Chapter 16 Caroline

Chapter 16

Caroline

Caroline's head hurt. And not just in the "experimenting with cheap tequila" way. It felt like someone had whacked her over the head with a hammer.

Oh, shit, she was pretty sure someone had whacked her over the head with a hammer. Or a bottle. Or a boat oar. Why did she live around so many things that could be used to give her a concussion?

Ow.

She smelled…Funyuns? And exhaust fumes.

Was she being held hostage in a gas station?

She'd only visited a handful of gas stations in her lifetime, but they definitely had a memorable olfactory signature—like one of Nell's unsellable air fresheners. She forced her eyes to open and winced at the intrusion of light.

She was in some sort of vehicle. Her head was swimming so much that she couldn't tell if it was moving. Her nose was nearly bumping against beige-and-mauve rippled upholstery. She turned—or at least tried to—before she realized her feet were bound. Her sneakers scrabbled uselessly against the long bench seat she was lying on. Her hands were duct-taped in front of her. At least her mouth wasn't taped, because she was pretty sure she was going to throw up.

Breathe , she told herself, even as tears burned at her eyes. Deep breaths; don't panic.

She'd always told herself that she would stay calm if she'd ever found herself in this sort of situation—though she'd allowed that living on a tiny island where she knew pretty much everybody, her risk of kidnapping was pretty low. And she wasn't about to lose precious time freaking out.

She glanced around, seeing that she was inside some sort of camper—a really messy camper. In addition to dirty men's clothes and soiled towels, it was chock-full of hastily stacked canned food and camping supplies. The carpet was littered with bits of paper and mystery stains and… Was that Cheetos dust? Something about it smelled familiar, like clovey cologne and sawdust. Paint thinner.

Her stomach rolled up into her throat, even as she tried to place it. Where had she smelled that before?

And oddest of all, the missing portrait, the purple-lady ghost in her younger phase, was tacked to the far wall of the camper—perfectly straight and smooth.

"What the shit?" With considerable effort, Caroline rolled on her side and concentrated on not throwing up. Distantly, she could hear voices from the front of the camper—the "vehicle" part of the RV?

It took her a few seconds to focus enough to make out the words being said—though she wasn't sure whether it was the concussive head-ringing or the wall separating her and the truck cab. "Look, I don't know what your problem is. But she's right in there, just do your voodoo, or whatever, and finish her off so we can get this thing going."

Another voice, whisper-hissing, like a nest of snakes writhing against each other. "You're ransoming her. Isn't the point to keep her alive?"

"Not necessarily. The point is to scare Riley, throw her off her game," the man's voice replied. "Take away her resources and force her into cooperating. We can't get into Shaddow House without her. And if we take Caroline out of the equation, something I know you'll enjoy—I can slow Riley down enough that…"

He sounded familiar, but she couldn't quite place him. Ugh, she could think a lot faster if she just threw up already, she was sure of it. But then she'd be stuck in what amounted to a roomy car trunk with her own sick.

"I find I don't like this," the hissing voice answered. "It doesn't seem sporting, killing my descendant when they haven't left the island of their own choice. Standards are meant to be maintained."

Rose.

That had to be Rose. It was different from the strident screams she'd heard before, the steel-wool whispers. Mina had described her voice as cold, like icy nails rippling down her spine. Yeah, that was about right.

"You didn't have a problem with the previous, what was it, twenty-six?" the man asked.

Rose preened. "Twenty-seven. And each of them left the island, trying to leave me. So a price had to be paid."

"They don't even know you exist," the man protested.

"That doesn't change anything. I need to see them, to know they are holding up my family name. If it wasn't for me, they wouldn't even exist. I have the right to see everything they say and do. To leave me behind is an insult." Rose seethed. "How dare they? Walk away from me as if they had the right to live just as they see fit. I am the head of this family!"

The man snorted. "That wasn't true, not even when you were alive."

"Without me, the family would have been nothing, had nothing," Rose scoffed. "Their purpose was to stay where we had wealth and influence, to fulfill my vision. It was only when they didn't follow my instructions that there were problems. And the generations after? There was no way to communicate with them, so I was forced into more drastic measures."

