A Gift of Grace

by Sarah Wynde

  “Ghosts are dangerous for her, though. She’s been hurt by them in the past?” It was half a question, half a statement.

  Grace stared at him. How could that not have occurred to her? She was used to thinking of ghosts as people. As friendly text messages and helpful energy; as relatives and congenial visitors; as Dillon, as Rose. But Akira hated her ability for a reason.

  “Shit,” she said. “You’re her worst nightmare.”

  Noah grimaced.

  “Sorry,” she said quickly. “Not you, but—” She gestured with the paddle, rocking the kayak. “Them. Ghosts. Lots of ghosts.” She pressed her free hand to her temple, wanting to bang it against her head.

  How stupid of her not to have considered the risk to Akira. And to the baby, too. At the best of times, Akira was reluctant to get involved with ghosts. At six months pregnant, she’d be horrified at the possibility of running into a dozen ghosts, maybe more. The energy could be deadly to her.

  “I should have thought of that. That’s not good.”

  “Your nephew is beating himself up enough for both of you.” Noah reached for her paddle. “Let’s go while he rants.”

  She passed it to him and he braced both paddles across the kayak and waited while she turned around. He handed her paddle back to her and she dipped it into the water. The current was with them, so in no time they were flying across the water, but Grace barely paid attention to the rhythm of their strokes while she worried.

  Would the ghosts harm Akira? Ghosts in the vortex, the ones who were unable to perceive the physical world but fighting to survive, were dangerous. They could use Akira’s body to pull themselves back onto the material plane. Could and did. She’d been fending off their attacks since childhood.

  If she’d been in the bistro when the vortex started to open, what would have happened? Neither Max nor Nat seemed to think that Noah’s presence was dangerous, but ghosts interfered with their ability to see the future. Or rather, ghosts could change the future they saw, surprising them with the unexpected.

  But Rose had been in the bistro.

  She’d saved Akira once before. And she’d saved Dillon when he’d gotten lost in the vortex. As long as Rose was around, Akira should be fine. At least Grace hoped so.

  “Rose was there, wasn’t she?” she asked, her stroke splashing deep into the water. “In the bistro, with the vortex. Could she have kept Akira safe?”

  Noah paused, listening. Then he started to nod and began paddling again. “Rose says yes. She says she knows how to stop a vortex from opening now, but that it’s not fun and she’d really rather not.” He paused again, then made an amused noise. “Sorry.”

  “For?” Grace asked.

  “She’d also like me to stop leaving her behind, because she’s got better things to do than search for us all over town,” Noah answered.

  Grace smiled, too, feeling reassured. The breeze was getting cooler, the sun drifting lower in the sky. In the quiet, she could hear the chirping and calling of birds, getting noisier as they finished feeding and started settling for the night. She wondered what Noah was hearing.

  “That is not your unfinished business,” Noah said.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “The kid — Misam,” Noah corrected himself, “wants to go to Disneyworld.”

  Grace laughed. “That sounds fun.”

  “Apparently, he saw a commercial. He wants to go on the safari ride at Animal Kingdom.” He paused, and then added, “And Rose wants to go to the Magic Kingdom.”

  “How about Universal Studios?” Grace suggested. “Dillon’s never been to any of the Harry Potter stuff, has he?”

  “Don’t you get in on this.” His tone held underlying laughter.

  “Oh, come on. Harry Potter? Diagon Alley? Magic wands? Doesn’t it sound cool?” It had been years since Grace had gone to one of the Orlando-area theme parks. She could go any time, of course — they were only a couple of hours away, close enough for a long day trip or a fun-packed weekend. But without her mom and Dillon… well, she just hadn’t been interested. “I hear there’s a huge dragon that breathes fire.”

  “Crowds, lines, screaming kids.” Despite his words, Noah’s voice was amused.

  “Fireworks, parades, roller coasters. Don’t tell me you don’t like theme parks.”

  “Been a long time since I’ve been to one. I’m sure it’d be fun. But…” The splash as Noah dipped his paddle into the water was louder, as if he was putting more energy behind his stroke.

