“God, don’t even say that,” Mags told me.
“I’ll come with you to the spot where you can bind her,” I said, “Then skip over to Johannes domain. If they’re going to owe me a favor and if it’s going to make a difference, I’d rather make that difference sooner than later.”
“Fair,” Mags said.
“You bind Molly here, then maybe we touch base and confirm everything’s cool before I see what a vestige like me can do about the legal issue with the family?”
“I think that sounds like the safest activity you could undertake,” Mags said.
“Don’t say that,” I told her. “That’s a bad omen.”
“There are bad omens everywhere,” Molly said. “I want to see the family. I have to warn them.”
There was a clarity to her voice that made me very concerned. A degree of focus.
She was developing a little too quickly for my liking.
“Change of plans,” I said. “I’ll help you with the binding, first priority.”
10.04
“They’re trying to get me out of the house. They succeeded.”
“They’re trying with Rose now,” I told Molly.
“Don’t talk to the ghost,” Mags said. Her eyes were forward. She held the mirror so it included me, held on the far side of her body. I could make her out, the ghost beside her. “Shit, people want my help. They’re calling my name. I don’t think it’s urgent, but I really can’t futz around too long here.”
“I don’t think I could ever do that,” I said.
“Huh?”
“It’s not in me. If I were in your shoes, I’d lose my mind. It’d probably kill me.”
“Yeah well, it’s not all cupcakes and rainbows for me.”
“But you can do it,” I said. “I couldn’t, even without the question of what it’d mean to be unable to help my friends.”
“Is that supposed to be a dig at me?” she asked, raising one eyebrow.
“No. I- I didn’t even realize it could be taken as one. Sorry.”
She sighed audibly.
“Any idea how we’re going to bind her?” I asked.
“I’ve got an idea,” she said, “But in terms of timing, I dunno, if I get called away and it’s urgent?”
“What’s the idea?”
“I got some rope, I got a bucket, some bottled water, and a box of salt. Soak the rope in salt water?”
“Worth a shot,” I said.
“I don’t want to be trapped,” Molly said. “I left the house to get away…”
“I’m sorry,” Mags said, contradicting herself by replying to the ghost, encouraging it. “Salt in the wound, isn’t it? I wish I was in a position to treat you better, honest.”
“I have to warn the others, but I can’t, because that puts them in more danger. Rose is next in line, and…”
I winced at that statement.
Confirmation, of a sort. Molly-ghost’s memories were of Rose being her cousin, not me.
But she’d stopped talking.
“And what?” I asked.
“Rose is next in line, and we didn’t get along. And she lied about me to get me in trouble. And Kathryn ruined my first car… I wasn’t able to get the insurance. That really pissed me off. I’m not proud of the things I did, either.”
“You’re remembering the past, you’re worrying about the future, you’re a little too three-dimensional there, Molly,” I said. “You’re worrying me.”
“You…” she looked at me, peering into the mirror, before trailing off.
“Yeah,” I said.
“I’m not sure I’m okay with this,” Mags said. “Let’s keep it all nice and quiet and calm for our ghost friend here, without bending her fragile brain or feeding her whatever it is about you that’s making her more alert.”
“I don’t recognize you,” Molly said, “But you’re family. Family’s the most important thing right now. Has to be.”
“With that kind of attitude, I can see why grandmother would pick you for first heir and custodian,” I said.
“She didn’t,” Molly said.
I looked at her. “She didn’t?”
“Fuck her, most of all!” Molly said.
“Molly,” I said, “Focus. Grandmother picked you first. Why?”
“Fuck her, most of all!” Molly repeated, with the same inflection as before. “God! I didn’t want any of this! They’re… they’re going to kill me in some horrible way, and there’s nothing I can do about it. Nobody- nobody’s going to help me.”
“Blake, let’s maybe not continue this line of questioning.”
“It’s important,” I said. “It’s-”
Molly flickered, skipping to a different point in time, some different line of thought. Moving, it seemed, not by the three dimensions of up, down, left, right, forward and back, but some other plane. Still in the same physical spot, but at some other point in time.
“Agendas,” she said, her voice low. Her voice had a gravelly tone that suggested extreme fatigue. “Everyone has an agenda.”
“What was grandmother’s agenda?” I asked.
“Can’t make an omelete without breaking a few eggs, right?” she asked, but there was no mirth in her expression. I could see dark circles under her eyes. She glared at me. “Enjoy your fucking omelete.”
Then, in the next moment, she flickered and disappeared.
Mags stopped walking. Between that and my staring at the spot that Molly had occupied, I nearly walked out of the patch of light.
In my world, everything was utterly still. In Mags’s, the real world, the wind made snow-laden tree branches sway.
“Ummmmmm,” Mags said.
I tried to remember what I’d read about ghosts. I’d read something after taking Evan as a familiar, or Rose had said something. The sheer mass of information I’d taken in was a bit of a jumble.
“She’s returned to her haunt,” I said. “Some place where her echo is strongest.”
“Where? The place she died? The memorial?”
“Has to be,” I said.
“Running,” she said.
“Running with,” I told her.
The patch of light the hand mirror cast wasn’t a big one, only four paces long and two or three paces across when we were running. With every movement of her arm, it swayed, moving forward and back, a little side-to-side. With the snow on the sidewalk, and the inability to see far enough to anticipate potential obstacles, I was on unsteady ground.