Caroline blinked. How could Rose sound so…bored, as she was describing the murder of her own flesh and blood?

"The point of the matter is, I don't see how this helps you accomplish your goal," Rose rasped. "Even if that foolish Denton girl brings you these…whatever they are, she only has a handful of them. It doesn't get you the full collection."

"Yes, but it will slow her down, set her back. It will give me enough time to figure out another plan." The man sounded desperate, and not entirely bright. "Riley's been fucking up my plans since the minute she stepped onto the island, ordering me around, telling me where to go, keeping me from looking for the locks as ordered. But you, you were like a gift, when you reached out to me, like the universe was just handing me a new way of getting Riley to do my work for me."

"Oh, I see," Rose said when he finally stopped talking. "Yes, how clever of you."

Whoever this was, it felt like Rose was fucking with him. She was just toying with him so he would keep talking, give her more to work with. Wow, her great-great-however-many-great-grandmother was sort of a gangster. Caroline might have respected her for it if she wasn't so damned awful.

OK, first step, sitting up. You can't fight evil from a prone position.

It took a few tries, but Caroline used a combination of wriggling and mental cursing to force herself up.

Oh, jeez, that was a mistake.

Caroline leaned her head back against the window. Sunlight poured through the glass, warming the back of her neck and head. Oh, that was nice. How could she appreciate something as mundane as sunshine on her John Denver-less shoulders when she was being abducted by her dead relative and a mystery guest?

Focus. Focus. She'd read something online once about how women should yank their hands down against their hips if they ever found their hands bound with duct tape. But, at the moment, it felt like high-handed advice written by people who had never been hit in the head with a hammer-slash-possibly-a-boat-oar.

She took several deep breaths and stood, bracing herself against the cluttered counter when her brain protested mightily. She raised her hands, groaning quietly, and slammed her joined wrists against her hips. She hissed in pain but did it again. And again, harder and harder, until she could fully swing her hands behind her, and the duct tape finally gave way with a riiiip .

"Oh, thank you," Caroline panted, nearly crying at the relief of being able to rub her hands together.

And it was in that moment that she realized that she hadn't heard Rose or the mystery asshole talk for several minutes.

And her ankles were still bound.

Shit.

The door to the RV swung open. Caroline spotted a small cast-iron frying pan on the counter and slung it toward the movement.

Cole ducked just in time, letting the frying pan fly out the camper's open door.

It was all she could do not to flop face-first onto the disgusting RV carpet. It hurt knowing she'd been fooled, that she'd let this man into her bar, into space shared with her mother, with Mina. But Caroline supposed she should just be grateful that Cole hadn't taken one of them.

He'd played all of them with his aw-shucks-I'm-just-here-to-help schtick, and they'd underestimated him. Had he been colluding with Rose all this time? Why had she reached out to him? Had he known she was there before he arrived on the island?

The coven was so used to looking for clever, underhanded miscreants, like Kyle, like Rose. They'd forgotten that sometimes, you had to watch for who seemed harmless.

Was her coven safe? Riley? Alice? The kids? Would her friends come for her, or was she on her own? Maybe it was better that way. Ben could find some other woman, better suited for him, for his kids. Yes, the loss would hurt Riley and Alice, but Josh and Mina would be there for them.

And her family? Oh god, her parents. Maybe her dad would take her advice, since it was the last conversation they'd had…and not sink into another guilt-fueled spiral. Maybe her brothers would step up and help… Yeah, that didn't seem likely.

"Oh, Caroline, does that mean we're not going to stay friends?" Cole simpered at her in mock sympathy.

"Asshole," Caroline sniped at him, even as she wobbled on her feet.

She picked up a can of soup from the table and whipped it toward him, hitting him square in the chest. He yelped. "Bitch!"

"I don't miss twice, and your sloppy ass left me in here with a camper full of projectiles," Caroline said.

He rolled his eyes and reached forward with his massive paws. Ducking out of her swinging range, he yanked at her taped ankles, making her flail backward as he pulled her out of the RV. She supposed she should be happy she didn't smack her head against the counter on her way down.

