“No, Tommy chose to live here.”
“Hey, Tommy’s sitting in the cab with you,” Tommy said, “and he’s getting real tired of being referred to in the third person.”
“That’s the problem with these Raven boys,” Aunt Nancy said. “Can’t seem to get them into mischief when you want to; can’t get them out when you don’t.”
“Please?” Zulema asked.
Aunt Nancy gave a heavy sigh. “Oh, fine. Put an old woman out.”
She opened the passenger door and stepped onto the side of the road, moving with exaggerated stiffness. Once she was outside, she gave a theatrical stretch, then went around to the four corners of the pickup. Muttering to herself, she took pinches of some powder out of a small buckskin bag and sprinkled it on the end of each bumper.
“Is she always like that?” Ellie whispered once Aunt Nancy was back in the cab.
“Only when she doesn’t get her own way,” Sunday replied, also in a whisper.
“I heard that,” Aunt Nancy said through the window. Then she turned to Tommy. “Well? What are you waiting for, Raven boy? Drive.”
“Urn…”
“Don’t worry. No one will see us. Or they will, but they’ll see something they’re expecting to see, not precisely us.”
“It’s okay,” Zulema said.
So Tommy started up the truck and on they went again.
The city, once they were driving through it, was a disaster zone. Ellie felt as though they were in some end-of-the-world movie. The ice was a slick carpet covering everything. Trees and telephone poles littered the sides of the road; buildings were all dark. There were next to no people. There were no other vehicles, except for those that had been abandoned at curbs and medians, though once they got closer to the city core they saw hydro trucks and various army vehicles.
No one gave them a second glance, but Tommy got off Williamson as soon as he could anyway. He drove toward the Beaches by back streets, crossing the river at the Kelly Street Bridge, then taking River Road through the Butler University campus to where it met up with Lakeside Drive. If anything, the storm damage was worse once they got to the Beaches. Or perhaps it only seemed worse, since no one had been working on clearing the streets of fallen trees and utility poles so they were strewn where they’d fallen—across porches and houses, crushing vehicles, blocking parts of the street. Twice they had to turn around and find an alternate route, but eventually they reached Handfast Road and began the long climb up to Kellygnow.
Ellie stared around herself in shock. There was so much damage from the ice storm. She glanced at Hunter.
“You wouldn’t think that something as simple as freezing rain could create such a disaster zone, would you?”
“Depends on how much of the stuff you get,” Hunter replied.
Ellie nodded, still stunned at the chaos that surrounded them.
When they finally reached Kellygnow, Aunt Nancy directed Tommy to drive by the house, crossing the lawn and then in between the trees. She had him park by the Recluse’s cabin and everybody scrambled out. Aunt Nancy turned to Zulema.
“Ellie and I will go on alone from here,” she said. “See if you can find where the creature crossed over, then use its spoor to lay a doubling-back charm that will return it to the spiritworld whenever it tries to cross over here. You remember how to do that?”
Both Zulema and Sunday nodded, but Ellie was sure she hadn’t heard right.
“You want me to go with you?” she said.
“Of course. Who else? You wanted to help, didn’t you?”
“Well, yes. But why me? I don’t know anything.”
Aunt Nancy’s dark gaze settled on her.
“I need you,” she said, “because your medicine is stronger than any I have seen outside of the spiritworld. Between the two of us… you have the medicine and I know how to use it. If we’re lucky, that will be enough. And no,” she added, turning to Tommy. “You’re not coming. Remember what White-duck said.”
“He didn’t say I was in any real danger,” Tommy said. “Only that I would be involved.”
“He didn’t need to say you were in danger. Just telling us you were involved was specific enough. Why else would he have bothered?”
“Since when do you listen to him?” Tommy asked.
“I have the utmost respect for Jack Whiteduck,” Aunt Nancy said in a deferential tone of voice that even Ellie could tell was insincere. “Especially when he’s right.”
“They don’t usually get along?” Ellie asked Sunday.
The other woman shrugged. “He doesn’t much care for the Creeks.”
“Why not?”
“Women’s magic versus men’s. He has a problem with it. We don’t.”
“And,” Aunt Nancy put in, showing that she was listening to their conversation as well, “we aren’t so foolish as to ignore his wisdom when it’s sound. Are we, nephew?”
“Okay,” Tommy said. “I’ll stay already. But I don’t like it.”
Hunter cleared his throat. “But I’m coming,” he said.
“You?” Aunt Nancy turned her gaze on him, but Hunter didn’t flinch. “What do you have to offer?”
“I…”
“Don’t forget, he killed one of the wolves,” Tommy put in.
“Um, that’s right,” Hunter said. “And… well, Mr. Whiteduck…”
Aunt Nancy smiled. “Mr. Whiteduck. Oh, he’d like that.”
“He didn’t have any warnings about me, did he?”
“He doesn’t even know you,” Ellie said, but Aunt Nancy was already nodding,
“True enough,” she said. “We could use a warrior to watch our backs.” When she turned back to the truck to get a small backpack she’d left there, Ellie touched Hunter’s arm.
“You don’t have to do this,” she said.
“And you do?”
“That’s different. Somehow I managed to get involved and I can’t back out now.”
“Me, too,” Hunter told her.
“Remember what I said about seeing this through,” Tommy said.
“I won’t let anybody down,” Hunter said.
Tommy regarded him for a long moment, then nodded.
“I’m glad you’re going,” he said. “Aunt Nancy doesn’t always remember the frailties of human flesh. With two of you going, you’ll keep her honest. Pace yourself, no matter how she tries to shame you otherwise. Don’t forget, she’s lived her whole life in the bush. She can wear out half the Warrior’s society lodge when she gets going.”
He broke off when he saw Aunt Nancy looking at him.
“You Raven boys,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t know where you get your sass.”
“Probably from our side of the family,” Sunday said.
Aunt Nancy shook her head, but she was smiling. “Come on, then,” she told Hunter and Ellie.
Hunter fell in step with her, but Ellie paused beside Tommy for a moment.
“Look,” she said. “I’ve been wanting to tell you this for a while. I don’t know why it’s important, but it just is. I guess it’s because I’m always feeling guilty about it.”
“Oh-oh. You’re not going to tell me you’ve been badmouthing me to my supermodel girlfriends, are you?”
She punched his arm. “No. It’s just… I want you to know that I don’t have the same background as you or anybody else that works with Angel. I don’t come from a broken home or any kind of a tragedy.”
“I already knew that,” Tommy said.
“You did? How?”
He shrugged. “It’s just something you know as a survivor.”
“It made me feel like such a phony. But I just wanted to help.”
“Ellie,” he said. “Don’t you see? That only makes the time you put in that more precious. I mean for the rest of us, it’s payback. A way for us to say thanks to Angel for how she helped us by helping others.” He grinned. “But you. Not only are you a superhero, but you’re a saint as well.”