The Magick of Dark Root (Daughters of Dark Root) (32 page)

“If you can call this successful,” Eve said.
 

Leo had scooped up a handful of rocks and was shoving them in his mouth.
 

“How long was I out?” I asked. “It felt like days.”

Ruth Anne checked her phone. “About four hours. You hit the ground pretty hard. Had us scared for awhile, but when you started talking about Shane we knew you were going to be okay.” She smirked. “I hope it was a good dream?”

I blushed at the memory, feeling very exposed.

“Hey,” Ruth Anne said. “Don’t sweat it. There are more important things to worry about right now.”

“I still can’t believe…” I said, unable to finish the sentence.
 

I looked Leo fully over for the first time.
 

He was still dressed in his slacks and polo shirt, but they were so covered in filth that you’d be hard pressed to say what color they were anymore. His thinning, blond hair was now a muddy gray, plastered against the side of his face. And though he could walk––and even run––his back rounded in a perpetual arch as he raced through the yard, kicking up leaves.
 

The entire scene was surreal.
 

“I’m tired and hungry,” I said, giving in to my baser needs, the only things that made sense anymore.

“You and me both,” said Ruth Anne.
 

“Stop that!” Merry ran after Leo as he tried to catch a bird.
 

He wasn’t sly about it, but ran after it with his arms flared wide and with all the zest and enthusiasm of a preschooler. He didn’t catch any of the birds, but this didn’t dampen his spirits as he took off soaring towards the next group of starlings he saw.

“Maybe he never really died?” I suggested to Ruth Anne.
 

He was twice the size of Merry, but easily out-dodged her.
 

“…Maybe he suffered brain damage when his head hit the wall?” I said.
 

“Two hours without a pulse? That’s not just dead, Maggie, that’s dead-dead.”

“So…” I asked hesitantly, tugging at the side of my skirt. “What happened?”

“Let’s just say you should be glad you weren’t awake for it.”

“Tell me, please.”
 

I needed to hear it, for my own absolution. If I had killed him, I needed to hear all the grim details on how he had come back.

“There was dirt…lots and lots of dirt spewing up from the ground, like a volcano shooting magma. And the screams. You can’t imagine such horrible screams. A banshee’s screams would have sounded better. Merry tried to help, but I stopped her. It had to be all him for it to take.” Ruth Anne shook her head. “That’s all I will say. I can’t even write anything that horrible.”
 

Ruth Anne pulled her lips inside her mouth, taking a long pause, then cracked a smile.
 

“Luckily, Leo here took a shine to Merry as soon as he was free. She made it all better. Classic case of imprinting. He thinks Merry is his mommy.”

We watched Merry guide him back to our group, holding his grubby hand without a trace of disgust on her face.
 

“You think he will get…better?” I asked, as Merry wiped drool from Leo’s bottom lip with a Kleenex she almost magically produced.

Ruth Anne shrugged. “In every culture, they talk of bringing people back from the dead, but you never hear what happens afterwards. Your guess is as good as mine. He seems to be advancing fast, though. When he first broke free, he could hardly stand up or put two syllables together.”

“Yeah,” Eve said, peeling her filthy, leather gloves from her hand. “Our little boy is growing up.”

Merry sat Leo down on a tree stump and gave him one of June Bug’s picture books from the car.
 

“Fun-nee!” he said, pointing to an illustration.

“Yes, yes. Funny. That’s right. Now you be good boy and look at the pictures, okay?”

“Oh-kay.”

“This is unreal,” I said as Merry joined us. “Someone pinch me, please?”

“I’m too tired to pinch anyone,” Merry moaned, her words heavy with exhaustion.
 

There were bags under her eyes and her clothes were the color of the earth she stood on. Only her golden hair still shone, as if immune to whatever darkness the world threw at it.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t awake for this,” I apologized to her. “You shouldn’t have had to tend to him yourself.”

“You did what you were supposed to do. You brought him back.” Merry glanced towards Leo and sighed. “I can’t keep him, though. Not with June Bug and having to care for Mother. What are we going to do?”

“I’ll find out where he’s from,” Eve said. “Maybe we can drop him back off?”

“We can’t take him back like this!” Merry put a hand to her hip. “We need to care for him until he can care for himself. It’s our duty.”

“Don’t look at me,” Ruth Anne said, taking a step back and lifting her hands, palms out. “I can barely remember to feed myself, let alone someone else. The poor guy wouldn't last long in my room.”

“I’ve never seen you miss a meal,” Eve said. “Though, I still can’t figure out how you stay so skinny.”

“We are not going to pick fights now!” Merry intervened. “What about you, Eve? You could keep him in the apartment above Mother’s store.”

“Oh, no. He’d destroy the place.”

She was right. All that work getting the store back in order would be wasted with Leo around. I dug the toe of my shoe into the dirt, waiting for the others to ask me, but not one of them looked in my direction.
 

