We’d stopped by the gate.
Lifelong companionship? I couldn’t even wrap my head around that. I was only barely learning to trust friends, and they were adapting to me in turn. Those were friends. Exceptional, rare, people. Finding a familiar, among a sea of cunning and conniving Others who wanted to murder me?
“No,” I said. “I don’t think I can do that. Not in a month.” Not in a year.
“Then it’s a question of direction, of focus, figuring out how you’ll address the situation you’re in, how you address any situation. A cup, a container, to store power?”
Useful, but no.
“A weapon, to fight back?”
I thought of hitting the Faerie with the pipe. The sound of meat on flesh.
I shook my head.
“A defensive object? A symbolic one? A personal one?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
“You have a little under a month to find out. Now, I should be going about now, and I think you have a guest waiting for you.”
I turned to look. A girl in a checkered scarf, sitting on the stairs by the front door.
“Maggie,” Rose said.
“Shall I walk you up to the door?”
“I don’t think it could hurt,” I said.
We made our way up. Maggie gave Ms. Lewis a wary look as we reached the bottom of the steps.
“Problem?” Ms. Lewis asked.
“Nope,” Maggie responded. “Who’re you?”
“An acquaintance of the late Mrs. Thorburn,” the lawyer said.
I could see Maggie’s eyes widening.
“Oh…” she said. She made a face, like she was trying to get something out and couldn’t. A stutterer mid-stutter. “…Golly.”
“Golly,” Ms. Lewis responded, deadpan.
I let myself into the house, then turned around, standing just inside the doorframe. Safe.
“Is that all, Mr. Thorburn?”
“I think so,” I said. “Um. Ms. Lewis.”
“Yes, Mr. Thorburn?”
“I’m not feeling too articulate. I’m a little wrung out, metaphorically speaking. But… thank you. Sincerely, thank you. All of that information, even the talk about me dying, it helps.”
It helped, but it didn’t make it easier to swallow.
She smiled a little. “Good on you. Manners matter. I’m glad if my advice helps you, even the less pleasant bits.”
I watched her walk away.
“You okay, Blake?” Rose asked.
“I nearly forgot about mirror-girl,” Maggie said. “Hi there, mirror girl.”
Her lighthearted tone was very much in contrast to what I was feeling. Ms. Lewis had waited until the last minute or two to lay the heaviest stuff on me.
I sighed, running my hand through my hair. I wanted nothing more than to shut the door in Maggie’s face and then collapse and sleep for the next ten hours, but I couldn’t offend a… whatever Maggie was. Not an ally, but not wholly an enemy either. At this point I was willing to settle for an enemy pretending to be a friend.
“Hi, Maggie,” Rose said. “We might have to talk to you another time, if possible.”
“Sure,” Maggie said. “I just woke up extra early so I could see you guys before school, but whatever. No pressure.”
Only a teeny bit sarcastic.
“We were just talking about some pretty big stuff, and we nearly got killed in a fight,” Rose said.
“Sure. I get it. I’ll bug you another time.”
She hopped to her feet, rubbing at her legs and rear end where she had been sitting on the cold stairs.
Before she could go, I called out, “Maggie.”
She turned.
“You have an implement? Familiar? Demesnes?”
“Yes, no and no.”
“Can I see?”
She bent down, reached into her boot, and withdrew a small knife in a sheath.
When she pulled it free, though, I saw it wasn’t a knife.
The little dagger had a funny blade, wavy. It looked more decorative than useful.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Kriss-style athame. It’s used a lot in Wicca, but that’s more because this one guy was a blade aficionado. I like it more for its roots as a sacrificial blade.”
“You do much sacrificing?” Rose asked.
“Nah. But I like the old stuff, the mysteries, the biblical stories about God as a deity of sacrifice and blood. It resonated with me.”
“That’s not reassuring,” I said.
“I’m not the reassuring type,” Maggie said. “Why do you need reassuring, anyway?”
“I was thinking-” I started. Then I stopped. I didn’t quite have the wherewithal to say everything that needed to be said. To outline the key points, to make sure we were careful.
“You want to invite her inside?” Rose asked.
I felt a measure of gratitude.
“Yeah. But I need you to do the wording thing.”
“Do you agree to do us and our property no harm?”
“Heck yeah.”
“You enter with no ill will in your heart?”
“I’m loving the old-school wording. You guys are inviting me inside and maybe giving me a peek at something new? You’re my new best friends. No negative intentions to speak of. No cunning, hostility, tricks, traps, lies, deceptions, distractions, violence or any of that intended.”
“You’ll take nothing of ours unless you have express permission, and take nothing you learn inside these walls to our enemies?”
“Heck with those guys, your secrets are yours, and I’m not stupid enough to tank my karma by betraying hospitality and stealing. No, if you need me to actually say it, I won’t steal and I won’t tell anyone.”
“You accept that this invitation is this one time only?”
“I accept. Except I gotta leave in, like, twenty minutes. School. I kind of promised the dads, and they know about this magic stuff, even if they aren’t into it, and they aren’t above squeezing promises out of me.”
Rose had gone silent.
“Alright then,” I said. “The house is getting cold with the door open like this. Come on in.”
Maggie practically skipped in her hurry to come indoors. The door shut heavily behind her.