Autumn Bones

back!”

“She’s right,” Sinclair said in a low tone. “Stand down. Don’t provoke her.”

Stefan gave me an inquiring look, his sword held lightly in one hand.

And I hesitated.

I don’t know if he would have killed her. I don’t know if he could have killed her, not with the ward she was wearing. Not without breaking the jar. Maybe. Or maybe Stefan was just testing me, testing the bounds of my humanity. It doesn’t matter. I couldn’t give the order. Obeah woman or not, Letitia Palmer was human and mortal. Killing her in cold blood would have violated Hel’s rule of order. And even if that weren’t the case, hell-spawn or not, I wasn’t a murderer.

I shook my head.

Letitia Palmer permitted herself a small, victorious smile. “I have spoken at length to your grandfather’s spirit,” she said to Sinclair. “The country needs you. Your sister needs you. I need you. I’m running for Parliament, you know. There’s a great deal at stake. Blood calls to blood, spirit to spirit. Your grandfather knows. He understands. When you’re ready, truly ready, to come home for good, you’ll be able to recapture his spirit and return it to Jamaica where it belongs. When you do, I’ll lay it to rest. Until then—”

“Mother, I am begging you,” Sinclair said. “Don’t—”

She did.

With a simple, deft twist, the Right Honorable Judge Palmer opened the jar. In case you were wondering, there wasn’t anything special about the jar. I don’t know what it held before it held her father’s spirit. Pickles, maybe.

An eddy of ice-cold air spilled forth from it, circling all of us. My skin prickled at its touch, rising into goose bumps, and I tucked my tail involuntarily between my legs. It smelled acrid and foul, like gunmetal and burning hair, with a powerful underlying note of death and decay, like meat left to rot. The stench of it triggered my gag reflex, and I came seriously close to throwing up. A handful of maple leaves rose in a flurry.

And then the wind died down as abruptly as it had sprung up. The maple leaves settled back onto the grass with a soft rustling sound. We all stood around waiting for something to happen.

“That’s it?” I said to Mrs. Palmer. “That’s your big, scary Grandpa Morgan duppy? A stinky breeze?”

She gave me a flat stare, but behind the bravado there was a hint of uncertainty in it. “Wait.”

“For what, exactly?” I returned her stare. “You don’t know, do you? Sinclair’s right. You’ve turned this thing loose on us with Little Niflheim underfoot, a functioning underworld, and you don’t have the faintest idea what’s going to happen.” My tail untucked and began lashing. “Right. Well, you’re not going to stick around to find out. As Hel’s liaison, I’m ordering you out of town. Now.”

“Or what?” It was the same response she’d give me before, this time dripping with contempt. Any trace of uncertainty in her eyes had vanished. They were hard, hard as the granite headstones around us. Her voice dropped to a lower register, laden with power as she uttered a word. Don’t ask me what word, but it was in a language that sounded like it dated back to the dawn of time, and every syllable of it tolled like a bell. “You don’t dare lay a hand on me, child.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but the word she’d spoken seemed to have lodged itself in my throat like a stone. I couldn’t talk. In fact, beyond opening my mouth, I couldn’t move. I wasn’t entirely sure I could breathe. Letitia Palmer’s eyes glittered in the headlights. Maybe I was human enough that her ward didn’t protect her from me, but I was also human enough to be vulnerable to her magic. The Seal of Solomon charm that Casimir had given me felt hot against my breastbone. Apparently it wasn’t doing shit.

I got angry. I mean, really angry. It was the kind of rich, molten fury I almost never let myself indulge in. I let it fill me until the pressure hurt my ears and the sap began to crackle in the nearest pine trees.

It felt like something physically breaking when her hold on me cracked, like the stone stuck in my throat had shattered.

I tried an experimental cough. Yep, that worked. I went back to Plan A and closed the distance between us, but this time, instead of grabbing for the jar, I reached across the headstone and grabbed the cowry shell strung around her neck, yanking the chain taut. I could feel a vibration of power against my palm, but the ward didn’t repel me.

