Chapter 8

" H ello again." Warm brown eyes smiled down at me. "How do you feel?"

After taking stock of my aches and pains, I decided, "Good."

Between Aretha and Josie, I had received a bath, which helped even more.

"Excellent." Aretha craned her neck, checking behind us. "Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

Emboldened by how good I felt, I made a rare offer. "Ask me anything."

"This is the second time I've healed you," she began, "and I can't help but notice there's something…"

Fingers twitching, she buttoned her lips, but couldn't quite commit to whatever she had wanted to say.

"Don't leave me hanging now." I jerked my head toward her. "What are you thinking?"

"Well, it's just that..." She sawed her teeth over her bottom lip. "Are you, by any chance, divine?"

Laughter got caught somewhere between my brain and my mouth, ending up a soft wheeze. "What?"

"Do you have divine parentage?" She averted her gaze. "Your blood is…shimmery."

Slow drops of the gilded sap weeping from the burning tree flashed through my mind. "No and no."

"Refute your lineage if you want—" she lifted a piece of gauze in a baggy, "—but you can't deny this."

The dried crimson reflected under the overhead lights as she twisted her wrist.

"That's not my blood." I laughed at the absurdity of it. "I got in a lot of fights as a kid, like one every day, and I would have noticed if I bled glitter."

"You had a nosebleed and several scrapes. I cleaned them. This pad is covered in your blood."

"Like you said two seconds ago. You've treated me before. Have you ever seen me bleed sparkles?"

"Well, no, but?—"

"The pad must have been contaminated." That gave me an idea. "Could the water have been tainted by what attacked me? Maybe it has venom or poison and that made my blood go wonky." Another idea hit me, easing the tension in my chest, and I tested my reasoning on her. "Could prolonged contact with a divine object cause this phenomenon?"

"Absolutely." She let me see her toss the gauze into the trash can in the kitchen. "Do you still have it?"

"No." I pictured Badb sailing away with it. "It was temporarily misplaced."

"Find it." She cleaned her hands with a squirt of sanitizer. "If it can alter your blood chemistry, what else can it do?"

"I'll start looking tomorrow." I plucked at my sheet. "My siblings don't exactly know about it."

They knew about the tree but not that Badb had sailed away with a piece of it.

"Ask Samuel to help." She read between the lines. "He would do anything for you."

Doubting I wanted the answer, I asked her anyway. "Are you and he…?"

"We went to high school together. I hadn't seen him in ages until he reached out through a mutual friend to ask if I could do anything for his uncle. Lyle's case was too advanced for me to offer him more than pain relief." Her interest sharpened on me. "You guys dated back then, right?"

Turnabout was fair play, or so they say, leaving me no choice but to admit, "Yeah."

"Any chance you guys will be getting back together?"

"No." I really should have kept my mouth shut. "Our relationship ended badly."

"Let me guess." Sympathy gentled her expression. "Lyle?"

"I…" I had serious concerns that what I told her would get back to Harrow. "That is to say…"

"Lyle was in so much pain the first time I treated him, he couldn't get out of bed. He got so paranoid I was going to ‘voodoo' him—which, don't even get me started—he threw his bedside lamp at me. I would have gotten back into my car and driven home if Samuel hadn't bribed me. Even then, I sedated Lyle with a spell prior to working on him."

"Harrow agreed to that?" I gawked at her. "You might be my new hero."

"I do what I can with what I'm given." Her cheeks warmed at the praise. "Everyone is in your brother's apartment, by the way." She gathered her things. "I don't know how much longer they'll wait nicely."

"Ah." I heard the warning for what it was, but I wished I could hide under the bed. "Is anyone ever ready to be called a total idiot and have their life threatened by those they love?"

"I have four brothers, so I feel you." She patted my hand. "But Harrow signs the money transfers so…"

"I can respect that." I drew myself up straighter. "Thanks again."

"No worries." She lingered in front of the door. "Just remember what I said about that object."