He left her splayed in the dirt, with Rose standing over her, peering at her with curiosity. Oh, great. "I gotta tell you, in terms of grandparents, you suck ," Caroline spat. "And I've seen Alice dealing with her grandparents, so the bar for sucking is pretty high."

"How hard did you hit her on the head?" Rose asked Cole.

She wasn't anyplace she knew on Starfall. She could hear lapping in the distance, and could smell the exhaust from a highway somewhere nearby.

Oh, no.

Caroline sat up, finally losing the war with her nausea and throwing up into the dirt. At least she wasn't trapped inside with it.

"Classy," Cole said, smirking at her. Caroline grabbed the frying pan from where it had landed and brought it crashing down on Cole's foot. He howled, and she took aim at his knees. He kicked it out of her hands and slapped her, making her cheekbone feel like it had buckled under his huge hands.

"All of you think you're so smart, you witches—hell, you Wiltons," Cole huffed. "You know your family forgot I was around after a week or so? They acted like I wasn't even in the room when they were talking. Giving me all sorts of information about where you were, what you were doing. That bimbo Tabby left her phone on the bar half the times she was there. It was only a matter of time before I got into it."

Cole pulled the bright-pink glitter-covered cell phone from his pocket and waggled it at her.

"Dammit, Tabby," she grumbled. She looked around what seemed to be a campsite. They were the only vehicle parked in a fairly secluded section of an RV park. Cole had parked broadside, facing the water. A rusted tan-and-white sign to her right stated it was the Starfall Views Camp-Inn Resort. She'd heard of it—a past-its-prime campground where tourists made reservations when they had no other options. No wonder there were no other RVs nearby.

Oh, shit. She was definitely off-island. How long had she been gone? Did it count when Rose took her off Starfall herself?

She needed some sort of guidebook for hereditary magic curse rules.

"Look, it's nothing personal," Cole insisted, crouching next to her. "You have something the Wellings want—the locks. The Wellings have something I want—money. And I just happened to have put myself in the position where I can get access to both."

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out one of the locks. It looked…different than the others they'd found, worn and dulled by age. It looked like it had been handled quite a bit by hands that were…well, the sort of hands that were OK with living in a Cheetos dust–covered RV.

Caroline could feel the cold, angry energy emanating from the metal loops. It sent a shudder down her spine, being this close to a lock without her coven.

"I found this one in the flue of the kitchen fireplace, when I was doing Riley's aunt's remodel," he said. "Didn't tell the Wellings, though. It was a bit too early in our relationship to know how much I should show them, how gullible they were."

"The Wellings sure did love hiding those in fireplaces," she muttered. She had to get that lock back from Cole. Poor freaking Riley was back on Starfall, looking for locks that weren't even in the house.

"Well, they had to work within the original footprint of the house," Cole said. "Honestly, the Wellings are lucky that the Dentons haven't found more of these over the years. When you think about it, it's fascinating that the original shape of the house hasn't changed much, given all of the altera—"

"Is that the only one you found?" Caroline asked.

"You have no appreciation for historical architecture." Cole sighed.

"I care a little bit more about my throbbing freaking head than listening to you waffle on about old buildings," Caroline seethed at him. "Can we just skip to the part of the supervillain speech where you tell me your big plans? How do you even know about the locks in the first place?"

"Oh, anybody who can see ghosts knows about the Wellings, how the Dentons crushed them, sent them scurrying underground," Cole laughed. "And families like mine? We don't have pedigree, but we see enough to recognize an opportunity. The locks control ghosts? I want as many of them as I can get. I don't care about catching them all. I just want to catch enough, enough to run my own agenda. The Wellings were dumb enough to stake me while I sent them bullshit progress reports, and that's on them for not watching me closely enough."

"There's a whole underground communication system for families who can see ghosts? Like ‘Spiritualist Facebook'?" Caroline asked, her hand creeping across the ground toward the frying pan. Cole stomped on it, making her cry out in pain.

"Word of mouth has been around a lot longer than social media," Cole said blithely, as if he hadn't just broken one of her fingers.

