She tried not to sneeze, as she supposed it took away from what appeared to be a very serious ceremony. But holding her breath would go only so far, after all.
So when she thought no one was looking, she rubbed at her nose and wiped her eyes.
A muffled chuckle made her glance at Captain Hink. He, of course, had been staring at her the whole time.
She resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him.
“Let us begin,” Miss Adaline said.
Rose sat a little straighter in the chair situated in the middle of the gathering hall. The sisters, not all of whom lived here and tended the farm, surrounded her in a wide circle.
The rest of the people in attendance—Cedar Hunt, Wil, the Madders, Miss Dupuis, Miss Wright, and Mr. Seldom—were scattered about the room.
It made Rose nervous to be the center of attention of so much magic. But it was also exciting. Here she was, Rose Small, in the middle of a circle of witches, about to get some strange device unstuck from her shoulder.
She should jot this all down in a letter to Mr. Gregor back in Hallelujah. He had wanted to hear about her travels and adventures. Maybe she’d leave out the almost dying part, but she thought he’d like to know where she had been. Airships, mountains, and now, Kansas.
She wanted to tell him she’d met Molly, and how wonderful and strong and kind she was and how bravely she’d died. She had known her so briefly, but was going to miss her keenly.
The sisters began singing. It was a soft, rising song. Rose didn’t understand everything that was happening, but the song was nice, and when Mae walked behind her and placed her hand on the Holder, it was almost as if the entire song flowed through her hand.
Warmth rolled like a warm wind across her body. Rose had been told to just stay still and relax. But the warmth was heating up, becoming uncomfortable.
And then she must have fallen asleep for the blink of a moment.
White-hot pain raked through her like someone was pulling her naked over hot coals.
She opened her mouth to scream…
…and there was a cool cloth on her forehead, a soft bed beneath her.
Well, not quite a bed. She was lying in the gathering hall, near the fire, on a pile of soft blankets.
Miss Adaline placed the cool cloth over her forehead. “Back with us now?” she asked.
“Did I go somewhere?”
“You fainted, for a few minutes now. It must have hurt very much.”
“It did,” Rose said. “Is it done? Is it gone?”
“Mostly,” Miss Adaline said. “Your shoulder is bare skin again.” She gently drew her fingers over Rose’s shoulder, and Rose flinched.
“Still aches,” she said.
“I imagine it will for a while yet. When the metal fell free into Mae’s hand a very small key was attached to it. How do you feel?”
“Better, I think,” Rose said. “Can I talk to Mae?”
A shadow crossed Adaline’s face, turning her features hard. But she nodded. “Of course.”
Rose was getting the impression that the sisters were wary of Mae. Of her particular talents with magic.
And Mae had barely smiled in all the time they’d been here. She wondered if time would eventually make her happy to be home again.
Mae lowered herself next to Rose. She was pale, and looked tired, but she smiled. “How are you feeling?”
“I like having my skin back,” Rose said. “Where is it? The Holder?”
“Bryn Madder had a very clever box to put it in.” Mae looked over her shoulder. “He and the other Madders all made a big production that no one touch it, even though it was bare in my hands. Then the Madders put on thick gloves and carefully placed it, key and all, into the box. I think you’d have liked to have seen it, but Bryn’s already taken it out to the airship and has said the box cannot be unsealed.”
“Are they leaving?” Rose asked with a start. “Is everyone leaving?”
“No, they are arguing. Over who is going to take the piece of the Holder to safekeeping.”
Now that Mae mentioned it, Rose could hear the lively discussion on the other side of the room. Alun Madder and Miss Dupuis were arguing with Captain Hink, of all people.
“The captain wants it?” Rose asked, surprised.
“He does. Apparently, it’s part of what the president sent him out to find, and Cedar made a deal of some kind regarding it. But I’m not sure that the Madders, or Miss Dupuis, will let him have it.”
“Let them store it, Cage.” Cedar’s voice was low, but rolled through the room like a wind closing a door. “You have no place to keep it, no way to transport it to the president, and no guarantee it won’t harm you or others on the way.”
“My mission—,” Hink began.
“Was to find the Holder,” Cedar finished for him. “And to keep it out of the wrong hands. You’ve found a piece of it. And these people will keep it out of everyone’s hands. This is where it ends.”
“You can’t tell me what my orders are, Mr. Hunt.”
“You want this piece of tin, you go through me to get it.”
Everyone in the room was silent.
Finally, Miss Dupuis spoke up. “We are in contact with the president, Captain Cage. I give you my word. We will store it safely and contact him immediately. As Mr. Hunt says, we will keep this away from all living things.”
“And if the president wants it?” Hink asked.
“He can ask for it, of course,” Alun Madder said.
Rose knew the Madders well enough to know that just because they said you could do something, it didn’t mean they would actually let you do it.
But she was on their side in this argument. She wanted the piece of the Holder locked up, locked away. The very idea of Captain Cage carrying it around with him as he made his way back to Washington put knots in her stomach.
“You know I’ll hunt you down for it if I want it,” Hink said with a friendliness that nonetheless carried a threat.
“Oh, we’d expect no less of you, Mr. Hink,” Alun said cheerily. “Shall we drink on it, then?”
There was the passing of flasks, and then someone brought in wine. Mae sat silently with Rose, staring into the fire, seeming to smile slightly only when Cedar Hunt spoke.
Oh. Maybe that was the sadness that had taken her friend. Mae had come home, but Mr. Hunt might be moving on.
Rose was going to ask her, but the fire was warm, the sound of voices growing more and more friendly as the wine flowed, and eventually, without her consent, sleep took her to softer horizons.
She woke to someone whispering her name.
“Rose?”
She opened her eyes. It was dark in the room, the fire in the hearth banked down low. It took her a second or two to get her bearings. She was at the coven, in the great room, wrapped in blankets. Who was calling her name?
Captain Hink knelt down beside her. “Are you awake?”
“Is something wrong?”
“No. But it will be sunrise soon. I wanted to go out to the
“Hmm.” He sat the rest of the way down on the floor. “Why is it,” he said, “that every time I’m around you, I act like an idiot? Do you have some sort of magic that makes men turn dumb?”
“No. I think you just come by it in a natural sort of way, Captain.”
He grinned at her. “I assure you, Rose, I am quite the suave buck around other women.”
