“Hold on!” Elizabeth almost grabbed the other woman before thinking better of it. “You’re going to resort to murder?”
With black irises, Dianna licked her lips. “I’m not looking forward to this, Dr. Georges-Scales. The responsibility is mine. I don’t see another choice.”
“I do. We should attempt a diplomatic solution.”
“Diplomacy?” Dianna’s lips actually curled upward, and a less-than-friendly sparkle shone in her vermilion eyes. “Why, that’s absolutely adorable.”
Oh, here we go.
“My daughter and I will go out there, then; and instead of stopping the problem, we’ll begin a fireside chat; you can ask them nicely to stop sending lethal missiles through this prison wall of yours. Since you have absolutely no way to stop them and no leverage of any kind, I’m sure they will unilaterally decide to take up a different hobby, like quilting.”
“Anything sounds impossible when you use that tone,” Jennifer snapped, freshly annoyed because Dianna was right. “So, new plan, okay? Eddie could help. In fact, we were talking about that when—”
“Your bow-toting boyfriend will be the next target,” Dianna interrupted.
“He’s not—well, maybe in a different set of circumstances, we could—there’s really not a lot of dating going on since—”
“It only makes sense,” Dianna continued, and Jennifer decided not to notice the older woman’s eye-roll. “The first murder was your father, to hurt you. The next will be your boyfriend, while you watch helplessly. Whether they tear apart your mother immediately afterward or leave her for later is really a matter of personal style—”
“Never mind Eddie or me,” Elizabeth interjected quickly. “We have you to stop this. You’re our leverage.”
So why not stop him now, without the talking part?
Evangelina kicked the dirt and bit her pretty lip.
I told you, Mother. We should not have come here first. They have no power, no place in determining our actions.
“Bye, then!” Jennifer said with faux brightness.
“We came here to pay respect to your father,” the sorceress tersely reminded her daughter. “Part of that respect is discussing our next move with his wife and child. The last time you blundered into this dimension and decided to play judge and jury, you caused needless suffering. Let’s do better.”
Jennifer stirred at being called a child, but did not need the stern look from her own mother to stay quiet.
“Dianna. If you’re truly interested in what Jennifer and I think, then I’m asking you and Evangelina to help us do this right. For heaven’s sake, Skip is your son. I can’t imagine how I would—surely you want to consider alternatives to killing him.”
“I’m hoping we don’t need to kill him.” Dianna was almost smiling again. “This sorcery requires two people—one to give the creature life, and another to give them power. Remove his new girlfriend, and all Skip can do is send scribbles your way. For a while, anyhow.”
We kill Andeana, then. It will show my half-brother that we are serious.
Evangelina’s thought was briskly cheerful: they’d thought up a chore that wouldn’t be very hard, and would be helpful to all. Like raking leaves when it was nice out, and you wanted a little exercise anyway.
“We don’t need to kill her, do we?” Jennifer turned to Elizabeth. “We could talk to her. That’s our leverage. We find a way to talk to her, pull her away from Skip. Andi can’t be going along with this willingly. It makes no sense. She’s not violent.”
“She killed Mayor Seabright.” It was hard not to see the anger in the doctor’s eyes. “Matricide is violent.”
“Yeah, but . . . she was under a sorcery. She had no willpower.”
“She has little to begin with,” Dianna explained. “That is not how her father created her. She has always been a vessel—first for me to pour knowledge into, and now for Skip to pour his own purpose out of. She’s nothing more than a tool. Break the tool, save the town.”
“What is she, a faulty screwdriver?” Jennifer hissed. “You don’t need to break her. And she’s not a tool; she’s a human being who can make her own choices.”
Choices like, “Don’t kill your own mother”?
“Stop pretending to give a shit about anything.”
“Jennifer.”
“Mom, you can’t be seriously considering this! Why is it okay to kill Andi for what she did to Dad but not Skip?
We’re agreed, then. We kill them both.
“Why are you here? Why are we pretending to have a conversation like normal people when at least one of us is a proven murderous sociopath?”
“Honestly, pet. You could do more to help.” Dianna shook her head and thought a moment. “What if we found Andi and brought her here, alone? You could try to convince her to do . . . whatever it is you think she will do for you.”
This is useless.
“That might work,” Elizabeth agreed. “We’ve never considered pulling her away from Skip before, because it seemed impossible. She’s devoted to him, and Eddie reports they rotate through lairs unpredictably. Do you think you can find her?”
The answering smile nearly split the sorceress’s face open. “My dear Dr. Georges-Scales. I already have. We’ll be back momentarily.”
CHAPTER 24
Andi
“Skip, you have to talk with them! They’ve come all this way!”
“I don’t need to do any such thing.” They were in the kitchen, with only the swinging double doors between them and the six new arrivals. Everyone could hear them, and they both knew it.
“Tavia called them!”
“Tavia’s dead.”
“They’re a critical resource. Skip, it’s the natural instinct of our kind to act alone. But we are at our most powerful when we band together—like the Quadrivium did.
“You mean, the Quadrivium that failed?”
“Don’t be immature about this. You could learn from these people. Half of them were thought dead by Tavia herself.”
