“As if,” Diana snorted, waving to Dean and falling into step beside her sister.
“I thought the color commentary was my job?” Sam asked Austin as they followed the Keepers through the doors.
Austin sighed.“There’s usually enough to go around.”
Once through the inner doors, Keepers and cats both disappeared. Standing with one hand spread out on the outer door, Dean could see his own reflection and little else. It was just a trick of the light, at least that’s what he told himself as he walked back to the edge of the concrete and stared out at the heat-silvered sky and the minivans keeping a silent vigil. He felt fidgety, restless—what his grandfather, an outport minister back in Newfoundland, would have called flicy. Hands shoved deep into his pockets, he turned and stared at the mall.
The vertical concrete slabs were almost the same shade as the sky.
Even without knowing what was going on inside, something about the building made his skin crawl. He would have said it was because it looked like a prison except there were two prisons within Kingston’s old city limits and both of them were more attractive.
Claire figured they’d be in there for a minimum of two days.
“When do I start worrying?”
“When another Keeper shows up with the Summons,” Diana snorted.
“Don’t worry,” Claire told him, shooting her sister a quelling glance. “I’ll always come back to you.”
Austin rolled his eyes and horked up a hairball.
Not an entirely comforting memory, Dean realized walking back to the bench and sitting down.
*
“Oh, my God. They’ve muzaked Alien Ant Farm. It’s the second sign of the Apocalypse.”
“What was the first?” Claire wondered, shifting her pack straps.
“Orange polyester bellbottoms. On sale.”
“How much?”
“You’re not serious.” A quick glance over at her sister and Diana winced. “You are serious. One of ushas to be adopted.”
“I tried adopting you out for most of your childhood. No one would take you.”
With the cats hard on their heels, they stepped out into the main concourse and paused. Four senior citizens sat soaking up the air-conditioning on a bench close by the escalator. There was no one else in sight.
Diana pushed damp and rapidly cooling hair up off her forehead.“So much for that hiding in the crowd theory; there were more people in here last night.”
“All right, we’re a little early for the crowds. But as far as the Otherside is concerned, we’re still just shoppers with a perfectly valid reason to be in here. Nothing for them to worry about.”
“And the cats?”
“Given the metaphysical buzz this place has, they’ll never notice the trickle of power it’ll take to hide the cats…provided one of the cats doesn’t decide to use a planter as a litter box,” she finished glaring at Austin who was digging in the plastic bark chips.
“Old kidneys; give me a break. Besides…” One last swipe with a back leg and he jumped up onto the planter’s broad rim. “…I might have been the firstcat, but I wasn’t the first.”
“That’s mildly disturbing,” Claire admitted, scooping him up into her arms. “Diana, where…”
Eyes closed, head swiveling slowly from side to side, Diana waved a silencing hand.“There’s something,” she murmured, trying to pin it down. “Something close.”
“Something? I’m amazed you can sense anything in this.”
“Feels like the bracelet. It’d be harder to find if I hadn’t already touched…There!” Her eyes snapped open and she pointed across the concourse to Heaven Sent Cards and Gifts. “Whatever I’m picking up, is in there.”
“Overpriced ceramic angels?” Claire stared at the storefront in dismay. “Lots and lots of overpriced ceramic angels?”
“They’re not angels,” Sam sniffed, whiskers bristling. “They’re cherubs. Useless little twerps in the heavenly scheme of things.”
“Well, it’s not them.” Diana crossed to the store, her soles squeaking faintly against the tile. The moment she stepped onto the dark gray carpet, the feeling strengthened, and she turned to face the cash desk. “It’s over there.” A quick glance showed Claire and the cats had followed her across the concourse and were standing just off the edge of the carpet. “I’ll deal with this while you guys search the rest of the store, just in case. And Sam, donot spray those angels.”
“Cherubs,” he muttered, trying to look as though he hadn’t been about to lift his tail.
Claire reached out and poked him lightly with her foot.“Come on. We’ll start at the back and work our way forward.”
When Diana turned to face the cash desk again, the heavily mascaraed teenager standing behind it was watching her in some confusion.
“Who was she talking to?” she asked, gesturing in the general direction Claire had taken. “If somebody sprays those angels they’re, like, going to have to pay for them, you know.”
Closing the distance between them, Diana smiled at her.“Please, don’t worry about it.”
“Okay.” She nodded slowly, looking slightly stoned and remarkably happy. Looking, as it happened, very much like she was never going to worry about anything ever again.
“Oops.” Apparently, her power problems hadn’t been solved by moving off reserve status. Reaching out carefully, Diana tweaked things, just a little, and was relieved to see a frown line reappear.
“If you’re looking for something, I can’t, like, leave the cash desk, so you’ll have to find it yourself.”
“Not a problem.” There were a dozen tubs, boxes, and spinners of impulse kitsch nearly covering the glass counter. If customers actually wanted to buy an item larger than a foot square, they were out of luck. Problem was, in a dozen containers of assorted bits and pieces, the thing she sensed could be…
In the tub of magic wands.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
The clerk blinked and focused. Lips almost as pale as the surrounding skin twitched.“Kids love these.”
“I’m sure.”Especially if they get one that actually works.
The wands were about eight inches long; a hollow tube of clear Lucite partially filled with a metallic or neon sparkling gel and topped with a plastic star the same color. The fourth one Diana pulled from the tub jerked in her hand, rearranging a display of‘flower of the month’ tea cups into a significantly larger porcelain cherub. She was beginning to understand why Sam disliked the things. A quick flick of the wand changed it back.
“What was that?” the clerk demanded, whirling around toward the sound of metal ringing against china.
“Falling halo,” Diana told her, continuing to pull wands out of the tub.
“What?”
“Forget about it. Specifically, aboutit,” she added hurriedly, heading off inadvertent amnesia.
“Forget about what?”
Nothing like a clich? to measure effectiveness. “Exactly.”
The remainder of the wands were no more than they appeared.
“I’ll take this one.”
“Whatever. That’ll be twelve ninety-five. Plus tax.”
*
“Fourteen ninety-four,” Diana complained, showing Claire the wand. “For a piece of plastic crap.”
Claire stepped aside so that the neon pink star no longer pointed directly at her—she’d seen what had happened to the cups and had no wish to suddenly acquire a useless pair of wings and a winsomely blank expression. “Not a bad price for a working wand, though.”
“And the plastic crap was on sale for five dollars,” Sam added. “There was a whole box of it at the back of the store.”
“From the Otherside?”
“No, I think it was from a Rottweiler.”
Should have seen thatcoming. Reaching behind her, Diana slid the wand into a side pocket on her backpack.“Taking this across with us should neutralize it. You’re sure there was nothing else?”
“A few Chia Pets left over from Christmas—made on the Otherside, but I checked their bar codes and they were all legally imported.”