Darkness Falls

  “I’m not allowed back there.”

  “It’s for tamoxifen,” said Mrs. Philpott. “I need it right now, and you’re going to get it for me even if you have to climb over the counter.”

  Tamoxifen was a cancer drug. I’d read about it ages ago in a Reader’s Digest in the waiting room of my favorite mani-pedi place in New York. Mrs. Philpott’s steady gaze punched holes in my resistance.

  I took the keys out of my pocket, unlocked the door, and prayed that Old Mac would continue to have his breakdown for another seven minutes or so. I zipped into the pharmacy area, snatched up the bag, and handed it over, along with the required sign-in sheet saying she had picked up her prescription.

  “And it says your insurance has covered this,” I told her, glancing at the label.

  “Damn straight,” Mrs. Philpott said, signing her name.

  I grinned, and she straightened and grinned back.

  “Thank you very mu—”

  “What the hell are you doing?” Old Mac yanked the door open and thundered into the pharmacy area, which was way too small for the two of us together.

  Great. He had to get a grip on his sanity right now. He would have me arrested for sure.

  “Now, James, quit yelling,” said Mrs. Philpott briskly. She stuck the small paper bag in her purse. “I practically held a gun to her head to make her give it to me. She told me she wasn’t allowed back there.”

  “She isn’t!” Old Mac roared, in fine form once again. “I’m calling the police! This is illegal!”

  Mrs. Philpott slammed her hand down on the counter, making both of us jump. The steely reserve she’d only hinted at with me came out in full force. “Jamie MacIntyre,” she said in a low, controlled voice, “I’ve known you since high school, and you don’t scare me. I made her get my prescription for me. You are not going to do anything to her. Now quit being a butthead. You hear me?”

  Old Mac stood there, nothing to say. I tried to radiate innocence and helpfulness as I sidled out behind him and slipped into the store area.

  “Is that a yes?” Mrs. Philpott said. Outside, the taxi driver honked his horn, and I winced. I never wanted to ride in a taxi again.

  “Yes,” Old Mac finally ground out, totally hating this.

  “Good. Bye. See you when I get back.” She turned and strode toward the door, flashing me a final smile. I smiled back.

  After she’d left, I decided to take off before he did call the cops. I took one last look at him. He seemed pathetic, deflated, standing behind the counter in an empty store. For one second I wanted to say something. But he’d probably just roar at me again, and then call the cops.

  So I just turned and left him standing there. Outside the cold wind whipped my breath away. Time to go back to River’s Edge. I had no idea what purpose my little jaunt had served, except it had gotten me away from there for a while.

  I started my car and used the wipers to get snow off the windshield. I felt terrible, as if there was a grim winter day inside me as well as outside. Why had I thought about Bear? I had trained myself not to. It was more than four centuries ago, Nas. Move on.

  I headed down Main Street, and to make my morning just a little bit brighter, saw Dray. She looked freezing, wearing a short jacket with cheap, fuzzy fur around the face. I waved and she blinked at me. No other cars around meant I could do a U-turn right here, and I did, swinging the small car around with no problem.

  Dray was gone. I looked up and down the street. There was nowhere she could have disappeared to—except down a narrow alley between two buildings. To get away from me.

  I had FAIL stamped on my forehead, stamped on my life.

  I was amazed to see it was still only a bit after nine o’clock. I’d been missed by now, of course. I turned off the main road onto the secondary road and soon saw the leafless maple tree that stood at the entrance of the driveway to River’s Edge. And… as soon as my car was on River’s land, I felt weird.

  Today, with the snow and ice, I went even more slowly than usual, remembering how I had slid around earlier. But it wasn’t the road conditions that were bothering me. I felt… dread. A feeling of dread. Not for anything real. My heart fluttered; I felt anxious—to where I actually turned and looked all around, as if a gang was chasing me, about to attack the car.

  It was stupid. It was just my stupid emotions, getting the better of me. I was still fired; Dray still hated me. I’d tried to help today and almost had the cops called on me. I’d thought about Bear. Everything was going wrong. Everything hurt; everything was painful.

