“By the way, did you bring back my stuff?”
“Of course,” Rennie shot back indignantly. “It’s in your room.”
She shook her head and went on fussing, but I was looking around for Mandy. I guess the call Shane had taken about the dead body found at the beach had shaken me more than I’d thought. I wanted to know where everyone was and whether there was a reason to worry.
“Where’s Gavin?” I asked Krissy, hoping Mandy was with her little boy where she often was as Krissy had hired her to watch him part time.
She wiped her flour-covered hands on her apron and grinned at me. “He’s taking a nap. Come take a look.”
She pushed open the door that led to the little back room where Gavin kept his toys. There, on a small cotton blanket, were one cute little boy and the most adorable little brown furry dog you’d ever hope to see, curled up together and fast asleep.
“They’ve been playing hard all afternoon,” she whispered. “I think Gavin has decided Toto is really a little boy, just like he is. He told me this morning that they are now best friends. He asked me if Toto could go to school with him when he starts pre-school next week.”
I smiled, looking at that beautiful sleeping face, and bittersweet thoughts crept in. How precious to be so young and innocent. It made me feel old and cynical. But that was no surprise, was it? I felt like I must have been born this way.
“What are you going to tell him when that fateful day comes?”
Krissy shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ll think of something.”
We turned back into the kitchen and found Rennie still raving on as though we’d been there all the time, pacing back and forth and spouting grievances a mile a minute.
Krissy and I exchanged a quick grin and I was glad we’d shared that moment of watching her little boy. It was funny. Although we’d supposedly been good friends in our younger years, and although I’d gladly accepted her help running this bakery, we didn’t seem to be able to take that next step and become close again.
Maybe relations between the two of us were ready for an upswing. I hoped so. She was really a good person and I trusted her, now that I knew she wasn’t after Shane, which I’d sort of thought at one point.
“Do you know where Mandy is?” I asked her, and she shook her head.
“She came in with Rennie, but I haven’t seen her since.”
“Who came in with me?” Rennie asked, stopping and staring at us.
“Mandy,” I said. “Do you know where she went?”
“Oh no!” Rennie put her hand to her brow and moaned dramatically. “I’ll bet she went back to the beach. She kept saying she’d left that little animal she carries with her back there and she wanted me to turn around and go search for him, but we had to get to town and find out about Haley, so….”
“That’s it.” I knew right away that she had probably changed into fox form and was right now racing back to where she’d left Shrimp. “Oh! We should go help her.”
“Oh, she’ll be okay,” Rennie said, waving the problem away. She had problems of her own. “I’ve got too much on my plate as it is, and you’ve got to tell Gran Ana….”
There was a crashing sound from the front porch, as though someone carrying tin boxes or a lot of metal spoons had taken a fall right against the entryway door.
We all jumped, shrieking a bit, and suddenly a huge black shadow came over the room and Oliver, my grandmother’s butler and basic raven-on-call, came smashing his way into the room, panting as though he’d just made a desperate flight to get here.
Which was odd. Oliver was rarely upset or frantic and never disheveled. But now his hair was wet and all akimbo, and his usually impeccable suit seemed ragged. What in the world had he been up to?
“She’s coming!” he cried. “She’s coming!”
“Who’s coming?” Rennie cried out in panic.
“Madam is coming!” he forced out in a strangled voice.
That meant my grandmother was coming for a visit, a shocking, life-altering occurrence all on its own. As far as I knew, she’d never been here before—at least not while I was around. She’d come to the house where my family had lived on Coast Road, but that was when we were fighting demons.
Mostly, she lived in her home on a cliff over the ocean, a home which might one day be a castle with a moat, and the next, a pirate’s ship in a stormy sea, or an enchanted forest full of fairies and talking insects. When you went to visit Gran Ana, you never knew for sure what you would get. At first that had been amusing, now it was just annoying. I suspected she did it more to throw her visitors off balance than to enchant herself and her friends. But that was what you got when your grandmother was a sorceress. Not easy people to live with--but seldom boring.