"I'll do my best to locate it," I promised, afraid of what Moore might do if she learned a leaf was MIA.

"You do that."

After she left, I basked in the quiet before thundering footsteps pounded the stairs leading from Matty's apartment down to mine. The front door swung inward, bouncing off the wall, revealing Matty and Josie on the landing. They rushed into the apartment, climbed in bed with me, and wrapped me in their arms.

"Thank God you're okay." Josie squished me until she blurred my vision. "I thought we'd lost you."

"What happened out there?" Matty fisted the back of my tee. "Harrow couldn't see a thing."

The suspension of time after I hit the water, when I should have touched bottom but didn't, came back to me. That must be what they meant. That when I went in, he couldn't see me to drag me out.

"A creature hauled me into the water with it. We fought. I thought I died. Then…light."

Plus, there had been a few unhappy mumbles from the great beyond, but that was nothing new.

Between the sparkle blood, and the uptick in episodes, I really needed to talk to Vi. Sooner rather than later. If Rollo kept gatekeeping, I might have to pack up for a weekend trip to NOLA.

"You mean after Harrow found you," Josie asked, searching my face, "and fished you from the water?"

The truth was, I wasn't sure, so I would keep the fact that I might have experienced a go toward the light moment to myself. "Do you guys remember the burning tree?"

"Hard to forget it." Matty eased his grip on me. "Weirdest damn thing I've ever seen."

"Why do I feel like it's going to get weirder?" Josie settled in. "I have these vague memories about wards and not telling anyone the tree is cursed?" She stared at the ceiling. "I can't remember. I drank a lot that night. I also made out with Carter, probably, but I'm not one hundred percent sure. The hands were way bigger than I imagined hers to be." She cupped her boobs. "I'm talking full coverage, but she's so tiny?—"

"Maybe we should hit Lure again this weekend." Matty snickered at her. "Let you live your Cinderella dreams."

"Please tell me you're not suggesting we let randos grope our sister—" I ignored the spark of interest in her eyes, "—until she finds the pair of hands that fits just right?"

"That's not Cinderella anyway." Josie shot him down quick. "That's Goldilocks. She was the one who kept trying the bears' things until she found the one that was just right. For it to be Cinderella, I would have had to leave my boob for Carter to find and?—"

"As I was saying—" I did my best to imagine my brain as a toilet I could flush to rid it of this conversation for all time, "—it turns out the burning tree is divine in origin."

"No." Josie said it matter-of-fact, an end to an asked question. "That's Elmo, who is just an elm."

"Kierce is a death god." Matty pegged me with a wary glance. "That kind of divine?"

A death god's personal assistant, but it might as well be the same thing for all we knew about his job.

"The dendrologist who came out to examine it couldn't tell." I filled them in on Moore, her visit, and her findings. "The answer is in the fruit apparently."

"Elm trees don't produce fruit." Josie made it sound like ah-ha . "She clearly doesn't know her trees."

"Except the tree is…mutating? It's got flowers. The fruit they produce will tell us who's responsible."

"Divine fruit is bad." Josie wrinkled her nose. "Nothing good comes from eating it."

Arching a brow, I jabbed her hip. "How do you know?"

"I spend a huge chunk of my day talking to trees, and the topic of good and bad fruit comes up, okay?"

Enough she was happy to wash her hands of the situation and leave it to Moore to handle.

"Elmo will become a religious mecca if it's discovered before this tree doctor handles the problem." Matty grimaced. "Humans will flock to it, and so will any paranormal creature with mortal loved ones. Even if its fruit doesn't grant eternal life like the myths claim, no one will believe us when we tell them. They'll claim we're hogging the fruit for ourselves. This is a disaster."

"Let's not panic yet." I raised my hands. "We don't get to keep the tree either way." That was what I read into Carter's comments anyway. "Good trees get transplanted and monitored. Bad trees get destroyed."

"Poor Elmo." Josie's eyes filled with tears. "He didn't ask for this."

