by D. N. Hoxa
What I needed now was to focus. The boy wasn’t that big of an issue. As soon as he came out, I’d feed him, put him in my car and take him back to his parents. Jane Dunham, on the other hand…just thinking about the way she’d smiled at me at the fairy event made me want to start running for the door.
My options were limited, so obviously, my first instinct was to give Finn a call. The old werewolf hadn’t retired after Galladar took one of his legs, just like I’d suspected. I was going to go meet him in the next few days, anyway, so why not do it today? Of course, I’d offer to pay him for his services and also casually mention that I was broke. Who knew if his heart would soften for me?
Then, I was going to use every resource he had to find everything anybody had on Jane Dunham. When I killed her in Staten Island, the ECU came in and took all the bodies. They did their tests, but now it was time I did mine. I had no idea if Finn could get me in to see Jane Dunham’s body, but that’s what family was for.
That is if my aunt didn’t kill me first for attacking the Hedge witch at the event.
This time, when the boy came out of the bathroom, I was expecting it, so I didn’t jump. I wasn’t even startled, but I was drooling for a cup of coffee.
“I’m making you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” I said to him as I walked to my kitchen. “Okay?”
“Sure. Whatever’s easier for you,” he said and followed me.
“Don’t worry about me. If you’d like something else, just say so.” My, oh my, would you look at me? Taking care of kids. I would have been beaming with pride on any other day.
“I don’t,” Ezra said. “Where did you sleep?”
“I slept,” I mumbled, then cleared my throat as I got everything I needed from my small refrigerator. “After you’re done with breakfast, we’re getting you back to your parents, okay? I just need you to tell me your last name, and I’ll find your address.”
When Ezra stayed silent for a long second, I turned to look at him. His eyes were wide, lips parted, not a drop of blood on his face.
“You can’t take me back,” he whispered.
I turned to the sandwich again. “Look, whatever vision you think you saw, it was wrong, okay? There is absolutely nothing I can do for you better than your parents can. I’m obligated by law to take you back because you are a minor. I allowed you to stay with me last night because I thought you’d come around and see this for yourself.” And to be honest, I wasn’t going to drive him all the way to Pennsylvania in the state I was in the night before.
“You don’t understand, Winter. If I go back home, it’s going to be the end of me.” There he went, sounding like an adult again. Which reminded me…
“How old are you?”
“Ten,” he said. I’d missed his age by two whole years. Go figure. “Look, I don’t know how to explain it, but I’m begging you, please. Don’t take me back. I’m going to die if you do.”
His words were like daggers to my heart. Boys his age had no business talking about things like this. I’d really thought he was going to drop that talk about dying this morning, but it looked like that was not going to happen.
With a sigh, I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to ignore the headache starting behind them. It didn’t work, just like last time. “How do you know you’re going to die?”
I’ve mentioned it before that Bone witches were known to have some Seer power in them. They sometimes could predict the future, and my mother had predicted her death—I was sure of it. And me? I didn’t like to think about it, but I’d had a dream of Geraldine Street in ruins weeks before Galladar the fairy turned that dream to reality. I could call it anything I liked to help me sleep at night, but it was not a coincidence.
“I just…feel it. In here.” When I turned to Ezra, I found him with his hand right below his rib cage. “It’s important that I stick by your side, Winter. My life depends on it.” It was hard to think of him as a ten-year-old boy when he spoke like that.
Finally done with the sandwich, I poured a glass of milk for Ezra and handed it to him with the plate. Now, it was time for my coffee.
“So, what are you?” I asked, unsure yet of whether I believed him. Was he like a full Seer or something? Did those even exist? Not that I’d ever heard about one being alive in our time, but just a look in the mirror changed every belief I ever had about what existed in the world. I wasn’t supposed to be possible. Jane Dunham and her Hedge witch friends were supposed to be extinct, too.
She was also supposed to be dead.
“I’m a witch,” Ezra said. “A Bone witch, like you.”
“I’m also a fairy,” I said, pointing at my ears.
“Yes, I read about fairies.”
I smiled a little. “You’ve never seen one in person?” He would be the first person I ever met to have never seen a fairy before.
Ezra shrugged. “I never really went out much.”
The smile died on my lips. What the hell kind of parents did the boy have? It was no wonder he hadn’t looked at me funny, not even once. He apparently had no idea what the world thought of fairies, and I couldn’t wait for the day when all kids his age were the same way—if such a day ever came in my lifetime.
“Can you do magic?”
“A little,” Ezra said. With my fresh cup of coffee, I nodded at him to follow me at the desk. “My sisters are better at it, though.”
“You have sisters?”
“Two. They’re both younger than me,” he said.
“Do they go out of the house?”
Ezra nodded. “Sometimes, but not too much.”
I flinched. Whoever his parents were, they sounded like assholes. They let their daughters go out and play, but not their son?
No, that couldn’t be right. Call it instinct, but something smelled funny about this whole situation. I watched the boy eat in silence but even after I squeezed my brain dry trying to come up with something, I had no idea what to make of any of this.