“She’s coming here?” I said in dismay.
Krissy was standing close and suddenly I realized she shouldn’t be. Normals weren’t supposed to be involved in these things. I looked at her, wondering what I could do with her. Her eyes were big as saucers just from seeing Oliver arrive. Once she got a load of my grandmother…
But maybe it was for the best. It was probably past time she was clued in.
She looked at me, wild-eyed. “Who’s coming?” she whispered.
But I didn’t have time to answer her. I turned to Oliver.
“When?” I asked urgently.
He didn’t respond immediately, but a bright flash lit up the porch, as though lightning had struck.
“Right now!” he cried at last, grabbing me and placing me in front of himself, as though he thought he might be able to hide.
But by now I wasn’t paying much attention to Oliver. My focus was on my grandmother. She came through the door without bothering to open it, looking like rage personified, like she ought to have snakes in her hair, her multi-colored kaftan billowing around her, her eyes full of anger, shooting daggers like molten lead, a golden staff in her hand.
“Everything is falling apart and I won’t have it,” she announced, sounding like a female version of Charlton Heston as Moses.
All three of us were speechless and frozen to the spot.
“Well? What do you have to say for yourselves?” she demanded. “What on earth possessed you to try to take an ancient and historic ritual, an annual celebration of magic such as the Festival of the Golden Moon which we inherited from The Builders and turn it into a carnival of freaks?”
We all jumped as she spit out the word “freaks” but she was staring at Rennie, and that let me take a breath and start to prepare myself for her next assault, which I was pretty sure would be aimed right at me. But meanwhile poor Rennie was mortified and blubbering.
“I didn’t…I didn’t…I tried to…” Suddenly she was pointing at me. “I wanted Haley to tell you, to ask you, to get things straightened out but she said…”
Gran Ana’s eyes narrowed and steam seemed to curl from her nostrils like dragon’s mist. “I’ll deal with Haley in a moment,” she said in her booming voice. “You first. You are the one who is supposed to be managing this Festival. Now I hear you’re auctioning off vendor slots to artists selling portraits of Elvis on velvet and toy monkeys made out of sturdy socks. This is not a small town holiday barbecue, Rennie. This is an ancient ceremony, performed as an obligation to our elders, meant to honor them. What you’re doing is a disgrace to all involved.”
Blinding lights flashed around her as she spun to stare at us all in turn.
But I was finally putting two and two together. I knew Rennie had been put in charge of something by my grandmother, but I’d been consumed with trying to research what had happened to my family and hadn’t paid much attention. Now I realized what it was and a sudden wave of guilt swept over me.
The Year End Festival of the Golden Moon. Of course! She’d said something about it before and I’d been mentally a million miles away at the time, all wrapped up in my own situation. Now the Festival was almost here and Rennie had messed things up. I should have stayed up on it and kept an eye on what she was do
ing. Now that I was focused on it, I realized how important this was to Gran Ana. I should have been more involved.
Gran Ana had every right to be upset if Rennie was really dropping the ball on this. Our haven town was kept strong by magic, and magic was kept alive by five huge and identical stones, brought here from another land by the Builders, the first supernaturals to settle in this area years ago. That strength had to be nurtured and renewed. To risk that in any way was to risk Armegeddon.
“The ashes?” Gran Ana demanded, striking the butt of her golden staff against the floor, making it sound like passing thunder. “Have you moved them to the vault? Are they ready for the festival?”
Rennie blanched. “Uh, well, you see, I tried, I really did, but I couldn’t get anyone to answer when I tried to call and…”
“You have not.” Her voice seemed to shake the rafters. “Without the ashes prepared and ready at the vault, there can be no festival. Do you understand that?”
“Um, I thought maybe we could get ashes from the Oak Lot Lumber Yard. It’s much closer and….”
I winced. For a moment I thought my grandmother was going to explode. Instead, she just stood there and seethed as though counting to ten. She seethed and Rennie cringed, whimpering just a little, putting her arm up as though she thought she was going to be whacked by that golden staff.
