“He’s like a cockroach,” I said.
Vayl nodded. “I understand fruit flies are difficult to kill as well.”
“All the creepy crawlies you expect to survive a nuking.”
Iona and Viv came in with Albert trudging behind. The Wiccan carried the harness along with the moss. Viv and Albert also toted loads of plants, mostly fungus as far as I could tell, though I might’ve spied some bark among the toadstools.
“Your timing is excellent,” Vayl said.
Iona smiled. “I do know when to step in, don’t I?”
She nodded for Albert and Viv to dump the vegetation in a pile and dropped the harness on top. As she knelt over her treasures and closed her eyes, Vayl pulled me aside. I watched Viv run to Cole, help him up while Jack ran around in circles and whumped them with the broad wags of his tail.
“Jasmine?” I pulled my attention back to my sverhamin.Oh goody, time for the big moment! Vayl leaned down until our eyes were at the same level. “Do you trust me?”
“Sure.”
“I need for you to be sure.”
Uh-oh. “Yeah, Vayl. I do.”
“Then will you help me gather up the diamonds the Scidairans scattered around this cairn?”
“Vayl—”
“It is the right thing to do.”
I hesitated. Sighed. Of course, I should’ve thought of it myself. “Yeah, okay.” We went outside to make like little kids on Easter Sunday. Albert helped, and within a surprisingly few minutes we’d picked the cairn clean. It helped immensely that the diamonds glittered in the lamplight, and they’d been set at even intervals around the perimeter.
Back inside, Iona’s spell had sprouted. Literally. An empty water bottle stood by her side, making me think she’d poured the contents on the stuff she’d piled at her knees. And while we’d been gone a lush green ivy had grown up through the mound of moss and herbs, twining around the harness so quickly that I could see the stem stretch and twirl, its leaves emerging and growing to full length before my eyes.
The fresh scent of Wiccan magic filled the cairn, blowing away the pollution of Scidair. Samos/Floraidh panted as Iona touched the vine to their foot and it clung, sending out feelers even more quickly now that it had a solid support to wrap around. Within a minute the vine had done a mummy wrap on the shared body. At which point it began to squeeze.
“It can’t suffocate him. Her. Can it?” I asked.
“No,” said Iona. “That’s not the point anyway. It’s not squeezing. It’s sucking.”
Floraidh/Samos bowed so radically I thought she/he might refracture her/his back. Then the vine broke.
Iona whispered words I couldƒ€ words I barely catch and decided I didn’t want to know. As the ivy retreated into the pile, she spat on it. Then she stomped it. Three times she repeated this process as it withdrew into the mound. In the end she scattered all the ingredients, handed me the harness, and pointed to a small brown nut sitting on the dirt floor of the cairn.
“That’s all that remains of Samos.”
I glanced at Vayl. “Your turn,” I said.
He gestured to Cole. “I cede the honor to you. He did mean to steal your body, after all.”
Cole nodded his thanks, strode forward, raised his foot, and stomped. The nut split under his heel, the crack surprisingly loud in the stillness of the night. He ground it around until he was sure it could never be reconstituted, then he held out his arms to Viv.
She stood still, signed something, to which he responded, “Of course you’re worth the sacrifice. I’d never have offered to trade places with you otherwise.”
She ran into his arms and he kissed her hair as Iona beamed at them and Jack did another one of his circle-the-couple runs.
When’s he going to do that for me? I wondered grumpily. Which was when Floraidh sat up. Nearly healed. Fully herself. Pissed as a wet cat. Screaming threats so foul I was surprised her teeth didn’t melt as the words rolled off her tongue.
Vayl held out his hand. “Albert, I have need of my sword now.”
Without a word, my dad passed it over. Vayl unsheathed the blade, causing the Scidairan to clamp her mouth shut tight. She tried to scrabble backward as he advanced on her, but the rocks gave her no escape.
“You wouldn’t kill me!” she screeched.
“You are right.” He flicked the blade, making a clean cut across her forehead. “But I know someone else who would.” He stood up. “Oengus?”
Floraidh laughed. “Do you know how long he’s tried to get to me? I’m so well shielded I could . . .” The words jumped off the precipice she suddenly realized she stood upon as Albert and I opened our hands, showing her the piles of diamonds glittering in our palms.
“Vayl’s got the rest,” I told her. I pocketed the gems. Picked up the bowl and dumped it in her lap. We backed away as an ill wind rose in the cairn. The first slash appeared on Floraidh’s neck. Her scream was echoed by an unearthly howl, like the ones we’d heard in Castle Hoppringhill.
“We’ll still have our revenge on you!” she cried as a wound appeared across her chest and blood spurted. He’d cut deep this time.
“I don’t see how,” I said. “Samos is as dead as a throwaway battery and you’re about to enter the Thin. Neither of you is coming back, Floraidh.”
She began to laugh as both her arms, then her legs, jumped and a score of cuts appeared on each one. Oengus was getting impatient now. He’d waited a long time, after all. Still Floraidh giggled.
“What’s so funny?” I demanded.
“Me, for not recognizing you until Samos entered my body. And you,” she said. “For believing he wouldn’t have some sort of backup plan after having failed to beat you repeatedly in his last life.”
“What do you mean?” Vayl asked.
She kept her eyes on me as she said, “Your poor father has been through so much in the past few weeks. These visits from beyond the grave have disturbed him much more than he would ever let on to you. What have they meant? That question has plagued him from the first. So much so that he finally enlisted your help in discovering the true source of his haunting. Isn’t that right, Albert?”
“Who are you?” he asked. “What do you want with me?”
“You’re just a means to an end, old man. Just a way to let Jasmine know her mommy has escaped from hell with our help. Because she needs a little one-on-one with her baby girl. And Baby Girl is too well protected by”—her eyes rolled upward—“for the direct approach.”
“I had to see you, Jazzy.” I spun, my grip on Vayl’s hand breaking as I recognized my mother’s voice. It was coming out of Viv’s mouth. Impossible, of course, so I knew it had to be true. Especially when I saw her features settle over Viv’s, her honey-colored hair falling over Viv’s blond locks like a bad wig. “I knew you wouldn’t want to talk to me, so I tried to get to you through Albert. Of course, he’s harder to communicate with than a teenager with his iPod blasting.” She sent Albert a dirty look, which he returned times twelve.
As Viv stepped forward, tearing herself from Cole’s embrace, I backed up. “Why would you want to see me?” I asked. “I thought we’d summed up our relationship already.”
She nodded. “I understand why you might think I was the worst mother on earth. But, having spent the past few years in hell, I can tell you that I may be on the bottom of the barrel, but I’m not scraping it.” She glanced at Floraidh, who’d begun to list sideways, her blood turning her sweater a nasty shade of purple. “Not yet.”
The Scidairan managed a grin as she said, “Go ahead, Stella. Remember what awaits you if you kill her. No more torture. An end to the pain. Soft pillows and sheets. Daily showers and clean clothing. A chance to rise among the hierarchy and be with your true love again. It’s all in Edward’s contract. Signed in blood. If only you follow through.”