“I’ll tell you what, I need to go to Pennsylvania to meet with my aunt. She’s a coven leader, too. I’ll ask her about you and your parents, without mentioning that you’re with me.” Casually, I looked at the phone on the desk to see if I’d had any missed calls. Still nothing, and that concerned me more than I liked to admit.
“What do you think she’ll say?” he said as he chewed his food.
“Well, if you think that the leaders already know about you, then she could tell me what the deal is, for starters. We can figure out what to do next once we know why you live the way you do.” It was the only thing I could think of, because at some point—preferably soon—Ezra was going to have to go home. I couldn’t be allowed around children. The last time Lynn was with me…well, you already know that story.
“She’s going to want you to take me back to my house.”
“Not if she doesn’t know you’re with me.”
“But she will know. Why else would you ask her about me if I wasn’t here?”
Damn it, he made a good point. “Why don’t you let me worry about that part? I’ll take a quick shower and change, and then we’ll be on our way. You can tell me a little more about you and your family in the car. Sounds good?”
Ezra only shrugged and returned to his sandwich.
Six
Ezra’s parents moved away from Bloomsburg when he was one. He heard them talking about it when he wasn’t supposed to be listening. They also never told him anything about why they insisted he stay inside and get homeschooled, or why he couldn’t go out to play with the other kids in the neighborhood. I could relate well to that.
He was also supposed to stay up in his room when his parents had guests over. He didn’t know if he had any other family except them and his two younger sisters. Books were his escape, and he’d never had a vision before the one that told him how to run away, when to do it, and how to get to Turtle in the middle of Manhattan.
A hard story to swallow, but I listened to him carefully, hoping he’d tell me so
mething that could help me figure out what it was about him that made his parents treat him differently than his sisters.
Once again, I came up empty handed.
As I drove, my thoughts kept trying to get me to think about Julian, but I didn’t let them. My heart had ached when I saw him the night before, and I did appreciate him standing up to his father for me, but right now, anything I could think about him was completely pointless as long as he stayed away. When he came to see me, if he intended to, that would be another story.
Half the day would be wasted before I could go see Finn and ask him for his services in helping me find Jane Dunham, but I was confident that once I told my aunt the whole story, she was going to back me up, give me access to Bender’s office. That would definitely make my life easier.
For the thirtieth time, I looked at the phone I’d left on the dashboard, but the screen was dark. No calls. No messages. I wanted to call her many times, but I wasn’t sure what I’d say to her over the phone. I already knew what she was going to say to me when she saw me, and the plan was to let her get it all out before I hit her with my version of events. After that, I would discretely ask her about Ezra by telling her that a guy had come into my office to ask for him. It was literally my job to ask questions and investigate. No way in hell would she be able to tell that I was lying.
By the time we reached her house, Ezra had jumped over to the backseat. I pushed the passenger seat all the way to the dashboard to give him more room because he insisted on staying seated on the floor of the car.
“Remember, if someone comes, just honk the horn. The doors will be locked so there’s no reason to panic, okay?”
Pulling his lips in his mouth, Ezra nodded. It broke my heart to see him like that, his knees hugged to his chest, trying to hide his face under his backpack, but there was nothing more I could do for him other than try to find out why his parents behaved the way they did.
“I’ll be back soon. Hang on tight,” I said, and without allowing myself the chance to regret leaving him all alone in Turtle, I climbed out.
I’d parked right in front of Amelia’s fence gate. She could probably see me walking up to the door. Her flowers, as beautiful as ever, looked freshly watered, and I wondered, if she had the time to tend to her flowers, why hadn’t she called me?
I guessed I’d find out soon enough.
Going in without knocking was the usual for me. After all, I’d practically lived in the house for two weeks, but this time, when I tried the knob, it was locked.
Another first. Something fell hard on the pit of my stomach. Amelia didn’t lock her doors during the day. This couldn’t possibly be a good sign. Taking in a deep breath, I slammed both my fists on the door four times. Maybe she wasn’t there? Her meetings with the other coven leaders had grown in number lately. Or…what if she never came back from the event?
Shivers washed down my back as the worst case scenario began to develop in my mind. Luckily, before my mind could take me too far, I heard footsteps. With a loud sigh, I squeezed my eyes shut and demanded my mind get those horrible images away from me.
Amelia finally opened the door. As planned, I said nothing when I saw her, and let her get it all out first. Scream, shout, curse—whatever she wanted to do, she could do it.
Except…
“Winter, this is not a good time.”
Not a good time? “Um…who are you and what have you done to my aunt?” A joke could never go wrong, I figured.
Unfortunately, this time, it did. “I’ll call you,” Amelia said and tried to close the door in my face.
Instinct took over and I stopped her before she could. My arms were a lot stronger than hers, so the door was definitely staying open.
“What the heck is going on?” I demanded, just as I started to notice that she was still wearing the same makeup as the night before. She looked paler than usual and fear was in her wide eyes. This did not look good.
“This really isn’t a good time, Winter!” Amelia hissed.
“Aren’t you going to even mention last night? The fairy event, remember? I attacked a fairy in front of everyone.” Maybe she’d gotten drunk the night before and she didn’t remember it yet.
