Ethereal Entanglements (18 page)

“We should go see Anne. Because someone told me the Palace is supposed to prevent ants from becoming blue, acid-spitting, armored monsters of doom. The only reasonable possibility is Claire mucking with things she shouldn’t, and the sooner we figure out how to deal with that, the sooner we can stop people from getting hurt by it. The last time I checked, that’s what being a Knight is
about
. Protecting people from magic crap they aren’t equipped to deal with.”

Tapping his thumb on the steering wheel, Avery watched the red light they’d stopped at. When it turned green, he nodded. “You’re right. This is more important. Stirin, he’s going to give you directions.”

Justin gave the car Anne’s address in Southeast Portland and leaned back to watch the scenery go by. “No matter what Anne says, I think I need to sit down and talk to Claire about actions and consequences.”

“She’s young. Hopefully, her inexperience doesn’t turn out to have caused a horrific disaster.”

“Too late.” Justin sighed and rubbed his face. “This has been the worst Thanksgiving weekend.”

“Luckily, it’s not over yet.”

Justin groaned.

Chapter 26

Claire

Standing outside her bedroom window, Claire couldn’t decide if she should wriggle back in or come clean and go through the front door. Somehow, sneaking in felt more devious and dirty than sneaking out. To pull this off, she had to stay quiet, wipe up any mud she tracked in, scrub her socks and skirt, drink the rest of the water, and pretend she’d been napping all this time.

The possibility existed that Marie had checked on her, in which case this particular effort to lie would make everything worse. Officer Sato was probably right about sucking it up and getting it over with. Resigned to being grounded forever, Claire plodded to the front door and walked in with her head down. She stripped down to her armor in the mud room and stepped inside to find Marie reading a book on the couch, her back to the door.

“I wondered how long it would take you to decide to come back,” Marie said without looking up.

“Sorry. I just…” Unable to come up with anything coherent to say, Claire sighed and plodded to the couch. She sat next to Marie and waited for the tongue lashing. When a minute passed without one, Claire braced her elbows on her knees and covered her face. This cool, silent indifference felt worse than being shouted at.

Marie turned another page and kept reading. Another minute later, she picked up a thin metal bookmark with a silver unicorn dangling from the end of a delicate chain and tucked it into the pages. The protective sleeve from the library crinkled as she closed it and set it on her lap. “I know I’m not your mother. I also know you have to do Knight things. But you live in our house and you’re part of our family. I didn’t realize I needed to explain the rules about alcohol because you’re sixteen and when I was your age, I never considered drinking. It’s easy to accidentally break rules you don’t know exist. Even so, you’re underage.”

She paused and brushed a hand across the book, a collection of Edgar Allen Poe’s works. This didn’t sound as bad as Claire had imagined. Marie almost seemed to battle against smiling at her. Then her mouth turned down.

“For most kids, experimenting at home isn’t a big deal in itself. If you’re going to do it, for whatever reason, that’s the best place. For you, though, a social worker can stop by on a whim. If one had come by when I got home, they would have taken you away, placed you in protective custody, arrested me, and possibly opened a case file to have Missy and Lisa taken away from us too. I know that because I heard a social worker explain it to my parents when Justin moved in. Considering his father, it was a valid concern.”

Any thoughts Claire had of brushing this all aside fled. Justin and Marie trusted her, and she’d ripped that up and spat on it. No words would take that away or fix it. She sniffled and felt her eyes burning yet again today.

“Fortunately, none of that happened. What did happen isn’t the end of the world. It’s serious, because I know you wouldn’t have been doing that without a reason, but it’s not a disaster. Justin has no idea, and if I don’t need to tell him, I won’t. This one particular thing would upset him a lot, and I don’t think we need that on top of everything else that’s happened over the past few days.”

Marie draped an arm over Claire’s shoulders and pulled her close. Claire leaned against her shoulder and wished she could remember doing the same with her mom. “I’m sorry,” she murmured.

“I already knew that, but thank you for saying it. Now tell me what I don’t know.”

Explaining everything again felt daunting, like trying to scoop water out of a sinking boat. “A whole bunch of stuff happened. Some of it was really bad.”

“I gather this is mostly Knight stuff you’re sure I won’t understand.” Marie picked up Claire’s hand and rubbed her thumb over the back. “You’re right, I probably won’t understand a lot, so I hope you’ll talk to Justin about it. In the meantime, I expect you’ve seen adults drinking to relax, right?”

