Arriving home beat any medicine the hospital could have prescribed. Woolly welcomed us, her glow the beacon I remembered from childhood, our link so ironclad I didn’t require extra perception or contact with her to discern her mellifluous wards. The old girl beamed out at us, and I couldn’t help smiling back.
I hobbled onto the porch unassisted, looped my arms around the nearest of Woolly’s columns, and sagged with relief as her magic swept over me, absorbing me in the protection of home. Odette stood on the bottom step, allowing Woolly to perform a risk assessment, but Linus kept his feet planted firmly in the grass. I was about to ask Woolly if she might reconsider granting him porch access when the crimson car I had been expecting at the hospital glided into the driveway.
Mr. Hacohen, my quasi-lawyer, a man employed by the office of the Grande Dame if not by the woman herself, popped out and held open the door. “Hey, ladies and gent.” He tossed our gathering a wave. “Hate to be a drag, but your presence is formally requested at the Lyceum.”
“Can I change first?” I tugged on the front of my T-shirt. “I can’t attend a trial dressed like this.”
“The other parties are all assembled.” He spread his hands in an apologetic plea. “We have to get you there yesterday.” He nodded at Linus. “You two are our star witnesses.”
Bile rose up the back of my throat as he cheerily ushered me on toward Amelie’s doom.
“Odette is a friend,” I reminded the house quietly. “Let her in if she asks.”
The planks under my feet grumbled in reluctant agreement.
“What happened with Volkov isn’t your fault. Your wards were failing, and they caused you to make a bad call.” I curled my toes against the wood. “Do you trust Odette?”
Woolly flicked the curtains in the nearest window in a shrug.
Clearly, I wasn’t the only one still suffering trust issues. “I have to go.” I took the first step. “Do what you think is best.”
That earned me a flicker of doubt from the porch light that made my chest hurt. I hated her uncertainty.
“Go on.” Odette ushered me toward the waiting car. “Woolly and I are old friends. We’ll sort out our differences and be sipping tea over gossip before you get home.”
After a quick embrace that made me grimace when she squeezed me around the middle too hard, I left her to win or lose Woolly’s endorsement on her own. I stepped into the grass and joined Linus, who held his phone to his ear. I huddled in his shadow like it might protect me from the car, and when Mr. Hacohen blanched and retreated inside the sedan, I realized the shadow was Cletus, and he had reacted to my fear.
The squeal of breaks heralded the return of the pizza van. The driver lowered the passenger window, leaned out and grinned. “You guys call for a lift?”
“We did,” Linus passed the man a fifty-dollar bill before turning to me and offering his hand. “Grier?”
I accepted his chill fingers and kept going until I was hugging him. “You’re not half bad for an enemy spy.”
“There was no whooping.” His hands settled on my shoulders, as light as feathers, the safest part of me given my injuries. “Your early-warning system failed.”
“Sorry about that. I’m too tender for whooping and hopping around. You’ll just have to give me a pass this time.”
“All right.” He disentangled us then opened the sliding door and tucked me back on the bench. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like Odette to come along?”
“No.” She made a point not to make waves, and arriving with me was more along the lines of a cannonball. Linus had the door closed halfway when the walls started pressing in on me. “Linus?”
He held still, like any sudden movement might startle me out of the vehicle. “Yes?”
“Sit with me?” I patted the bench. “I really don’t want to be alone with my thoughts right now.”
After a quick exchange with the driver, he joined me and sealed us in the back of the van.
We didn’t talk during the short drive, and he kept a polite distance between our bodies, but it was a comfort having him there. Maybe it had to do with how students viewed their teachers as protectors, or maybe it had to do with how all his small kindnesses were adding up, or maybe it had to do with the fact there was a yawning void in me I was looking to fill. Whatever the reason, I was as grateful for his presence as I was terrified of what came next.
Thanks to Ambrose, I’d learned I had a new secret. Making vampires, true immortals or not, was one thing, but awakening ghosts? And, if Cletus was any indication, wraiths? That was quite another.
The dybbuk had shined a spotlight on my new talent, and the glare had caught Linus right in the eyes. His zeal had overtaken his expression, the rush of a new discovery animating his features, and I worried. He could betray me. Or he might choose to study me himself. While I couldn’t see a way to monetize my new talent off the top of my head, I was certain the Grande Dame would have compiled a list a mile long by the time the words left Linus’s lips.
Before I had time to work myself into a panic attack, Pizza Dude cozied up to the curb a block away from city hall. “Keep my number handy.” He grinned at Linus in the rearview mirror. “For the right price, I can be anywhere you need me to be.”
“We appreciate your availing yourself to us.” Linus passed him another fifty before helping me out of the van. He waited until the taillights flashed before taking my arm. “Well, that was an adventure.”
“At this rate, he’ll be able to buy an all-new van.” I leaned on Linus a little since all the bending and shuffling getting in and out was pulling on my stitches. “You can’t keep dropping money on me.”
“You’re Dame Woolworth,” he reminded me. “The Society is responsible for any and all expenses resulting from travel required to attend mandatory functions. I’ll fill out a voucher for reimbursement if you like. Make sure you do too going forward.”
From his tone, it was clear he valued his time more than the hundred dollars he’d dropped on our ride. I wasn’t a fan of paperwork myself, so I sympathized. Besides, he probably used fifty-dollar bills as tissues when he got allergy eyes, so the expense meant nothing. The thought behind a gift mattered far more to me than its cost. When you grew up able to ask for and receive anything, a quick debit of funds for a bauble soon forgotten amid towering piles of the same, you learned appreciation when people proved your worth by spending time with you instead of money on you.
Linus was still figuring out my preference. He spoke the language of plastic best, but there was hope for him yet. All good friendships changed the people within them to a better version of themselves. Maybe he would bring me a step closer to embracing my heritage. Maybe I would impart my couponing skills on him.
The massive limestone building towered over us, its clock tower a distant shadow swallowed by the darkening night sky. We entered together and made our way toward the bank of elevators. Linus ushered me inside the first booth then used a key from his pocket to open the control panel. He pushed the button for the subbasement that held the Lyceum and let the doors close before pulling the emergency stop.
“Tell me you’ve got a good reason for stopping the elevator, because I’ve got to tell you—” I swallowed hard. “There’s literally never a reason good enough for stopping an elevator.”
“I was going to offer when we arrived at Woolly, but there was no time, and I couldn’t risk our driver getting curious.” He removed a pen from his pocket. “Would you like help closing those wounds?”
I touched my side. “The doctor said—”