Earthly Shadows (Murphy's Law Book 3) Page 4

  "Oh, wow. Hang on. Miss Tilly asked me to give this to you." He gave a nervous chuckle. "She'd have been pretty upset with me if I'd forgotten. It sounded important."

  I heard footsteps behind us and stepped back to insert myself between Ernie and my father if needed. Angus watched us from the edge of the kitchen. He quirked a brow at me and when I didn't move, something like sadness moved across his face.

  "Ernie, one question for you. If you don't mind, of course." Gone was the power and slyness he'd displayed earlier. Now, his voice just sounded normal and tired. "Why weren't you more surprised to see me? I'm supposed to be dead."

  Ernie grinned, a blush staining his cheeks once again. "Aw, I'm a real fan, Mr. Murphy. Real fans know that whole crash thing had to be staged."

  I cleared my throat, needing to interject. "You know you can't tell anyone about this, right? It's very important that most people continue to believe that Angus is actually dead."

  The young man nodded, tipping his head at me all over again. "Of course. I promise. Miss Tilly already made me swear on something. And nobody ever breaks a promise made to Miss Tilly. It's not a good idea." He shivered a little and I felt a certain kinship with him.

  "I know what you mean. She's not someone you ever want to mess with."

  "Before you go," Angus said, and I sucked in a breath, my heart rate jumping up in worry. "A gift for you. To apologize for my behavior earlier."

  Angus snapped his fingers and a t-shirt appeared in one hand, a pen in the other. He scrawled something on the shirt and approached Ernie slowly, all signs of the charming predator from minutes ago gone. He handed it over and Ernie shook it out, letting out an admiring whistle as he realized what he held.

  "No way. This shirt is from the tour that never happened. They never sold these. Nobody out there has one of these."

  Angus smiled and bowed. "Which only makes it that much more valuable."

  Ernie glowed with excitement, bouncing up on the balls of his feet with excitement. "This is amazing. My sister's going to be so jealous," he said.

  Angus snapped his fingers a second time and with a flourish signed his name on the glossy head shot that appeared. "Give this to her."

  Grabbing the photo, Ernie looked it over. "Wow. How did you know her name?"

  "I know everyone's name, Ernie. I'm kind of like Santa Claus."

  With that, I ushered the boy out of the door and watched over him as he made his way back to the car, clutching the treasures he'd been gifted.

  Closing the door firmly, I whirled around to face Angus. "Really? You're like Santa Claus? That's what you're going with?"

  "I can give gifts just as well as that bearded representation of holiday spirit can, Delaney."

  "You almost tried to make a deal with him. One of the people I promised not to hurt. One of the people under Miss Tilly's protection."

  "Yes, yes, I know. The rules." He sighed, and I was surprised to see him a little chagrined. "But the temptation was so great. I haven't made a deal with someone in so long. Actually, since I met your mother."

  It was then I realized that losing my mother hadn't affected only my humanity. Her loss was stealing away whatever humanity and compassion my father had gained by being with her. If we weren't careful, things were going to quickly get a lot worse.

  "We've got to get you back Below soon," I said, knowing it was the only way to keep him from wreaking havoc here among the mortals.

  "Hells, Laney," my father said, "I've been telling you that forever. Send me back to where I belong. It's better for everyone."

  I winced watching him walk away. Being without my dad might be better for most people, but I would miss him. His spontaneous appearances in my life, up until recently, had always brought happiness and left me feeling loved. Tonight I saw a side of him he'd never shown me before. His control was slipping and what that would mean for the world wasn't just bad. It would be disastrous.

  7

  I joined Cal and Torren in the kitchen again. Their silence spoke volumes, and I could see the worry weighing on both of them. My father's actions had left them just as concerned as I was. Breaking Miss Tilly's rules would have rocked the foundations of everything I'd built here. It wouldn't have gone unpunished and she would not have cared about why he did it. Only that he did.

  "I think the most current crisis has been averted," I said, offering them the best smile I could conjure up. "Ernie made it out of the house safely with gifts and Angus is off recovering. And hopefully thinking about the error of his ways."

  "The loss of your mother has been hardest on him, I think," said Cal. He put a hand up, a request that I hear him out. "His only goal, the whole reason he left the two of you behind, was to keep you both safe. Knowing that he failed has been hard, without question. But she changed him, Laney. Her love changed him. Knowing that she was still here, alive and in the world, it helped hold those changes in place. Without her, he's losing his grip on who he used to be."

