Chapter 19 #2
“Yeah. You too.” Jena nodded, the rain pattering down louder on the Jeep’s soft top. Geri was definitely going to be dealing with grass stains on wet tulle. The sky had lightened enough to make out the cold drizzle soaking everything and a thick ground fog hung between the trees.
“Yeah. I went out west for a while,” he said, his thumb tapping against the steering wheel. “You?”
“South.”
“You like it there?” Liam asked.
Jena shrugged. “It was okay. How about you?”
“I loved the desert, but it wasn’t ever really home.” His eyes flicked to the rearview mirror. “There were a lot of things in Havers I missed.”
“Like your kids?” Felix pipped up from the backseat. Kelsey smacked his thigh, and Jena winced at the pained look that flitted over Liam’s face.
“Jury’s still out on that,” he muttered.
Ouch. Guess it was a sore subject. They drove in silence again, then bumped onto the main road, and across the tracks—
A wash of power caught Jena, along with the distinct impression of annoyance. The Jeep slowed to a crawl, and Liam swore, downshifting.
I’ll be back, I swear, Jena thought at the node. Just let me see Aggie…
Words to vow spoken, the blood of thy veins to bind. Seven stones to witness thy oath. Our service for thine…
Yes! I remember, I do. I’ll be there—
Before the moon rises, the rite must complete. He’s here, he’s here, HE’S HERE…
Shit, Okay, that was new, and she had a really bad feeling the “he” the node was talking about wasn’t Chase. The node’s annoyance shot through her again, and she flinched. Yes, fine! I’ll be there! I swear.
A distinct harumph went through her mind, and whatever was slowing the Jeep let go, the vehicle gunning forward. Behind her, Felix yelped. She turned to look at him.
He smoothed his frazzled curls. “Getting zapped like that is getting really old,” he said, glaring at her. “As soon as we make sure Aggie’s all right, we’re heading to the ruins. E-stim is definitely not my kink.”
Jena’s brow furrowed. “E-stim?”
“Erotic electrostimulation,” Kelsey supplied. “It’s an acquired taste.”
Okay, then. Jena looked between them. “That’s a kink? Being shocked?”
“Oh, please,” Felix rolled his eyes, “Everything’s a kink if you do it right.”
Kelsey laughed. “And sometimes when you don’t.”
Jena opened her mouth and then closed it again, wondering if that was why Kelsey was licking—nope. Never mind. She did not want to know what the freaky little were was into.
“What the heck did I get hung up on?” Liam asked, slowing the Jeep as he looked in the rearview.
“The node,” Jena muttered, her conscience pricking her as they drove farther from it. “I have to be at the ruins before moonrise to finish the rite to claim guardianship.”
“Nice,” Kelsey fist pumped. “We’ll get you there way before then, right Liam?”
“Yeah, sure,” he said, glancing at Felix in the rearview.
Outside, the rattle and hum of generators slowly overtook the thickening silence inside the Jeep.
People were already milling along the sidewalks carrying boxes and bags, heading to and from town hall.
A bevy of big white tents were set up on its front lawn and the green across the street.
A billowing cloud of steam came from the back of one of them.
“Looks like the pancake breakfast is still a go,” Felix murmured, chewing his lip as he looked out the window at the “No Parking” cones dotting the gutters.
“That means they’re going to be closing down the streets.
God, I’m so fired. You frying the town has got to have the organizers panicking.
The mayor’s phone must be ringing off the hook. ”
“Want me to let you out?” Liam asked, slowing as a sheriff held up a hand for the car in front of them to let a group of pedestrians cross.
A couple of deputies dragged a sawhorse to the curb with a big “Road Closed” sign on it.
Damn. Felix was right, and it looked like they were already getting ready to shut down traffic.
Jena whipped around to glare at him. “Don’t even think about abandoning me.”
“Too late,” he muttered, then louder, “nope, I’m good, just about to be unemployed. Your shop hiring?” He batted his lashes at Jena.
She snorted as the sheriff let the line of traffic through. “Aggie does enough napping behind the register.” Or she did. Jena wiped her palms against her jeans. God. Please let her be okay…
Liam turned onto Cross Street, and Jena chewed her lip, not entirely sure going in the front was the best idea. “Drive around to the lot by the church. We can go in the back.”
“By back, you better not mean the coal shoot.” Felix glowered.
Jena put a hand to her side. That wasn’t happening again. “No, I’m talking about the door we used to take deliveries at.” She didn’t think there was too much crap piled in front of it to push through.
