Twelve #2
She waved a hand dismissively. “Nothing’s going on. I’m sure JJ just loves the smell. I want to hear about this besom I didn’t even notice was gone.”
“People think the bells are only there to make noise so Mom knows when people come in, but you held the bells and made them strong,” Toby reminded me.
“Yes, I did.” The enchantment on those witch bells was very powerful, as I’d taken one of the sets my grandmother had put away, blessed them again, then hung them in Amanda’s office. It was important to me that she was safe there.
“I knew you did,” he said, smiling at me. “And JJ’s right. Those are still there, but when I went Friday after school, the broom—the besom, I mean—was gone. And that’s the one we made, you and me, so you have to make another one and say the words, and I’ll put it back.”
I’d seen where he’d hung it originally. It wasn’t in the way of the door, it wasn’t too close to the frame or in any kind of draft, so it couldn’t have simply been knocked down. “Did you see who took it?”
Toby shook his head.
“I did,” JJ divulged, returning with several pieces of goldenrod and sage. “The plant man told Sylvia to move it because she was sneezing and couldn’t stop, and he said it was because the broom was doing it.”
“What?” Toby sounded confused. “It never made her sneeze before.”
JJ nodded. “That’s what Sylvia said, but the plant man still took it.”
The plant man? I looked at Amanda for clarification, but she only shrugged.
Sylvia was Amanda’s office assistant and had been for years. The besom, there to cleanse the energy of anyone coming into the office, had been there for a while too. That meant Sylvia and the besom had been sharing space for a long time. And while I knew people could develop allergies at any time, it was a bunch of very dry flowers at this point.
“What plant man?” I asked JJ.
“The one with the garden.”
Allard Pace had several gardens, as he had purchased an office right down the street from Amanda with an enormous courtyard full of wildflowers. In fact, he spent a small fortune on landscaping on most of his properties around Osprey.
I would need to show JJ a picture of him to know for certain. This was when pictures on my phone would have been helpful.
“Wait, do you mean the man who works at the florist?” Amanda asked JJ.
“Is a florist a person who sells flowers?”
“Yes.”
“Like Mrs. Bauer?”
“Exactly,” she said, smiling. “The man who works at her store with her. Was it him?”
“No,” JJ told her, shaking their head. “It’s where you took us to see the bamboo.”
Amanda looked at me. “Bamboo?”
“Yeah,” I told her. “At Sanctuary. Malachi Gant has that whole area in the back. Is he the plant guy?”
JJ nodded. “He had Sylvia put the besom on a paper towel.”
“Okay.”
“He told her he was allergic too, and then he took it away.”
I squinted at JJ. It never occurred to me to question their memory because JJ remembered everything. Sometimes too much.
“I’ll have to ask Mr. Gant about the besom, JJ,” Amanda said.
They nodded. “And if he still has it, he could bring it back.”
“Yes,” she granted, her gaze meeting mine.
“But we should make a new one now,” Toby insisted. “So the office stays protected.”
“I agree,” Amanda told him.
“I’ll go get the other stuff, okay?” he asked me.
“Yeah. Go get whatever you think is right.”
“I’ll help,” JJ said, scrambling after their brother.
Alone at the table, Amanda and I both took several sips of tea before she said, “Sylvia was not allergic to that besom.”
“I’m guessing you would have mentioned that to me so we could have made one that didn’t give her hay fever.”
She nodded.
“That’s weird, right?”
“Very.”
My eyes filled quickly.
“Xan?” Amanda asked, sounding worried. “What is it?”
“I like Mal. He’s a nice, kind man, and I consider him a friend.”
“I know. I feel the same.”
“But he took a protective piece out of your office, and that’s bad, but then he didn’t tell you, which makes it worse.”
“Yes, it does.”
We both sat there quietly, thinking, and then I made a besom and Amanda showed JJ how to weave a sweetgrass braid into a daisy crown. She had learned all these things living with me all those years ago.
When Lorne returned three hours later, we were all outside. JJ, wearing their crown, was foraging for pieces of antler on the other side of the stream. Toby was across the yard, sketching Argos, who was lying in the sun beside him. And Amanda and I shared a big blanket in the shade, sipping lemon and lavender iced tea while discussing Malachi Gant and Lorne’s theory.
“Catch me up,” Lorne said, lying down beside me, stretching out, looking the most relaxed I’d seen him in days. The old, faded jeans, T-shirt, and sneakers were so much better than the police uniform he’d been more or less living in.
“Why did you have to go in today?” Amanda asked him. “You’re practically working all weekend. Do you never get a day off?”
“Not when crazy shit is going down,” he apprised her.
“True.”
He glanced at me. “What’s wrong?”
Amanda answered him for me. “He’s just sad. We both are.”
“Why?”
“Because of Mal, of course. It’s very concerning that he took the besom.”