  I was working myself up into a lather of pointless despair when I realized that the car wasn’t responding. I had tapped on the brakes to crawl around a turn, but nothing happened. I pressed the brake pedal more firmly, ready to start skidding. Nothing. I’d sped up a bit during my internal rant, and now really needed to slow down. I was coming up to the last turn before the driveway broadened into the crushed-rock parking area.

  It was like holding the reins of an out-of-control horse. Gripping the steering wheel, I smashed my foot down on the brake pedal, and nothing happened. Jeezum—this was bad. I needed to stop! I grabbed the parking brake and yanked up on it. It did nothing!

  Was my darkness overtaking even this machine? Now I was hurtling right toward River’s old red farm truck—I was going to cream it.

  What to do, what to do? Then the steering wheel turned by itself. I felt it spinning in my hands even as I tried to haul it the other way. And there it was, the enormous oak. Getting bigger, bigger, so fast…

  “Is anything broken?” The voice seemed to come from far away. Maybe underwater.

  “I don’t know yet. Let’s turn the engine off.”

  Solis’s voice. And Lorenz’s.

  I didn’t want to open my eyes, just wanted to go back to sleep, but my nose was clogged and my mouth was full of blood. I blinked blearily as strong hands unfolded me from the car.

  “What happened?” That voice was Reyn’s. Did he sound upset?

  “We don’t know,” said Solis. “I saw her tear into the yard too fast, and then she aimed right for that tree.”

  I did not, I thought as someone swung my legs out of the car and onto the snowy ground. I bent over and spit out blood. Even with my hazy vision, the bright red was shocking against the white.

  “Nastasya, what happened?” Solis knelt in the snow and tipped my chin up.

  “The engine won’t turn off,” said Lorenz. I heard the keys jingling. “The keys are out, but the engine is on.”

  My nose was bleeding, and I wiped it away before it dripped into my mouth again. I know—ew.

  Since I was leaning over anyway, I scooped up a handful of snow and put it in my mouth. It felt lovely, and I tried to figure out how to put my whole head into a pile of snow. I heard the car’s hood open.

  “Solis,” said Reyn. His voice was odd. “I took off the battery cables. The engine’s still on.”

  Solis’s hand stilled where it was feeling my arm, checking for broken bones. “That’s not car failure,” he said. “That’s magick. Dark magick.”

  “I’ll go get River,” said Lorenz, and I heard him running to the house.

  I blinked again. I couldn’t breathe through my nose.

  “Can you stand up?” Solis asked. “I want to get you away from this car.”

  I nodded, which hurt, and slowly stood. Solis quickly ran his hands down both legs impersonally, as if he were checking a lame horse. Since my knees didn’t buckle, I assumed I was okay. Again he tilted my chin up and looked at my face.

  “Your nose is broken,” he said. I saw River running toward us, her face showing concern.

  “The car is spelled,” Solis told her shortly. “Can you stop it?”

  River nodded quickly and moved past us. I heard Reyn say something to her but couldn’t make it out.

  “So what happened?” Solis asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said, but because of all the gore it came out “Ah dun oh.” I
spit more blood out onto the snow (gross). “Ah wash drahvin an de cah wooden thtop.”

  “Okay. Let’s get you fixed up.” He helped me up to the front porch.

  Inside, Solis took me upstairs to my room. I had just gotten my coat off when Anne hurried in, holding a basin, some rags, and a first-aid kit. And, of course, a mug of steaming tea, because you couldn’t sneeze around here without someone rushing over with a mug of tea. Arm get cut off? Have some tea. Legacy of darkness slowly destroying every facet of your life? Tea.

  “Her nose is broken,” Solis told her.

  “Oh, crap,” Anne said. “Anything else? Ribs? Teeth?”

  “Everything else seems okay.”

  “Let’s get this scarf off—it’s covered with blood.”

  “No! Ah mean—ah take ih off ater.” My hands clutched it.