“Here’s or what,” I said to Letitia Palmer, our faces inches apart above the headstone that separated us. “You will swear on the bones of your ancestors to leave immediately and never return, or I’ll jerk this thing clean off your neck and turn the tall ghoul with the large sword loose on you. And that goes for your daughter, too.”

There was a sheen of sweat on her brow, but she didn’t back down an inch. “You don’t have it in you.”

“Oh, it’s not about what I have in me.” I smiled grimly. “It’s about what you have in you, Mrs. Palmer. Pride. Ambition. Hope. Patriotism. Dignity. Your daughter didn’t seem familiar with the Outcast, so maybe you’re not, either. That’s what they do. They subsist on human emotion. And I will feed you to the ghouls. Everything that defines you? I’ll let them take it all, every last ounce. I’ll let them suck you dry until they’re ravening, until there’s nothing of you left but an empty husk. And when they’re done with you, I’ll let them drain your daughter. Stefan?”

He appeared at my side. “Hel’s liaison.” There was a dark, dangerous note of hunger in his voice. “I await your bidding.”

There was some scuffling behind her as the coven moved to surround dear Emmy, and I heard Sinclair speaking to his father in a low, urgent voice, but I kept my gaze locked on Letitia Palmer’s. She hadn’t been afraid before, but she was now. I could see it in her eyes, in the sweat beading on her forehead. “You did what you came to do, lady,” I said to her. “You’ve fulfilled your threat. Take your victory and go, before the taste of it turns to bile in your mouth.”

Fancy wording, right? That’s what comes from hanging out with a six-hundred-year-old Eastern European nobleman. But I have to give the Right Honorable Judge Palmer credit—she was one tough lady. Curling her lips with distaste, she gave me the briefest of nods.

“Swear it,” I said without relinquishing an ounce of pressure on her necklace.

“I swear it on the bones of my ancestors,” she said in a bitter voice. By the sound of it, I was a little late with the whole taste-of-bile thing. “Emmeline and I will leave Pemkowet immediately, never to return.”

“Good.” I let go of the cowry shell. “Stefan and his men will give you an escort. As soon as you retrieve your luggage at the Idlewild, I want you out of town.”

Letitia Palmer straightened the chain on her necklace and dusted off her lavender suit as though to brush away any lingering hell-spawn taint. She presented Sinclair with the empty glass jar.

“You know what to do, son,” she said to him. “When you’re ready, you and your grandfather come on home.”

He took the jar in one hand, rubbing at his eyes with the heel of his other in a quick, fierce gesture. “Do you know the one thing that might have made a difference, Mom? You could have told me you loved me. You could have said you wanted me back because you loved me, not because you’re running for Parliament.”

“Of course I love you!” She looked surprised. “You’re my son.”

Sinclair laughed, but there was no humor in it. “You might want to lead with that next time. By the time you’ve passed the point of supernatural extortion, it’s a little too late.”

“Sinny—” Emmeline began.

He looked at her. “Don’t. Just don’t.”

She fell silent.

There were a few more fraught exchanges and awkward logistics to be sorted out, but ten minutes later, Letitia and Emmeline Palmer were on their way out of town with a four-motorcycle escort of hungry, glittering- eyed ghouls. Sinclair and his father had departed, as had most of the coven, with promises to confer tomorrow. Casimir and nice Mrs. Meyers from the historical society were the only ones still lingering in the cemetery with me.

It was quiet. Too quiet. I mean, I know that’s the nature of a cemetery, but after all that dramatic buildup, I felt like there should be a ghost wailing and shrieking among the headstones, or maybe taking on some of the bizarre and terrifying appearances that duppies were said to manifest.

I kicked at the dry grass scattered with brown pine needles and maple leaves. “Grandpa Morgan?” I called.