by Lee French
“Are you okay?” He stumbled and caught her.
Blood smeared on his suit, but Claire had no idea where it came from. Her mind-numbing panic seemed to be receding, but everything looked strange. A gray filter colored the world drab and dark. Cars passing on the road moved in slow motion. The man in front of her moved his mouth, and she heard only confusing noises.
The fog spilled through the glass, reaching for her. She shoved the man, needing to get away before the ghosts caught her. When she checked behind her again, she tripped on the curb and fell into a woman. They tumbled together into the street. Brakes squealed. Horns honked. The fog swooped in on Claire with a thud and a flash of pain, cutting her off from the world. She screamed.
Chapter 19
Justin
Knocking on the door interrupted lunch before it could begin. Justin set plates filled with veggie sticks, strips of leftover turkey, lumps of mashed potato, and raisins in front of Missy and Lisa then answered the door. Avery stood on the front stoop for the second day in a row. Light rain dripped off the lapel of his trenchcoat.
Not sure what to expect, but unwilling to walk out in only socks, Justin stood in the doorway. With the mudroom between them and the rest of the house, the girls would only hear muffled voices. “What is it?”
Avery raised an eyebrow. “I came to take you down to the station.”
Justin waited for a punchline. None came. “Why? I said I’m staying out of Portland.”
“We agreed that if I went to the Palace, you’d come to the station.”
Rolling his eyes, Justin invited Avery into the mudroom and shut the door. “I didn’t agree to that at all. I have no reason to come with you. I ran into Charlie yesterday, and he’s delighted to have more help to the north.”
Avery swiped a hand through his short hair and flung water aside. “And do you honestly believe Claire will work with me when I need a second?”
“Of course she will.” Justin crossed his arms and considered everything Claire had been through at Avery’s hands, from a beating to his sprite chasing her down and almost killing her. When Avery gave him a skeptical look, he huffed. “Fine, maybe not. Give her a little time and she will. Until then, you can ask…” He tried to remember who else was around the region and came up blank. “Who’s in Pasco these days? Or Salem?”
“No one.” Avery looked away. “You weren’t the first Knight I tried to use. I picked the ones farther away first because I couldn’t figure out where you lived. I was tainted for a long time.”
Justin blanched as he realized what Avery meant. He opened his mouth, ready to unleash a torrent of disgust. Before a single word came out, he forced himself to remember what it had been like. With Kurt guiding him, whispering in his ear, he could easily have wound up luring other Knights in and doing whatever he thought it took to get the job done.
“I…” Justin paused and couldn’t decide what to say. Avery didn’t need him to disapprove of whatever he’d done—he already knew. The subject needed no further comment than the look on Justin’s face, which he now forced away with a sigh. “I’m not ready to deal with Tariel right now.”
“We’ll figure something out.” Avery shrugged. “Let’s deal with you first, then I’ll talk to some people and see what I can come up with for the horse. Come down to the station. Play up your lunatic knight schtick and show genuine shame. I know a judge, I know the district attorney, and I know the cop you hit. We’ll fix this and have you back in time for dinner tonight. You can write a formal apology on the way, since you’re coming in my car.”
Like yesterday, Justin could either acknowledge or deny that fear made him hesitate. This time, he worried about his wife and her reaction to finding the girls at her parents’ house instead of with him. He trusted Avery to keep the process as painless as possible, but Avery didn’t have to come home to Marie.
“Stop stalling,” Avery spat. “Put your shoes on and let’s go. I did the one thing I didn’t want to do. Now it’s your turn.” He tossed the door open and stormed out.
Justin pushed the door shut and considered leaving Avery to stew in his car for a while. If he waited long enough, Avery might get fed up and leave. Or he might storm in, grab Justin by the ear, and drag him to the car. He could also come in and shout at Justin in front of the girls.
