A Wild Light (36 page)

—and we stepped from the void onto the hill.

Jack’s sheet-wrapped body had already been placed in a deep hole, set beside my mother’s grave. Raw and Aaz teetered on the edge, their bodies covered in dirt. They clutched teddy bears to their chests. Zee crouched on top of a massive stone slab that looked as though it had been torn fresh from the earth. He was scratching a message into it.

Kings,
I thought.
Kings and children. And friends.

Jack walked to the stone. I joined him.

“Jack Meddle,” I read, over Zee’s shoulder. “Meddling Man. Father. Grandfather.”

“Loved,” Jack finished. He looked at Zee and the boys. “This is a tremendous gift.”

Zee shrugged, not quite meeting his gaze. Raw and Aaz tossed their teddy bears into the hole, on top of the body. Dek and Mal hummed some strains from “Good Morning Heartache,” doing their best Gladys Knight impression.

“Any words?” Grant asked Jack.

My grandfather stared down into the hole for a long time, then looked at my mother’s grave.

“Your mother made me forget I was immortal,” he said, voice soft. “As did you, Jolene, when I knew you.

“And you.” Jack looked at me, his eyes full of shadows and pain. “There is no higher compliment.”

He turned away from me and kicked dirt into the grave. I touched his shoulder. “Let me.”

Jack stood aside, watching as I buried his old body. It was hard for me. I kept wanting to cry, which was silly, because everything that mattered stood beside me.

But I was going to miss that face.

Zee helped, in the end. So did Raw and Aaz, and Grant, though I made him sit down in the grass when he started coughing.

Until, finally, it was done. Buried and done. The boys pushed the stone over the soft dirt, and I brushed it clean with my hand. The armor glimmered. I had lost a little more palm to the metal and didn’t care. I listened to the oak leaves stir, and a bird sing, somewhere close, in anticipation of dawn.

“I should go,” Jack said. “The boy needs his body back.”

“His memories,” I said. “Let Byron keep them.”

Jack hesitated. “I did that once. It was a mistake.”

“Not this time.” I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. “He has a family now.”

Jack said nothing. Just stood there, as though he was drinking me in, or seeing the past, or thinking something that sent a careful, thoughtful warmth into his eyes.

“Your mother was right,” he said. “My good, sweet girl.”

“Jack,” I said.

He held up his hand. “Look for strangers with glints in their eyes, and devilish smiles. Look for me soon, my dear. You make an old man want to live again.”

I reached for him—but all I caught was Byron, collapsing to his knees. Jack, gone—and I hadn’t even seen his light fade.

I held the boy to me, stroking his hair. Grant limped close, as did Zee and the others. Dek and Mal crooned a lullaby.

Byron stirred, burying his face in my neck.

“Hey,” I breathed.

“Maxine?” He sounded tired, confused, and tried pulling away. I wouldn’t let him go. “What happened?”

“Nothing.” I kissed his head, holding him tight. “Nothing you need to worry about.”

THE kid had questions, but he was also exhausted. So tired that I had trouble getting him back to the house. I didn’t see the Messenger or the Mahati—which was fine because I didn’t want Byron to see them.

I put him in my old room. It was strange, being there. The wallpaper with its little painted horses was peeling, and the old wooden bed frame was more battered than I remembered. I opened the window to let in air, and while the boy was in the bathroom, Raw and Aaz brought clean sheets, blankets, and pillows for the bed, along with a bag of clothes that still had the tags attached.

I tucked Byron in. He was asleep before I pulled the covers over him.

It wasn’t quite dawn when I started walking back to the hill, but the eastern horizon was turning a lighter shade of blue, and the stars were fading. The boys bounded alongside me. The air was sweet.

My scar tingled. Soft tendrils of hair stroked the back of my head.

“Worlds change,” said a silken voice, behind me, “and what was, takes new forms, and is reborn again.”

I turned, but no one was there. I looked up, glimpsed a shadow in the sky, then that disappeared, as well. A falling star, made of night.

I found Grant where I had left him, sitting beside my mother’s grave.

“You’re here more often than I am,” I said, falling down beside him. He held his mother’s amulet in one hand.

He gave me a weary smile, the cuts in his face making it look crooked. “Seems like a good place to think. About all the little mysteries.”

So many mysteries. Nothing as I had expected. Not the prison veil, not the Mahati, not the bargain I’d made. Not my mother, the Labyrinth, or the man there, who had imbued the seed ring with the knowledge of how to close the veil. A man who had known that it would fall not just into my possession, but Grant’s.

It was my father who helped us,
I wanted to say, but the words wouldn’t come to me. I found Grant watching me, though, and there was a look in his eyes.

“Mysteries,” I said. “Like us.”

He placed his battered hand over my heart, and I held it there, listening to my body, something deeper than my body, feeling the pulse of my link to Grant—and beyond that, the slow, coiled darkness resting, waiting, dreaming.

Scared me, but not like it had before.

I might not know
it
, but I knew
myself
.

Raw and Aaz crawled into our laps. Zee shuffled close, but he was watching the east, and the dawn sky.

“Miss the sun,” he said.

I had forgotten the sunrises in Texas. I’d lived in Seattle for so long, I’d almost forgotten the sun. I missed it, too, but not like the boys. I pulled Zee close and kissed his forehead. Dek and Mal hummed to themselves.

Grant shifted slightly and took my right hand. He pressed something small against my palm. I frowned, and looked.

It was a ring. Small, delicate, made of pure soft gold. No gems.

Zee and the boys stilled. So did I.

Grant tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t come out. He tried again, and I covered his mouth with my hand, staring into his eyes.

I stared, and stared, then extended my left hand.

Grant took a breath, and picked up the ring from my other hand. He slid it carefully onto my trembling finger.

Zee laid his head on my knee and closed his eyes with a faint smile. Raw and Aaz covered their mouths, rocking. Dek and Mal purred.

“With this ring, I thee wed,” he whispered.

“Until death do us part,” I said.