  “Drink this. Wash the blood out of your mouth.” Anne pushed the mug at me. My hands were trembling, but I managed to hold it. The warmth did feel good, and it did wash away most of the taste of blood. Dammit. Right again.

  “Okay,” Anne said, taking the mug from me. “Lie down.”

  I did. Very gently she swabbed at my face with a warm rag. I smelled calendula and elder leaves in the warm water.

  “You’re going to have two black eyes,” Anne said. “And just as your library black eye had healed. The air bag must have gone off. That’s what broke your nose.”

  “Ah don wamembah.”

  “Well, you’re starting to puff up. Let’s fix your nose before it gets any worse.”

  Before I had time to tense up or realize what she was doing, she pressed her fingers firmly on each side of my nose.

  “Yow yow yow nooo!” I yelped, then heard a loud clicking sound as new pain exploded in my nose. My back arched and my hands flew in the air. “Oh, Jethus! Cwap! Dammit!”

  Her fingers were still pressing my nose tightly. “Be still!” she admonished. “You’ll knock it out of joint again.” She began to murmur rapidly under her breath. One hand held my nose in place and one hand gracefully drew sigils and runes in the air with amazing rapidity. Healing spells. Again, useful spells that I did not know. Then I remembered that I’d been learning a healing spell when I had made the library vomit books.

  “Okay,” she murmured a minute or two later. “Now let’s tape it into place.” She quickly tore off a piece of white bandage tape and carefully placed it across my nose. She looked at her handiwork and smiled. “You look like a little boxer,” she said. “After a prizefight.”

  “Bantamweight. I was just thinking that,” said Solis.

  I had zero response to this. Ze-ro.

  “Now, sit up and finish this tea.”

  I did. Already the pain in my nose was lessening. When the mug was empty, I didn’t sound like Elmer Fudd anymore.

  “Now, what happened?” Solis asked just as River and Reyn came into the room.

  Could Reyn see me just once in decent clothes, with my hair brushed? Apparently not. “What happened?” he echoed, looking pretty forbidding.

  I didn’t want to talk about the wreck. I was pretty sure it was my own darkness that had caused the car to become suicidal. “I went to town,” I began reluctantly, with the instant, oops, recollection that I’d run off without telling anyone. “Everything was fine, car was fine. Then, on the driveway, the car picked up speed without me noticing. I tried to slow down, but the brakes were out.” I paused, trying to remember exactly. “I realized I was going to wreck—I was going to cream River’s red truck. But the steering wheel turned, and I couldn’t stop it. It aimed me right at the tree.”

  “Did you try the parking brake?” Solis asked.

  I nodded. “I yanked up on it, but it didn’t do anything.”

  River came over and smoothed her hand over my hair. The longer pieces in front had blood drying on them. “How come you went to town?” she asked gently.

  “I had to get something. Really quick.”

  “The car was spelled,” Reyn said.

  River looked concerned. “I was able to stop the engine. I felt dark magick, strong magick, but it was very well done. I couldn’t pick up on any signature. Where did you park, in town? How long were you away from the car?”

  “Not long,” I said. “I parked at the curb, outside of Early’s. I couldn’t have been gone more than ten minutes?” Then my eyebrows rose as I realized what she was saying. She thought that maybe someone had put a spell on my car in town. And then I remembered: In my last dream about Incy, he had been in the Liberty Hotel, in Boston. In my previous visions, when I could tell where he was, he’d been in California. Was Incy actually in Boston? Maybe even closer? Could it have been him? Him, and not me? After a moment, I shook my head, which was a mistake. I was so tired of thinking about all this.

  Asher came in. My small room was really crowded. “I just heard,” he said, looking at me, then at River.

  “Go look at Nastasya’s car, will you?” River asked him. “I couldn’t get anything, but maybe you can.”

  He nodded and left, his footsteps echoing down the hallway.

  Anne stood up. “Rest for a while,” she said. “Come down for lunch.”

  “Okay.” Everyone filed out and my room became peaceful again.

  Reyn lingered by the door. He didn’t say anything—just looked at me. I felt embarrassed. It would probably be comforting to have his arms around me. Did that show in my eyes? Could he tell what I was thinking?

