Chapter 21
She loved día de muertos. Loved the bright orange and yellow, the glow of candles in the darkness, the smells of rich drinking chocolate, the burn of tequila in her throat, and the smells of rich cooking.
She loved the stories of family—her mother, her grandfather, her great-great grandfather who still spoke the Old Language.
She loved knowing that her family was around her going back for generations, and that she would be there for her children, when she had them, and their children, and their children’s children…
I set the picture frame back down and smiled at the woman whose ofrenda I was helping to organize.
She patted my arm in return, then turned and said something in Spanish to Taavi Camal, Hart’s fiancé.
Taavi was a genuinely very nice person and was volunteering at the Latine Community Center with the families who had members who were Arc-humans or Arcanids, including this woman’s grandson. Taavi smiled at her, then turned to me.
“She wants you to know that the photograph is of her grandmother, and the frame belonged first to that same grandmother, who loved music and día de muertos celebrations—they were her favorite time of year.”
I smiled at the woman, then over at the ghost of the woman in the photograph. “Tell her that her grandmother is a lovely woman, and that she still very much enjoys día de muertos.” I did my best not to butcher the Spanish pronunciation.
Taavi’s eyes—one brown, one a milky sort of grey from an old injury—widened. “She’s here?” he asked, slightly breathy.
I nodded.
He turned to, presumably, explain this to the woman, who let out a sound that I thought was probably happy, because she first hugged Taavi, then threw her arms around me. Before she let go, she kissed my cheek, and I decided that the tears on her cheeks were probably happy ones.
The first year I’d worked día de muertos at the LCC, I hadn’t been prepared for the number of complete strangers who were going to hug me, shake my hand, pat my shoulder, and otherwise continuously invade my personal space.
I was used to it now, even if I was occasionally startled by specific spontaneous hugs.
There were hundreds of tables winding their way through the LCC, a labyrinth of families celebrating the love they had for each other and their progenitors, some of whom had been assigned the same tables next to the same other families for years.
There was one set that was extra-celebratory because the daughter of one family had just gotten engaged to the son of the other, and there was a full-swing party happening by their now-joint double-sized ofrenda.
I was too exhausted to really enjoy any of it, despite the fact that everyone from Beyond the Veil was taking turns getting coffee for everyone else.
There were another eighteen hours to go before we hit dawn after the Day of the Dead, and I wasn’t sure that any of us were going to make it.
It was me, Beck, Mason, Ward, and Vi. Jackson usually helped, but not this year—because there was yet another protest outside the LCC, although they’d been kept across the street from the center, rather than being allowed to congregate on the sidewalk or in the parking lot.
There had been a fairly loud fight about it at Beyond the Veil the day before, because Jackson had desperately tried to convince Mason to let him come along—but he’d had to go with his mother, along with Zane and Grace.
Cheer up, sunshine, Sylvia cajoled. I looked over at her from where I was leaning against the wall, trying to stay standing more or less through sheer willpower.
I’m too tired, I complained to her. And my arm hurts.
My poor little sunshine, she cooed.
I rolled my eyes, but it made me smile a little as I leaned my head back against the wall.
“There you are.”
I lifted my head to see Raj in front of me.
He’d refused to let me work this gig without him. I’d been too tired to fight with him about it—since he apparently was willing to take two personal days to come with me in the middle of a major case.
I couldn’t decide if that was endearing or irritating.
I was too tired to make up my mind.
At that precise moment, I was grateful, because he was holding out a large iced pumpkin spice latte and a big cookie in a little cardboard tray.
It had been Raj’s turn to do the coffee run—Mason said he was welcome to come along if he made himself useful, and while I’d been frustrated that he had to watch over me, I wasn’t going to complain about one more set of hands to move things around and help set things up.
Especially since Ward was struggling with a loaner wheelchair and I only had one usable arm.
“Mason’s got a tray of enchiladas for you back at the table,” he said, studying me.
I nodded, taking a long drink of the cold coffee.
Sunshine, Sylvia interrupted. You have to tell him what you need. You can’t just expect him to know.
I kept leaning against the wall and didn’t bother looking at her. I’d have to know what I need for that, I told her. And I’m so tired I can’t think.
Take the time to think, sunshine, she told me. And then talk to him, yes?
After I sleep, I told her, although now I was annoyed at Sylvia, too.
And a little at Ward, because although he hadn’t said anything more about my relationship with Raj after the night in the hospital, I kept catching him watching us, and I didn’t much like the idea that other people were judging our relationship, whether alive or dead.
Big, warm fingers gently gripped my uninjured elbow. “Are you okay?” Raj asked me softly.
I looked up at him and had to suppress the urge to burst into tears. “Just tired,” I answered, my voice tight.
“Tired?” he repeated, sounding skeptical.
“Exhausted, okay?” I snapped, since the only option I had other than tears was anger, and Raj looked startled.
I saw him take a breath, his lips opening to say something, probably something that I wasn’t going to like, and then he closed them again. “Come on,” he said gently. “Let’s get some food into you. It will help.”
I wasn’t sure it would, but I couldn’t actually remember the last thing I’d eaten, so I probably did need to have something.
I nodded, allowing Raj to tug me away from the wall.
I wondered briefly if he was going to keep escorting me like a prisoner, but he moved his hand from my elbow to my hip, his arm behind my back.
“Lean into me, if you want,” he murmured, and I had to blink back tears, although I accepted the offer.
I was mildly annoyed to discover that food did help, as did the twenty-minute nap I took in the back of Raj’s Subaru.
Apparently, he’d suggested to Mason that we all needed sleep after the past several days, and they’d worked out a rolling schedule of naps so that by the time I’d eaten, napped, and then eaten a little more, I almost felt like I might have enough energy to make it through the next eight hours.
Unfortunately, there were about sixteen to go.
Hart showed up at dawn following what I was fairly certain might have been the longest day of my life, but I might have been wrong about that, considering that I didn’t actually know for certain when days begun and ended when I’d been in Tranquil Brook.
Some of those might have been longer, but I’d never know.
“Okay, people, pack it the fuck up,” the elf said, somewhat ruining the gruff impression by hugging Taavi, who’d been there not working with us, but who had come over to help us with tear-down and cleanup. “I need Raj back, and the rest of you all need to go home and go the fuck to bed.”
I couldn’t have agreed more.
“Is the MFM still out there?” Raj asked him.
Hart shook his head. “They fucked off around eleven last night, according to Dan Maza,” came the response. He looked around the group. “Serious question—is everybody who’s driving okay to do so?”
“I’m fine,” Raj answered.
Mason also nodded.
Vi yawned.
“Great. I don’t want to hear about any fucking car accidents for any of you over the next hour, you got me?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Mason mumbled.
Hart pinned Raj with a look. “We need you back at work,” he said, his voice serious.
Raj nodded. “I’ll drop Rayn off, then be right there.”
I almost suggested that I could find another way home, but that would also have to apply to Vi, since her car was parked at my apartment, too. I also suspected Raj would feel better knowing—because he’d be the one to take me there—that I was safe at home.
I just wanted to sleep.