by Alexie Aaron
“I am too.”
“I know you were very helpful to her when Ted was taken over by Beth Bouvier.”
“I tried to be.”
“Did you sleep with her?”
“No. She arrived on my doorstep begging for me to do that. She was drunk on Sangria. I later found out she was under some kind of spell. I held her hair as she puked up her guts, and I took care of her. At that moment, I knew that I could have her. But I also knew that I didn’t want her that way. Mia and I have something special. I’m not going to lose that by having an affair that she’ll regret. Bernard, I want her. There is no denying that. But I want her forever. I want her to look at me the way she looks at Ted. The way she looked at Burt before Murphy stepped in. I’ve tried to move on, but it only takes seeing her again to bring me to heel. I’ll take whatever scraps she throws me, but I’ll not take her to bed until she loves me more than Stephen Murphy.”
“That may never happen. How long are you willing to wait for her?” Bernard asked.
“At this point forever. If it’s on my deathbed and I die knowing she was mine for those brief moments, then my life would have been worth it.”
“You’re the not the man I would have picked for her,” Bernard said honestly. “You’re the bad boy, but then again, Mia’s not a good girl. Ralph is under some delusion that his little princess can do no wrong. My love for Mia doesn’t blind me to the facts that she’s wild and unpredictable. If she has attached herself to you in any way, Mike, love is involved. I’ve always been on Team Ted, but I worry he’s just not strong enough to hold her. She’s besotted with a ghost whom she’ll probably never give up. The ghost is too moral to take advantage of the situation. You’re too romantic to force your claim. She’s being pulled this way and that by paranormal kingpins. I just found out that she’s seeing this Baxter for cognitive behavioral therapy. She wouldn’t do that unless she’s already unraveling.”
“How do we save her?”
“We don’t. She has to. In the meanwhile, we love, guide, and protect her. But we do it with an open hand.”
“I don’t understand, open hand?” Mike asked.
“Think of her as a bird. If you hold tightly to the bird in a closed fist, it will peck at your hand and leave never to return. If you let it exist on your open hand, it may leave, but it will always return because it feels free to be a bird and safe to be with you. Ted waits for her to return, but I fear he will tire of her flights. He is a smart man with much to share with the world. I can’t see him putting up with being in her shadow.”
“He doesn’t have that kind of ego,” Mike argued. “He loves her. He loves every change and forgives her when she has to leave him to save the world.”
“Why should he have to forgive her?” Bernard asked. “She is what she is. He either accepts that he married a woman who puts herself at risk in order to save the innocents of this world or there will be problems.”
“How did you get so wise?” Mike asked.
“I learned by loving Ralph. He can be exhausting, but he is who he is. I know that I’m very lucky to be the one he loves. Mia told me, someone had told her recently that true love is accepting, sometimes jealous, but most times indulgent. Whoever this is, she is listening to, so we need to pay attention.”
“She met a goddess in Alsace. I saw her draw strength from her. Angelo thinks that Mia changed again while she was there. Dieter says her soul flits from green which is earthbound and blue which is associated with the stars.”
“Which goddess?” Bernard asked.
“I think it’s Nyx.”
“Nyx? N Y X,” he confirmed.
“Yes. Why?” Mike asked as he saw Bernard’s brows knit together.
Bernard walked over and closed the door and locked it. Mike watched him walk over to the wall behind his desk, remove a picture, and access a wall safe. From within, he drew out an ornate box. He set it on his desk. He then pulled off a gold chain he wore around his neck which held a few antique keys. He selected one and opened the box. He stopped. “I need to put on some gloves,” he explained, pulling open a drawer. “Here, you put a set on too. I don’t know how much you know about Nyx?”
“Just that she was there at the creation, and Zeus was afraid of her. Also, she had quite a few children. I believe Charon is the one who most people associate with her. I saw a beautiful mural of her and her children on the ceiling of the ballroom of the Château Nocturne. I saw the same woman holding hands with Mia during the ascension of the trapped souls of die Zuflucht. Mia knelt at her feet.”
“Nyx is a deity who sees forwards and backwards. She can live in all time. She is benevolent, a giver of gifts.”
“Mia said Nyx gave her the power to separate souls.”
“Was this before or after the ascension?”
“Before. She used it to save Quentin.”
“I believe Nyx gave Mia another gift. When I was studying in Malta, I used to frequent the pirate bazaars, and I bought this book from a seafaring man. He thought it was a book of pretty pictures and sold it as such. To him, the prize wasn’t the book, it was the gold. This was a man who would always go after the prize. He had no idea he sold me a priceless magic book for a hundred gold coins which contains a very interesting prophesy. Here, look at this passage,” Bernard urged. “Also take in the gilt images. It will help you to actually read this forgotten language. Stare at it, Mike,” Bernard instructed.
Mike stared at a picture of a single red flower in a field of wheat. He felt a wave of dizziness and put one hand on the desk to steady himself. He looked again at the book and understood the words. He looked over at Bernard. “I see it.”
