Wildcat Fireflies (47 page)

“No.” Nicole and I spoke in unison.

“Good. Then this’ll be easy. He used you, too, Juliet.” The vines tightened around Kirian’s throat. His face turned a black shade of purple and his eyes bulged.

Nicole seemed to try to loosen the vines with her eyes, but she shook her head sadly at Meridian. She couldn’t win that battle. I didn’t want Kirian to die. He didn’t deserve death.

Tens came out of the woods behind a leashed Custos and took Meridian’s free hand.

The wolf growled and showed all of her teeth. Rumi and Tony followed a similarly leashed Mini and stood next to Nicole. Mini was puffed up and spitting hisses. They were all draped in glowing glass balls. We were a line of light, of love, of strength.

Kirian gasped.

Meridian’s hand tightened in mine and I stood next to her at a window.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“We’re in my window room. I’m sorry, but I think this means Kirian is dying.” She held my hand and didn’t let go.

I nodded. The window looked across Wildcat Creek. On the other side I saw kids coming closer, waving, some running and jumping and playing. A few swung from branches into the creek to swim. It was summer there and the woods
were in full bloom with birds and insects. Catfish swam in the creek. It was my favorite time of year. Mine and Kirian’s.

“Jewel?” Kirian was next to me, looking beyond. “I’m sorry.”

“I know.” I didn’t hold back the tears.

“I loved you. I did. It was real.” He brushed the tears from my cheeks, but I couldn’t feel him.

“You need to go on now,” Meridian said to him.

We all turned and studied the figures approaching from the other bank. I recognized a bunch of kids and a few elderly patients—Miss Claudia and Paddy, the grandparents Kirian and I had adopted ourselves to years ago. And Enid’s sister, Glee.

“Nicole!” I saw her wave from the crowd and felt a warmth around my neck. I looked down and realized her necklace was dangling over my heart. I smiled and waved back to her.

“That’s my auntie.” Meridian pointed. “She’s holding your—”

Kirian jumped through the window, making a cannonball into the creek. “Be good!” he called to me, swimming to the bank and our crowd of friends.

A loud scream brought me right back into my body. Back into the cold, wintry woods. Back to our row of light and the battle against Ms. Asura and her darkness. I didn’t have time to process anything.

I opened my eyes. The light we generated together was so bright, I squinted against the glare. Nicole’s necklace also glowed around my neck.

Ms. Asura was screaming, screeching in a primal release that made goose bumps break across my skin.

“What’s happening?” I yelled at Meridian.

“I think she’s burning. I don’t know,” she replied, never taking her eyes off Ms. Asura.

Tony recited the Lord’s Prayer in Latin. Rumi mumbled words in a language I didn’t recognize. Tens and Meridian stared straight ahead. Custos barked and Mini hissed.

We are the light
. Brighter than the sun on silver or glass. A million megawatts of good.

Ms. Asura was boiling. Her skin bubbled up as she ran from us into the woods.

“Should we follow?” I asked.

“No, we can’t kill her without a Sangre and we need to find the kids. They could have been out here for hours.”

“What if she’s heading toward them? She could hurt them.” Rumi took steps toward the singed path she had left. We dropped hands.

The light dimmed back down to a normal level.

Tens said, “We found the van. But the kids weren’t inside. It’s in that direction.”

It was only seconds, but I glanced down and realized I was clutching Tony’s hand. “Where’s Nicole?”

They all shook their heads. No one had any idea. “Was she here?” I asked.

Meridian nodded. “She was here. But you saw her with Auntie and your mom. She’s gone, at least for now—” She broke off and shrugged.

I’d puzzle it out later. I loped over to Kirian’s body. “Kirian? Kirian? Help me!” I pleaded.

Tony checked for his pulse as I pulled his inert frame into my lap.

“I’m sorry. We couldn’t save him.” Tony held me while I wept.

“How are we going to find the wee ones?” Rumi asked.

Meridian looked up at the moon, at the stars sharing her sky. “We, uh, need help. Auntie? Josiah? Roshana? Nicole?” She called to the night. Waiting. She turned to Tens. “Any ideas where to start?”

I wiped my eyes. Bodie and Sema needed me. Kirian was beyond my help now; if he’d made it to summer at the creek, maybe life was okay for him.