Instant scowl from him.
“What’s with that look?” I asked.
“Pretend I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Oh shit, that’s right. I’m sorry,” Amanda said, smiling sheepishly. “I was thinking you knew about this already.”
“I know nothing.”
“Okay, so, here’s what happened.” She proceeded to catch him up.
After a few minutes, he said, “Lemme see if I have this right. Mal took a talisman from your office, and now the two of you are convinced he’s possessed, or at least in league with the demon. Do I have that right?”
We both nodded.
“Explain.”
“When you remove wards,” Amanda began, “you leave spaces in your protection. So, for example, even though in your brother’s house, your old house, the bells Cass chose from the ones Xan made are doing ninety-five percent of the work to keep the ick out, the witch’s ladder Cass made with Xan is doing the remaining five percent.”
“Are you serious?”
She turned to look at me.
“Of course she’s serious,” I told him. “And at her office, those bells are working really hard, and so the demon was bothered by the wards but unable to remove them.”
“But he got rid of the besom as quickly as he could,” she added.
Lorne turned to me. “I know we’re all emotionally and mentally wiped out, but I think we should talk with Mal before we convict him.”
“Of course.” I nodded, brushing away the tears I’d been weeping since we heard what he’d done.
“This could all be a misunderstanding,” Lorne offered, hand on my cheek, brushing his thumb under my eye. “Or, of all places, the demon is hanging out at Sanctuary with Mal.”
“Okay, Xan told me you two were trying to figure out where the demon could be, but would a lovely place like Sanctuary even be possible?” Amanda asked.
“Here’s the problem: I simply don’t know,” Lorne answered, sounding tense. “Without knowing what kind of demon it is, we’re shooting in the dark here.”
“I can’t believe Father Dennis doesn’t believe in demons,” she said sourly. “Is that even allowed for a priest?”
When I had caught her up on everything that had gone on, she’d been mortified.
Lorne said, “Well, honestly, it doesn’t really matter what you and I think, or Father Dennis or anyone else. It’s all going to come down to Xander, which I hate, because at the end of the day, this is for him to do.”
“What do you mean?” I asked him.
“This is your show, love. The rest of us can offer help, but this mess we find ourselves in is for you to fix. It’s your power that will kill the demon.”
I nodded.
“This demon is already hurting almost everyone in Osprey merely by being here. It’s poisoning the town, and we can’t let it continue.”
“I’m a guardian of Corvus, not Osprey,” I reminded him.
The look he gave me said he wasn’t buying that. “Corvus is in Osprey, which makes you a guardian of the town as well, same as me, same as Amanda.”
“Me?” She sounded surprised.
“You own most of this town, and you did that, and haven’t sold any of it, because you want it to be safe for everyone who lives here. You also make sure this community is diverse and inclusive and that everyone has a voice. Don’t you dare try and tell me you’re not a guardian just like me and Xan.”
She turned away quickly, brushing at her tears.
Lorne looked at me. “What’d I say?”
“You’re very eloquent,” I praised him.
“Yes, you are,” Amanda whispered, then took a deep breath. “Okay, so what’s your next step? What are you doing now?”
“Now I think we need to go see Father Dennis. We said we would anyway, but he’s not answering his phone. I want to find out if he’s heard anything.”
“That sounds good,” I replied, getting more anxious by the second. I had to do something. Sitting around talking about all the obstacles in our way wasn’t helping anything.
“I’m going to take my kids home and wait to hear from you,” Amanda announced, standing up. “But you must call this time, Xan. You leave me hanging again, and you will be the one chaperoning JJ’s visits with Eddie’s mother for a month.”
I could feel my eye twitch.
“Yeah. See?”
“I will call.”
“And don’t do anything stupid,” she told me, then looked at Lorne. “No hero crap.”
“No, ma’am,” he agreed, smiling up at her. “No crap.”
“Don’t you think it’s interesting,” I said to Lorne as he drove us to the church in his Jeep, having finally changed out his work vehicle for his personal one, “that there are no new strategies for dealing with demons?”
“What do you mean?” he asked, parking in front of St. Theresa’s.
“I mean, back in the Middle Ages and today, same exorcism. No one has come up with anything different. I find that astonishing.”
“Maybe that’s because there’s only one way to deal with them.”
“Supposedly, King Solomon commanded demons.”
He groaned. “I’ll bet you Father Dennis doesn’t believe in King Solomon either.”
“Now you’re being ridiculous,” I said, chuckling.
“I’m just scared for you, Xan, and it’s eating a hole in my stomach,” he groused. “And why isn’t Father Dennis answering his goddamn phone?”
“We’ll find him, love,” I assured him.
As it was now one in the afternoon and the church was closed until evening Mass, the two of us went to check the rectory, which, because the church was so old, was around the back.
“Did you talk to him at all today? I asked Lorne.
