Page 54 of Aleko
He stood up and took her hand, smiling as he pulled her to the open space of the patio. “It’s easy,” he said, putting an arm around her waist. “You just have to remember that we’re partners and that sometimes we go forward and sometimes backward, and sometimes there’s a spin,” he pushed her out into a twirl, and she giggled, “but we always come back together.”
She went up on tip-toe to kiss him.
“And sometimes you just kiss in time to the music?” she asked, and he grinned.
“Sometimes,” he admitted and kissed her back.
Episode 29
Ghosts
Eliandra
Eliandra might have skipped down the stairs to the basement, but no one had seen her, so it didn’t count. She couldn’t stop the smile on her face, though. Something had happened in the garden last night. Something she couldn’t explain. Something that felt like magic even though it had just been dancing in the arms of someone who looked at her like she was the whole world. For years, she’d been telling herself that things would be better in the morning, and it had always been a lie. Every day, that is, except for today. She was trying not to think about it because if she did, she might curl up in a ball out of sheer terror that it would go away. But if she just did what she always did and took it one day at a time, Lia thought she might be able to stay in this happy place a little longer. Lia did a little spin, loving how her white sundress belled out around her. She was being so silly, but she couldn’t seem to stop.
The Ash villa was four stories and dug down into the cliff as well as building up. The basement was much closer to the beach and she could see that once upon a time it had been the preferred access point. But currently, the games room had the billiard table shoved up against one wall, and it had been turned into Luca’s lair. Full of books, charts, odd items that Lia assumed were magical and the lingering smell of cigarettes, the room was still comfortable, but it didn’t feel welcoming. A pair of French doors exited to another patio, this one perched on the very edge of the cliff in case anyone wanted to take the long plunge down to the ocean. Sane people, of course, took the winding track down to the beach house. The house had the air of having evolved likea snail shell—more bits being added as the inhabitants found a need. Lia liked it. She even liked the basement, although she thought she would have liked it more in if it were turned back into a family area.
Hours later, Lia watched as the pages of her translation spit out of the printer and wondered if she was stupid. If she’d taken longer to finish the book then she would have more of a reason to stay. But Alex said she didn’t need a reason—he just wanted her to stay. Well, she was about to test that. The Greens were reading the pages as they came out, skipping sections to get closer to the end.
“You’re going to be disappointed,” said Lia apologetically. “The end doesn’t have any details. I wish it had a dramatic dash where it cuts of in mid-sentence or something. But it doesn’t. He just says there’s a storm coming and that thehexenmeisterare drawing satanic symbols on the floor of his ship again.”
“Well, maybe he should have chucked them overboard and defected then,” said Colin. “Not crying for a Nazi.”
“I wasn’t saying to,” said Lia. “I was telling you what it says. There isn’t any conclusion.”
“Well, we know Mum and Da were there,” said Trevor, tossing down his stack of pages. Lia was glad she’d remembered to add page numbers.
“Did you see that picture of them upstairs?” asked Colin and Trevor grinned.
“I’d never seen that one,” said Trevor. “Mum wouldn’t ever come home in her uniform. She said it was embarrassing.” Colin chuckled.
“The black and white photo?” asked Lia and Trevor nodded. “Who were the others?”
“Alex’s brother Howell, Luca’s great-gran Sofia Giavanese. Mum said Sofia and Howell were together. Sofia was a witch. Mum and Da really liked her—said she understood water. Andthat’s saying something for a human. And then the other man was Seth Reda. They never said much about him. He did magic, I know. Da always said they were lucky Seth was on their side.”
“Mum said he was a killer,” said Colin. “I heard her. She said it didn’t do to let him go without a minder because it’d be nothing but bodies.”
“When did she say that?” asked Trevor looking surprised.
“I heard her one night on that last visit home. Da wanted to stay another day or two. Mum said best not to because otherwise Seth would go out on the next mission into Italy alone. At the time, I thought she was being foolish. I thought he ought to kill everyone, but I think now she meant that he’d kill whoever he met—soldier or not.”
Trevor shrugged. “Doesn’t matter anymore, I guess.
“What do you think happened?” asked Lia, looking at the artifacts from theStrumwolke. Luca had opened the metal boxes. There hadn’t been much in there—just brown sludge that might have been various powders or herbs.
“I think they got to the boat. I think they fought their way into the bridge and then I think thathexenmeisterbomb went off somehow,” said Trevor. “Or maybe the warlocks set it off themselves. Same result either way.”
“That’s what it looked like from the wreckage,” said Colin. “But I don’t know… Why was this box away from the others?” He poked at one of the metal boxes but didn’t touch it. None of the Shifters liked handling the boxes, although they didn’t bother Lia. “Why was Howell’s knife in the door frame? What the hell is this jar? Why can’t we open it?”
Conversely, the jar with the human-headed stopper didn’t bother any of them, but Lia wasn’t anxious to touch it. Colin tugged futilely at the head again and then set it back down with a snort of annoyance. The jar didn’t have the aura of a ghost object—or at least not one she’d experienced before—but it stillfelt prickly and hot. The most similar sensation Lia could come up with was the wand that was still hidden at the museum. She was going to have to do something about the wand, but it never seemed like the time to bring it up.
“You’re fidgeting over details,” said Trevor.
“Yeah, cuz it don’t make sense. That team went on over a hundred missions. They had a kill count longer than your arm. And these bits… They don’t seem to add up to a bomb. I may not be a much in the magic department, but there’s nothing here that’s a power source.”
“Course, it might help if Luca actually took an interest,” said Trevor sourly, glancing out the window to where Luca was taking a cigarette break on the patio. As usual, he wore a small holster along the back of his belt and a pistol tucked discreetly inside. The others said that Luca never went anywhere unarmed.
Dark clouds were gathering on the horizon line and the wind had taken on a brisk snap. Lia thought it would rain later and was glad she was indoors and warm, but she worried about the refugees in the field.