"There's one other thing." I tucked a stubborn hair behind my ear. "I kept a leaf from the tree."

"Of course you did," Matty said in a that was a terrible idea voice.

"Badb stole it." I noticed Josie lip curl. "She was upset after the tree was warded, I guess, and took it."

As possessive as she was toward Kierce, her most recent theft convinced me more than any other evidence that he was behind the tree.

"Where is the feathered terrorist?" Josie flicked the cat bed. "I haven't seen her since we got back."

"No clue." I panned my gaze around the room. "I was mad about the leaf theft and locked her in before I left. She's gotten out of my apartment before, so she could be anywhere."

A firm knock on the door shot Josie to her feet. "Are you expecting someone?"

"No." I checked for signs Aretha had forgotten something, but nothing was out of place. "Harrow?"

"Harrow," Matty agreed. "He waited in his car." He winced the tiniest bit. "I forgot all about him."

"Me too." Josie grinned at me. "Must have slipped my mind he was still down there."

Matty was tired, so I could buy into his slip. Josie? Pfft. She knew exactly what she was doing.

"Mmm-hmm." I jabbed her in the hip with my thumb. "You would have let him sit there all night."

Aretha must have updated him on her way out. From the parking lot, he could see when Josie and Matty came in. It appeared he had given us a few minutes alone before venturing up to see me himself.

"Let him in." I adjusted my covers but made no move to stand. "And be nice."

"He almost got you killed tonight." Matty hadn't let go of my hand. " Nice is asking for a lot."

"I'm the one who invited him to go with me, not the other way around, and he pulled me ashore."

"Weirdly enough, Mary, that doesn't make me feel any better." Josie did as I asked, scowling the whole time. "All this proves is you two are a disaster waiting to happen."

"Hello to you too, Josie." Harrow didn't bat an eye at her hostility. "How's the patient?"

"Alive—" I glared pointedly at my siblings, "—thanks to you."

"It was the least I could do." He folded his arms across his chest. "I still don't get how I lost you in six feet of water. I jumped in right after you, afraid I would land on you, but you weren't there."

"Sounds like you've got an asrai."

Peering around Harrow, I spotted Carter, who was dressed like she just got off work. She tipped her chin at Matty, winked at Josie, then claimed Josie's spot on the bed next to me. I angled myself toward her. "You know about the asrai?"

"Don't be too impressed." She drew a bag of cheddar puffs from the ether. Or maybe from her pocket. It was hard to tell with her. She could have worked in Vegas as skilled as she was with sleight of hand. "All I did was plug in the information Harrow sent over and let the database do its thing."

Josie, worrying her thumbnail with her teeth, bumped Matty onto the floor. "What's an asrai?"

"Damn it, Mary." Matty landed with a thud then rubbed his tailbone. "What was that for?"

Carter wiped a smile she couldn't hide by dragging a hand across her mouth. "A water spirit."

"Spirit." Josie leaned in closer. "Not sprite?"

"That fits with Johnny's warning." I nudged Josie's thigh with my toe before she climbed onto Carter's lap in her attempt to snare her attention. "He warned me the spirit we went to see was dangerous."

"I, for one, am shocked." Matty propped his forearms on the mattress. "The Frankie I know wouldn't get a vague warning from one spirit about another spirit then hare off to discover for herself how dangerous it was by going for a swim with it."

"As I was saying—" I accidentally kicked him in the jaw when aiming for his stacked arms, "—I took every precaution. I brought Harrow for backup. I stayed on the shore. I told you two where I was going." There was a thread of concern knotting my chest the more I thought about it. "The spirit was newly risen. As is the case with any soul who elects to remain on Earth, she had a reason."

"Murdering you?"

"Negative energy produces vengeful spirits." Too bad he moved out of reach of my foot. "That close to a road? She could have made cars swerve and strike pedestrians or spun vehicles to face oncoming traffic. That near the water? She could have lured in the unwary with cries for help and drowned them." Mostly kids and women. "I can't ignore a potential threat on that scale."

