, then left before SFD or SPD arrived."

"Call him back." I swallowed hard. "Verify that Audrey is all right."

Carter did just that, but I could tell before she got a word in edgewise things had gone sideways.

"Fuck." She met my gaze. "She's gone."

"Can he tell if she was taken or if she got scared and ran?"

As soon as I said it, I dismissed it. The way she had looked at him? Trusted him?

"He says she wouldn't have run." Carter snarled into the phone. "Get your ass over here."

"Someone must have followed me to Wormsloe." I stalled her protest. "Think about it."

"If they had known where Audrey was, they would have already moved against her."

"They must have switched to Harrow after they saw he had Audrey."

"Then all they had to do was wait for him to leave her home alone to make their move."

"She was the target all along." I gripped the rail. "Now that they have her, they have what they wanted." I pulled myself to my feet. "They're going to cut and run." I bent to scoop up Badb. "Otherwise, they wouldn't have torched Ian's tiny kingdom."

"They don't expect to be around long enough for him to retaliate."

"Which means our window to find Audrey before the killer strikes again is closing fast."

The killer, which very well might be a nine- or ten-year-old girl.

With Badb in my arms, I jogged up the stairs to Matty's apartment. Kierce waited for me inside the door. I wasn't sure if he heard me coming and decided to meet me or if finding himself alone with my brother was awkward for him. Either way, I got him up to speed on Audrey and the fire then handed off his bird.

"We need Josie." I watched Carter blanch. "She can come sit with Matty while we search for Audrey."

"Can I be gone before then?" She withdrew her cell. "I would love to not be here when she arrives."

I got the feeling I was missing more than Carter being afraid Josie would throttle her for the house arrest thing, but I didn't have time to dig into their issues. I could finesse the information out of Josie later.

"Do what you need to do." I wished I could tap out on Harrow as easily. "Just get her here."

As soon as Josie was given the green light to come home, she booked a Swyft to the shop.

About thirty seconds after the call ended, Carter had mysteriously vanished—truck and all.

Five minutes later, Harrow rolled in driving the Chevelle and parked next to my wagon.

He sat there, staring at me through the windshield as I waited on Josie to arrive, giving birth to a million thoughts that died behind his eyes.

Once upon a time, I would have cared enough to pluck one or two from his head to share the burden. As hard as it had been to see Armie as a villain, it was doubly hard for me to cast Harrow in the role. But the one hard line I had, the ultimate unforgivable sin, was harming my family.

Anything I might have felt for him, past, present, or future, had evaporated the second he took Matty.

A Chevy Blazer pulled in, ending our stare off. Josie hopped out before the driver finished the turn. As an overwhelming urge to lecture her on the dangers of leaping from moving vehicles perched on my lips, an even worse thought hit me between the eyes. That she might have learned the particular bad habit from watching me do the exact same thing when I operated in panic mode.

"Frankie." She flung herself at me. "He's all right? He's really okay? Harrow didn't hurt him?"

"Aretha put him under to counteract the spell Harrow cast on him to?—"

The earth rumbled under our feet, and metal screamed a deafening plea.

Had I been paying closer attention, I would have noticed the black footprints Josie left in her wake. But I had been too happy to find my sister recovered from her own med-witch treatment. I should have also warned Harrow he might want to duck in his seat until I got her upstairs. Then again, as I beheld the spectacular fruits of her anger, I decided the reminder of why it was foolish to mess with us Marys was warranted.

As best as I could tell, Josie had called a tree root from her garden under the shop into the parking lot.

From there, I got fuzzy on the details. Either she created a new tree from that root or just kept tugging on the root until she had enough slack to stab a limb through the Chevelle from belly to roof. The limb grew until it towered over us, about eight or nine feet, and curved around the body of the car, caging Harrow.

The footprints were scorched earth. Nothing would ever grow there again. Such was a dryad's fury.

A better person wouldn't have laughed. A better person wouldn't have bent over and slapped her thighs hard enough to bruise. A better person wouldn't have been in real danger of peeing her pants.

"You okay there, Mary?" Josie's eyes glowed with verdant light. "It's not that funny."

"Yes," I wheezed, still going, "it is."