“I knew you would. It takes a romantic man to be able to be transformed by the pictures. I’ll tell you what I see. It says that one of the greatest gifts that Nyx may give to a human is to make them a child of hers. I believe that Mia…”
“Is now a daughter of Nyx,” Mike completed. He carefully turned a page. There, before both of them, was a beautiful woman kneeling before a pool. There was a brilliant gilt star behind her that glittered. He shook his head. “Did you see that?”
“The woman just looked up briefly at me, smiled, and looked down again. Look at her reflection in the pool.” Bernard pointed.
“It’s Mia’s face.”
“It could be her grandmother. They have the same face,” Bernard said quickly.
“No, I know that bump on her nose. It’s Mia. What does this mean? I fear turning the next page.”
Bernard put his hand on Mike’s, and they turned it together.
Chapter Nine
On the illuminated manuscript page, a woman stood. Entwined around one side of her was a winged man, the other a translucent one.
Bernard saw the woman smile and tilt her head, filling him with a sense of love and peace.
Mike saw something else. “Bernard, she just reached out a hand to me.”
“That’s different from what I’ve seen before. I imagine each reader sees something else. The winged man, I used to think was an angel, but his feathers are dark. Perhaps a fallen?”
“It’s Angelo,” Mike said. “And that’s Murphy because we can see through him.”
“They are fixed. They appear to be supporting her. Her smile is moving. I think whatever happened here,” Bernard said, running his finger along the birdman and then along the transparent man, before he added, “has already happened. But her smile for me has yet to happen.”
“That means her arms are reaching for me now?” Mike asked.
“Only you can answer that. The text says, ‘Daughter of the Night gives gifts.’ You read it.”
Mike looked down, and it said, “The Daughter of the Night is waiting for you.” He looked over at Bernard and asked, “Could this be the document of a trickster?”
“Maybe. All I know is there wasn’t anything on this page the last time I looked.” Bernard turned the next page and it was empty.
“How long have you had this boo
k?”
“Thirty years or so.”
“What did it look like when you originally read it?”
“Pretty much the same until the tarot card.”
“What tarot card?”
Bernard paged back to the woman at the pool. This is the seventeenth card of the tarot. This is The Star. I have to point out that, prior to this viewing, there was no reflection in the pool.”
“So the star had yet to be chosen.”
“It would appear so.”
“Tell me the story to the point of the star.”
“It’s a prophesy that says, when things are the darkest for the planet, Nyx will birth a child to bring back the light. The child will be an angel who will arrive on a winged horse leading a hundred legions of warriors.”
Mike gasped.
“Tell me.”
“Oh, I wish I wasn’t Mia’s father confessor.”
“Why?”
“Because I know things, things she doesn’t want everyone to know. Things that give credence to the idea that Mia is a daughter of Nyx or has become one.”
“If you think I can help her by knowing, please tell me. I will not tell anyone else.”
“Not Father Santos?”
“I promise I will not tell Paolo.”
“When Mia was in Hell, a general was killed by Ruax. Mia then killed Ruax. By the rules of Hell, Ruax inherited the general’s chattels when he killed him. Mia killed Ruax and, in doing so, inherited the chattels of the general.”
“Which are?”
“Forty legions of demons.”
“But…”
“Abigor rides a winged horse. He is the duke of Hades and has sixty legions of demons. Mia left her legions in his care, so he controls a hundred legions of demons.”
“We could be grasping at straws. Making square pegs fit the round plot holes in this story,” Bernard warned.
“I pray that we are,” Mike said. “Is there more?”
“It says the end of the world will arrive on a ship, escorted by two others. Three is a common theme in most myths.”
“Where is this to take place?” Mike asked.
“It doesn’t say. There is a picture of the ships,” Bernard said, thumbing backwards. “The middle ship has a Kraken emerging from the middle. Look at all the arms.”
“Krakens are rumored to live under the waters of Norway and Greenland, right?” Mike asked.
“Shit.”
“I believe I’ve never heard you swear before,” Mike admitted.
“This is getting scary,” Bernard said, pulling out a folder labeled Cooper Grant. He rifled through the stacks of paper and pamphlets. “Damn Mary for being so thorough.” He pulled out a catalog and pulled it open and pounded on a picture with his finger. “What does this look like to you?”
Mike read, “THL heavy-lift cargo ships.” Mike squinted at the one under Bernard’s finger, Toy Boat. To him it looked like it had many arms. They were cranes.
“To an ancient seer, these mechanical arms would resemble…”
“A kraken’s tentacles,” Mike filled in.
“It gets worse. Charles Cooper hired this vessel to bring back a vault from an island that had been buried under ice for thousands of years. It’s in Norway’s territorial waters.”
“I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves. There was only one ship, right?” Mike asked.
Bernard’s face eased. He blew out air. “Yes. Just the one ship.”
“And Mia didn’t do this - whatever it is - with Angelo or Murphy…” Mike said.
“I see it more as she has the support of these two.”
“So we’ve just scared ourselves and dragged Mia into it,” Bernard said. He placed the book back in the box, locked it, and put it in the safe. He pulled out an expensive bottle of bourbon and poured each of them a measure.
Mike sat back. “I wonder if we could fit Mia into a few Greek myths while we’re at it. Shame on us.”
