Page 111 of Midnight Auto Parts

As I returned it to its resting place, a sharp gasp snapped my head toward Josie.

Except I couldn’t see my sister.

But I heard her scream.

There was always a firm snap when you broke a shaken glow stick to ignite it.

That was how I felt.

Ignited.

I leapt out of the pit. I don’t know how. I don’t remember.

Patty stood with Josie plastered against her front, a living shield, and held a blade to her throat. Not quite blood, not quite sap wept from a thin line under her chin. The woman glared at me over Josie’s shoulder, her eyes sparkling with hatred, her teeth bared in a rictus grin.

“You ruined everything,” she spat, black saliva stringing from her jaw. “Our life’s work.”

“Let my sister go.”

“My sister is dead. Mytwin. The other half of me.” Her hand trembled. “Why should I spare yours?”

A distraction. That was what I needed. To buy us an opening.

And then we had to make it count.

“You ate from an apple tree.” I sensed Kierce behind me. “How did it make you feel?”

“Like a god,” she whispered, her eyes frantic in their search of me, as if I hid fruit in my pocket.

“Where did you find the tree? How did you know where to look?”

“We prayed for a miracle, and God sent us one.”

“Let me guess.” I registered the hand motion Josie was making at her side and kept talking. “A man came to you in a dream and told you where to find a tree that would grant you the power to build the safe haven you and your sister always dreamed of creating.”

“We didn’t understand, at first, but our eyes were opened after we ate the fruit.”

A long tree root arched above her head, the tip a flat diamond shape like a viper.

“After you ate the fruit, you knew where to find the bones and how to use them,” I surmised, certain Ankou had feasted well on both Anunit’s rage at having been woken to find her people missing parts and her grief over the innocent women she was forced to kill in retaliation. Never mind the buffet of terror the women trapped in the wards fed him. “Why take so many bones?”

“Each person required a token to pass through the ward.” Her hand trembled, drawing fresh blood-sap. “It wasn’t greed but necessity.”

“And since you had them, you might as well use them.”

“The world turned their backs against those women. Againstme. It was our duty—our calling—to protect them. Why shouldn’t we use the power offered to us?” Her lip snarled up at one corner. “Your trespass has angered Him. He took back his gift. I’ve been barred from the tree.”

Finally, she reached her point. “You want me to help you get more fruit.”

As punishment for their failure, Ankou must have reinforced the ward around the tree when the outer perimeter collapsed.

“Tear down the barrier, and I’ll set your sister free.”

Holding Josie’s gaze, I read her intent and let her see mine too. This woman was a victim. Her sister had been too. Ankou trailed them like footprints left in sand. But she was threatening my sister now, and that I couldn’t allow.

Neither would Josie.

The root snaked around the woman’s neck, cinching like a noose and hauling her down to restrain her.

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