Firm hands helped me upright, and then Kierce turned me to face him. I wasn't sure why his gentleness did it. Broke me. A switch flipped in me, shutting off the manic laughter and turning on the waterworks until I was sobbing against his chest and balling my hands in the fabric of his shirt.

"They're safe." His lips brushed my ear. "Josie and Matty are safe."

The harder I clung to him, the tighter he held on and the softer his voice dipped in reassuring murmurs.

For a guy learning how to be human again, he was doing a bang-up job of holding me together.

"I'm to blame." Josie rubbed circles on my back. "I should have been stronger."

"Not your fault," I choked out between tapering sobs. "Harrow kicked us while we were down."

A rumbling coo from Badb, who was still sandwiched between Kierce and me, comforted me. Or maybe she was crying out for oxygen. Hard to tell without stepping back, and I didn't want to let him go.

"Will you leave him up there?"

From Kierce's tone, I couldn't tell if he cared either way, but he held eclectic views on death.

"We can't let him rot up there, no matter how much he might deserve it." I unlatched from Kierce. "He's still with SPD, and they frown on the murder of policemen. Even though it would prove impossible for human courts to convict Josie, the 514 is all about setting precedents lately."

"I should have considered the location." Josie showed not an ounce of remorse for Harrow's plight. "The tree would be cut down so they could Jaws of Life him out, and that's not fair to the tree." She looped an arm through mine. "Probably should have gotten him out of the car first. I could have hidden him inside a hollow in the trunk."

"Yes, well, you'll know what to do differently next time." I kissed her forehead. "Can you let him out?"

Bright, sharp magic spilled into the air, and the limb blocking the driver side door shifted down two feet.

"He can get out now." She flashed a brilliant smile at me. "Let's go see Matty."

"I need to check something first." I held up my hands to ward off her scowl. "I'll bring Kierce with me."

"Don't let me catch you helping Harrow." She honed her frown. "Or there will be consequences."

With that, she flounced to the staircase where I watched until she entered his apartment.

Leaves scattered around us as Harrow shoved until his door gave way. He climbed onto a limb and sat. It was second nature to offer help to someone in need. But I was more afraid of Josie finding out I caved to assisting Harrow than him breaking his neck getting down by himself.

"What did you need?"

Kierce drew me from the spectacle, and I waved for him to follow me, grateful for the excuse to leave.

"I saw someone out here earlier. I wanted to make sure it wasn't Little."

Or confirm it was her.

"Little?" His forehead creased in thought. "What would she be doing here?"

"That's a very good question."

Honestly, the fire might give them a prime opportunity to ditch her and anyone else who wasn't a favorite. I had seen it happen. Trimming the fat. That was what Blade called it. The guy who had been my Ian. He probably thought he was being clever. Big fan of cut, slice, and dice jokes was Blade. Usually in reference to kids who came up short.

Maybe Little thought we were good people, that our home was a safe place. Maybe that was all there was to it. She needed a refuge, and she made one nearby. But I couldn't allow her to haunt the edges of our property until she gave me some answers.

"How have you retained your compassion?"

The question brought me up short. "Josie says I'm a sucker."

"She is often jaded," he said with a note of caution, "and Matty can be bitter, but you're neither."

"Have you learned nothing about the consequences of targeting my siblings?"

"I would never harm them." He made it a vow. "Even with the truth."

I believed him. I must have since the urge to defend them never rose. I was surprised not to bristle.

"I have a unique perspective." I bobbed a shoulder. "So do you, for that matter. We see death in a light most people never will."

"Your ability to peer beyond the veil," he said, "has made you more aware of life's fragility."

"People who wish they had done life differently are left with only regret in death."

I should have been kinder. I should have been more generous. I should have given more of my time.

The list of things the dead would do or undo given half a chance stretched as long as my arm.

"You want to die with no regrets."

"No." I tried not to dwell on the future. "I want to live with none."

When we reached the old Coke sign, I discovered rusted nails acted as hinges at one corner, and shoving the metal aside revealed a hole rotted or torn through the wall of the former hay barn. We didn't need a flashlight to see into the small nest feathered with shredded plastic shopping bags. Or to identify its sole occupant.

