23. Yankee Doodle Dandy #2
Chuck’s smile flickered for a split second, then he was all brightness again. “Well! Duty calls. Can’t have my patriots running low on ammunition.”
Delilah stepped forward. “Wait—you’re planning to keep this thing here? On the town green? For the next week?”
“Until the Fourth, absolutely!” Chuck crushed her hand in another vigorous handshake. “The more attention we generate here, the more attention we can share with CastR. Everybody wins!”
Kelly’s voice was very calm. Very measured. “The homes and businesses that are about to be subjected to a week of John Philip Sousa may not, perhaps, feel like winners.”
Chuck just laughed—that same booming, friendly, deeply unsettling laugh—and grabbed Kelly’s hand, then Scarlett’s, then Luna’s, crushing each in turn.
“You ladies are a delight. I can’t wait for the Fourth.
Just think of the crowds! All the attention we’re going to receive, like Christmas in July.
” He strode off toward the float. The band’s volume surged, like applause.
There was something about Chuck that Luna couldn’t quite name, but it made her skin crawl.
“Well,” Scarlett said finally. “That was—”
“Deeply weird,” Delilah finished.
“Profoundly weird,” Luna agreed.
Kelly just sighed and started walking toward the Stargazer Inn. “Come on. We need to talk. And I don’t know about you girls, but I need a drink.”
* * *
The dining room of the Stargazer Inn had always been a sanctuary.
Wood paneling, soft lamplight, furniture chosen more for comfort than style.
Zahir had set the Melroses up at their usual table, the big one by the window.
And he’d ferried in plates of food without being asked: sandwiches, fruit, a pot of coffee.
“Some fortification,” he’d said, squeezing Kelly’s shoulder.
Now the four of them sat in various states of exhaustion, picking at food none of them really wanted.
“Mama,” Luna asked, “how’s it been going with the magicians? Any of them interested in helping out?”
“Not one. I’ve reached out to every magician I can.
I’ve explained over and over what is happening with CastR.
How both our communities are in severe danger.
I ask for help. And every single one has declined.
One sent me a seventeen-minute voice memo about ‘witch overreach’ and how we’d brought this on ourselves.
Which I take to be a reference to the actions of our ancestors in Salem.
The magicians don’t trust us, and they won’t help us.
And honestly, knowing what I know now, I don’t entirely blame them.
This distrust cuts deeper than I thought, and it threatens to unravel everything we’re working for.
” Kelly turned to her middle daughter expectantly.
“So, Scarlett, tell us how the investments are going.”
Scarlett scrolled through her phone with a smirk.
“The good news is, the ripples from Luna’s New York debut are already causing a little storm out West. Tech blogs are going insane.
Unofficial valuation of CastR is ticking up every minute, like someone’s loading it with rocket fuel.
And with Chuck’s investment—whatever mystery amount that entails—things are only going to get hotter.
Buckle up, ladies, this could be a wild ride. ”
Delilah set down her coffee cup. “Can we talk about something Chuck said? About how it doesn’t matter if the app works?”
“That was weird, right?” Luna frowned. “I’m not the only one who thought that was weird?”
“It’ll definitely matter to the other investors,” Scarlett said. “And to Wall Street in general. If the app doesn’t work, the whole thing collapses. Chuck’s clearly just . . . I don’t know. Insane?”
“There’s something fundamentally off about that guy,” Luna said. She’d been trying to put her finger on it since Chuck had grabbed her hand. “Like, beyond the parade float and the weird little kids.”
Scarlett grinned. “Remember years ago, when Tom Cruise was jumping up and down on Oprah’s couch like a madman? And everyone was like, ‘dude, chill’? Definite couch-jumping vibe from ole Chuck out there.”
“Well, he is a friend of Louise’s,” Delilah pointed out. “What did we expect, someone normal? Not likely.”
“Speaking of friends,” Scarlett said, her tone carefully casual in a way that made Luna immediately suspicious, “where’s your friend of the boy variety?”
Heat rose in her cheeks. “I don’t have, nor do I want, a friend of the boy variety. Elias stayed back in New York to keep an eye on CastR headquarters. It was a 100 percent purely tactical decision and not at all because he’s avoiding me, no matter what you think.”
“Nobody thought he was avoiding you,” Delilah said.
“Well,” Scarlett added, “we do now.”
“Girls—” Kelly started.
“He’s not avoiding me!” Luna heard her voice rise and forced it back down.
“We’re fine. Everything’s fine. In fact, can we talk about how well we both did at that meeting?
Burke was right there in the room with us, and Elias didn’t lose his composure at all.
He was very cool and collected about the whole thing. Very impressive.”
Delilah and Scarlett exchanged a look that Luna didn’t like at all.
“What?” Luna demanded.
“Nothing,” Delilah said. “Just, you know what they say about revenge being served cold.”
“Yeah,” Scarlett agreed. “And this particular revenge is like, a hundred years cold. Shaw’s been waiting a long time. What’s one more day?”
“No,” Luna said firmly. “No, he held his cool because he’s committed to the plan and he won’t do anything to risk it. You guys barely even know him—”
“Some of us can recognize someone carrying a grudge,” Kelly said.
“He’s not—” She stopped. Took a breath. “Look. Everything is going exactly according to plan. Better than the plan, actually, because we stumbled into a meeting that had all the major investors at the same time. Which means we only needed one meeting to goose their investments, and we still have two tokens left!” She pulled the leather satchel from her pocket with a flourish, holding it up like a trophy.
“Listen to this!” She gave it a shake. “The tinkling of these tokens tells you that we still have two left and we’re already—”
She stopped.
There was no tinkling sound.
The satchel felt wrong in her hand. She loosened the drawstring and reached inside. She found one token, still warm and humming with stored power. A second, cold and black and soft. And . . . that was it.
“Luna?” Scarlett tilted her head, concerned. “Are you short a token? My gods, you didn’t drop it somewhere, did you?”
“No. No, I had the bag the entire time. I never let it out of my—”
The memory hit her like cold water to the face.
“Oh shit.”