Matchbox Girls (12 page)

Neath squirmed out of her arms and began stalking in a circle under where the fairy floated. He cast a displeased look down at her. “You can keep hunting me, beast, but it isn’t going to keep me away. In fact, if she fails my people, I’ll be here
forever
.”

Marley mused, “I wonder if Zachariah knew.”

The dream began to disintegrate around her as Neath leapt straight up. The last thing she heard was a peevish fairy voice saying, “But more likely, she’ll end up
dead
, and those precious children with her.”

-thirteen-

M
arley woke up to morning sun, and the rattling of the studio shower. She blinked for a moment, trying to remember where she was and what she was doing. She turned her head and the sight of Branwyn’s big custom box fan helped her place herself. Still, she wouldn’t have been surprised to see the fairy fashion doll sitting atop the box. She wondered if Tinker Chime was a representation of her subconscious, triggered by late-night fairy conversations, and if so, what it meant that he was a tiny, but attractive, male. But she did feel better about the twins and their strange abilities now. Dreams weren't always bad.

Lissa was wedged between her and the back of the couch, while Kari was on the floor, her knees tucked up under her body and her rump in the air. After carefully disentangling herself from the girl, Marley stepped toward the window. And paused. A black bird—a crow or a raven?—was perched on the windowsill, looking into the studio with one shiny black eye. It turned its head to one side, and then scratched at the screen. She could barely hear the scrape over the rattling of the shower and the roar of the fans.

It had something clutched in one foot, something white. A scrap of paper? She hurried over to the window and leaned against it, turning her head. Corbin was gone. Unexpected disappointment rose up, which she ignored as she turned her attention to the bird. It hadn’t flown away at her approach, although it had hopped along the ledge when she leaned on the screen. “What do you want?”

It opened its mouth silently, then lifted its foot, thrusting the scrap of paper against the screen.

“Oh! Sorry.” Marley felt embarrassed talking to the bird, but even more embarrassed that she hadn’t realized its point before. But Corbin always seemed to be with birds, and even in the normal world, birds carried messages. She worked on figuring out how to open the screen. As she did, the shower turned off and she could hear Branwyn moving around behind her.

Finally she got one of the latches bent enough that a corner of the screen popped open. Immediately, the bird’s foot thrust through the gap and released the scrap of paper. Marley snatched it up as the raven launched itself into the air, with a caw that sounded like laughter.

You’re right. You deserve to know everything I do. Call me. Corbin

There was a phone number printed next to the name. It looked familiar.

While she was trying to remember where she’d seen it, Branwyn said, “I’m going on into work today. Since there’s nothing better to do. If you don’t call me every few hours, I’m going to call the cops.” Marley turned to look at her. “Or worse.” Her friend’s green hair, spiky when wet, seemed to match her tone. She really didn't like being excluded from what she assumed was an adventure.

“I’m going to find out more today, Branwyn.”

Branwyn shrugged. “Good.” She turned away and then turned back. “I hope you don’t think you’re protecting me or something stupid like that.”

“No.” Marley said it, but her treacherous thoughts said,
Maybe a little.
“I just don’t want to spread my own confusion.”

Branwyn grumbled, “Yeah. Research Girl. At least it’s not Penny’s excuse.” She left, shutting the door quietly behind her.

Marley stared at the door for a moment. Then she found her cellphone in her purse, right next to Zachariah’s phone. “Oh!” she exclaimed, and then glanced guiltily at the twins. She took both phones and went to the far side of the studio. Then she turned on Zachariah’s phone and scrolled through the call list. There it was, Corbin and his number, called the day Zachariah had vanished.

Before she thought about it too much, she pressed the call button. The phone rang twice, and then a bewildered voice said, “Zachariah? What the hell—”

“It’s me,” Marley said. “I have his phone.”

There was a pause. “Oh. The girl with the kids. Marley.”

“Yes,” she said patiently. “A bird gave me a note signed by you.”

“Yeah. I’m sorry, I just woke up.” Marley felt a twinge of irrational annoyance. How could he be watching out for bad guys if he was asleep? And why had she been relying on him to do that? He continued, “Is everything all right?”