“Terrific. I can learn how to play dead.”
“There’s more to it than that.”
“What—I can learn how to keep secrets? How to be supercautious? How to lay intricate traps that take decades to unfold? Who gives a shit about any of that? What good does it do?”
“You don’t know until you ask. They’re willing to help. To teach.”
“No, Andi. They’re not here to help or teach. They’re here to take over. To control. Like my father had to control, and Tavia and Edmund after him.”
“Are you kidding? Tavia and Edmund did so much for you. They protected you. They gave you precious time.”
“I didn’t need their protection or time!” Skip kicked a boiling pot off the lower rack. It skidded and slammed into a pile of lids, all of which dumped onto the linoleum. “I can handle what’s out there on my own!”
“Your mother? Your half-sister? Get real, Skip. You were as scared as I’ve ever seen you when they appeared on the Mississippi.”
“They won’t be able to stop what I have in mind.”
“What’s that?”
Before he could answer, the shadows from under the racks and appliances converged on Andi and seized her. She let out a shriek of alarm as the ground collapsed under her feet, eroding her thickness and distributing her across a single plane. It was petrifying feeling, not least because she had no idea how to move. It turned out not to matter—whatever shadows had trapped her here pulled her away.
His startled gaze followed her. “Andi!”
Skip, help me. I don’t want to . . .
CHAPTER 25
Andi
“. . . leave you.”
Andi stirred, opened her eyes, and started. In Skip’s place were the four people on the earth she least wanted to be with.
“Relax,” said the second wife of the late Jonathan Scales. “You’re in Winoka Hospital.”
“My mother decided not to amputate,” added the younger daug
hter of the late Jonathan Scales.
“She has convinced us to try diplomacy,” explained the first wife of the late Jonathan Scales.
It won’t work. They’ll see that. Then you’ll die.
“Evangelina.” Andi nodded through a cold sweat. “Dianna. Jennifer. Dr. Georges-Scales.” It was quiet. The door was open. Andi was not restrained, and she wondered how many guards were out in the hallway.
We don’t need guards in the hallway.
“Stay out of my head,” she snapped, sitting up in the bed. She began thinking of a discordant tune, anything to throw off the telepaths in the room. They probably wanted information, and she would not give it to them so easily. “Why did you kidnap me?”
“Don’t see it as a kidnapping,” Dianna replied. “See it as an invitation. Even a rescue, if you like.”
“Rescue. That’s funny, coming from the woman who raised me in an inescapable void for over a decade.” Andi’s forearms began to itch, but she refused to scratch them here.
“The rescue was my idea,” Elizabeth said without a smile. Andi examined the woman; it was her first good look up close at the rangy blonde who had provided leadership for this town after Andi’s assassination of Glory. Focus and polite were the first two words that came to mind. Dangerous was the next one.
“Can we get you water? Dianna tells me interdimensional travel can dehydrate certain tissues.”
“Sure.”
Elizabeth motioned to Jennifer, who stalled, then rolled her eyes and headed for the corner sink.
“You’ve been living on the edge of town for some time,” the doctor noticed, taking the fabric of Andi’s jeans between two fingers. “Why don’t you tell us your story?”
“My story? You know my story, Dr. Georges-Scales. I’m the offspring of Esteban de la Corona, a man so self-involved he abandoned his daughter and called himself The Crown, and Glorianna Seabright, a woman so self- involved she gave up on motherhood so she could keep killing her enemies.
“Instead of parents, I had Dianna here as a sort of dark nurse. Based on her track record with Evangelina and Skip, you can imagine what that was like for me. Once I was properly trained, she and her two incredibly well adjusted colleagues, Otto and Edmund, put my musical talents to work on the Quadrivium’s attempt at universe-shifting. Your own daughter put a stop to that, and I hitched a ride back to this world. I’ve been liking it okay, though I have to admit it was more fun when schools and restaurants were open. Now, there’s no reason to come into this town.”
“Perhaps you could help us with that.”
“Thanks, Jennifer.” She took a gulp of the water, watching the girl’s expression over the rim. There wasn’t much hate visible for what had happened to her father; perhaps she was hiding it. “I don’t think I can be much help, Dr. Georges-Scales.”
“You knew Edmund Slider.”
“No better than you did.”
“Surely he must have told you and Skip something about this barrier, before he put it up.”
“We were as surprised as all of you when he created it. We had no idea what he would do—what he did, for Skip. Skip didn’t want him to. He even tried to stop him that night.”
“Why didn’t he?”
Andi paused. She had slipped into a conversation—or been slipped into one. Polite and dangerous, indeed. “I don’t see the point in discussing this further.”
“Andi, please!” Jennifer cried out in exasperation. “You know Mr. Slider didn’t want this! He was a teacher, he liked his students, he wouldn’t want all of us and our families to die!”
“Maybe just Glory?” This was Dianna, her voice seeping under Jennifer’s harsh plea like oil under rocks.
“Of course he wanted Glory to die. But she’s dead, and the wall is still up. I don’t know anything else!”