“No. I’ve been trying for hours, but it keeps going straight to voice mail. You know, I feel so bad for Mr. and Mrs. Hayes. They were so sad to have lost their daughter, but happy she was ‘no longer doing the devil’s work.’”
“When was this?”
“Earlier today. They came by the office to see me. I called them on Friday, of course. I didn’t want them to accidentally hear the news through the grapevine. That would have been devastating.”
“Yes, it would,” I agreed, my voice shaking. “But they thought…what? That because she was selling dead animals in her store, she was also flying around on a broom and cavorting with the devil?” I asked, feeling the anger, heavy and cold in the pit of my stomach. “She sold crystals and stones and incense.”
“I know,” he said gently, taking hold of my nape. “I’m sorry, Xan. In a perfect world, divination and dreamcatchers and salt circles would never be confused with evil.”
He reached for the door of the rectory just as Malachi was coming out.
“Oh, thank you.” He was carrying a large dieffenbachia that looked like it had seen better days.
It had to have seemed odd—I froze, Lorne froze, both of us staring at him.
“Why are you two looking at me like I’ve got horns growing out of my head?”
Lorne recovered faster. He was trained to do so, after all. “What are you doing here, Mal?” he asked slowly.
“I’m trying to save the greenery that’s up at the altar during Mass.” He sighed. “Father Dennis called this morning to tell me it looked like crap, so here I am. I’m not supposed to be doing it, my plant guy is, but as of yesterday, he was a no-show.”
I jolted. “What?”
“I can’t—this is heavy,” he muttered, and Lorne took the plant, struggling a bit as well because it was in a bulky ceramic pot. And while Lorne was bigger than Mal, Mal was not a small man himself, carrying quite a bit of muscle on his six-foot frame. “Thanks, Lorne.” He took a breath, then gestured at me. “What’s wrong with you?”
I cleared my throat. “Your plant guy, did everyone call him that, the plant guy ?”
“Well, yeah,” he answered, sounding uncertain. “We’re all called that. Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I…there’s been some confusion.”
“About the name of my company?”
“The name of your company is Sanctuary.”
“Yes. And the division that takes care of the plants in buildings is called Plant Guys.”
“It is?”
His brows furrowed as he studied me, glanced at Lorne, then refocused on me. “Yeah. We all wear the same uniform so we’re easily recognizable. It’s a service I offer where we go to homes and businesses—mostly businesses, at this point—and take care of plants for people who are too busy, don’t know how to keep a cactus alive, or don’t want to murder expensive plants they paid an arm and a leg for. I mean, office AC units are not good for flora.”
“No,” I agreed, really looking at him.
His polo had a logo on it of a potted monstera with the words Plant Guy underneath. The green waist apron with the business name, Sanctuary , written in the same scrolling font as all his signage, was a nice touch as well.
“Who was the plant guy who quit?” Lorne asked.
“Tanner Murphy. Who, interestingly, told everyone he was a youth pastor at that Abundant Light Church, but it turns out he was actually hired as a delivery driver there. And, he got canned when Pastor Wilkins heard from a little girl’s mother that he’d told her magic was evil.”
“That is interesting.” Lorne glanced at me. “And so Tanner got the job with you and then quit?”
“Quit would imply he gave notice or even came into the office and told me to kiss his ass. Neither of those scenarios happened. As it is, I don’t know if he’s dead or alive. I called twice, worried something happened to him, and the phone just rings. The apartment he was renting on a month-to-month basis is empty. I have been thoroughly ghosted.”
“I’m sorry he put you in a tight spot.”
Mal scoffed. “Come on, this is Osprey. The tight spot I’m in will be remedied by the middle of next week. I’ll have this job filled in no time. But yeah, until then it’s only me and two others.”
“Nice of you not to leave the work for your underlings on a Sunday,” I said.
“No. It’s simply good service. I can’t let my customers down, and especially not Father Dennis. I think you get in trouble with God if you let a priest give a homily in front of dead flora,” he said, chuckling. “But at least I can save this one. It’s the only one alive out of the whole bunch.”
“It looks like it’s on its last legs,” I noted.
“No, it’ll be fine. But I gotta get it back to the nursery and then return with replacements so people don’t think Father Dennis and the nuns are killing plants.”
“Tanner did a really bad job, didn’t he?”
He nodded. “Whatever the opposite of a green thumb is, that’s what he had.”
“You didn’t let Tanner touch any of the plants at Sanctuary, did you?” I asked, scared of the answer.
“Are you kidding?” He shot me a look like I was nuts. “That’s my baby. Plus, my team, and above all, Carmella—you know, you’ve met her—she’s way too careful about who she lets go where and when in there. She runs a tight ship.”
His assistant manager had always been very nice to me.
“You’re never gonna believe this, but Carmella found the plants someone used to poison the bees. You know, Diana Flint’s bees and Ken Slater’s?”