Growling to himself, he stepped into his work boots and tied the laces. He had to decide whether to bring his sword and armor. Normally, the choice made itself—he couldn’t be the knight of Portland without the trappings of a knight. This time, he could present himself as unworthy and in need of atonement to take up his mantle again. But just in case they ran into something on the way there or back, he’d bring it all and leave it in the car.
Missy and Lisa looked up when he returned to the kitchen. Lisa stared pointedly at his boots. Missy looked up at him with big, blue eyes full of trust.
He sighed and ruined their afternoon. “Girls, I need to go do Knight things for a little while.”
“But you said you’d play with us all day.” Lisa pointed a carrot stick at him in an uncanny imitation of her mother. “You told Mommy you’d be here when she got home.”
Missy pouted. “Daddy stay. I want to play Princess Knight after lunch.”
He took his seat at the table and leaned on his arms. The last time he’d taken this position, he’d been warning them about dinner table manners and turning their noses up at the food on Thanksgiving. This time, it would be a lie, but if he thought about it as a story intended to shield them from things they couldn’t understand yet, he felt no guilt about telling it.
Not much guilt. A little.
Enough to crush a rock.
“I know what I said. Something happened when I was gone all day and someone got hurt. I didn’t know about it until that man in the coat came to tell me just now. So I have to go now and make sure nobody else gets hurt from it.”
Lisa sighed and picked up her plate. “We’ll see you tomorrow, Daddy. Come on, Missy.”
Her resignation stabbed Justin through the heart. He stood and kissed the top of her head. “I’m sorry, Pumpkin. You know it’s not like this every day. And we had fun all morning.”
“Yes, Daddy.” She stacked her plate on top of Missy’s and picked them up.
Missy crossed her little arms and screwed up her face in a scowl too cute for the word. “Not fair.”
“No, it’s not.” Justin picked her up and squeezed her tight. “Be good for Grandma and Grandpa. “I’ll walk you over.”
“Daddy, if you’re not home for dinner, Mommy is going to cry.” Lisa put on her garden clogs and followed him out the front door, still carrying their lunch plates.
“I know.” He suspected Marie would shout and throw him out for the night. Tears would come later, in private. Despite the general injustice of this, he wouldn’t resist. Tariel would make space for him to sleep in the stable with her. Tomorrow morning, he’d get up early enough to apologize to her and offer to take her to work. The plan seemed sound in his head.
They passed Avery in his gray sedan to reach the farmhouse. Justin ignored him. Five minutes and two grandparent glares later, he slid into the passenger seat of Avery’s sprite and tossed his armor and sword into the back seat, fetched to be on the safe side. Two Knights roaming Portland sounded like the start of either a bad joke or a disaster.
Missy waved from the front window with a pout. Tammy stood behind her with a disapproving frown. Justin hadn’t counted on Tammy’s anger over this. Hopefully, she’d mellow when Marie did. Otherwise, he needed to come up with a gift or gesture for her. This development cast a dark pall over his already unpleasant task.
“Your kids are cute,” Avery said as the car backed out of the driveway. It turned and trundled down the street. “I remember when my boys were that little. It was harder to leave for work then.”
Justin clenched his jaw and reminded himself that Avery didn’t need to be punched in the face. “Is there anything I need to know fo
r the police station?”
Avery’s hands rested on the wheel, but he paid no attention to the road. His sprite could drive itself. “Don’t break character and you should be fine.” He looked like he might say something else, but his radio clicked and the Portland police dispatcher chattered.
Uninterested in the information, Justin watched out the side window as they headed for the freeway.
The voice faded into the background until Avery sat up straighter and said, “What?”
“Paramedics en route,” the dispatcher reported. “Available units in the area needed to secure the location and direct traffic.”
“I guess your reckoning can wait,” Avery said. “Stirin, take us to Nine Cans, as fast as you can.” He retrieved a red light from the floor at Justin’s feet and set it on the dashboard.
Mystified, Justin buckled his seatbelt as the car revved and jumped well past the speed limit. He knew Nine Cans, of course, but had no idea why they needed get there fast. “I wasn’t paying attention. What did I miss?”