A blinking in the woods sparked my attention.

“What’s that?” Meridian saw it too.

Another tiny light blinked out of the woods toward us.

“And that?” Tens pointed to yet another.

“Those are fireflies,” Rumi said, moving toward them.

“It’s too early,” Tony commented.

They came all around us in a swarm. The temperature rose and the night illuminated to day.

I gasped.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Rumi asked Meridian and Tens.

They nodded. I wanted in on the inside info.

“The story of the firefly feast? The little boy who followed his mother’s soul?”

One firefly stopped in front of my nose, hovered, and seemed to wait for me to notice it. “What do we do?” I asked.

“We’re following!” Rumi boomed loudly into the night. The bugs began to form a lighted trail along the creek,
through the woods. They became both a lantern and the borders of a path we walked between like a garland.

“Bodie? Sema?” we called.

I don’t know how far we walked. It felt like hours and only seconds rolled into one. Time stood still.

The path ended in a swarm of pulsing light. The temperature was balmy, almost too warm for my coat, and no frost covered the forest floor or trees. The kids were huddled together against a log. Duct tape covered their mouths and their hands were tied. Dirt was smeared across their cheeks and knees. They looked like they’d fallen into a mud pit.

I ran and slid into them, holding them tightly, then ripping at the bindings. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

Someone undid the tape and ropes and Bodie threw his arms around my neck.

“I just wanted to go with you. I’m sorry I got in the van. It was all my idea,” he cried.

Sema let Rumi hold her. She put her head on his shoulder, stuck her thumb in her mouth, closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep almost immediately.

“I know. It’s okay now. It’s okay.”

I looked at the relieved faces around me and said, “They’re okay. They’re okay.” I held Bodie and thanked everyone and anyone for helping us find them safe.

I
cracked open the spine of the large leather journal Rumi had given me for Valentine’s Day. It was the first time in my life that I celebrated the day of love, in love. The first time I felt like I was loved unconditionally. Not just by Tens, but by Auntie and Rumi, Tony and Joi. Juliet and I knew we could count on the other for the big things. Now we needed time to learn the little things about each other, the things that sisters who grow up together take for granted. And while we weren’t related, at least not in the biological sense, our connection went beyond a title.

I ran my hands over the cover of the journal. The green leather was embossed like Auntie’s journal with roses and butterflies, ferns and animals. I knew part of my charge as a Fenestra was chronicling our experiences and knowledge for the next generation, but I had no idea where to start. I lay down my pen, taking a break from thinking, and launched myself over the back of the couch onto Tens, who
oomphed
his surprise.

“Supergirl!” He laughed.

I found the devilishly ticklish spot in his ribs.

He tried to evade. “No fair. No fair!” He grabbed my arms and pinned me against him.

“It’s time to go to Rumi’s for dinner,” I said, gasping for air.

“Already?” he asked, checking the rooster clock hanging above the kitchen sink. Joi’s cottage was fast becoming home and I knew we weren’t leaving anytime soon. There was too much to unravel still. Too many unaccounted-for children that had been hidden at Dunklebarger for years. Too many sacrificed by Nocti.

“Juliet’s cooking.” I elbowed him off the couch and handed him the new boots I’d given for him Valentine’s. Tony had helped me find them.

“Should we eat ahead of time, or can she cook?” Tens asked.

Juliet was cooking brunch for us for the first time. “When she saw Auntie she learned her recipes. Cooking and baking are her quilting.” She planned on making Auntie’s famous mac and cheese and her chocolate cake for us, and Glee’s spiked eggnog and quiche lorraine for
Enid. There were so many dishes on the menu I didn’t know what all we’d find. “Her food tastes better than anyone else’s. There’ll be plenty.” I’d helped her grocery-shop yesterday and I’d never seen a person so excited to walk around a megamart.

“We should hurry,” I said, tying my shoelaces and grabbing a spring jacket. The temperatures had stayed unseasonably warm since we’d last seen the fireflies. On March 1, the temps were in the sixties and holding, but no amount of warm weather would bring the fireflies out early. I could hardly wait to have them twinkle every evening.

“Everyone going to be there?” Tens asked, grabbing the car keys.