"That's quite enough," Rose intoned from her standing position. Cole's head jerked upward, as if he'd forgotten she was there. "I won't allow you to injure my descendant's person any more than necessary."

"Necessary?" Caroline scoffed, cradling her injured hand against her chest. "Also, can I just ask, what the hell is going on with the portrait? It's not your attachment object, so…why so obsessed with it?"

"Just because my spirit isn't permanently joined to the canvas doesn't mean I don't enjoy looking upon it, remembering the best days of my life," Rose said, smiling through the open door at her own face. "Proper deference for my portrait was how young Cole here first gained my attention. But now…" She turned to Cole. "I mentioned before, how I ran my family, making sure they did as they were told. I made sure they were useful. You're no longer useful."

Cole's dark eyes narrowed. "What are you saying?"

"I believe the expression is, ‘I'll take things from here,'" Rose said, her smile thin. She leaned over him, the smoke of her form enveloping him.

Cole held out the lock, balancing it on his palm. "Stay back!"

Caroline arched a brow, "Really? It's not a ‘cross versus vampire' situation. I thought your family had experience with this."

"Well, how does it work?" Cole practically shrieked, shaking the lock like a blinking flashlight. "How do I make the lock control her?"

"You don't know?" Caroline marveled. "You don't have magic?"

"It's not about magic, it's about the locks!" Cole insisted.

"Oh, buddy, you just peed on an electric fence, and you don't even realize it," Caroline sighed, shaking her head. "I would almost feel bad for you, if you hadn't hit me over the head with a hammer and broke my finger."

"It was a bottle," Cole told her.

"Still rude," Caroline grumbled.

"I'm bored," Rose sighed, dragging the misty tips of her fingers down Cole's cheek. "And you're becoming more of a nuisance than you're worth."

"But you can only hurt members of your own family!" Cole yelled.

Rose's smile was downright feral. "My dear boy, where on Earth did you get that impression?"

The corners of her mouth drew back into an impossible, manic smile as she plunged her hand into his chest. Cole screamed, clutching at his heart. He looked to Caroline as if she could help him, but she wasn't even sure she could work magic with her hand mangled. She didn't know what Rose was doing and had no idea how to counteract it. Cole's face went pasty gray, and he slumped to the ground. His breathing was labored, and he seemed to have to work to draw in the oxygen that fueled the next breath.

Rose patted his cheek. "Now, be quiet while I talk to my, well, let's just say ‘granddaughter.'"

Caroline scrambled back against the RV, tugging at the tape on her ankles as Rose loomed closer. She searched the ground for something sharp, something to cut at her bindings. Instead, her hand closed over the lock Cole had lost in his death throes.

"Now, what to do with you," Rose murmured, tilting her head this way and that, staring at Caroline like she was a specimen on a pin. "I must admit, your little branch of the family has vexed me the most. The amount of whining from the lot of you was just intolerable, and your father, staying away from the inn. The audacity."

"It's a bar," Caroline replied.

"It's an inn . I am not a barkeeper. And your father is the least appreciative of the lot, for the legacy I've given him."

"You killed his son ," Caroline reminded her, her good hand searching the ground for a rock or a stick or…something to tear at the duct tape.

"Because he was straying from the path I made for the family! Your father should have thanked me . Even he told your brother not to leave the island, to stay on Starfall where it was safe! And your stubborn, disobedient brother refused to listen—so proud, always thought he knew better! Sharper than a serpent's tooth are the objections of a willful, disobedient child!"

"That is not the quote," Caroline said.

Rose carried on as if she hadn't even spoken. "All your brother had to do was stay where he was told, to follow my instructions, but he had to go see that girl , that strumpet , writing so freely to a man. She was no fit woman to marry a Wilton . And I wouldn't have it. He had to serve as a lesson to the rest of you. And you, my Caroline…"

"Don't ever call me that," Caroline snapped.

"Don't interrupt me, it's rude," Rose sniffed. "You were one of the few bright spots in a dismal generation. You were always obedient, always aware of the consequences for moving away from me. It pains me to do this, but clearly, your family needs another reminder of the consequences of rebellion."