“She did?” Lorne crossed his arms, looking at Mal. “Where were they?”
“In our dumpster. Carmella noticed soil and checked it out because when we lose anything at the nursery, we put it in our compost bin. So she was surprised to find these plants with flowers on ’em. I can promise you, Lorne, we had nothing to?—”
“No. I know. And Amanda has replaced the hives for both Diana and Ken, so if those plants are safe to be in your compost bin, then go ahead.”
“No, we’ll put ’em in the incinerator. Once they’re ashes, then they’ll be safe. I wanna make sure. And I was going to report it anyway.”
“I appreciate that.”
“And hey, speaking of, Carmella found something else in the trash that she thinks Tanner stole from Amanda Sterling’s office. She remembers seeing it there when she and her husband bought their house earlier this year. It’s like a little, I dunno, like a?—”
“Broom?” Lorne asked him.
“Yeah,” Mal said, smiling brightly. “Like a baby broom with dried plants all over it.”
“It’s called a besom,” Lorne told him, “and Amanda was missing it.”
“I’m so sorry, but if you would let her know that Carmella has it in her truck, and she’ll run it over there tomorrow.”
“I will,” Lorne said with a long sigh, as relieved as I was to know Mal was himself.
“That’s weird, don’t you think? Stealing something like that?” Mal mused, looking at me.
“Weird and a bit creepy,” I assured him.
“Agreed. That’ll teach me to listen to Pace when he makes recommendations on people to give a job to.”
“Oh? He’s the one who suggested you hire Tanner?”
“Yeah, and get this. Tanner convinced Pace to sell Haskell Manor to Abundant Life, but it turns out Pastor Wilkins never wanted that deal. They can barely fill up the one-room building they have now.”
“It was probably Tanner who wanted the building,” Lorne proposed.
“Yeah. Looking back on it, I knew better. I had a weird feeling in my gut from the first time I met the guy that I ignored. I should have listened to the little voice, ya know?”
He should have. Always. I was amazed at how many moments of warning most people missed simply second-guessing themselves.
“You should never do that,” I cautioned him.
“Which I’ll know for next time.”
“I wonder if Pace will still turn it into a bed-and-breakfast now,” Lorne mused.
“I dunno,” Mal said. “Time will tell, I guess, but either way, I think blessing the place is a waste of time until there’s a plan for the space.”
“Sorry?”
“Earlier today when I came by and saw the state of the plants, I asked Father Dennis if he’d be around later to let me into the church before evening Mass, and he told me he had an appointment with Pace to go out to the manor this afternoon and give it a blessing. He got volunteers to help him move all the plants into the rectory for me before he left.”
“So Father Dennis went out to Haskell Manor?”
“Yeah.”
“Thanks, Mal,” Lorne told him. “You’ve been a lifesaver.”
He looked at Lorne oddly. “A lifesaver?”
“Oh yes, without question,” he stated, gripping Mal’s shoulder tight for a moment, squeezing, then letting go. “Love to have you over for dinner soon.”
Mal’s smile was wide. “You tell me when, and I’ll be there.”
“Good,” Lorne said, grabbing my hand. “Let’s go.”
Halfway to his Jeep, I said, “What are we going to do now that the man who was supposed to tell us what we’re up against could, in fact, already be in the clutches of a demon?”
Lorne shook his head, opening the door for me. “We were being stupid.”
Once I got in and he shut the door, he jogged around the front of the car and got in. He was fast pulling out of the parking lot and getting us on the road.
“Care to elaborate?”
“It was never about fighting the demon, not in a traditional sense. We need to listen to what Elen told us to do.”
“I don’t remember her saying anything.”
“Yes, you do,” he assured me. “First, she told us to blind the demon with all it seeks.”
“Meaning?”
“It came through the rift and was immediately attacked. What would it want more than anything here?”
I had to think.
“What do we all need first? Exactly what we gave those kids last night.”
“Yes,” I agreed, taking a breath, following his lead. “They needed safety, and so would the demon.”
“That’s right.”
“The demon’s been hunting everyone it thought could hurt it, and now it knows I’m the greatest obstacle to its continued well-being.”
“Correct. And because of that, we’re going to talk up your family land to it at the first opportunity.”
“Why?”
“Listen, we only have two things on our side at the moment: first, that the demon doesn’t know you’re a branded witch, and second, that it might not know there’s a huge rift on Corvus.”
“And you’re thinking what?”
“That it would want, more than anything, for you to no longer pose a threat, and then he’d want to gain control of the rift.”
“Why? So it can get across a legion of its nearest and dearest?”
“No,” he replied flatly. “So that it can make sure nothing else, and especially no gods, can ever cross through and end it.”
I shivered hard.
“It’s gonna be okay,” he promised. “I’m counting on us.”
“So am I.”