"Particularly if it's related to the case you took on," Matty grumped from his sprawl on the floor.

Poor thing had decided it was safer for him down there than anywhere near his sisters, which was fair.

"Frankie might have discovered a serial killer," Harrow volunteered, allowing that news to settle.

"Your case…? The girl…?" Josie gripped my calf. "She was murdered ?"

"We don't know yet." I pried her fingertips loose before she left bruises. "We did find her best friend." It hurt to admit that much. "She drowned, but she can't recall any specifics, and we don't have a body."

"Yet." Carter set her jaw. "We're going to locate Farah's remains, and Audrey."

The way she kind of lumped them together but kind of didn't left me queasy with the realization she had zero expectations of finding Audrey alive. Us Marys knew from bitter experience how hard it was for the kids the world had forgotten to scratch out an existence on their own. Farah and Audrey had each other, but safety wasn't always found in numbers, and often survival cost you slivers of your soul.

"I don't get it." Matty had drawn his knees to his chest. "This asrai thing is a vengeful spirit, right?"

"An asrai is formed when a person who died in or near water is so angry at the world about their death their soul is unable to move on. Spirits who want revenge bad enough, those who want others to suffer as they did… With enough hatred comes power, and with enough power comes the ability to manifest an element. An anchor is required," I explained, "physical as well as emotional, meaning they can only bond to the body of water containing their remains."

Unfortunately, this culvert channeled Placentia Canal, which gave the asrai access to the Wilmington River.

"How do we get rid of it?" Josie crinkled her forehead. "Find the body?"

"Once an asrai is birthed, its remains liquify." I fiddled with my sheet as I mined my memory for details. "There are stories of humans catching them in nets then dragging them into their boats. The fishermen would cover the asrai with damp seaweed to protect them from the sun, but only water would remain when they reached the shore."

"If we can't catch it," Matty asked, dread seeping into his features, "then what do we do?"

"The only thing we can." I was already mentally prepping a list of supplies I would require. "We'll have to exorcise the spirit from the water."

"That sounds dangerous." Josie latched on to my ankle, desperate to hold on as if I would climb out of bed and rush back to the culvert tonight. "Carter, can you get backup for us?"

A hard thump in my chest set my palms sweating. "Us?"

"We're not letting you go alone this time." Matty glowered at me. "We're going with you."

"Again," Harrow reminded them, "she didn't go alone."

"We don't need reinforcements with four of us to watch her back." Carter nixed the request. "That's plenty."

"You didn't see it take her." Harrow sounded haunted. "There was nothing I could do."

"That won't be the case this time," I promised him. "This time, we'll be prepared."

"Let's talk more about preparations tomorrow." He pushed off the wall. "You need to rest."

"I'll sleep over." Josie didn't give me time to protest. "Scooch."

"Me too." Matty shoved to his feet on a yawn. "Over there." He aimed for the couch. "Where it's safe."

"Call if you need me." Carter wiped her fingers on her shirt. "We'll revisit the exorcism idea tomorrow."

"What she said." Harrow noted our growing camaraderie, his eyebrows rising a notch. "Night, Frankie."

Since Matty was already up, he walked them out and did the polite goodbye thing.

A caw rent the air, a plea to hold the door, before a black missile sailed in, buzzing Matty.

"The prodigal returns." I exhaled when she landed in her cat bed. "Anything to say for yourself?"

Badb stared at me through unblinking eyes, studying me tip to toe, then rustled her feathers.

Matty, too tired to fuss at her, flipped off the lights and faceplanted onto the couch.

"Wait." Josie drew her legs up to her chest. "You sleep with that thing?"

"I don't have much choice." I turned over, leaving Josie to cut her own slice of mattress. "If I move the bed, she picks it up and drops it where she wants it. As long as you don't bother her, or her stuff, she probably won't bother you."

"That sounds like a roundabout way of telling me to keep one eye open."

I fell asleep with a smile on my face.