Keep her talking. Caroline sucked in a deep breath while her brain tried to process the potential outcomes of this situation. She loves the sound of her own voice, loves being in control. Keep her talking until the others can show up or you can figure out a plan.

"So…what?" Caroline asked. "You're just going to keep killing us off until there are no more of us left to disappoint you? There's only a handful of us left at this point."

"I'd rather you be dead than a poor reflection on me," Rose said primly.

"No one knows you exist ," Caroline said.

"Perhaps I should save myself the trouble," Rose mused with that clinical detachment. "I could take you all in one final act of mercy. The constables are eager to find a plausible reason for the unexplainable, even in this age of electricity and technology."

"You might get me," Caroline said, remotely registering the sound of buzzing in the distance, a low hum echoing over the water. "But it's not going to have the effect on my coven that you think it will. I don't think you'll ever be able to go home. They'll put wards on the Rose, so you can never go back in. Hell, they might even re-create the locks, so they can banish you from the island. You overplayed your hand, like most tyrants do, because you think you're never going to run into someone meaner and crazier than you."

The buzzing noise got louder and louder. And out of the corner of her eye, Caroline saw an object flying toward her. It was bright red and coming at her with a dizzying rate of speed.

"Caroline, cover your eyes!" Josh thundered over a bullhorn. Caroline shrieked and threw her hands over her head. She grunted at the pain in her hand as something struck the RV over her head. Salt and herbs rained down around her.

Rose screamed, half-insult, half-rage, as she sizzled away.

When the "sprinkling sound" stopped, Caroline looked around to see herself surrounded in a not-quite-perfect circle of damp rock salt. Remnants of red latex laid scattered among rose petals and herbs. This had a certain teenage girl's brilliantly spiteful fingerprints all over it.

Caroline cackled as Rose's damaged form lumbered away into the woods. "You forgot about magic. You forgot about how much people could love each other. And you forgot about Mina freaking Hoult."

Swiping wet salt from her cheeks, she looked toward the water to see Ben, Riley, and Alice waving at her from a little speedboat. Caroline huffed out a joyous cry as they beached it. She was so glad to see Ben, as well as the kids, who were zooming up beside the boat on a neon-green Jet Ski…and Ben seemed really surprised to see them.

Which was weird.

Mina was holding some sort of balloon slingshot thing. Josh was driving, which seemed to be the thing that was making Ben nervous. That was reasonable, considering Josh was operating a bullhorn with one hand while steering with the other. Caroline wasn't a parent, but that seemed really, really unsafe.

The sight of Riley helping Edison flop over the stern of the boat made Caroline's chest go warm with affection. Edison got in a boat. For her. Her heart was touched.

All of them spilled out of their watercrafts, Riley supporting Edison as he kissed the silty shore. Alice sprinted up the beach, pocketknife at the ready to cut Caroline's feet loose.

"Was that a water balloon full of rock salt?" Caroline asked, grinning at her.

Alice threw her arms around Caroline, kissing her cheeks, her brow, and then spitting out the grains of rock salt clinging to her lips.

Mina was next, hovering at Caroline's side and sobbing against her chest. Josh carefully patted Caroline's shoulder. She covered his big hand with her uninjured fingers.

"The trick was only adding the water at the last minute so the salt didn't dissolve, and filling it partially with air to keep the latex at tension—it only worked because the ride across the lake was pretty short," Josh said. "And of course, the water-balloon catapult that we stole from a kid on the beach."

"It doesn't strike me as the sort of thing a child should have, really," Caroline mused. She had to keep talking about this nonsense, or she would bawl. She would lose all control of herself and sob out her hysterical relief.

Nope, nope , too late. Ben baseball-slid in front of her and wrapped her and Josh and Mina in his arms. Caroline was sobbing anyway. Mina and Josh gracefully exited from the group hug and let Alice and Riley hug them while Ben checked Caroline's injuries between fierce hugs.

"I'm so sorry," Ben said, holding Caroline. "I said stupid, asinine, useless things because I was hurt and I was scared. I am so scared to lose you again. I don't think I could survive that."

