He returned the gun to the holster. “My hair,” he said to me.
I held up the single strand he’d given me and which I’d managed not to lose.
Lula picked up the book and wrapped it in the handkerchief she’d had on her head.
“Put the token down,” the ghoul said, as Lula strode our way.
Abbi did, and then took three exaggerated giant steps backward. “I told you I’d give it to you if you were telling the truth.”
“This is yours too.” I stepped forward and placed the hair next to the token.
Lu was at my side, then past me, headed toward the truck.
“You too,” the hunter said to me. “Step back.”
I took several steps backward, keeping my eye on him.
He darted forward, uncannily fast. He bent, scooped up the token and hair.
“We’re done now,” I said, holding my ground only a few yards from him.
He narrowed his eyes and looked past me at Abbi and Lula. There was calculation in his expression. I didn’t know if he was working out the risk of trying to kill us or trying to steal the book again.
“All of this,” I said. “Done.”
I wasn’t magic. Not like the witches. Not like Abbi. But Ricky had told me, hell, Raven had told me, that I was the voice that could speak the spells in the book, just as Lula was the hands that could hold it.
Between us, we could wield the power of the gods.
It was the thing neither of us had spoken of yet. The very idea too large, too dangerous, too horrifying to try and quantify and accept.
But it wasn’t the book that made me who I was. As Ricky had said, when I was without a body, when I was nothing but a spirit, I had had the power to affect the world, to use my voice to break through the walls that divided realities.
I put some of that into my statement, my words as precise and holdfast as nails hammered into stone.
The ghoul sensed it. Enough that he nodded. “It’s done.”
He turned and strode away across the field. His truck was parked in the intersection, and he piled into it and took off south down the gravel road.
I waited until he was out of sight. Only then did I turn and walk to the café parking lot where Lula, Abbi, and Lorde were waiting for me.
“All good?” I asked them.
Lula nodded. “I put it in the box the witches gave us.”
“With my extra magic keeping it secret,” Abbi added. She was rubbing Lorde’s head.
“It’s as secure as we can make it right now,” Lu agreed.
“Good.” I glanced at the café. “How about we get dinner before we find a place to stay?”
“We have a cooler full of food,” Lu said.
“Sure. But a hot meal won’t hurt us.”
She frowned, and I thought I’d pushed it too far.
“They have pie!” Abbi skip-ran to the door, Lorde at her side.