The aftermath of the tornado and the confrontation had solidified our friendships. I’d told Joi the truth, the whole story, over tea and cake. She took to the truth like a compulsive shopper to a sale. She never batted an eyelash in disbelief and she was relieved that Tens and I weren’t a couple of rebellious teens running from caring parents. When Enid was released from the hospital there was no question where she’d land—Joi didn’t give her a choice but to come live with her family. And Joi’s empty nest was once again full with Bodie and Sema in residence as well. They often came over to the cottage to hang out and play video games with Tens or I’d babysit them after school.

It turned out that Sema didn’t speak much, but she read like a maniac and loved books. They were what kept her from hiding in the curtains.

Tens worked regularly for Joi in the yard and fixing
the aging faucets and furniture around Helios. I cleaned and stocked in the off-hours—when it was less likely for me to stumble across a soul who was ready to transition. As Joi put it, “People will get the wrong idea.”

Tony moved into a town house in Carmel large enough for him and Juliet. It was close enough for her to walk over to the cottage whenever she wanted to. He’d already begun the adoption proceedings, but he gave her space and the freedom she needed to ease into a more normal life. According to him, she didn’t get out of bed until six in the morning and that was huge progress. I think he’d be thrilled if she slept till noon, blasted rap music, pierced her body, and was moody—all what he considered normal behavior for a sixteen-year-old girl.

Instead, she and I spent a lot of time together working on her practice. March 21 would be here in only three weeks and she needed to be ready. She was putting the pieces of her memories together. Tony knew how to help her deal with and process what he called the posttraumatic stress of the past decade.

Minerva came and went between all of us, but spent the most time with Juliet. I didn’t feel slighted since I still wasn’t sure Mini liked me. Custos was Tens’s companion through and through, though she tolerated Bodie and Sema dressing her up in the doggie fashions Joi stocked in the shop.

Rumi’s was our Sunday together place. He’d restocked and sold more of his Spirit Stones as word spread that they brought good luck to those who hung them. We planned
to meet every Sunday to check in and move forward together. We were loud and boisterous and everything I imagined a family could be.

We’d voted to wait to enlighten Gus, Faye, and Sidika, but told Nelli almost immediately after rescuing Bodie and Sema. She took the news with a quiet determination and began unraveling a lot of the Nocti’s illegal child-smuggling operation. Lots of kids over the last thirty years disappeared out of the system in the Midwest. She was trying to compile a list of the missing. It gave us a place to start looking for both Fenestra and Nocti.

The cellar at DG had been stuffed with files and papers documenting the four decades of procedures they’d used. Mistress was only the latest in a long list of greedy, malleable humans who ran the home for Nocti. Turned out Ms. Asura was years and years older than she appeared; in fact, she was the woman who’d hunted down Roshana and taken her away.

The creepiest information we’d found was Roshana’s file. She’d been a kid who grew up at DG. When she vanished, so did a boy named Argi. We thought maybe he was Juliet’s father, but we were still hunting.

We’d also found an explanation for the numbers of children’s ghosts I’d helped cross over. The Nocti could use a Fenestra child’s death to force the transition to Nocti. It made me wonder if we could do the reverse.

No one saw or heard of Ms. Asura again, but I knew we hadn’t killed her. We assumed she’d gone into hiding to heal, but that she’d return. She didn’t seem like the kind
of woman who would take defeat lightly. We had no idea how many Nocti were still out there.

Before Juliet’s sixteenth birthday I knew we had work to do. Hard work.

“Ready?” Tens asked.

“Ready. Remind me to talk to Rumi about getting grave markers for Auntie and Roshana.” I wanted a place I could go to sit and visit with Auntie that wasn’t while a person died. I wanted to try to see her at will, and with Juliet’s help we were going to practice opening the window together. But first Juliet had to survive her transition.

“Sure.” Tens held the door for me.

We were better than ever. The sum of us seemed infinite. “One-four-three.” I kissed him. I’d been able to release some of my fear that he’d leave. I no longer waited for him to decide this was too hard. He’d also begun sharing more of his history with me and the journal he’d kept while traveling to Auntie’s. I was beginning to understand why he’d been so guarded when I’d arrived at Auntie’s. He’d survived a hundred lifetimes of adventure on his way to Revelation. I wished I’d met Tyee. I knew he’d be proud of Tens and the man he’d become.