“Yeah.”

Marie squeezed her. “The next time you feel like that, try chocolate or ice cream. It tastes better, is completely legal, and won’t make you drunk. I keep an emergency chocolate bar in my underwear drawer.” She handed Claire a tissue.

“Okay.” Claire wiped her face. “Am I grounded?”

“No. But I would like you to do the dishes and babysit whenever you’re here for the next few weeks.”

The sentence seemed more than fair. Claire nodded and straightened. “What about Drew?”

“I’ll tie him to a post and whip him. That’s the only way boys learn.” Marie held a straight face for a second, then she grinned, making Claire giggle. “I need someone to mop in the mud room. He can handle that.”

They both turned when the front door opened to see Justin walking in. He stopped in the doorway, carrying his armor and sword. Claire noticed he wore only one sock and the right leg of his jeans ended in a ragged line at his knee. Mud covered his right foot. Two people stopped behind him but Claire couldn’t tell who.

“Ah. Marie. Hm. I thought you had another hour at work?”

Marie rolled her eyes and turned away from him. She picked up her book. “I’ve been home for two.”

“I must have just missed you on my way out.”

“Seems so.”

“It was important.”

“No doubt.”

Justin sighed and scratched his head. “Claire, I need to talk to you, and it can’t wait long.”

“Okay, but I need new socks.” Sensing Justin and Marie would need five or ten minutes to sort their own things, Claire slipped away to her bedroom. She snagged the first two socks she could find and jammed her feet into them, then hurried out again. Justin leaned on a chair at the kitchen table, head down like he expected to sleep on the couch tonight. Marie still read her book. She saw no sign of the other two people.

Claire hurried past them and outside. Detective Avery stood by the old tree stump, looking out at the trees. Anne squatted nearby with Mutt, rubbing his head. Drew, sitting on the stump, brightened when he saw Claire. Tension in her shoulders eased at the sight of him.

Now wearing a gray hoodie instead of his coat, Drew nodded toward the house. “How mad is she?”

“She said she’s going to tie you to a post and whip you.”

“Great.” Drew sighed and Claire couldn’t tell if he realized it was a joke or not. “That’s a perfect cap for this day.”

Claire grinned and sat beside him. “I think she’s really just going to put you to work.”

Drew nudged her with his shoulder. “I’m sorry about the—” He glanced at Avery and Anne and lowered his voice. “—thing. It was stupid. I think the thrill of swiping it motivated me a little bit. Grandpa Jack almost caught me putting it back and I think he knew what I was doing, but he didn’t say anything.”

“It’s okay.” Claire shrugged. “It was my idea. Besides, we’re not really in a huge pile of trouble. Marie said she wouldn’t tell Justin.”

“Oh, good.”

Leaning her head on Drew’s shoulder, Claire resigned herself to waiting for whatever Justin needed to say. She had a sinking feeling she knew why he’d brought Avery and Anne. Only one thing could involve both of them.

The cottage door opened several minutes later and Justin stepped out. He’d changed his jeans and seemed resigned. Claire had a feeling his conversation with Marie would continue later. When he reached the stump, he crossed his arms. Avery and Anne both looked to him.

“So. You two have been busy.”

Having neatly set everything aside for a whole fifteen minutes, Claire slumped at the reminder. “I can explain.”

“You don’t need to.” Justin flicked his stern gaze from Drew to Claire and back. “I know you’ve been running around to secure your locket so the destruction of the Palace doesn’t kill you. And I know you got two people hurt at Nine Cans because the memory echoes in the basement forced terror on you.”

Claire sucked in a breath, not sure she heard him correctly. “Hurt? They weren’t killed?”

Justin’s brow raised.

“No,” Avery said. “Despite a remarkably impressive dent in the front end of the car, the woman only sustained minor injuries and she’s already been released from the hospital. The man is being kept overnight for observation because of a concussion and blood loss, but he’s expected to be fine.”

Claire jumped to her feet with a squeal and hugged Justin. “I thought I killed them!” Tears streamed down her cheeks “Those ghosts were so terrifying and I don’t even know why and I thought the mist was coming to kill me. It didn’t make any sense because nothing worked and everything went wrong.”