“Nothing has changed. I’m calling because you said you wanted to explain things. And I’m ready to have things explained.”

“Right. Can we meet somewhere?”

Marley glanced at the kids, who were stirring. “I’m still not comfortable letting anybody I don’t trust too close to the kids. Not after yesterday.”

Another pause. “This will be harder, then.”

“Why? Talking is talking, and phones are safer.”

“Because seeing is believing, and I’m just a voice in your ear.” He sighed. “Where do you want me to start?”

“Who is Lawyer Jeremy working for? Who’s behind the people shooting at me? What happened to Zachariah? What’s your connection to Zachariah? I saw that he tried to call you the day he vanished.”

“Yes. I was busy at the time.” Corbin’s words were clipped. “Trying to save my friends from the clusterfuck he sent them into.”

Marley frowned. “What?”

“I’m sorry. Yes, he called me, presumably to find out how we were doing on a task he'd set myself and my friends. The answer there was ‘poorly'.”

“What was the task?”

He hesitated. “We were trying to protect something from somebody who wanted to steal it. We failed. I think the same somebody is now trying to get the kids.”

“You're being very vague,” Marley observed. “Do you think I won't understand big words?”

“So prickly. Look, how much do you know about the Backworld, and the Geometry? Have you even heard of nephilim or the war in Heaven?”

She almost hung up the phone right then. Her thumb even twitched. “I took geometry in high school. Nephilim are mythological giants that were washed away in the biblical flood.”

“So you don’t know anything. About your—about magic, and the secret side of the world, I mean,” he added hastily, and then paused. “Are you still there?”

“Yes. Sooner or later you’re going to say something meaningful. I’m waiting for it.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to meet somewhere?”

“Are you kidding me? Convince me you’re not a paranoid schizophrenic first.”

“I don’t think that’s possible over the phone. Not quickly, anyhow. And you don't sound inclined to give me a lot of time.”

Marley blew out her breath. “What is it with you and birds, at least? Why are they always around you?”

“They’re my friends,” he said mildly. “They’ve always been the friends of my family. Look, I’m going to tell you more about what we were doing for Zachariah. And I’m going to put it in a way that will make sense to you. And then I’m going to change the perspective a little. All right?”

Marley silently rolled her eyes. “Go on, already.”

“Zachariah was a friend. He asked me to go with some other friends on a mission: to interfere with an organization attempting to steal an important object. He said this organization was planning on using the object to unlock a barrier preventing the organization from accessing great power. My friends and I—we failed. We didn’t anticipate the force they sent in. And my friends were badly injured. After getting them someplace safe, I came back to discover Zachariah was missing, and the organization's primary agent had sent his servants after you and the kids as the next step of the plan. Zachariah didn’t warn us about that. I don’t know what they want with the kids, yet.” By the end of the story, Corbin’s words had become clipped and angry again.

“Maybe Zachariah holds the last part of this key you mentioned? A final password or something? And they want the kids in order to extort it out of him?”

“Unlikely. I don’t think Zachariah had any significant role in the creation of the barrier. No, I think they want the kids, and Zachariah was in the way, which is why they’re after you now.”

Marley let this sink in, and said, “And the perspective changer?”

“The agent is an angel,” Corbin said bluntly. “The barrier prevents his kind from directly manipulating humanity.”

Marley remembered again the wings in the light, and the ethereal voice. “I was afraid you were going to say something like that. An angel. An
angel
? From Heaven? God’s messenger?”

“Maybe once upon a time, but they ran out of new messages long ago. Now they make their own decisions, just like us. Usually, they’re more subtle than this. And the primary agent in this case, an angel called Akaterin Ettoriel, doesn't have the profile of a powermonger. None of this makes sense, which is why I'd really, really like to talk to Zachariah.”

“Of course.”

Corbin didn't continue, and she let the pause drag out while she tried to figure out what to say next. She’d decided she wasn't going to hang up the phone, even if it seemed like the most sensible option. Sense had flown out the window the day before.

