Page 13 of Midnight Auto Parts

A life that stretched infinite and unflinching before me? The reminder soured my stomach.

“He’s always had a crush on you.” She tutted at my expression. “That’s the problem.”

That wasnotthe problem, but I was done rehashing the old argument. “Mmm-hmm.”

Suspicious of my easy acquiescence, she hummed softly. “You’re talking big picture, aren’t you?”

“Do I have responsibilities? Do I have a duty to do…whatever it is demigods do? Would it be so selfish of me if I elected to stay home and keep living my life instead of using those powers for the greater good?” I admitted my biggest fear. “I don’t want to attract the wrong kind of attention.”

“You don’t mean the Society.” She leaned back. “You’re afraid your divine parent would notice you.”

A prickle on my nape gave me a taste of how it might feel to earn the full weight of their attention.

“Yes and no. Kierce and Ankou are both subject to their gods’ whims. I don’t want that.”

“They’re not born of gods, though.” She retied her head scarf. “They’re sworn into the gods’ service.”

Ankou relished his role, that much was clear, but Kierce was frayed along his edges. His retreat from the world might have saved his sanity, but it was clear he remained exhausted and disconnected to a degree that troubled me. Waking him, fully shaking off his malaise, might provide the catalyst for an entirely different man to emerge than the one I first met walking through the cemetery with mud on his shoes.

“You’re thinking too big.” She mimed rubbing my shoulder. “Start smaller, like telling your siblings.”

“Smaller would be learning I was the necromancer messiah risen from the dead to save the world.”

“You are ridiculous.”

“What? I’m serious. That’smuchsmaller than telling my siblings. Tiny in comparison to what Josie will do after she finds out I kicked the bucket and didn’t tell her, and it will break Matty’s heart.”

“I love you,cher, I do, but no. You’re too caught up on how this will affect everyone else to process what it means for you. This happened toyou. Prioritize yourself for once. Let everyone else worry about themselves. You have a right to boundaries. You deserve your own thoughts and feelings and priorities.” She glanced at Kierce. “I can’t imagine Matty and Josie approved of him in the beginning, and yet there he stands. A choice you made. Foryourself.”

“Yeah.” A smile tickled my lips. “His weird matches my weird.”

A strobe of light in the woods drew my eye beyond the window to the trees.

“What’s wrong?” She twisted in her seat. “What did you see?”

A piercing white beam exploded from the limbs and swept over the wagon, including Kierce, Vi, and me.

High-pitched whining filled my ears, and I screamed for Kierce, but I couldn’t even hear myself.

Lavender mist burst inside the cab, and then the brightness dimmed to nothing.

The seat beside me was empty, so I stumbled out and into Kierce’s waiting arms. “What was that?”

“I don’t know.” He glanced over his shoulder. “It came from the woods.”

“Hold on.” I thumped back against the side of the wagon. “I have to check on Vi.”

Before I could finish dialing Rollo’s personal number, it flashed on my screen as an incoming call.

“What have you done now?” he yelled in my ear. “Mamaw’s unconscious.”

“What?” Stomach tumbling like clothes in a dryer, I slid lower. “She was fine a minute ago.”

“I’m here with her body,maringouin.” His fury was palpable. “You better start explaining.”

Maringouinmeant mosquito. As in I was a pest. To him, I always would be.

Quickly as possible, I explained what brought me here, whereherewas, and what I had seen.

---