Page 23 of Midnight Auto Parts

>Sounds like fun.

>>I’ll check in.

>>Good luck tree hunting.

“He’ll be okay.” Josie picked at a fingernail until it tore then slung her hand. “He will be okay, won’t he?”

That it fell to me to reassure her was nothing new, but the weight of it tipped some internal scale.

Retrieving my keys from my pocket, I mashed my lips firm. “We won’t give him a choice.”

I had to come clean to my siblings.Tonight. Already I had lost my nerve too many times. Fear still tingled down my spine from what happened to Vi earlier. There was every reason tobelieve Ankou wasn’t done with me yet. And, when he came, my family deserved to be prepared for the chaos trailing in his wake.

Talahi Island nestled between Savannah and Tybee Island on the Atlantic Ocean and, according to a pine tree (a loblolly, whatever that is), who heard it from a lacebark elm, who was told by a queen palm, a six-foot-square patch of sandy soil existed where nothing grew and no animals dared tread.

That was how we found ourselves parking at a nearby Sharky Shake Shack, following directions from the air plant the queen palm left on the ground for Josie, with the request from the air plant that she place it on a new tree in a safe area where it could grow in peace away from its annoying siblings.

“Oh.” Josie slowed in front of Kierce and me, carrying on with the plant. “I see what you mean.”

From her perch on my shoulder, Badb cracked open a peanut she got from who knows where and rained husk down the front of my shirt. She offered me a piece of shell. Not a peanut, mind you, but still. I gave her a head scratch for effort. Minimal as it might have been.

A queasy sensation swamped my senses when I stepped from the pavement onto sand, and I clutched at Kierce’s arm as I drank in our surroundings. “Do you feel that?”

No tree. No bush. No flower.

The land was barren.

“Yes.” He gestured for me to stay back. “I’ll go first.”

That tweaked Badb’s tail feathers, and she shot off to follow him, but Josie was happy to wait with me.

“Hmm. True. Good point.” She picked a dead leaf off the plant. “The sun is much better over there.”

The spiky ball of green fronds rested on her open palm. Unmoving. Unspeaking. Justthere.

I had often thought Josie had it easier than me when it came to our gifts. Anyone could see who she was talking to, so she didn’t stand out as more than an overenthusiastic plant mom. Meanwhile, I was always talking to thin air, throwing crazy vibes that earned me even crazier looks from anyone who caught me.

Thankfully, the few businesses had closed for the day, so there was no one around to see either way.

“Frankie.” Kierce met my gaze, and his was troubled. “Would you mind coming here?”

Stepping off the curb, I breathed through the roiling in my stomach. “Not at all.”

“That’s not a happy face.” Josie rocked forward to join us. “What did you find?”

“Stay there.” He threw his hand out toward her as he crouched. “There’s active death magic here.”

“Yikes.” She took a healthy step back, clutching the air plant. “We’ll wait over here then.”

Death magic was neither good nor bad. Like most magic, it simply existed. How it was manipulated, well, often that was the problem. For Kierce to be wary, he must have sensed darker powers at work.

“A divine tree was here.” He sifted the soil through his fingers, exposing hairlike roots shriveled from sun exposure. “The earth has been corrupted beyond my ability to sense more.”

“Corruption.” I squatted beside him. “Why does that not surprise me?”

“Ankou and his god aren’t inherently evil.”

“You could have fooled me.”

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