Finally Gran Ana spoke again, her voice resonating in the room.
“Those ashes contain the bones of our ancestors, Rennie. They mean everything to us. They must be in the vault by tomorrow morning. Without the ashes, we might as well curl up….” She leaned close to Rennie’s face and snarled the last two words. “And die!”
“Oh!” Rennie shrieked and covered her ears. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t understand….”
Gran Ana snorted and dismissed my trembling friend with a wave of her hand, a pure gesture of contempt, and turned to me, still breathing fire, and I put up both hands in a try at supplication.
“You’re absolutely right,” I said to her, talking very quickly before she got a chance to get started on me. “I’ve served you badly here. I should have been a family liaison between you and Rennie, and instead I was running around taking care of my own difficulties and neglecting both of you. I’m truly sorry, Gran Ana. I really am and I’ll make it up to you. I swear.”
To my surprise, that seemed to do it. She stared at me, took a deep breath, and her face softened. There was something in her eyes, something that reached toward me for just a moment, and I found myself taking a step closer, as though I wanted to touch her, take her hand. Treat her like a real, beloved grandmother.
But I should have known better.
“Well, alright then,” she said, and just as quickly, the softness faded away and her face hardened again. “I’m going to have to depend on you. I can’t be everywhere and I need you to make sure Rennie gets the ashes secured.” She flashed a look Rennie’s way. “And that she collects them from the proper depository, not from some leftover Halloween bonfire at the park. You’ll take care of that?”
I nodded, eager to mollify. “Of course.”
“Good. You’ll have to get them tonight. They must be in the vault by morning.” She glared at me for a long moment, then nodded back.
“I’ll have to trust you, then.”
I nodded, but she was still frowning.
“And now I would like to have an explanation of this curious new drowning episode.”
I caught my breath in my throat. Oh, that. I tried to smile but my face wasn’t working right. “Okay. Sure.”
I told her what had happened, barely skimming the surface of my story, leaving out anything about the cabin cruiser or the visitors in the VW bus, and she nodded slowly as I spoke.
“That’s it?” she said. “That’s all?”
My heart was beating very fast, but I knew I couldn’t tell her about any more. Not until I knew more. Not until I found out what Marcus really knew about me and the others who had gone into that lake that day.
“That’s it,” I said. “Just an ordinary situation with a rip current that got away from me.”
She nodded, staring into my eyes as though she could read my mind. For a moment, I was sure she was going to challenge me for more. But finally she gave an elaborate shrug.
“Alright then. You went swimming alone and out too far and ended up paying the price. Sounds like a good lesson for you.”
“Oh,” I said faintly, relief pouring through me. “Oh yes. You’re quite right.”
She nodded. “Oliver,” she said sharply.
He’d been managing to remain almost invisible, but now he stepped forward again, in human form. Such a handsome butler he made.
“Madam,” he said formally.
She gave him a weary look, then turned back to me.
“Oliver will take me home now. I’m glad you came back without any obvious injuries, Haley. Be more careful in the future.”
She looked at Krissy, and that was when I realized Krissy’s mouth was hanging open and she was taking this all in with a glazed, shocked look on her face. Krissy had no ties to any supers and was only vaguely aware that I did. She kept to herself most of the time and didn’t ask questions. But she’d now had quite a lesson on what my grandmother was, and why we were all somewhat in awe of her. I had to wonder, did Gran Ana realize… ?
“Why Krissy, dear,” Gran Ana said, stepping toward her. “I haven’t seen you for years. I remember your mother quite fondly. Nice to see you, dear.”
And she touched her forehead with two fingers.
One last look at me that wasn’t quite a smile, then she tossed her head and started for the door. Oliver went too.
“Good night, ladies.”
And in a cloud of swirling, sparkling smoke that left us choking, they were gone.
It took a moment for us all to recover. I looked at Rennie. She was chewing on her own knuckles and blinking rapidly, still reeling. I turned to look at Krissy. She was pulling a tray of just baked cookies out of the huge commercial oven, looking calm and cool, as though nothing unusual had occurred.