But she shook her head. “We’ll talk about that later.” This didn’t sound good, either.
“You better tell me what the hell is going on right now, or I’m breaking the damn door down.” A look down at her body said that she was fine. She wasn’t hurt. Maybe she had Jeb over?
But if she did, why would she look so afraid?
Then, I heard someone speaking from the inside. I recognized the voice immediately. “Is Bender in there?” I tried to push the door open, but she stopped me. If I tried too hard, I was afraid of knocking her to the floor.
“Listen, honey, it’s nothing personal. Coven business. I really need you to leave. I promise I’ll give you a call later.” It was the first time I’d ever heard Amelia pleading with me and it threw me off guard.
Reluctantly, I took a step back. “Are you…are you okay? Do you need my help?”
“I’m fine, I promise. I just need you to leave for now.” Pressing her lips together, my aunt shook her head. “I’m sorry.” And she closed the door in my face.
Saying that I was shocked would be the understatement of the year. Nothing made sense to me, not the look on her face, not the fact that she wouldn’t let me inside the house. Coven business. What sort of coven business was she handling that I couldn’t know about? For the love of God, I brought the damn coven together. They kept asking me to go work for them, and now she wouldn’t even let me in?
When I got back in the car, I realized my eyes were watery because I hadn’t blinked at all. I just…I just didn’t get it.
“I saw another vision,” Ezra said. “A prison. A man in a prison.”
I brought the heels of my hands to my eyes to try and ease the headache that had suddenly developed into a monster.
“You can come out now,” I said to Ezra. Nobody was around, which was also strange, now that I thought about it. It was noon. So why was the neighborhood so empty?
Ezra cautiously sat up in the backseat, holding his backpack in front of his face. “Do you know any man who’s in prison?”
“I know a lot of men who are in prison.” Some I’d put in myself while working for Finn.
Ezra kept silent for a while as I massaged my temples, even though it wasn’t helping at all with the pain. “What happened?”
“Nothing. I couldn’t talk to her. She wouldn’t even let me in!” I cried, shaking my head. “My own aunt.”
“I know that car,” Ezra whispered, and fell on the floor again, his backpack above his head. What the hell had happened to the kid to make him so scared he hid under a freaking backpack?
“Which car?” There were three that we could see.
“The dark red one. It’s my parents’ car.” There was no stopping with the surprises today, it seemed.
“Are you sure? Absolutely sure?”
“I know the plate. It’s them,” Ezra said, sounding like he was having a panic attack.
“Goddamn it,” I hissed and slammed my hands on my poor steering wheel. The car he was talking about was a dark red Hundai, and it was parked right across from my aunt’s house.
Left without any other option, I picked up my phone and dialed Bender’s number.
He answered on the first ring. “Wayne, this is not a good time.” They just had to be shitting me.
“You’re going to have to do better than that, Bender.” I made sure to put all my anger in my voice so that he knew I wasn’t fucking around.
“I can’t talk right now. We have some issues. Internal issues. I’m going to have to call you later,” he said in a rush.
“You had no trouble involving me in your internal issues before. What’s different this time?” I said, speaking fast because he might hang up on me any second. “And who’s inside with you?”
A second of silence. “No
body you need to concern yourself with, Wayne. I’m really sorry, but I have to go. Trust me, I’d have called you a long time ago if I could have.”
“Are they making you keep me out?” And by they I meant the coven leaders, one of which was my aunt.
“Yes, Wayne. I’ll tell you all about it when the air clears, okay?” And just like I suspected, he hung up the phone before I could say anything else.
Cursing under my breath, I threw my phone on the passenger seat.
“Can we please get out of here?” Ezra said. Half of me wanted to break into Amelia’s garden and spy on her through the window, but my pride wouldn’t let me. If they wanted me gone, I’d be gone.
“Right away.” I turned the ignition on and drove.
***
“Tell me your parents’ names,” I said to Ezra. Half an hour later, he finally felt comfortable to climb back in the passenger seat and leave his backpack behind. No more reason to hide.
“Michael and Bethany Malone,” he said in a breath. The names didn’t ring any bells.
“What do they do for a living?”
“My ma stays at home and my dad works for a Pretter master. Not exactly sure what he does.”
A Pretter master. The only two Pretter masters in Bloomsburg that I knew were pretty ordinary. They weren’t even that good at making powerful spell stones. Could Ezra’s case somehow be related to that?
I doubted it, but since I’d already hit a dead end, I was tempted to go check them both out.
“They must have figured out I was gone,” Ezra whispered. “It’s why they were at your aunt’s house.”
Holy spell. Could it be that Ezra’s disappearance from his home had something to do with the way Amelia looked?
“You said the coven leaders knew about you. How do you know that?” I asked, my heartbeat already tripled. Every instinct I had was telling me that I was right. I had been kicked out of my aunt’s house because of Ezra.
Slowing the car, I risked a glance at the boy’s face. He looked so ordinary, just a ten-year-old kid, but obviously that wasn’t the case. What the hell was he?