“Stop fighting everything,” Lola said, her voice low.
“Don’t think I don’t know that you helped the Bogeyman do this,” Penelope said. “I knew that something like this would happen. I’m pretty sure he planned for it to happen.”
How amusing, I think. If I hadn’t been forbidden from interfering, I might help, just to see what happens. Tell them it was outside interference.
No matter.
“I don’t know what he’s planning,” Rose spoke. “What I do know is that something bigger is going on.”
Ah, so they’ve figured it out.
“Bigger?”
“Alister detected a larger threat. He told me about it before the engagement,” Rose said, holding up the hand with the ring. “Something else is pulling strings. Not a practitioner. Something powerful. There are other things at work here.”
“Dawn is in less than an hour,” Penelope said. “Things will settle down then.”
“No,” Alister said. “We can’t afford for things to settle down. If things are left to stand as they are, Johannes wins, and Johannes isn’t cooperating or communicating. We can’t afford to give him ten hours of daylight and peace to consolidate and strategize. We can’t afford for the other player to get a chance to step back and plot his next move.”
“You want to revoke the rule that creates peace at dawn?” Mags asked.
“No,” Alister said. “I’m going to work around it. The Behaims have a store of power. I’m going to spend it.”
“On what?”
“Postponing dawn,” Alister said. “Call it the sleeping beauty effect. An awful lot of citizens are going to have bedsores and wake up hungry, but they’ll be safe in their beds for at least another twenty four hours. I’m leveling the field between Behaim and Duchamp. Rose’s suggestion”
Rose nodded.
“If you weaken yourselves when we still have Johannes to deal with, cozy in his domain…”
“This is contingent on several points,” he said. “Working together against Johannes is key among them.”
“He’s the new enemy number one,” Lola said.
“And our parents?” Penelope asked. “The Duchamps?”
Alister spread his hands.
Penelope nodded, “Not much you can do about that.”
“I’m moving forward with postponing dawn,” Alister said. “Get sleep, if you can. You know how to reach me.”
He disappeared.
“I’ll negotiate the deals, when the time comes,” Mags said. “I’ll see what I can do about your parents in the meantime.”
“Thank you,” Penelope said.
Mags disappeared.
Rose remained.
“What?” Penelope asked, hostile.
Unaware of just how much she was influenced by the well of karmic gravity that surrounded even the image of Rose Thorburn.
“I’ll see if I can convince Alister to help,” Rose said.
Her image disappeared. The water in the bowl gone.
“Manipulative bitch,” Penelope said under her breath.
She sighed. “Sorry. I’m tired. Find places to sleep, guys. Try to get some focus back. Two or three to a bed, if we have to. Joanna?”
I raised my head.
“Share your bed.”
“Okay,” I replied.
I was the first one to the stairs. I reached the bedroom door with a sign marked Jo on the front, in bright colors.
Opening it, I could see the shape under the covers.
I approached it.
“Jo?” Lea asked.
“Yeah?”
“Could I share your bed?”
I nodded.
I moved the sheets. Bundled up sheets and blankets, in a human form.
“What’s up with that?” Lea asked.
“I kind of snuck out,” I answered.
Which was true. I had left Jacob’s Bell, as Maggie.
Half truths.
■
The birthday celebration
“There you are,” Essylt greeted me.
“Here I am,” I replied. Padraic again.
She kissed me on both cheeks.
The inside of the Faerie House was luxurious. Glamour painted every surface. The front hall had been expanded to a grand hall, with twin staircases leading to a balcony above.
Music played. Puppets made up with glamour danced. A clock loomed over the staircase.
Joanna laughed. “Padraic!”
“Joanna,” I smiled.
“I thought I’d missed you,” she said. “I’ve got to go home in a few minutes.”
“Of course,” I said.
“I’m so excited,” she said. “Thank you for this… everything!”
“You’re very welcome,” I told her. “And you deserve it.”
“Why does she deserve it?” Essylt asked, not for the first time. Or the tenth.
“Because I’m going to be the youngest practitioner in the family to do the Awakening ritual!” Joanna gushed. There were lights reflecting in her eyes that would never stop flashing and dancing. “I’m going to get a familiar, her name’s Letita, and I’ll get to practice. But I’ve only got five or ten minutes, and there’s so much happening.“
“When the clock hits ten, you’ll go, as we agreed,” I said, gesturing to the clock that hadn’t moved in quite some time. “You don’t want to miss your tenth birthday party.”