Lightbringer

CHAPTER NINE

Eddie was waiting for her when Wendy returned. She slid into the seat and said, “I needed some personal time.” She flicked her gaze toward Jon, who had finished his fries and had started on Eddie’s. Eddie, catching on, pursed his lips and nodded.

Casually, Wendy set her glass on the edge of the table. Then, just as casually, she elbowed it. The cup toppled off the table, hit the linoleum, and shattered, sending shards of glass, ice, and a splash of soda across the floor.

“Crap!” Wendy grabbed a handful of napkins and dropped to her knees, furtively glancing around the room. Most of the other customers were staring at her—a few clapped and whistled—but within seconds most had returned to their own conversations and meals.

“Oh honey!” Lucy exclaimed, dropping to her side bearing a towel and a dustpan. “Don’t mess with that glass, Winni-girl, you’ll cut yourself.”

“I’m so sorry, Lucy,” Wendy apologized, grabbing the towel from her. “I won’t touch the glass, but let me get the Coke, okay?” Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something faint and glowing under the booth next to her. Crawling to the empty booth, she mopped several pieces of ice back towards the pile Lucy was brushing up.

Beneath the table, half hidden by the table leg, was a ghostly Mets baseball cap. It was battered and ragged in several places—not just thin, the way ethereal objects got when their real-world counterparts had faded away, but covered in precise dime-size circles. Wendy was reminded of the movie Aliens and the acid-holes left behind wherever the creature wandered.

Quickly, so no one would see, Wendy snatched the hat from under the table and backed out. Not looking where she was going, she suddenly hissed in pain. A piece of glass, about the size of her knuckle, was embedded in the meaty bulge beneath her thumb. “Ow.”

“See what I mean?” Lucy reprimanded Wendy, kneeling beside her and taking her hand gingerly. “Oh poor thing. Let me see.” She plucked the glass free and squeezed the wound to loosen any remaining particles. It hadn’t gone in too deep; the cut bled only sluggishly.

“I’ve got it, Lucy,” Eddie interjected, extracting a miniature first aid kit from the side pocket of his backpack. “She’s always bumping into stuff.”

“Well, at least go wash it in the ladies room,” Lucy sighed, releasing Wendy. Half a dozen swipes later and the last of the mess was piled in the dustbin.

“Gimme that,” Eddie ordered, ripping an alcohol pad packet open, and swabbing the cut. Jon, uneasy at the sight of blood, hunched over his homework, refusing to glance up. Eddie tsked. “That’s not bad at all.”

Wendy sat through his ministrations until he tried to bandage it. “A band-aid will just come off,” she insisted, pulling her hand free. “It’ll scab over. Thank you.”

“But—”

“I think I need a breath of fresh air.”

Now that the gore had been cleaned away, Jon was willing to rejoin the conversation. “Again? But you just got back.”

“I’m tired and I just sliced my hand open,” Wendy snapped. “Lay off.”

Realizing that she was being too sharp with him, Wendy squeezed Jon’s shoulder as she rose. “Sorry. Bitchy-me is gonna take a walk. I’m just super edgy for some reason, tonight. Call when Chel gets here.” She shot Eddie a look—I will explain later—and he nodded, waving her off as he reached for Camus once more.

Piotr was waiting by the car. Wendy held the cap by the bill and passed it to him, conscious of the fact that even being in proximity to her must be unpleasant for him. Under normal circumstances, before her mother’s accident, Wendy would have already dug deep inside and called upon her power to reap Piotr, to set him free.

But now? Since her mother’s accident Wendy had sworn off reaping all ghosts, even the Shades, unless absolutely necessary. The accident had proven just how unprepared she was for the duties of a Reaper—reaping was too dangerous, impossible to control. But if someone deserved to be sent into the Light, wasn’t it Piotr? He protected children, watched over them, kept them safe. He’d told her about the other Riders who were watching his own Lost. They were in good custody, weren’t they? No one would miss him, and she knew it would be the right thing to do.

I think I really intend to do it, she mused. I think I’m gonna reap Piotr and set him free. But not yet. Piotr still had a job to do and Wendy, surprising herself, realized that she intended to help him do it.

When this is all done, she promised herself, I’ll release him. Protecting children. Waking me to my own abilities. If anyone deserves to be sent on to the afterlife, it’s this guy. Wendy ignored the increased thump of her heart and sickening tightness in her gut at the thought. Piotr was dead, she was alive. Cute or not, Piotr was long meant for the land beyond the Never’s eternal limbo.

“Blagodaru vas,” Piotr said, turning the cap around in his hands. “Thank you, Wendy. I owe you much. Was there anything else?”

“I didn’t get much of a look, but that seems to be it.” Careful not to get her hand too close lest she injure him in some way, Wendy pointed out the dime-sized holes peppering the bill. “Have you ever seen this before?”

After a surreptitious glance around the parking lot, Wendy settled herself on the curb and, remembering her cover, pulled out her cell phone again. The lot was empty of people beside herself and Piotr, but Wendy was unwilling to appear to be talking to herself, especially if Jon or Chel might see. With her luck, they’d run to Dad and tattle; then he’d slap her into counseling for acting crazy in public.

“Net.” Piotr raised the cap up to the sunlight, peering through the holes, and Wendy wondered what the world looked like on that side, if there were colors and textures or if everything was as washed out and grey as it appeared to her. “I must bring this to the other Riders and see if perhaps they’ve seen this sort of thing before.”

“If they’ve seen a hat?”

Piotr flapped the cap. “This hat is made of Dunn himself. His essence. If he were gone—into the Light or eaten—the cap would vanish too, da? But it’s still whole. Which means Lily was correct; Dunn is a hostage.” Folding the cap as tightly as he could, Piotr stuffed it into one of the pockets in his cargo pants. “This complicates things.”

“I’ll say.” Wendy shaded her eyes against the late afternoon sunlight, admiring him out of the corner of her eye. “So what now?”

“Nothing for now.” Piotr frowned and gestured with the cap. “I must take this to the others. The word must go out.”

“That’s it? All that and you won’t even tell me what’s going to happen next?”

“You know everything I do.” Piotr rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. “The cap, it is a mystery but it is enough proof that the Lost was taken. Where? Who knows? It is a place to start. Now I go north to tell the others. Again, blagodaru vas. My thanks.” He turned away.

“Wait!” Caught up in the moment, Wendy forgot herself and reached out to grab his hand. Wendy didn’t think about the action. If she had, she wouldn’t have touched him for fear of what her powers would do. She simply reached out and grabbed for him, hoping to stall him long enough to at least let him know how to reach her.

Just as before, his hand smoked where she touched him, but the smoke dissipated quickly and appeared painless for Piotr. For Wendy, it was another story.

Her memories couldn’t do justice to the strange feeling touching him wrought. Wendy had encountered other ghosts before, so many she’d lost count, but never had she been able to feel them as anything more than a sweep of chill air while she was not using her powers. There was a momentary sense of air pressure, a yielding, but nothing more. When she was in her other state, the touch of a soul was like grasping dry ice in her bare hands, and she kept her encounters as swift as possible to minimize any pain—both for them and for herself.

Touching Piotr shocked her into stillness. His flesh was cool but not icy, almost as firm as real skin under her fingers, and where her palm pressed into the bone of his elbow a sharp jolt ran up her arm to her shoulder, a tingling wave like static electricity. The shock left the muscles of her arm jumping and twitching in its wake.

“Wendy?” Piotr pulled his elbow out of her grip, breaking the connection that bound her silent and still.