“Some kind of break-in or other disturbance at Ki’s place. Reports of weird mist. Maybe Ki’s doing chemistry experiments, but I’m betting it’s something we need to deal with.”
“Great,” Justin grumbled. “Just what we need.” He couldn’t decide whether to be annoyed or pleased. They either had a problem or a convenient distraction. Hopefully, it would turn out to be the latter.
Chapter 20
Claire
The fog faded away to leave Claire lying on the ground, surrounded by trees, both evergreen and leafless. She stopped screaming. Drew stood with Ki, both frowning at her from several feet away.
“Courage?” Enion chirped from her neck.
Claire slumped and rested her forehead on the ground. “I’ve never been so scared of anything in my whole life. Why did ghosts bubble out of the ley line like…like…like water?”
“I think you mean champagne,” Ki said. “It makes a better comparison.”
“I couldn’t hurt them. Why didn’t my dagger hurt them?” Rising to her hands and knees, she shook her head. Her shoulder prickled with ice. “Did I kill it? When Iulia said all that would make the locket self-sustaining, I don’t know she meant it would kill my dagger.”
Drew crouched beside her and brushed his thumb across her cheek. It came away smeared with blood. He showed her, then wiped it on his pants. “I never thought I’d see you freak out that much. I mean, they were pretty scary, but you really panicked.”
She stabbed the dirt with her dagger and wished her eyes would stop burning. “It didn’t work! What am I supposed to do if it doesn’t work? Punch them?”
Ki turned around in a circle. “This is a truly charming spot, and the conversation is beyond all imagination, but I wonder if you could direct me out? I should return to my bar and wait for the police to come file a report so I can use an insurance claim to get the glass fixed.”
“How can you be so goddamned calm?” Claire roared. “A dozen ghosts just swarmed your bar and Third Street!”
Drew touched her frozen shoulder. She couldn’t feel it, but shied away from him anyway. “Claire, they weren’t ghosts, and they didn’t leave the basement. We shut the trap door and they didn’t come through. They probably got riled up by what we did with the ley line.”
“Most likely, they’ll settle.” Ki shrugged. “This sort of thing has happened before. Well, not exactly like this. I had a pair of Knights go through down there a decade ago or so, right after I bought the place. Avery and Mark. Nice men. They swept the place from one end to the other and dealt with a few animated memories for me. As I recall, they had no trouble handling it, so maybe it’s just about experience.”
At the unexpected mention of her father, Claire broke into tears. “They were on the sidewalk. I saw them. A big, giant cloud of them.”
“Claire.” Drew kept his hands to himself this time. “That was my mist. I was trying to catch you to get us out of there.”
“What?”
“The mist that followed you out was me. I can’t take you anywhere if you’re not in the mist.”
Claire wiped her face and tried to understand. “But…I saw hands. Trying to grab me.”
“Yeah. I was trying to take your hand, but you kept running. I didn’t realize you were in gibbering-pile-of-terror mode.” He stood and offered a hand to Ki. “I’ll take you back. I’m sorry you got caught up. I’m still new to this. Anyone in the mist comes with me at this point. When I’ve had more practice, I’ll probably be able to pick and choose.”
“It’s fine,” Ki said, taking his hand. “I doubt I’ve mist much at my bar. And it’s not like I fog-ot to lock the door.”
Mist shot out of the ground to envelop both. “Please stop,” Drew groaned. The fog dissipated, leaving Claire alone with Enion.
The dragon slid off her neck and flapped to the ground. He poked her knee with a tiny claw. “Where was courage? Knights have courage. Strength of will. Tenacity.”
“Someplace else.” Claire covered her face. “I felt so useless. And small.” Ki called those things animate memories, which sounded like a type of ghost to her. If her father could handle things like that, why had she failed? Did she just need more practice, like Ki suggested?