“Krissy,” I said, thinking she must still be surprised at what had just happened. “Are you okay?”
“Hmm?” She looked up and smiled. “You’ve got to try these cookies. I used a new type of chocolate chip. A sort of European version. Here. Tell me what you think.”
She plopped one on a napkin and handed it to me, still chatting in a friendly way about recipes.
I frowned and started to say more, but Rennie, standing behind her, was waving at me and mouthing a warning I couldn’t understand.
And then, suddenly, I knew. Of course. That was why Gran Ana had touched her. She’d obviously erased her memory of the last ten minutes or so.
Wow. That was a neat trick. On a certain level, I wasn’t sure that I approved. But someday I was going to ask my grandmother to teach me that spell.
I took a deep breath. Rennie and I were going to need a couple of minutes to recover, so we let Krissy chatter on for a little while. And then Rennie was chatting back, and I went up to take a quick shower and change.
Standing under the deliciously warm sting of the shower spray, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes and tried to make sense of something—anything. All that had happened at the beach and in the ocean and once I was dragged up on the shore and in the VW bus and here when my grandmother came in. My mind was filled with chaos and confusion. Too much input.
Slowly, very slowly, I tried to organize my thoughts. Had I almost drowned? It had seemed like it at the time. What about the shark attack? Had it been real, or my imagination? Or…had someone used a spell on me? Hard to say for sure.
And Marcus. What about Marcus? Could I trust him?
Fat chance.
Still, he knew things about me that I needed to know myself. I had to find where he was staying. I had to talk to him. I was pretty sure he was planning to meet up again soon, but I couldn’t let that slide. I had to know wh
at he knew. As soon as I could, I was going to go looking for him.
But for now, I had to go find Mandy and Shrimp. First things first. I finished up, leaving my wet hair to dry in the breeze, and dressed quickly in jeans and a short denim jacket. At the last minute, I grabbed the bracelet Marcus had given me and slipped it into my jacket pocket.
Minutes later, I was on my way out.
“Where are you going?” Rennie asked as I looked for my keys. “You’re not going out there now are you?”
“Out where?”
“To that place with the ashes.” Her eyes were round and wary. She really seemed to be dreading it.
I thought for a second. We really had to do that right away, but not now. There were other things that needed to be done, too.
“I don’t see Mandy, so I figure she’s still looking for Shrimp. I think I’ll go and see if I can help her.”
“Seriously?” Rennie chewed nervously on her lower lip. “It’s getting late. Krissy and I were just talking about getting a pizza.”
I gave her a quick smile. “Save me a slice.”
“Oh, don’t go.”
I found my keys and jangled them at her. “I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do.”
She blinked uncomprehendingly. “And what is that?”
“Go help Mandy.”
“Oh for Pete’s sake!”
But I went anyway, Pete not withstanding.
I ran out to my car which was parked behind the shed, pulled open the door, jumped in and turned the key in the engine slot. A sluggish sigh was all that came of that move. A weary, had-enough-of-this world sort of emission that was all too familiar.
“Gremlins again.”
I jumped out and cranked up the hood. A slimy little green grin greeted me.
“Under maintenance,” it cried in a reedy voice. “Under maintenance. Go away!”
I was pretty sure I’d seen this one before, probably when I made a visit a few months ago to the gremlin farm. Gremlins were a fairly common feature here in Moonhaven. About the size of a monkey, they had round, stocky green bodies and long limbs that seemed to be everywhere at once. Their faces were sort of reptilian, but their eyes were big and mean-looking. Brick, the gremlin wrangler, and a pretty slimy character himself, had a Council mandate to manage the gremlins in this sector. They weren’t authorized to run around on their own, but every now and then, one would go rogue and try to take over someone’s car engine. They drank the oil and chewed on all your rubber hoses and were a heck of a problem to get rid of. I knew I couldn’t take any chances with this one. If he settled in thoroughly enough, he’d be almost impossible to get rid of.
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