Liam pulled up behind the shop, and Jena whipped off her seat belt. His arm slapped across her chest, pinning her. “Wait a sec. You don’t know who’s out there.” He glanced in the rearview at Kelsey, and she squeezed past Felix and out Jena’s door.
They all watched her as she sniffed the air, then ducked into the alley.
A breath or two later, she popped back out with the all clear.
Jena jumped out of the Jeep and ran to the back door, the ward prickling across her skin as she spoke the incantation to unlock the deadbolts.
She shivered, Matilda had definitely contributed to it.
The spell was nasty. Whoever tried to cross it with ill intent better have friends around, because they were not walking away by themselves.
Jena’s gaze fell on a black mark by the step that hadn’t been there before.
Good. Served them right.
The deadbolts clacked open, and she turned the knob, shouldering the door wide enough to slip through. Behind her, Liam pulled out of the lot.
“He’s going to park on the other side of town hall and walk back,” Kelsey said, squeezing through the crack. “Otherwise, once they close the roads, we won’t be able to get out.”
Jena frowned. In theory that was a good plan, but it meant that they would have to go through the festival on foot. She had no desire to relive the trick-or-treat debacle, but it didn’t sound like they’d have much choice. Jena buzzed her lips. Guess they’d deal with that when it happened.
Felix squeezed through next, and Jena closed the door behind him. Her fingers hovered by the deadbolt—no, Liam needed to get in, and that ward would take care of anyone that shouldn’t. The shop was silent as she headed out of the back and up the stairs, Felix and Kelsey trailing in her wake.
“Aggie?” she called, opening the door.
“Shh!” Sweets hissed, bustling in from the kitchen. “She’s in her room, resting.”
Jena’s knees buckled, and Felix caught her. “S-she’s okay? I-I saw…” she bit her lips, overcome as her vision swam. Felix steered her to the couch, and she collapsed onto it. Across the room, Ms. Pao’s soft snoring hitched, and she turned to snuggle deeper into one of the overstuffed chairs.
“Aggie’s really okay?” Jena whispered, her voice shaking.
“Woman’s better than she’s got any right to be after the fright she gave us.
” Sweets huffed out her cheeks. “Kressida was up all night sitting with her, and Matilda’s in there now.
I’m more concerned about what happened on the Eastside.
There’s no mistaking that was the node’s magic that rolled through town causing havoc. ”
“It was,” Jena said, wiping her eyes. “I saw Ms. Pao giving Aggie CPR—”
“Did you now?” Sweets’s eyebrow rose, and she crossed her arms over her breasts. “I didn’t think true-seeing was in your line…but I do remember the node showing your mama glimpses of what it thought she needed to know. Have you finally stopped your nonsense and taken it in hand?”
“Kind of.” Jena’s stomach churned. If she’d truly seen that, what about Chase?
She took a deep breath, calming herself.
If the node had really shown him, it had to know where he was, and she was positive there was only one way it would tell her.
“I have to go back and finish the rite, but I needed to see Aggie first.”
“Thank God,” Matilda said, coming down the hall. “She’s up, ornery, and is itching to see you, too. How you stand living with someone so miserable—” Sweets snorted, and Matilda glowered back. “You have something to say?”
“Not a word,” Sweets said.
“Well, that’s a load of crap.” Matilda shook her head, her springy curls bouncing as she disappeared into the kitchen.
If Sweets did say something else, Jena didn’t hear it, already out of the room and pushing through Aggie’s door. Her aunt was propped up in bed, running a hand over a haze of steel gray fuzz on her scalp that hadn’t been there yesterday.
She turned from the window as Jena came in. “It’s about time you showed up.”
“Sorry.” Jena sat on the bed beside her, tears pricking her eyes again.
“Stop that,” Aggie chided. “I’m not dead yet, and I know damned well that’s because the node brought me back.
All Kressida managed to do was slobber all over me and crack a bunch of ribs.
” She grimaced. “Woman about burnt herself out healing them after the fact. Now you wanna tell me what part you played in the first part of that equation?”
Jena sniffled. “The node made me promise my service for theirs, and then showed me you and Chase, hurt…I asked it to save you when I did.”
“Well, that was fucking sneaky, but par for the course. Alive or dead, sidhe don’t have a real firm grasp on ethics,” she muttered. “And if you promised them your service, you need to be out at the ruins finishing the rite, not here, blubbering at my bedside.”
“I have until moonrise.” Jena’s brow furrowed. “But I don’t understand. How are the node’s voices sidhe?”