  After a couple seconds, or maybe an hour, he turned and left, silent as an assassin.

  I slept.

  CHAPTER 14

  Is he coming?” I whispered to Eydís.

  Eydís peeked around the heavy tapestry. “No,” she barely breathed.

  We grinned at each other in delight. I was seven; she was nine. We were hiding from our pesky younger brother, Háakon, who always wanted to follow us. We didn’t hate him, but he was only not-even-four yet, and he was making us crazy. We’d found an excellent hiding spot: The walls of my father’s castle were made of stone. In Iceland. So almost all of them were covered with huge hanging tapestries through every season except summer. Eydís and I were both really skinny, and if we stood on tiptoe and inhaled, we made barely a ripple in the fabric. It had been working splendidly for days—Háakon was losing his mind with frustration.

  “Riders! My lord, riders!” The loud shout came from the bailey outside. Instantly, Eydís and I heard the clink of weapons and shields, the neighing of horses. We ran to a nearby window and cranked it open, unable to see through the wavy glass. Far in the distance, rising over the crest of mountain that defined my father’s land, was a small group of riders. They didn’t look like a huge threat, but still—they could be merely a scouting party.

  “Pull the gates!” people were shouting below. My father’s steward was making sure we were locking sheep and goats and all our horses inside our walls before six men pulled on the chains, as thick as my arm, that closed the bailey gates.

  Eydís and I watched for hours. Háakon found us, of course, and I pulled a stool over so he could stand on it and watch also. No more riders came—we counted seven when they were close enough. Slowly, slowly, their details came into focus: One was carrying a color standard, showing what clan they were from.

  By the time they stopped outside the city walls, word had come to us, by runner: The riders were carrying the standard of Úlfur Haraldsson, my father. It had been unmistakable, the runner wheezed—five black bears on a red background, crowned with a wreath of oak leaves.

  There was tremendous excitement: The riders were my uncle and his men! I hadn’t even known I had an uncle!

  We all raced downstairs and waited with my father in front of his hrókur—castle is too big a word. Like a big stone manor house that looked like a small castle. To my surprise I saw that my father was wearing his crown—a thin gold circlet set with rubies and pearls, with one brown diamond in the center. He almost never wore it. I guessed he wanted to look fancy for his brothe
r. My mother had on her second-best gown—a deep blue heavy linen with slashed sleeves laced up with gold threads. Beneath her linen cap, her hair was in two braids, long enough to sit on. She was wearing the amulet she always wore, and looked beautiful and solemn.

  The gates opened with groans and creaks, and then my uncle and his men rode in. They had big black horses, and, yes, one of the men was carrying the same standard that my father’s man carried when Faðir rode to another town to visit, or when there was trouble and he had to bring his army someplace.

  I began to run to meet them, but my father clamped his hand on my shoulder with an iron grip. I looked up at him, and then my mother pulled me behind her. “Wait, Lilja,” she murmured. “Your father goes first.”

  The man in front swung off his horse. He looked like my father, big and fair, but younger and less hardened by battle. He came and made a sweeping bow before my father, which people did all the time.

  My father stepped forward and held out his arms. “Geir! It’s been far too long!” They hugged, patting each other hard on the back. I was practically jumping up and down with excitement.

  When my mother introduced us—my two sisters, my two brothers, and me—I blurted, “I didn’t know I had an uncle!”

  Uncle Geir made an unusual face and glanced at my father. “You used to have several,” he said. “But now there’s only me.”

  “Come in, Geir,” said my father. “You must be tired from the journey.”

  We had a special dinner that night. I fell asleep while my father and Uncle Geir were still talking. Not long after dawn I woke up in my bed, threw on my clothes, and raced downstairs. Uncle Geir had told such interesting stories. I had forgotten to ask if he had children. Maybe they could come to visit.

  I was about to knock on my father’s study door when I heard raised voices coming from inside. I knew they had to be raised, because this door was four inches thick—you had to shout to be heard outside Faðir’s study.