Elizabeth massaged the bridge of her own nose. “Jennifer, you were on the right path. Mr. Slider wanted more than dead people. He cared for things. He cared about his students. He probably cared a great deal about Skip, too. He wanted to protect him.” She looked up at Andi. “Right?”
“I guess.”
“So if Edmund wished to put up a barrier that would protect Skip, he’d want it to last. That suggests multiple conditions before it would come down.”
“Glory’s death could be one of those.”
“Yes, Dianna. We’ve established that as a possibility. But it also suggests that Skip may need to reach a certain age or accomplish something, before the dome will fall.”
Andi tried to sit very still.
“Can you think of what that might be, Andi?”
Several moments passed. Andi wanted to say something, but couldn’t. Was the doctor right? Skip had said he had “something in mind.” If so . . . would the barrier protect him anymore?
And even if it did, how could they stop his mother and sister? Did the barrier even matter anymore?
Her forearms began to itch madly.
Can we kill her now?
“No one is going to kill her.” The doctor sighed. “She been through enough. And this universe hasn’t been as kind to you as you’d like me to believe, Andi. You can’t tell me life with Skip has been ideal.”
Jennifer snorted. Andi shot the girl a look. “It hasn’t been so bad.”
“Really? He’s a good match for you? Because I had a higher opinion of you than that.”
The comment stung. Andi didn’t know why Jennifer’s opinion mattered, but it did. Maybe it was because Jennifer had shown her kindness in both universes. Maybe it was because the girl had stood up for herself, even when she was utterly alone. Could she do that? Could she stand to be alone?
“Have you thought about what he’s doing?” Dr. Georges-Scales took Andi’s wrist lightly in her hand, feeling for a pulse and timing it. “You know he’s killed people in this town.” Now she grabbed a blood-pressure cuff from the nearby table, rolled up Andi’s sleeve, and attached the cuff to her upper arm. “Not only my husband. Dozens of others, buried under the rubble of the police station.” Squick, squick, squick, she pumped the cuff. “Soon it will be hundreds, under more ruins. I doubt Edmund Slider ever wanted that.”
“You had something to do with those murders, Andi. You’ve been helping my son.”
“Please, Dianna. I can handle this. Andi, I would imagine the sorcery that you and Skip generate together makes you feel special.” She released the cuff and pulled out her stethoscope. Pressing the metal end on the girl’s chest, she listened briefly. Then she put the scope away and pulled out a flashlight and tongue depressor. “Say ‘ah,’ dear.”
“Aaahh.”
“Thank you. It can be easier to feel special like that, when you don’t see the consequences of your actions.”
“Nnnnn?”
“Yes indeed.” The flashlight went in one ear, then the other. “Perhaps you could stay with us a few hours. You could visit with some of the patients we’ve brought back from the police-station site.” In a flash, a rubber hammer was out and bumping the girl’s knees. Poomp, her feet kicked out. “If you like, we could take you down to the site itself.”
If you like, we could bury you there.
“Fucking. Interrupt her. Again.” Jennifer had a hand on one of her sheathed daggers, and a glare for her half-sister.
Amateur.
“Shit-chomper.”
“Children.”
Andi wondered how lethal the doctor could be with that small, rubber mallet.
“How’m I doing?” she asked.
The doctor considered her. “Your pulse is a bit low, but within normal limits for beaststalker adolescents. Your blood pressure is higher than I’d like, but I don’t have much to offer you here in the way of medicine. Try picking up more fruits and vegetables from the grocery store north of town, drink low-fat milk, and skip the salty prepared foods. Reflexes are good, as I’d expect from someone with your genetics. Your left ear has a wax buildup, and what I saw in your mouth suggests you don’t floss, though yo
u must brush your teeth since your breath is passable, and no teeth are falling out. It’s good in some ways, I suppose, to have a boyfriend you’re trying to stay attractive for. Overall, physically, you’re keeping it together.”
“Holy crap, you say a lot between the lines.”
“Stay with us. Help us figure this dome out. Help us rebuild this town into what you remember. We can change the world, starting right here.”
“Change the world”? I’m going to vomit.
Jennifer drew both blades. “Go play a card game. Maul a trailer truck. Suck the life out of a blue whale. Go do something—anything—anywhere else!”
Come with me, and we’ll play together.
“Blades down, Jennifer!” and “Evangelina, enough!” came out simultaneously. Both young women snarled and backed down.
The doctor turned back to Andi. “What do you say?”
“Dr. Georges-Scales, I’ve never had anyone worry over me over fifteen years, the way you’ve worried over me in fifteen minutes.”
“There’s a lot going on in there I’m worried about.” A finger went to Andi’s temple.
“I’m okay, Dr. Georges-Scales. I like Skip. He’s good to me. He makes me feel special, powerful.”
“Does he?”
“Yeah. He scares a lot of people, I know. Maybe he scares you because you can’t control him. Not like I’ll bet you can control everyone else.”
Dr. Georges-Scales widened her eyes at the mild shot. She motioned to the other three. “Does this look like a crowd I can control?”
Andi felt a smile try to crease her face. A wave of guilt smashed her insides, and she shook her head so hard the room teetered. “I’ve got to go, Dr. Georges-Scales. I appreciate what you’re trying to do for me, but—”