Page 105 of Midnight Auto Parts

Nice to know everyone listened to my instructions. “Where did they get it? Were there more?”

“They found a small collection of them. Two of the officers are witches and wanted to use them to take a crack at the ward from the inside.” He hesitated. “Carter was bringing up the rear. She got there too late. They had passed the bone around by then.”

“Tameka and Keshawn were guarding several.” I gripped the brittle clavicle. “For them not to stop the officers, something must have happened between the time Vi left them and the officers reached them.”

With help hours away, and Rosalie Morgan killed in front of them, I couldn’t blame Tameka if she had run to protect Keshawn. I would have done the same for either of my siblings.

“Do you believe they left the cache behind to distract Anunit?”

Panic could have made that seem like a great idea. Anunit wanted her bones back? Give them to her.

The problem being there was a price to be paid for stealing them in the first place.

“Maybe.” I freed one arm to rest my trembling muscles, and the hole narrowed to the circumference of my wrist where it stuck out the other side. “Or maybe she chased them away.”

That close to her prize, but having claimed the elder’s life, Anunit might have settled for protecting what Tameka had been guarding. But that didn’t solve the problem of the trapped officers.

“Carter won’t leave her people behind,” he said what I was thinking. “She’ll stay with them.”

“Which means—” I dumped out my bag on the ground with my free hand, “—we have to go in after her.”

“Iwill go.” Kierce rose, and Badb glided onto his shoulder. “You must remain here to hold the gate.”

“I can speak to Anunit. I’m more valuable inside than outside.”

“Where do we bring the survivors if there’s no way out?”

“No way out.” I got to my feet, careful to raise my arm slowly, bringing the gate with me. “You’re brilliant.” I yanked him down by his shirt collar and planted a smacking kiss on his cheek. “We’re going about this all wrong. We’ve been trying to save the people from Anunit. What we need to do is save the Alcheyvaha from the people.”

“Shift our focus from evacuating the women to gathering the bones?”

“Gather them and put them back where they belong.” I spread my hands. “Not only does that solve the Anunit problem, but we can cut the legs out from under the ward from the inside if we collect them all, right? Collapse the barrier, and we clear a path for the survivors out of the woods. Carter and her team can handle it from there.”

“Anunit might not follow us.”

“We haven’t stopped her from collecting her tithe. Not even once. Her ability to turn incorporeal means we can’t cage her. Her ability to turn corporeal means she can kill at will. She’s already dead, so we can’t mortally wound her.” Acid churned in my gut at the conclusion raking my insides with certainty. “We have to keep Anunit off our backs while we fix the Morgans’ mess. That’s the only way to end this.”

“All right.” Kierce slung my bag with the bone onto his shoulder. “We both go.”

With him convinced, I only had to talk myself into believing I hadn’t just condemned us both.

Careful not to lose my grip, I stretched the gate as wide as my arms would go and held it while Kierce swung his leg over and ducked to enter. Badb flew after him, leaving me to figure out how to get in. I ended up hitting my knees, crawling through,and allowing the gate to seal behind me, trapping us with everyone else.

“We’ve already cleared this area.” I reoriented to our surroundings. “Let’s move to the next one.”

Pooling our talents, we scanned as we walked the perimeter, searching out every single bone.

Then came the fun part of digging them up and stuffing them in my bowler bag.

We were alone. No one spotted us. No voices carried to us.

Inside the ward was as vast and dark as a cave, and we already knew the predator who lurked within it.

One of the talents I had inherited from my necromancer parent, or so us Marys always thought, was excellent night vision. Handy for late-night runs, it was critical on the nights I spent weeding graves in Bonaventure. Without that ability, I would have been caught and probably banned from the cemetery.

Since Lyle ran me down, Josie forced me to wear a headlamp, but it wasn’t for the sake of my vision. It was part of herStay Visible, Stay Safecampaign to keep me from becoming a speed bump.

Kierce, I noticed the first night we met, had the same gift. He never stumbled, wobbled, or teetered. He always knew where he was going and where to put his feet. Even Badb, who ought to have had a crow’s limited vision, was eagle-eyed in the dark. A benefit of the bond allowing him to see what she saw?

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