"I said stupid, asinine, useless things too," she said. "Because I'm scared that I'm not enough and I won't ever be. And you need more and the kids deserve more and…"

Ben stopped her mouth, kissing her. "Bullshit, I need you . I think my kids deserve you . And you deserve my kids, and I mean that in a nice way, not in a vindictive way."

"Thanks, Dad," Josh huffed, stripping out of his life vest.

Caroline laughed, kissing Ben. The kids, to their credit, uttered not one single "ew."

"It's going to take us a while to figure this whole thing out, but we're going to do it, because it's important. You're important. I love you. I've always loved you. I will always love you," he swore.

"I love you, too," she said, kissing him.

"This is all very sweet, but I'm kind of feeling the gathering energy of a certain bitch-faced hag-ghost," Riley huffed, helping a pale, shaken Edison sit down next to Caroline. An angry hiss sounded in the trees. "Yeah, I said it, you hateful old wench!"

"Thank you, Edison," Caroline said, patting his knee with her good hand. "I know what that cost you."

"You're family," Edison panted. "And somebody has to be here to post your bail."

"Well, the good news is, I'm alive," Caroline said, nodding to Cole's body. "But Cole is not. Rose killed him."

"Well, now I see that bail joke was mistimed," Edison muttered.

"Dang." Riley blanched as Ben moved toward Cole's body, feeling for a pulse. He shook his head.

"I knew she was capable of it," Alice mused. "All ghosts are capable of it, really." She paused to shudder. "It's just so awful."

"She is awful," Caroline agreed. "And we really need to banish her before she takes out my entire family."

"How did you even get here," Ben asked his kids, moving Caroline to his lap as he examined her injured hand. "The last I saw you, you were under Plover's supervision. Reading."

"We stole a Jet Ski!" Mina cried, her cheeks red but drying. She laughed at her father's expression.

"We're going to talk about that later," Ben promised them. "You don't know how to run a Jet Ski."

"Video games," Josh said, shrugging. "They're very educational. And Mina's kidding. We told Dutch we were willing to go look for his boat, to confirm the location, and he said we could borrow the Jet Ski if we gassed it up before we brought it back."

"And I'm going to have to talk to Dutch about that later," Ben sighed.

Mina rolled her shoulders, uncomfortable under some invisible strain. "Rose is here, and she's gathering herself. She's…not happy."

"But she's smug," Josh said, a shiver running down his spine. "She thinks she's won something. Caroline, how long have you been off the island?"

"No clue, but hey, look, a ghost lock," Caroline said, holding up the lock.

"You found one!" Riley cried, grinning.

"Technically, Cole did when he was remodeling the kitchen for your aunt," Caroline said. "So…pretty sure we're gonna need to search this hell pit on wheels before we call the authorities."

"Good note, after we push Rose out of this dimension," Alice said.

"We brought some of the locks with us," Mina said, pulling a tote bag over her shoulder. "Maybe they will help."

Riley frowned. "You did what?"

"Plover told us where they were hidden in your office, so we brought them. You took one outside before without destabilizing the house, so we thought it would be OK. I figured we might need them if we found Caroline and the ghost," Josh said. "Which, given your expression, is something else we're going to have to talk about later."

"Yes, yes, we will." Riley nodded, clearly trying to maintain her cool. "All of us, plus Plover, will have a conversation about coven safety and operational security and doors that only respond to my retinal scan."

The kids looked chastened, but Mina insisted. "But we helped, right? If one lock opens a pinhole portal, several locks could open a portal big enough to shove Rose through."

Riley agreed. "I will validate your choices, once my terror runs out."

"OK!" Mina said brightly. "But she's gathering right outside the salt circle, coming back like ghost herpes."

Ben scowled.

"You're the one who insisted on a thorough health education!" Mina reminded him as Josh helped Caroline to her feet. "Now, Dad and Edison and…Cole's body just sit there and try not to get hurt."

"Josh, get in the circle, just in case," Riley said. "I'm not taking the chance of failing because we needed our ‘listener' involved."

"Got it." Josh handed a lock to each member of the coven.