  “But what?”

  “What’s the chance we run into more ghosts there? Any place with a lot of people wandering around is going to have had its share of unexpected deaths.”

  It sounded like he was directing his words to the ghosts, so Grace didn’t respond, but she pulled harder, digging her paddle deep into the water as if shifting dirt.

  She couldn’t argue with Noah’s attitude. She didn’t want Dillon taking any unnecessary chances. But if Noah was going to restrict his movements based on the risk to the ghosts, how soon would he become as trapped as they were? The fear of believing he was hallucinating might be as nothing compared to the frustration of knowing he was haunted.

  They’d almost reached their embarkation point, so Grace lifted her paddle out of the water, letting it rest across her lap while Noah steered them in. The kayak bumped the shore and Grace scrambled forward, climbing out with a single splash into the shallow water. She grabbed the fore end of the kayak with her free hand and tugged, leading it toward the muddy beach.

  She didn’t want Dillon to leave. She wasn’t ready to say good-bye.

  But the ghosts couldn’t keep haunting Noah. It was no way for him to live.

  Something would have to be done.

  23

  Dillon

  “We’ve got to do something,” Dillon said. “We need to find a door.”

  “About that…” Rose started.

  “You are obsessed with these doorways.” Nadira walked along the water’s surface and onto the dry land, before turning and saying, “I do not like a plan that requires venturing into the unknown.”

  Misam scrambled after her. “We might like the unknown.”

  “It would have to be better than this.” Sophia waved an arm at the surrounding trees, tone scornful.”

  “Hey, don’t diss the river,” Dillon objected. “This place is great.”

  “This place is great,” Joe agreed. “But you’re right. We need to leave. We can’t keep following Noah around.”

  Noah made a gentle leap out of the kayak onto dry land. He managed it perfectly, not even getting his feet wet.

  “I’m not insulting your stupid river.” Sophia kicked at the surface of the water. “I just meant this whole thing. Being invisible. Being helpless.”

  “It’s not right,” the angry man muttered, head down. “It’s not right.”

  “You are too impatient, Sophia. You will never prosper if you do not learn inner calm.” Nadira waggled her finger as if scolding, but her tone was gentle.

  Joe choked. Misam laughed. Dillon put his hand over his mouth to hide his own smile. Even Mona looked away and then around and up as if wondering who was speaking.

  Sophia sent Nadira an exasperated look.

  Nadira shrugged. “Well, I never said I was good at it.”

  “Anything would be better than this,” Sophia said. “Does it really matter where the door goes?”

  “Of course it matters, you silly girl.” Nadira put her hands on her hips. “You are not in pain here, you are not suffering, you are not hungry. You would like the flames of hell much less than this tranquility, I dare say.”

  “Tranquility.” Sophia snorted. “You mean endless boredom, right?”

  “Here, let me,” Noah said to Grace, gesturing toward the prow of the boat and extending his paddle in her direction. She took the paddle and he grabbed the kayak and pulled it out of the water and up the gentle slope toward the car.

  Dillon didn
’t know whether Noah was ignoring them or listening to every word that they said. He seemed focused on the kayak, but he’d definitely been paying attention earlier.

  “We do not know where these doorways lead,” Nadira repeated.

  “It doesn’t matter if we can’t find one,” Joe said, following Noah out of the water.

  “Right. About that…” Rose stood at the water’s edge, her eyes on the wisps and blobs of ghosts that were drifting after them.

  “Rose knows where they go,” Dillon interrupted her to explain. “She went through one before.”

  “Why is she still here then?” Sophia demanded of him, before turning to Rose and asking her the same question directly. “Why are you still here?”

  “I came back,” Rose answered.

  “See?” Dillon added. “It’s not a big deal. You can come back if you don’t like it.”

  “Not easily,” Rose objected. “It takes a lot of energy. If Akira hadn’t died, I wouldn’t have been able to.”

  “You need a death to power these doorways?” Nadia said. She shook her head. “That is unsettling. And rather distasteful.”