Indignant, I spoke up. “What about me? I’m responsible for this, after all.”

Merry bit her bottom lip, Eve bit on her nails, and Ruth Anne scratched her head.
 

“What choice do we have?” I asked.
 

Merry looked at me, her eyes wide and compassionate. “Honey, he’s going to be a lot of work. You’ll have to feed him and bathe him and even help him use the bathroom. It’s too much.”

“You do all that with Mother,” I protested.

“But you don’t.”

“The worst I could do is kill him again.” I let out a nervous laugh. When no one said anything I squared my jaw and straightened my shoulders. “I’m taking him. I took care of June Bug while Merry was in the hospital. Maybe I didn’t do a great job, but I did it.”

Merry’s eyes crinkled at the edges. “You’re right, honey. And you did a great job with June Bug.” She cast a final glance at Leo, fighting through her instinct to take him herself. “We’ll all help. Hopefully, he’ll be back to his old self soon and we can take him home.”

Home. When all was said and done, we all just wanted to go home.
 

Merry ran her fingers through her hair, encountering a tangle. “It’s set, then. Maggie, you take Leo and the rest of us will help.” She yawned, stretching her arms into the morning sky and revealing a midriff that was far too thin. “Now, ladies, if you’ll excuse me, I have to make my daughter breakfast, soak in a hot bath, and a take very long nap. Call me if you need me. I’ll keep my phone close. See you at six?”

“Six? Why? What happens at six?” I asked.

“It’s Thanksgiving.”

“Are we really still doing that?”

My sister’s face became stone. “Yes, we are still doing that. We need to have some sense of normalcy in this family. I won’t have June Bug reporting to her father that we missed a holiday.” She yawned again, her face softening. “Besides, this is the first time in fifteen years that we will all be together for the holidays. We can’t miss it, no matter what the world throws at us.”

“I suppose,” I said, wondering how we could pretend that anything was normal again as Leo flittered around the front yard, flapping his arms like he were trying to take flight.

Maybe for us, this was as normal as it got.

Eve seated herself in the backseat of Leo’s Cadillac as Merry and Ruth Anne headed inside, waving sleepy goodbyes. I caught up to Leo and grasped his dirty hand, resisting the primal urge to drop it and run screaming into the woods.
 

He was dead. I was holding a dead man’s hand.
 

Panic rose up inside me.
 

It was the yellow collar of his polo shirt, hardly visible beneath the layers of mud, that brought me back.
 

“It’s gonna be okay,” I said, to both of us.

 
“Merr-Eee!” he wailed, clenching and unclenching his free hand in my sister’s direction as she disappeared inside the house.

“You’ll see her later today,” I said, leading him to his car. He climbed into the passenger seat obediently, sniffling as I buckled him in. As I walked around the car to the driver’s side, I saw something on the ground.
 

Mother’s wand, charred and broken in two. The gem lay next to it, devoid of color.

The wand of eternal life was dead.

Twenty

JEREMY

“At least I get a car for a while,” I said to Leo, who sat beside me playing with the automatic window button as he called out for Merry every time the window rolled down.
 

Behind us, Eve had curled into a fetal position, snoring so loudly I was surprised she didn’t wake herself. The whole scene would have been comical on any other day, but this morning, with my head still throbbing and weariness threatening to consume my entire being, it didn’t even warrant a snarky comment.

“Sit down!” I ordered Leo, who stuck his head out the window like a dog.
 

Flecks of dried on dirt were being picked off by the wind. When he didn’t comply I pulled him sharply by the arm and pushed him back into his seat. He fought me a little, wrenching my hand away, but I slammed on the breaks and tightened my grip.
 

Eventually, he gave up and sulked all the way to Harvest Home.
 

“It’s for your own good,” I said, as he rubbed his wrist. If Merry were here she’d be giving me “that look”––the look that said I could have handled the situation better. I took a deep breath and pulled into our driveway.
 

“Eve, we’re here,” I said, thumping her on the shoulder. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, giving a little start at the sight of Leo’s face.

“Didn’t mean to drift off,” she apologized, smoothing her long, blue-black hair into place. “I guess I’m more tired than I thought.”

“You had a long night. Help me get him inside?”

“Yeah.”

We escorted Leo to the house, each of us taking an arm. He could probably walk on his own, but I didn’t trust that he wouldn’t run off into the woods. He stepped in a puddle and quickly withdrew his foot, shaking off the mud as an expression of hysteria overcame his face.
 

“It’s just mud,” I said, pulling him along. “Suck it up.”

Leo looked at his leg and nodded as we continued the trek up the porch steps. The scents of pumpkin and nutmeg drifted out the windows, causing my stomach to growl.
 

“Mmm.” Leo lifted his nose, sniffing at the air.