I pressed the redial icon and held the phone to my ear.
“Calliope! You got my message.” My cousin’s voice wobbled between confusion and joy at the unexpected reprieve.
“Hey, Clyde, yeah, I did.” I felt around for a spare paper napkin to wipe the sweat gathering across my forehead. “What did your mom have to say to me?”
“I wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget. Hold on a sec.”
The smudges on my shirt and the amount I was sweating had me thinking I really should shower before much longer. I couldn’t think at all about what had brought my aunt out of her mental decline.
“I’m back. And I know this is going to sound weird, but I’m doing this for Mom because we’ve had, like, a miracle today. Here goes. ‘Calliope. Your mother asked me to take care of you, and I did the best I could. I had to protect you, and I did so with love. My only regret is I never told you our story in person. Next time you visit, we can talk about everything.’” Clyde let out a long breath. “Okay, here’s where it gets weird. ‘Trust the bear. Let the bear in, let the bear help you, and do not be afraid.’ Do you even understand what she’s talking about?”
“I might,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady and confident when what I wanted was to curl into my aunt’s generous lap and cry for our mutual losses.
“The last part is, ‘When you are done, please send the bear back to me.’” Clyde sighed. “Having Mom be lucid at this stage is a miracle, Calli. I don’t think it’ll last long, but maybe you should come and visit her. Soon.”
“I will,” I said. I had to press my palm to my mouth, breathe in through my nose, count to ten. “And thank you, Clyde. Please give your mom a hug from me.”
Once I collected myself, I rejoined the witches in the kitchen and pulled aside Rose and L’Runa. “My cousin called. The bear is connected to my mother’s sister, Noémi. Which answers the question of the fur. I’m willing to guess the Fae blood is Meribah’s, and the witches are Noémi and my mother, Genevieve.”
Rose and L’Runa patted my back. Belle hustled them aside. “Maybe it’s time for you and your former mother-in-law to sit down and have a nice cup of tea,” she said. “I make a special blend that could contribute to her experiencing a rather extreme attitude adjustment.”
The look of innocence on her face would work—on those who didn’t know her.
Her grin turned serious. “With the right plant material, I can do almost anything. Which is my way of saying, how can I help? The afternoon is marching on, and it’s time to hunker down and talk strategy. L’Runa, you’re one of our blood experts. Calli can read soil like nobody’s business. What can she do to defend herself?”
“Do you have your wand?” L’Runa asked. When I nodded, she continued. “What about portal stones?”
“No stones.”
“Belle, remind the druids we should all have a stone.”
“Duly noted.” Belle pulled a notepad and pen from her apron.
“As much as possible, I avoid portal travel.” L’Runa—tall, strong L’Runa—shuddered. “Makes me so damn nauseous.”
“Me too,” I said.
Belle raised one finger. “I have remedies for Portal Induced Nausea, PIN. When this is over, stop by my shop, both of you.”
The hands of the kitchen clock moved into place with a faint buzz. Four o’clock. I checked my phone, even though it hadn’t vibrated or rung since I’d hung up with Clyde. No messages or texts.
Voices calling from outside brought us to the back door. Wes and the Fae were carrying an array of tools. Hyslop and Peasgood strode to the foot of the steps, grinned at Nène and Sil, and lifted their arms. In their hands were heavy-duty wire cutters and a pair of those clawlike scissors used to cut shapes out of pieces of metal.
My gaze went from their hopeful, dirt-smeared faces to the tools.
We were so fucked. Though the LaFleurs’ guards, anticipating Meribah’s armaments, had brought their swordbreakers, making us a little less fucked. I hoped.
“Sorry that took so long,” said Wes. “We used the opportunity to oil and sharpen every cutting surface. Let’s eat and get this operation set up.”
The kitchen witches and Fae sisters had made platters and platters of sandwiches, pitchers of iced tea, and a carafe of hot coffee.
I poured a glass of the tea and sipped while perusing the selection of sandwich fillings. Sil pointed to a large oval platter. “Those are fresh goat cheese,” she said, “and whatever herbal magic Belle used to enhance the dressing.”
“Thank you for the recommendation.” I plated the two halves of my second sandwich of the day and avoided making eye contact, hoping to send the message I wanted to be alone. I left the porch, passing the big leaf maple on my way to the wizened fruit trees beyond.
No one followed me.
I kept going, down the path I had first walked with Tanner, the path that took us past a cluster of Ashmead’s Kernel apple trees in our search for clues about the dead and the missing.
Now, it was my sons, and Cliff and Abi, who were among the missing. Tanner was in France on a rescue mission for the Pearmains and for his wolf. And once again, the family I had married into was proving themselves to be devious and manipulative and…
Eating and walking while my eyes filled with tears wasn’t going well. I’d left my boots in my car, and my barnacle-cut arches kept landing on sharp-edged rocks. I choked down what I could of the sandwich and put one foot in front of the other.
If my friends could