“I just don’t understand. They looked like ghosts.” She prodded her shoulder, disturbed to find it still numb. The strange wound should heal, yet it stubbornly refused. At least the joint still worked, and so did her hand. “And my armor is supposed to protect me from magic. That’s what I thought the whole point of it was.” She yanked her dagger out of the soft ground and used her sleeve to clean it.
Enion sat on the ground, his tiny tail swishing back and forth over a dead leaf. “Need to fly or explode.”
If she had a partner who couldn’t keep her stuff together, she’d want to go someplace else too. “Go ahead.”
“Claire go run. Run makes things better.” He touched her knee again, then flapped his wings and left her behind.
She sat and rocked herself for a while, unable to stop seeing that ghost-thing barely affected by her dagger. For the first time, she wondered if she could dismiss Enion, or if he could disavow her. He deserved better than her. He’d bled for a fraud. After everything she’d done to try to prove herself, all those Knights were right.
Djembe was right.
Wiping her face with her sleeve, she thought maybe she could talk to Marie about this. Justin wouldn’t understand. He’d tell her to run a few laps around the trees or chop some wood, as if either would fix anything. Despite all his skill with a pink and purple princess tea party, he had no idea what to do with her. Like all the other Knights.
If only she could quit being a Knight. She already knew it was a lifetime gig and hated it for that. If her father had known what he was forcing on her, would he have chosen to let her die instead? Maybe he should have. Maybe he’d be alive now. Avery wouldn’t have been tainted. Neither would Justin. Everything would’ve been so much better if her dad hadn’t saved her from what that ne-phasm did when she was three.
Staring at nothing, she noticed mist swirling up nearby. Drew stepped out of it with Mutt. She couldn’t look at him. Technically, him getting possessed had been her fault. Justin blamed himself, and so did Drew, but she knew the truth. Without her, that never happens.
Drew dropped to one knee beside her and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Claire, we have to talk.”
Chapter 21
Claire
“Why?” The question came out more heated than Claire meant it to. She practically spat in his face. Not wanting to push away the only friends she had right now, she sighed and tried to crack a joke. “Did Ki admit to being an elder god or something?”
“No,” Drew said with a shake of his head, “but if he is, that would explain a lot.”
Beside him, Mutt stood with his tail curled between his legs and his head hung. “I’m sorry I ran away.”
“It’s okay, Mutt.” Drew patted him o
n the head. “Go take a walk. Hit the ley line. We both now know I can always find you if I want to.”
The dog padded away with a wordless whine. Claire wanted to go with him.
Drew waited until the dog walked out of sight. He pushed up his glasses and stared at the trees. Finally, he sighed and said, “Do you remember running out of the bar? You hit the glass and it broke. It cut your face and maybe your neck, and you kept going.”
She hugged her knees. Of all the things he wanted to talk about right now, he had to pick the stupidest, most embarrassing thing she’d ever done. Crawling into a hole felt like a good idea. “What about it?” she snapped.
He squeezed her shoulder. “Can you tell me what happened after that?” His voice softened so much that she felt like a jerk for being crabby. “I didn’t really see anything, I just knew where you were.”
“I dunno.” She shrugged and couldn’t look at him. “I bounced like a pinball and fell down.”
“You bounced off of what, exactly?”
“People? Trees? I dunno. I wasn’t really paying a whole lot of attention.” The questions made no sense to her. Meeting his gaze, she flinched from the quiet intensity in his eyes. “Why?”
Drew sighed and took his hand away. “I took Ki to his back room. We chatted briefly, then we heard sirens. He and I went out front to see an ambulance pulling up.” He pursed his lips and dropped his gaze to the ground. “Right outside the door, a man fell and hit his head so hard he was lying in a pool of blood. Just around the corner, a woman got hit by a car.”
For a moment, Claire had no idea why he told her that. Then she remembered running into a man and shoving him off. She’d hit someone at the curb and heard brakes screeching. Those things had happened and the rush of bizarre panic had flushed them out of her mind. Her blood turned to ice and she couldn’t force her voice above a whisper. “Was—” She gulped. “Was the man wearing a suit?”