She watched as Kari sat up and looked around. Silently, Marley pulled out a bottle of water and a box of graham crackers and offered them to the child. The practical act grounded her.

“Are you still there?” Corbin said.

“I'm not sure how to feel about running away from something like that,” she said conversationally.

“There’s a lot you still don’t know. Are you sure—you’re taking this better than I expected,” he said. “You really didn't know anything?”

“I hardly know anything now. You didn't mention a Backworld or any geometry, for example. But it’s an explanation. It’s as good as anything. I was afraid what I saw was a hallucination. Though maybe it’d be better for all of us if I
was
crazy. Don’t you think?”

His voice became low. “No. Whether or not you were crazy wouldn’t change anything. You’re not, though. Whatever’s happening to you, you’re not.” There was a warmth to his voice that startled Marley. “Zachariah was cruel to you.”

She was startled. “No! We’re friends.”

“He kept secrets from you. Things he
really
should have shared. At the very least, he should have told us about you. My family was right about him.”

“There you go talking about your family again; what’s that about? How is it you and Zachariah are in the business of opposing angels? Are you Satanists?”

A bark of laughter buzzed the phone. “Satanists! No. God, that’s really funny. No. We oppose angels mostly because what they really want to do is get rid of us.”

“And why is that? What are you?”

“Us? We’re their children.”

-fourteen-

“
N
ephilim,” Marley said, after a moment. “Not washed away in the Flood. Not
myths
.”

“Mmm. No. No more than angels.” He fell silent.

“You’re the child of a—What does that even
mean
?”

“Well, when an angel loves a mortal very much—”

“Please! Don't joke!”

Mildly, he said, “It's not entirely a joke. Angels, of all the celestials, can be particularly fierce in their passions. It takes a lot to lure them out of Heaven and into breaking the Precepts. But in any case, it means we're partly human, and partly celestial. We inherit powers from our celestial side, and we don't age like humans. But we're not immortal like angels are, either.”

“Don't age... How old are you?”

“Me? I’m only thirty. I’m also third generation; my father is... much older.”

“And Zachariah? He’s also a—uh. Is he old, too?”

“Ancient.” She could hear the amusement in his voice, and she didn’t like it.

“How about that girl with the dogs? AT? Is she also ‘family’?”

“Yes. And she’s sixteen, before you ask. She should be keeping an eye on your building right now.”

Marley was aghast. “She’s a kid. Why would you involve another kid in this?”

Corbin’s voice sharpened. “She involved herself, and she’s been involved in more frightening things. Her
life
is a more frightening thing. Don’t worry about her.”

“Right.” Marley watched Lissa roll off the couch, stand up, stagger over to her sister, and take Kari’s graham cracker. Kari’s lip trembled.

Suddenly, she was ready for the conversation to be done.
Angels. Nephilim. Immortals.
“Well, I have to go be a foster mom now, so nice talking to you. Thanks for the info.”

He paused, then said, “All right. It’s a lot to take in. I’ll let you think about it.” She was about to hang up when he blurted, “Marley! They can’t find you like AT and I can, but they
will
find you. You’re not going to be safe where you are.”

“Is there someplace I
will
be safe?”

“Just... keep moving for now. I’m going to try to find out why Ettoriel wants the kids. And I’m going to see what help Senyaza—uh, the family business—can provide.”

“Right.” She clicked off the phone and closed her eyes, letting Corbin’s stories swirl around in her mind. Then one of the twins squealed in anger. She sighed, opened her eyes, and pushed into the fray.

* * *

There was, she reflected an hour later, only so fast that she could get the twins moving in the morning without scaring them or making them unreasonably surly. She wondered if experienced caretakers had any tricks, or if it always took this long to, say, get kids out to preschool. If the twins knew, they weren’t saying.

Once she’d herded them out to the sidewalk and deposited most of what they’d taken upstairs back in the car, she stood back and looked around. The haze of smoke from the wildfires painted the sky with yellow, and there was hardly anybody out on the street. A block down, on the corner, she saw AT sitting sideways on a bus bench, all three dogs sprawled around her.