She walks to the edge of the cement porch and lights a cigarette. It casts shifting shadows across her face, underscoring the bags under her eyes. A part of me wants to feel sorry for her. She did lose a daughter after all. But the memory of her digging her claws into Rafe’s back long before this happened resurfaces and I clench my stick until my knuckles hurt.
Breaking another glass won’t do any good. It might even make things worse.
She huffs out a smoke-filled groan and stomps toward the shed. I swallow a curse, trying to think fast. Maybe now would be a good time to break some glass. But since she didn’t bring it outside with her, that’s probably not going to work. With the presence of Xers here a few days ago, I also don’t want to do anything too weird. Ghostiness will definitely draw them back here.
Mrs. Warren is a few feet from me when I come up with an idea.
Scrunching my nose, I concentrate on a tree branch closer to the porch. Though we haven’t practiced corporeal telekinesis in class yet, if Rafe can shatter glass, surely I can break a little wood with enough concentration. Thoughts of how this woman hurt her son fuel my anger. I focus that heat on a bend in that branch. A crack kills the quiet in the backyard and Mrs. Warren stops.
She glances around, then curses at the wind and takes another step toward the shed. One final push sends the branch to the ground. This time, she nearly jumps out of her shoes and spins around. With another curse she stomps to the branch lying a few feet from the fence.
I turn back to the shed and nearly ram into Rafe. He clenches the urn in his arms, focus aimed over my shoulder at his mom. Grabbing the sleeve of his shirt, I pull him toward the fence, and away from danger.
“What happened?” he asks.
“She wandered outside and was headed for the shed. I broke a branch to distract her so she wouldn’t interrupt you and your dad.”
“Thanks. Still need to deal with my mommy issues, but not tonight.”
I smile up at him. “Definitely not. One thing at a time. Recover from this first, then you can deal better, right?”
Rafe nods. “Right.”
“Now let’s get those ashes back to Locklear.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Kaz meets us in the lobby, grinning the moment he sees the urn in Rafe’s arms. “You did it!”
Eyes still a bit glassy from tears, Rafe nods, then tilts the smooth wooden container out a little to get a better look at it. Dark rings ripple up the curved edge and along the rounded lid. It’s simple. Beautiful. Just like Rafe. I can imagine his dad sitting on his bench and working on it, all the time thinking about his son, maybe even considering his failures as a father. Maybe this unfinished business stuff helps the living as much as it does the dead.
“Your dad did such a good job,” I say. “Is it...weird…um…?” How do I even ask that question?
“Holding my remains?” Rafe lifts his brows. “Yeah. Just a little. Like, I’m in here, but also out here. This could possibly lead to an existential crisis. Maybe it’s better if I don’t think about it too much.”
“You can have as much time with it as you need,” Kaz says with a slight smile. “Now that it’s on campus it’s relatively safe. Whenever you’re ready, we can decide how to deal with it. Unless you just want to keep it in your room.”
“I can do that?”
Kaz shrugs. “Sure, as long as it doesn’t freak out your roommate.”
I chuckle. “Somehow I don’t think Quinn will have a problem with it.”
Rafe grins. “Hopefully not. In that case, I’m going to go put it in the room. Be back in a bit.”
With that, he disappears down the hall, leaving me way more relieved than I have business feeling. Kaz nudges me with a shoulder. “Went well, huh?”
“Not bad. I had to distract his mom so she wouldn’t ruin his perfect moment with his dad.” I wince. “It was a little dangerous after the Xers caught us out there, but I think it worked out okay.”
“What’d you do?”
“Broke a branch off a tree behind her.”
Kaz snorts. “Been there. One time I had to crack this gorgeous china tea pot to help out another ghost. It was kind of sad, but they might be able to do kintsugi.”
The odd word sounds like a sneeze, so I grin and say, “Bless you.”
Smirking, Kaz leans against the wall. “Sorry. Tsugi is a Japanese word that means ‘to mend’. Kintsugi is this specific kind of lacquer repair where when they put the pieces back together, they put gold over the new crack too. Makes the broken object look beautiful in a different way.”
“Dude, that’s awesome.” I kind of love the idea of drawing attention to the former damage, but doing so in such a way that it’s honored. Kind of like Rafe’s urn — the ugly of death stored in a gorgeous container. I wind a curl around a finger until it hurts. “I’m a little worried though, I think Rafe might need to speak to his mom at some point too.”
“There’s nothing wrong with taking steps toward unfinished business slowly. Especially now that you have his remains here at Locklear. We still may have to worry about an attachment object, but those aren’t typically in as much danger as remains are. It’s about as hard for Xers to pinpoint what those are as it is for us.”
My stomach twists, and I glance at the door to the Healer ward. “Right. Slow and steady. Unless you’re missing a massive chunk of your life, right?”
“Don’t worry,” Kaz
