CHAPTER 22

Monday, June 20, 6:45p.m.

By the time I went to the coven meeting I was in as bad a mood as I could remember, including all the sulking teenage funks I’d tried to wipe from my memory. I’d spent most of the afternoon trying to find Coyote through one inner landscape or another, and instead had barely been able to get out of my own body for more than a few seconds at a time. I hadn’t even made it to my own garden, and that just seemed like bad news all around. I imagined thunderstorms going on there, and thought that would be a relief, compared to the day’s heat.

I put Petite through her paces, revving the engine and taking corners much too fast.

People honked and shouted and swore like they’d been doing all day, but now they were shouting at me. I knew I was being an asshole. I just didn’t care very much.

I also had no clue where I was going. I finally slammed Petite into a parking place at Faye’s apartment complex and stomped up the stairs to find her.

I found a note on the door instead, directing me to where the coven was meeting. Apparently I was predictable. That pissed me off, too. Maybe I could go find Morrison and get him to kick me a few times, just to round everything out a bit. I stomped back down to Petite and drove over to Lake Washington, ripping up the long stretch of road on its western side without hitting red lights or getting caught by ticket-happy cops. The shadows among the overhanging trees were peculiarly bright, letting me see the shapes of cars pulling down side roads as dark blotches that were easy to avoid. If my infuriatingly reversed vision kept up, at least it’d make nighttime and winter driving easier.

I peeled into the Matthews Beach Park parking lot at a dangerous but pleasing speed, and braked hard. Despite the heat—or maybe because of it—there were surprisingly few cars there. I was comparatively early today, because most of the coven were gathered together at one end of the parking lot instead of already getting ready to do their thing. Only comparatively early, though, because as I got out of the car and glanced them over, it was clear that they were only missing me and Garth.

Several of them were still dressed in the somber funeral colors from that morning, Marcia included. She looked at my shorts and tank top disapprovingly. “I didn’t work today,” I said, feeling obliged to make excuses. “It was too hot to wear real clothes.” Marcia’s mouth drew down and she nodded. That’s me, Joanne Walker, social faux pas in the flesh. I muttered under my breath and went to sit on a too-hot concrete parking bumper where my bad mood wouldn’t spread.

It looked like it was too late. Everyone was long-faced and grumpy. The good-natured lightness that had been a part of the coven’s makeup, even with Cassie’s death hanging over them, had been eaten away. They were standing together, clearly all part of one group, but there was a lot of distance between shoulders, and most people had their arms folded or hands stuffed in their pockets in very distinct keep-away body language. Even Faye’s typical golden retriever look was dampened by the heat, although she was moving from one person to another, trying to strike up conversations. Every time someone scowled and looked away, she looked a little more miserable. I felt sorry for her, even when I tried to be annoyed about her driving Petite. “Hey, Faye.”

She lit up like a puppy who thought it was going to get a treat and scampered over as I said, “Sorry I yelled at you this morning.” It was possibly the surliest apology in the history of the universe, but the tone didn’t seem to put Faye off.

“It’s okay. It was a tough night for all of us. Thanks for coming to the funeral this morning. That was your boss, huh?”

I bit my tongue until I was sure the impulse to snark at her had passed. I had, after all, told her Morrison was my boss. “Yeah,” I said after a few long moments, as evenly as I could.

“He’s kind of handsome, isn’t he?”

“Is he? I don’t know.” I did know. A man I was inclined to describe as an aging superhero almost had to be handsome. But the phraseology let me work my way around the admission that Morrison was a handsome man without actually having to say it out loud. Or think it, for that matter.

“Well, he’s awfullyold,” Faye allowed. “I mean, he’s what, like forty?”

I almost laughed. It hadn’t been that long ago when I thought forty was pretty old, too, and I wasn’t sure exactly when the idea that it wasn’t had settled in my mind. Or when eighteen-year-olds started looking like kids, for that matter. “Late thirties, anyway.”

“Old,” Faye agreed, nodding. “Too bad.”

“Why? Is he your type?”

“Ew!” She leaned back, stretching her mouth in horror. “I was thinking you could date him, jeez.”

“Me? He’s my boss, Faye.”

“So? Like people don’t have work relationships?”

“I don’t,” I said firmly. Then, hoping to sidetrack her, I asked, “Where’s Garth?”

“I don’t know where he is.” For the first time, I saw Faye look a little uncertain. Then it cleared, replaced by the sunny look. “But he’ll be here. He’s never let us down. Tonight we give the spirits body. He won’t want to miss that.”

“All those things we let loose last night? Body like real physical body? So there’ll be monsters tromping around?”

“Magic,” Faye corrected me, happily. “Magic, finally returned to the world.”

“Only Seattle, for the moment,” Marcia said above me. I looked up, watching her colors inverse. I was getting used to it. I almost couldn’t tell what was the right color and what wasn’t anymore, except I was pretty sure the frosted ends of Marcia’s hair hadn’t glowed purple when I first met her.

“Only Seattle?”

“We still give the spirits their strength in roaming this world,” Marcia said. “We’re still their link, and so for now they can’t travel far from us. When Virissong himself has crossed back into our realm, then they’ll be free and the world will share what Seattle has already come to know. That’s tomorrow night, the final binding of the spirits to their bodies. That’ll bring Virissong to us in his whole and complete form. And it may take some time,” she admitted. “Even when we’ve brought him across, it’ll take a while for him to regain his full strength. He’s been away from this world a long time.”

“Yeah.” I suddenly felt much better. Seattle was a tangible scale. Knowing the light show and the spirits were confined to the immediate area was surprisingly reassuring. The coven held enough power to clean up any messes that went wrong, in a Seattle-sized scale. Hell,I held enough power, if it came down to it, although I didn’t like thinking that way. It made goose bumps run up and down my arms, and made my stomach queasy. Still, I thought it was true.

And no matter how I tried, I didn’t truly believe Virissong was up to no good. He was tremendously powerful, but I’d spoken with him and shared memories with him, and his desire to help his people three thousand years ago had been a genuine one. Tangled with ambition, maybe, but there wasn’t anything wrong with a little ambition. Without it, he wouldn’t still want to try to savethis world, the one I lived in now. The one I’d screwed up.

I stood up, abruptly bubbling with energy. The oppressive heat seemed to fade away a little. “All right,” I said. The enthusiasm in my voice wasn’t forced, and it surprised not just me, but several others of the coven, who all looked toward me as if I’d sprouted wings. “Let’s go ahead and shake this city around a little. Do we need a fire like we did last night? We can get that started so it’ll be ready when Garth gets here.”

My ears began to burn and itch in the silence that followed. Faye and Marcia glanced at each other, then at everyone else, then at the trees—everywhere, in fact, but at me.