He carried my hatchet because it was the best way to ensure I wouldn’t find my way into that locker and claim it the moment he had his back turned.
“June,” Rose said. “Make your presence felt.”
Rose’s plan was apparently different from my own. I’d hoped to get the door open, to flood the place with cold… Rose was going more direct.
But if the room temperature here dropped, then it would bode ill. We’d be reaping bad karma for bringing people into the fold, if anything bad happened to them as a result.
“June, you’re colder than you’ve ever been. Feel how cold your fingers and toes are.”
“I’m going to go report about what happened downstairs,” Duncan said, giving me and Rose the briefest dirty looks. “Talk to you guys later.”
He almost ran, heading away.
“June,” Rose said, louder.
“You say something?” the officer asked me.
I only shook my head.
Duncan was pulling off his jacket, folding it over one arm-
Rose raised her voice. “June! Remember that moment! You remember that moment when you realized you were going to freeze to death!”
Duncan dropped his coat. He shook his hand a little, as if it stung. He didn’t bend down to pick it up.
The officers were walking me out of the area. In a few seconds, I wouldn’t be able to influence events.
I looked for Rose, to ask for help, to pass on a message, and I couldn’t see her.
When I looked, using the sight, I found her in Evan’s company, outside the building. She was talking to him, I was dimly aware. Convincing him that he wasn’t really dead. That it was only a broken neck.
That all he had to do was turn his head and fly, because I needed him.
A moment later, she was breaking a window, to give Evan a way in.
The sparrow came flying through the police station, in from the stairwell, making a beeline straight for the fallen coat.
I resisted the two men who had me by the arm, which didn’t amount to much. Looking, straining to see…
The bird had revealed the contents of Duncan’s inside pocket. It was barely visible, but for the edge of the hatchet’s handle and a plastic bag sealed with deep red tape. Tape that, I was sure, if I viewed it up close, would read ‘evidence’.
“Officer Behaim!” I raised my voice. I sounded drunk, I was so out of it.
“Shut up,” the officer that was hauling me off said. “You hurt an officer, but even if Dunc-”
“Why is that evidence in your pocket!?” I shouted, ignoring him. “In that jacket pocket!”
Heads turned.
“I was right! You’re screwing with me! You have no reason to have that! You’re not supposed to be touching my case!”
I saw Duncan, head bowed slightly. A moment passed.
He bent down to pick up his jacket, grabbed the hatchet and tossed it to the ground. I saw pink on his hand where skin had stuck and torn away.
I was too focused on that to notice that he had drawn his gun.
The other people in the room were moving a fraction slower than they should.
He’d done something, in that moment his head was bowed.
I was moving slower, or I would be, if what had happened to Evan hadn’t left me more or less paralyzed. No moving out of the way.
The bird flew past me. As with the snow, he gave me just a bit more of a bump than he should have been able to.
The two shots missed.
Others were drawing their weapons, but Duncan was moving, retreating.
Disappearing into a room, shutting the door.
I was hauled in the opposite direction, away from confused shouts and bellows.
Evan came to me, settling clumsily on my shoulder, nearly falling. His wings fluttered violently until he found his balance.
The officer seemed a bit taken aback.
“I collect birds,” I said, glancing at him.
“Keep quiet,” an officer that held me said.
He dragged me into the hallway with the cells, depositing me in the one opposite the cell I’d occupied prior. Drunk-girl cell, harboring trace aromas of puke.
“What do we do with the bird?” the other officer asked.
“I’m not touching it. Leave it be. We need to go see what’s up with Dunc.”
“You keep that bird here,” the other officer told me as he undid the cuffs.
The door slammed shut.
I settled on the bed.
“He’s resetting time,” Rose said.
I glanced at the door, unable to reply without sounding like a lunatic to my neighbors in the next cell. I shrugged.
At least it buys me more time to plan for the abstract demon.
“You collect birds?” Rose asked me, appearing on the stainless steel surface of the toilet. “Or was that a lie?”
I rolled up my sleeve. Silent, not wanting to be overheard, I tapped the birds.
“Oh,” Rose said. “I guess that counts.”
Evan flew down to my hand, then lifted one foot.
He let go of the locket, letting it fall into the bowl of my cupped hand.
I smiled. I murmured, “I had a feeling you were a good pick.”
I popped it open. No hair. But there was a black crust to it, a patina, like silver in grievous need of polishing, or copper that had gone green.
Maybe.
It took me far too long to wind the locket’s chain around my wrist, tightening it until it was uncomfortable. Evan hopped around on my sleeve, one leg still raised, wings flapping.
The other leg raised.
No wonder he’d had trouble landing. I held out a hand, and Evan deposited another object into it.
I grinned, feeling relief wash over me. “Definitely a good choice.”
I showed Rose, and I saw her eyes widen.
I wasn’t so worried, now. All I had to do was wait, uncomfortable as it was. I was still aware of the deadline that loomed. I had a demon to find and bind, and it was already early afternoon.
Evan hopped up to my shoulder.
“Can I speak?” he whispered. “Or will they hear me?”
“I’m not sure,” I whispered back.
“You introduced me to June earlier,” Evan said, in my ear. His voice was hoarse. “You were saying you needed more help, before. She was the first person I thought of.”
I nodded and gave him a silent thumbs up.
Evan flew over to the cell door, settling on the bars. He pecked twice.
The door popped open.
I stared, then leaned over, using my foot to hook the door. I shut it, glanced at Evan and shook my head.
“Are you sure?” Rose asked.
I leaned over the other way, to speak to Rose. “If I’m going to get out of this with my life intact, I have to play by the rules, at least a little.”
Confiding in a toilet, I thought. Maybe I have gone mad.
“What Duncan was saying earlier,” Rose said. “It’s true for any ghost. A fractured echo of a person, it gets filled in with the relevant pieces. Evan’s… he’s a little bit bigger than a ghost. I’m guessing we’re seeing one thing that filled in the empty spaces.”
“I guess so,” I said. “What filled me up? What’s going to happen when my body decides to reject it?”
“I don’t think it was so simple. How many different effects did you use?”
I shook my head. How many runes? How many lines to break connections?
“Let’s hope we get you out of here while you still feel okay,” she said. “That power you gave me? I lost it when Evan’s neck got snapped. I don’t think Duncan there realized you’d transferred the power in-house, if you know what I mean?”