“They’re both going to be fine.” Justin squeezed her, then he held her by the shoulders so he could look in her eyes. “Claire, I want to know why you didn’t come talk to me about doing this. I know a lot happened between the three of us, but I’m still your mentor and dad-like person. This is exactly the kind of thing we should have talked about before you ran off to do it.”

She wiped her face. And had no answer. In retrospect, she should have gone straight to him and told him everything. He could have asked better questions at Anne’s. He could have kept Drew from doing anything scary enough to make Mutt run away. He could have protected her in the tunnels.

“I’m sorry,” said with a sniffle. “I was dumb.”

He smiled and hugged her again. “Not an answer, but a good start.”

Claire hadn’t felt this safe and loved for too long. But Justin wanted to know, and Avery and Anne probably could help fill in holes that he couldn’t. She let go and sat beside Drew again.

“It started with the Ordeal.” She told him about fighting an echo of her father, about finding Leeloo and Iulia, and the gist of what Iulia had said. When she finished with the need to destroy the Palace, she took a deep breath and added, “I’m not tainted.”

“She’s not,” Drew said with a firm nod. Knowing he wasn’t as certain as he sounded provided Claire an extra buoy. He supported her. That mattered.

“I know.” Justin waved them both off and sank into thought.

Stunned, Claire let her jaw fall open. “But I thought…I mean…how…?”

“Ki could tell,” Avery said. “After my experiences at the Palace this morning, I…” He shrugged and growled in his throat. “I
want
this to be true. I
want
Caius to be a corrupted Phasm so we can destroy him and the Palace. Then I never have to endure that awful dissonance again.”

“Speaking from the point of view of someone many Knights feel is automatically an enemy,” Anne said, “I’m not surprised to hear there’s something rotten in Denmark, so to speak. Justin, you know I’ve complained about your aura before. This has got to be the reason for what I see. It’s the simplest, best explanation.”

Chapter 27

Claire

Justin frowned. “I hear all of you, I just…this is…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Kurt did a lot for me. This feels like betraying his memory. We worked so hard to preserve the Palace, and now you want me to just accept destroying it.”

“In fairness, I feel the same way,” Avery said. “I spent twenty years of my life as a Knight. I considered Mark a friend. Looking back on all that time, I don’t like thinking it was all a waste.”

“But it wasn’t. Don’t you see?” Claire could see she needed to convince both men, and her mind whirled with things she could say. “If we just let the Palace be destroyed, Caius will be released and I’ll bet he’d make the mother of all corrupted Phasms. Or, I guess, the father. But the point is, this isn’t about destroying the Palace, it’s about wiping the slate clean and starting over. Iulia can harness the power it releases to make a new one, which is actually the important part.”

“Claire, wait.” Justin shifted so much it looked like squirming. “Caius isn’t the dark lord of evil. He’s got power and a mission, and he uses it. Everything he does is to keep the Knights strong and capable.” As he finished, his voice pitched up until he begged.

Avery cleared his throat. “I think the important thing we both want is evidence. Genuine proof. Neither of us is willing to do this based on the word of a woman who stabbed Caius in the back.”

“So he says.” Claire had to pace. “There’s no such thing as evidence about this. Caius’s account is just that—Caius’s account. Iulia’s account is the same thing. There’s no unbiased book of facts.” She paused and looked at Mutt. Anne scratched under his ears. Neither had a role to play in this situation so far as she could see. Besides, even if Mutt knew something, Justin and Avery would never believe him. But they would believe Claire.

Claire raised a finger. “How about if we all lay out everything we’ve seen or noticed in the past couple of days that would support one side or the other? Like, I’ll start. I kind of glossed over Iulia’s situation when I found her as ‘torture.’ ” She described the scene for them—angry spirits swirling, a woman with a hooked nail pounded through her wrists, and screeching.

Justin blanched. Avery frowned at the ground. Anne scowled.

“The memories Caius left in the Palace claim he loved Iulia and she loved him. I can see being mad about betrayal. That makes sense. I can even see doing all those things to her. The thing I don’t get is leaving her there for two thousand years. When I look at Drew, someone I’ve known for years, who’s my best friend, and think about the worst thing he could ever do to me?” She met Drew’s gaze and quirked up one side of her mouth. “Yeah, I could get all tyrannical and do something horrible to him. But after a while, I’d have second thoughts. I’d at least make it so he didn’t suffer anymore.”