"We're going to have to move outside the salt's protection," Alice said. "Remember, Rose is manipulative and cruel. And she's on the verge of losing, which is when manipulative and cruel people do their worst."

"Oh, little Alice," Rose crooned, materializing just outside the salt range. "You would know more about manipulative people than anyone, wouldn't you?"

Alice paled slightly. Caroline touched her hand. "Sorry, I said something to her about your grandparents."

Alice nodded, and the coven surrounded Rose's re-formed mist.

Rose turned on Riley, grinning, a mad glint in her eyes. "I knew your ancestors. Snobbish wastrels that they were, thought they were too good to mix with my family."

"Nah, it was probably just your personality," Riley told her.

"Those little toys won't work for you two, because you're not Dentons," Rose told the kids, smirking. "You're just castoffs, so unlovable, your mother didn't even want you."

Mina and Josh smirked right back. "Yeah, yeah, change the playlist, because you're on repeat, you half-assed mean girl."

"And they're Dentons if my magic says they're Dentons," Riley said. "And my magic says they are, so suck it!"

On opposite sides, Riley and Caroline passed their locks around the circle. Each person followed, drawing a magical line from their lock to the next person's, creating a circle of energy around Rose.

"You wouldn't do this to your own blood," Rose insisted, her voice wheedling. "You, the best girl, the sweet girl who does all she can to take care of her family. You wouldn't do this to a Wilton. What would your poor father say?"

"Oh, that was the wrong card to play," Josh scoffed. "Mentioning her father. You just don't understand actual human emotions, do you?"

Riley and Caroline, holding their locks again, pushed them forward until the circle pressed in toward Rose and opened over her head. Wincing, Caroline used her good hand to draw Alice's pocketknife across her injured hand's palm, blood welling over the loops of her lock. Cole's lock, which in its own way made sense. Blood would bind the magic, bind Rose, break the hold this woman had over them, generation after generation. She was afraid to look up, to see what was on the other side of that circle, but she did it, because she wanted to know that wherever Rose was going, it was a fit punishment for what she'd put their family through.

The void was formless. Rolling black nothing, cold and empty and silent. And somehow, all the more terrifying for its emptiness. There was no comfort. There was no peace. There was a void. That was what Rose deserved.

"We'll go on, long after you've forgotten your own name in that sea of nothing," Caroline told her. "I'll never mention you again. I'll never tell my family what you did or who you are. I'll go through the histories and remove any trace of your name. I'll talk to my father about renaming the bar. We're going to be happy. And you'll be nothing."

"You don't know what you're doing," Rose insisted. "You need me, the family needs me, to keep them in line. You're going to find out just how small you are."

"Shut. Up!" Caroline shouted, clenching her fist and raising it, pressing Rose up through the portal. Then she and Riley drew their locks back, and the portal closed. All five of them repeated the motion, breaking the circle of light.

In unison, they sank to their knees and dropped their locks into the center of the circle. They breathed together, each not quite sure what to say about what they'd just done. Caroline glanced over her shoulder, where Ben and Edison sat against the RV, wide-eyed.

"Is anybody hungry?" Josh asked, breaking the silence. "I could really go for some pizza. Does doing magic make you hungry? Is this how it feels?"

"You're always hungry," Mina said. "And you seem unaware that there are food groups other than pizza. And Pop-Pies. My Pop-Pies. My illicitly obtained Pop-Pies."

"Don't start with the Breakfast Food Streaming Service Peace Accords," Alice said, laughing.

"I'm not sure they brought about any sort of real peace," Riley added, shaking her head.

"It's a fragile peace," Caroline said. "As flaky and insubstantial as a Pop-Pie crust itself."

"Seriously, I'm hungry now," Josh complained. "Shoving mean old ladies through interdimensional portals to a possible hell is exhausting ."

Edison snickered. "I'm willing to cover the pizza, and to test out Caroline's newfound possibly-not-cursed-ness."

"I don't think I appreciate the casual nature of your tone, sir," Caroline replied. "And you're just trying to avoid getting back on the boat."

"Yes." Edison nodded. "Yes, I am."