Little had thrown her hands up to shield her eyes from the sudden blast of sunlight, giving us a second to sweep her hidey-hole for sharp objects. We found none. In her tee stained with sweat and mud, and her jean shorts hacked off at a slant, she didn't look like much. Certainly not a threat.

If I hadn't known kids just like her, I would have discounted her. But I had, and I didn't. Not for a minute.

"You're far from home." I didn't edge any closer. "How long have you been staying here?"

"The house burned down." Her greasy hair fell across her face. "Ian and the others left without me."

This setup wasn't new. It would have taken several days to get it this nice. Nice being objective.

"You did this all by yourself?" Kierce had noticed her evade my question. "That's impressive."

"Thanks." Her smile cracked dirt smudges on her cheeks. "You can come in, if you want."

"I would love to hang out, but we got a tip about Audrey." I watched her for any indication she knew this already. "Turns out she was kidnapped." More than once, if you wanted to get technical. "Crazy, right?"

Little knotted a plastic bag handle that had come undone. "Do you know who took her?"

"We have an idea." I took a calculated step back. "We're going to investigate now."

The girl was either a master liar or an innocent, and I couldn't settle on which was more likely.

Kids who depended on lies to put food in their mouths got good at telling them, or they didn't live long.

"Be careful." She tucked the ends into her wall. "Whatever took her is probably really mean."

What ever. Not who ever. A slip of the tongue? Or a safe bet in a world full of monsters?

"Thanks for the warning." I began lowering the sign. "See you around."

Little kept herself occupied with her mending as I returned her to the darkness where we had found her.

Neither Kierce nor I spoke until we reached the parking lot, but I let him go first.

"The burrow smells like her." He patted Badb in her sling. "She's spent a lot of time there."

For Badb's sake, I had researched crows. And, okay, I had been more curious about the Viduus than ever before. Smell? Not their forte. Kierce wasn't an actual crow, but I hadn't expected him to have shifter-like senses. That got me pondering whether status as a zoomorphic, not-quite-a-god qualified him for shifter status or not.

As he lowered his hand, I was struck by the realization Little hadn't asked what he was wearing or what he kept tucked in the fabric. A quick mind like hers wouldn't have missed such an obvious detail, so she had been watching long enough to know Badb was in there.

Had Badb not been out of commission, Little would have enjoyed much less success in her spying.

A grim thought that led me down a path to even grimmer conclusions. "Longer than we've known her?"

"Weeks." He took Badb out and set her down. "Perhaps as far back as the night Ankou showed himself."

"That would mean Little has been staking us out from the time Harrow took Audrey in."

Given what we had learned about Little and her relationship to the other kids, I couldn't fathom why she was so invested in discovering Audrey's whereabouts. Unless she meant to barter that information? Had she gambled on Ian awarding her better standing if she provided him with Audrey's location?

Watching Badb sift through rocks, he hummed softly. "How would she have known to look here?"

"For Little to be interested in Harrow, she must have already known he was protecting Audrey but not where he was keeping her." I rolled the idea around in my head. "She could have seen Harrow and me together then followed me home to see if I was helping him hide her."

"Lyle kidnapped Audrey the night before he died." Kierce considered me. "Little would have made the connection between him and Harrow quickly, as they're relatives, but she wouldn't have seen you with them until Ankou confronted you."

"For that to be true, she would have had to stay to the end, which means she saw Ankou. And you." As I considered other angles, I kept stumbling over one. "She's used to all kinds of paras. Your god aspect, it might have convinced her you were a crow shifter. But Ankou? She saw him and didn't make a peep?"

Kierce's god aspect was as beautifully peculiar as his other facets, but Ankou looked like someone had taken a potato peeler to his skin.

"You think she wasn't surprised by his…god aspect?"

"Stay with Badb." I pivoted on my heel. "I'm going back to get her."

Only the clear line of sight convinced him to let me go, I was sure, but Little had answers that might keep Audrey alive. I could feel it. We had to secure her before she slipped away like the others.

"Hey, Little." I waited for an answer but didn't get one. "You in there?"

I could tell she was gone before I pushed the sign aside and verified it.