  “Oh, dear,” Mona murmured. She moved away, beginning to flutter her feather duster over the trees at the edge of the clearing.

  “No, it’s not,” Rose said. “It’s just a doorway. It opens both ways.”

  “And where does it lead?” Nadira said. Misam paused next to her and she put her hands on his shoulders, tugging him close. He leaned against her legs. “You must explain if you wish us to go.”

  “I’m not trying to make you go.” Rose spun in a circle, her pink skirt flaring out around her, her arms outstretched, her face lifted to the sky. She came to a stop and said, “I like it fine here.”

  “Rose!” Dillon glared at her. She wasn’t helping. They were all in danger as long as they stayed. She needed to convince the others that it was okay to move on.

  “What?” She widened her eyes at him.

  “We need to go,” he said, trying to keep his voice patient. “Remember the vortex? What if you hadn’t been there? What if Akira had been there instead?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “There is that. But…” She looked around at the ghosts gathered around her and at Grace and Noah, who were paused, standing by the car, Noah listening and Grace watching him. Even the angry man was waiting to hear what Rose had to say, although Mona was fluttering her feather duster along the bushes at the edge of the road. “Could you describe color to a blind person? Or music to someone who can’t hear? I don’t have words for it.”

  “Try,” Nadira said again.

  Rose heaved a sigh. “How?” She raised her hands to her head as if she were going to tug at her curls but then inspiration seemed to strike. Quickly she said, “Like this. Imagine you’re a chick. A baby chick, inside a shell. Before you’ve hatched, you don’t know what’s outside your shell. It’s like that.”

  “That makes no sense,” Nadira said scornfully.

  “It does so. If you’re a baby chick inside a shell, how could you possibly picture everything that exists outside your shell?” Rose waved an arm wide, indicating the world around them. “Plants and trees and birds and bugs?”

  “Heaven has bugs?” Nadira gave a skeptical frown, but her hands relaxed on Misam’s shoulders.

  “Don’t tell Mona,” Joe said under his breath, giving Nadira’s arm a gentle nudge with his elbow. Nadira gave a muffled snort of laughter.

  “If we were chicks, we would love bugs,” Misam said cheerfully. “They would be yum-yum delicious.”

  “Exactly!” Rose said in triumph. “Not that there are really bugs. I meant that, whatchamacallit, metaphorically.”

  “Humph,” Nadira snorted. “None of this sounds right. This must be some American thing. Misam and I should be in our graves right now. And on judgement day, we’ll be taken into paradise, a most beautiful garden with delicious foods and all our loved ones. No bugs.”

  “There’s not real bugs,” Rose protested. “I mean maybe there are, but I didn’t mean them that way.”

  “Bugs or no bugs, we need to go,” Dillon repeated.

  Joe stuffed his hands into his pockets. “I think we should go, too.”

  Noah turned away and began busying himself around the car, opening the door, grabbing the tie-down straps, beginning to fasten the kayak to the roof.

  “What was that about?” Grace crossed to the other side of the car.

  “Moving on,” he said, passing her a strap. “Heaven apparently has bugs.”

  “Bugs? Like spiders and mosquitoes?” Grace tossed the strap over the kayak.

  Rose stamped a foot against the ground. “Not like that.”

  “Not exactly,” Noah told Grace.

  “Forget the bugs,” Dillon said, exasperated. “I’ve been to the other place. I don’t want to go back there. And trust me, none of you would like it, either.”

  “You’ve been to one other place.” Nadira held up a single finger. “As has she.” She gestured toward Rose. “But perhaps what you call a doorway is really a gate to one of the levels of hell. Or heaven, I suppose. There are many levels of both and no way to be sure which one some random door will lead to.”

  “Not that it matters,” Joe said. “We’ve never even seen one of these doors.”

  Rose sighed. “Well…”

  “We haven’t looked for one,” Dillon said. “We need to start. We need to get Noah to take us places. Maybe a hospital or a nursing home, some place where people die a lot.”