Mia’s phone rang with the Batman television show theme. She touched the speaker option so she could still drive. “Hello, Ted.”
“I got a strange call from Angelo. He wants to talk to you right away. He was quite insistent and offered to fly out. I told him you were heading into Chicago to help with the museum investigation. He wants you to see him first.”
“Gee, I don’t know…”
“Is Murphy still with you?”
“Yes.”
“Take Murphy. Mia, I really got the feeling of importance from his call. He doesn’t normally seek you out through me.”
“K. Call Mike and tell him I’m going to be a little late. I’ll call him when I enter the parking lot so he can let me in the employee entrance.”
“Will do.”
Mia disconnected the call. “I wonder what’s going on?”
“There is only one way to find out,” Murphy said.
“Yup, it’s to go see Angelo. I’m glad you’re going with me,” Mia said.
“I always have your back.”
“Unless a sexy tree sways your way,” Mia said. “You’re a tree slag.”
“Bad Mia!”
Angelo opened the door.
“I hope you don’t mind, I brought Murphy.”
“No, please come in, Stephen. I’m going to ask you to join me on the patio. I worry that my apartment may have been bugged.”
“Crap on toast,” Mia said, thinking about the last time she was there.
They walked out into the beautiful space Angelo had created on top of the building. The view was magnificent. He had a drinks cart available. Mia declined.
“It’s about Father Santos. He has been compromised by Gerald and possibly had been just before he met us in Alsace.”
“I knew it!” Mia exclaimed. “I visited him, and I couldn’t bear to touch him or anything of his in his office. Thank goodness I paid attention to my gut this time.”
“There’s more.”
“Yikes, okay.”
“Amanda has been under the control of the Cynosura since before they left for Iceland. Victor found a pair of ballet slippers, most likely hers, that were sent from France. She may have opened it thinking they were from her parents.”
Mia groaned. “Why are they doing all of this?”
“We don’t have all the pieces yet. I promise to let you know when we do. In the meanwhile, I have requested eyes be kept on the farm and your children.”
“Brian is in school.”
“I know.”
“What if I meet her in the museum?”
“Just don’t be upset by anything she says, let her touch you, or give you anything. Treat her like Santos.”
“I tore him a new one,” Mia said, grimacing.
“He’ll forgive you. Paolo knows he was conned and is under the care of Father Simon.”
“Thank goodness.”
Murphy walked away from the two. He sensed Angelo wanted to speak to Mia privately. He climbed one of the mature trees Angelo had and rested, looking out over the water.
Angelo drew Mia close. “I’ve been thinking about it, and you really didn’t do anything wrong. I’m not your husband; you don’t have to tell me everything.”
“In this case I should have. Please accept my apology,” Mia said sincerely.
“Not that you need it, but I forgive you. Can we wipe the slate clean and start again?” Angelo asked.
“Yes. I’d like that.”
“Mia!” Murphy exclaimed from the top of the tree.
She ran over. “What is it?”
“The Devil’s Pride is anchored out in the GSD!”
“When Nicholai and I flew down from Traverse City, I saw two pirate ships tailing a cargo ship of some kind. I didn’t get close enough to see the flags. I completely forgot about it until now. Hey, look! There’s the Peacock.”
“I wonder…”
“Would you like me to fly you over?” Mia asked.
“No, I’ll borrow a small boat from the marina by the museum. Will
you be okay by yourself?”
“Mike will be there and Bernard. I promise not to engage in any dangerous activity.”
Murphy grinned. “But will it engage with you?”
“I don’t think anything big will be going on in the light of day. Tell you what, if I don’t see you back by the time I’m ready to drive home, I’ll come over and get you.”
“Deal.”
Mia walked back over and explained about the pirate ships and Murphy.
Angelo was going to remind Mia of the consequences of a land ghost being in the GSD, but he didn’t want Mia to think that he was being overprotective again.
“Angelo. If I get into trouble in the museum, can I call you?”
His face lit up. “Yes, please do.”
Murphy found a skiff tied up near the exit to the park. He pushed it out into the choppy water and rowed towards where he had seen the Devil’s Pride anchored. Once he broke through into the ghost ship dimension, he could feel the wood of the oars in his hands. He smelled the lake air and experienced hunger. He got within shouting distance of the cutter and called out, “Ahoy, would captain Waite be the Captain of the Pride still?”
“Aye, he would.”
“Would you ask if Stephen Murphy would be allowed to come on board?”
“What be your business?”
“Friendship.”
“You’re welcome aboard. Tie your boat to the starboard side and climb aboard.”
Murphy had broken a sweat by the time he climbed the rope ladder. He hauled himself over the side and was greeted with a hearty slap on the back.
“Stephen!” Captain Waite said. “By all that’s holy, I never thought I would see the likes of you again.”
“Mia thought she had spotted you and the Peacock when she was last in the area. She sends her greetings.”
“Ah, that’s a woman for you. Send a man to do a woman’s work,” Waite said, laughing. “Last I saw of that vixen, she was saving my butt. No, that’s a lie. I spotted her leaving the top of yonder building, in a rush, four days past.”