“Who’s they?”
“No clue,” Raven said, even as he scooped up another huge mouthful from his plate, knowing that Grace could take his bounty away from him at any second.
“Do you think they’re actually coming for you? Or are you just feeling more paranoid than usual?”
“I’m feeling quite cautious, actually.”
“So, you just led them straight here.”
“I had to get Dora. I came fast.”
“You always came fast,” Grace smirked. At that he yearned to stand up and kiss her, just like old times. But then the food would get cold, and that would be a shame.
“We could all leave together,” Raven conjectured. “It would be just like old times.”
“No,” Grace said as she wrung a dishrag in her hands. “I can’t go on the road again. I can’t go into hiding again. I’m too old for it. Besides, I have Cliffside. My place is here, at my House by the Sea.”
“Then Dora and I will go. You know how this works. She’s the one who matters now.”
“You don’t have to lecture me about what is at stake. But you don’t get to choose for her anymore. Dora’s old enough to choose for herself now, a grown woman, so it’s up to her.”
“She’s my daughter. She has to do what I say.”
“Or what? You know that she’s just as stubborn as you are.”
“I could just snap my fingers, and—”
“Don’t you dare magick her, you selfish old prick. Free will is sacred to you. Or have you forgotten that in your old age?”
“And now who’s swearing?” Raven asked playfully, expertly driving her off her well-played point.
“Make another crack like that and I’ll make you into a pie.”
“Fine.” Raven glowered, then shoveled three whole spoonfuls of mashed potatoes down his gullet.
Just as he finished swallowing, the screen door opened and his daughter walked in, almost twenty-five years old now. The last time Raven had seen her, she’d been a gawky teenager with bubbly unicorn stickers on her backpack. Now Dora was tall, adult, and pretty, with long black hair just like her mother. Her beautiful green eyes, tight designer blue jeans, and a black tank top made her look like a sun-kissed magazine model. Raven noticed that her bare feet were callused, and that the tops of her toes were still crusted with sand from walking the beach down below.
“Mom?” she asked, not realizing they had company. But when she saw Raven sitting at the small table, she just stopped and stared.
Raven sipped his wine, taking in the heady glow of his daughter.
“It’s not my birthday,” Dora said after a few moments.
“Of course not,” said Raven.
She shook her head and took a step backward toward the door. “I’m not going with you. Not this time. Not again.”
“I’m afraid you are. It’s just the way it is.”
“That’s not dealt with,” Grace interjected.
“But I just graduated!” Dora yelled, looking from him to her, clearly blaming them both. “I finally earned my degree! I finally got my life!”
“Your life will have to wait,” Raven replied. “It’s either that or you’re going to be dead, and dead is boring.”
“Shit,” Dora said, as Raven watched her whole world tumble down behind her eyes. “Not again. Not goddamned again.”
“No swearing in this house!” Grace shouted, but Dora had already banged out the screen door, running barefoot across the grass into the dusk.
Raven closed his eyes, feeling just a little dizzy. He’d seen this, had tasted this very scene before. Barefoot, screen door—it was just like the omen he’d eavesdropped upon in Legba’s graveyard. He’d recognized the screen door the moment he saw it in the waking dream and knew he had to come here to keep her safe, hoping against hope that it wasn’t Dora. But it had been, and now everything he loved was in danger again.
“You just gonna sit there, or are you gonna go after her?” Grace asked him.
“She’ll be fine.”
“I don’t think so,” Grace said. “Fly on, now. You can’t just let her run off like that.”
“But I haven’t finished my dinner?”
Grace crossed her arms and glowered at him.
Raven looked down at the beautiful plate of food and sighed, knowing that she was right, and he’d already been beat.
The Bitching Tree Page 29