  “Okay, that’s creepy.” Sophia sounded pleased. “You want to go hang out with dead people? Maybe Noah could take us to a morgue.”

  “We are hanging out with dead people,” Misam said. “We are dead people.”

  “Misam, don’t say that.” Nadira stroked his hair back, away from his face. “It sounds so unpleasant.”

  “I’ve been trying to tell you,” Rose started.

  “No morgues.” Noah finished buckling the tie-down strap and picked up the paddles. “I’m not visiting any morgues.”

  “A hospital then, maybe,” Dillon suggested.

  “And if we find one, what then? How can we know whether this doorway is a gateway to hell or not?” Nadira said.

  “It doesn’t matter, because we haven’t found one.” Joe folded his arms across his chest. “Until we do, arguing about it is pointless.”

  “That’s never bothered you before,” Nadira replied, half acid, half amused.

  “Point to Mama,” Misam chirped, drawing an imaginary line in the air.

  Noah chuckled as he stuffed the paddles into the backseat of the car.

  Grace sent him a questioning look.

  “Arguing again,” he responded briefly.

  “They do that a lot, don’t they?”

  He dipped his head. “Pretty sure it’s what being dead is all about.”

  Dillon snorted as a bunch of the other ghosts responded at once: Misam with a clap of his hands in resigned agreement; Joe with a wry, “Sorry, man,”; Nadira with a huff; Sophia with a muttered, “When you’re in hell,”; and even the angry man with his usual complaints.

  “What’s the conclusion?” Grace asked.

  Noah shrugged.

  “We can’t just go looking for more ghosts,” Joe said. “Odds are they won’t have a doorway, either. None of the ghosts we’ve picked up have had one of these doorways.”

  “That’s not actually—” Rose started.

  “And more ghosts might create the vortex, which is definitely a gateway to hell, correct?” Nadira said. “We should not take that chance. We should stay right here until the ghost expert returns.”

  “We can’t wait that long,” Dillon said. “And it’s too dangerous for Akira. We have to find a doorway and go.” Looking for a doorway would be a risk but it was one they had to take.

  “If it was so easy, we’d have found one of them already,” Joe said.

  “I’ve been trying and trying to tell you.” Rose flun
g her arms wide dramatically. “You have one.”

  “What?” The surprise came from several voices at once.

  Rose pointed. Dillon followed the line of her arm. Chaupi was wandering toward them along the river’s surface with a few of the trailing wisps.

  “You’ve had one. All along. You didn’t need me at all,” Rose said, sounding exasperated. “You just needed to talk to Chaupi.”

  24

  Grace

  “Who’s Chaupi?” Noah asked.

  The surprise in his voice had Grace raising her brows. Something had obviously startled him. She paused on the verge of getting into the car, looking at him over the roof.

  “That guy?” He was frowning, but making no move to get into the car himself. When he caught her eye, he told her, “One of them has a way to move on. A doorway. Or maybe it’s a gate. But apparently they could all use it, if they wanted to.”

  “What? Who?” she demanded.

  It couldn’t be Dillon. Not yet. It was too soon.

  “Not sure whether I mentioned him before, but he doesn’t speak English. I…” He rubbed his head, looking sheepish. “I used to call him the fake Chinese guy. But I don’t think he’s really Chinese.”

  He listened for a moment, then shook his head. “Yeah. Not Chinese.” He pulled open his door and got into the car. Grace followed suit.

  “He might be speaking the same language as the innkeeper,” Noah said, frowning.

  “Really? As Avery?” Grace started the car. “Quechua?”

  “I think so. It’d be a pretty big coincidence.”

  “My dad would say there’s no such thing, just lines of fate intersecting.”

  “Fate?” Noah scoffed. “I don’t believe in…”

  He paused.

  Grace sent him an inquiring glance as she put on her seatbelt.

  He lifted a shoulder. “Well, I don’t believe in ghosts, either.”

  She smiled, checking the view in the rear view mirror, before asking, “Ah, are we all present and accounted for?”

  Noah listened, head tilted to one side, then nodded. “Close enough, anyway.”