  I nodded. "I had the same thought. Miss Tilly said Mom was my tether to humanity. I've felt the way things are drifting, that it's becoming harder to fight the power growing stronger in me."

  Torren spoke up. "You're genetically connected to your mother, Laney. The same isn't true for Angus. All that connected them was love."

  Silence was a heavy weight in the room as Torren’s observation hung between us. In the end, I wasn’t the one to break the spell.

  "Love is a powerful thing, Tor," said Cal, his voice low and firm. "Even in the world of angels, it's the most powerful magic known. It guides everything."

  He didn't look my way, but I could feel my cheeks burning as the truth of his words hit me, the emotions in him flowing freely to me through our connection. I turned away, not wanting to give either of them a hint of what I was feeling. I could feel their focus on me as I left, and I didn't look back.

  8

  My home suddenly felt too small. There weren’t enough bedrooms for all of us and while last night it hadn't been a big deal to share with Cal, tonight felt different. I couldn’t pretend I didn’t know how he felt about me any longer. The connection between us was too strong to deny. It was the way I felt that left me off balance and hesitant.

  "Should've added a bedroom when you were fixing the house," I muttered to myself. "And a couple extra bathrooms wouldn't have hurt, either."

  "Talking to yourself is a bad sign." Cal rested against the door jamb, worried eyes on me. "Are you okay?"

  An automatic reply almost slipped out, but I stopped myself when Callum shifted, his brows drawing down as if he could already hear the lie even though I hadn't spoken. Pushing down the urge to gloss over things, I shook my head. "Not really. It's overwhelming. There's so much riding on what happens in the next few days, and I can't afford to get distracted by how I feel."

  He didn't say anything. Instead, he waited for me to finish. To get to the heart of the matter. "And I don't want to hurt anyone. Which sounds stupid in light of everything else going on, but it's still true." My heart felt lighter having shared this with him.

  "No matter what you do, there's always the risk someone's going to be hurt." He didn't venture into my room, simply stayed where he was as he spoke. "You made choices before, and Torren was hurt when he was taken from us. That wasn't your fault and we did everything we could to get him back alive. We've done our best to heal him. We've given him a chance. The rest is up to him. Sometimes, the best we can do is all we can do. We have to learn how to live with that fact."

  "That's hard for me to accept. It feels like I should do more to fix it all, to fix things for everyone."

  "You're not the first person to think that. I'm sure you won't be the last. Still, it doesn't change the fact that solving all of the world's problems isn’t your responsibility. Deal with what's in front of you, right now. That's how we get through this. Until the next problem falls into our laps."

  I ran my hands through my hair, not caring if it tangled itself into knots from the
worried gesture.

  "You know, I can sleep on the couch. Angus and Torren could use another good night's sleep to be ready for what we have to do."

  My heart twisted with gratitude at his offer, but underneath that, I felt sad. I really didn't want to be alone tonight. "Thank you for the offer, but there's no sense in you not sleeping so the rest of us can. Plus, Moose can be our chaperone."

  My Hound peeked his head around the corner at the mention of his name, back in his full-size form. He bobbed his head and crossed the room, settling into the extra bed I'd put in here for him. He rested his front paws on the edge of the cushioned bed, one on top of the other, then rested his chin on them. His eyes never left me and Cal.

  "Looks like he's taking his job seriously already." Cal grinned and stood straight. "I've got some more things to do. We'll all probably want to go to bed early if we can though. Tomorrow's going to be busy."

  He left me musing over that thought. Busy was one way to describe what the day would be like. Dangerous was more accurate. Deadly was another. I flopped back onto my bed and closed my eyes, thinking about Cal's advice. "Deal with the problem in front of me," I whispered, over and over, a mantra that lulled me to sleep.

  9

  The next dawn was bright and clear, the sun glaring off the snow that had fallen overnight. Ice sparkled in the trees ringing my home and the unbroken white crust that covered my yard looked like it'd been sprinkled with diamonds. I pushed the bag in front of me with my foot, with no luck. It didn’t budge. It was going to be a heavy one to carry, even though I suspected that it would be the lightest of all the packs we were taking with us.

  I'd seen the gift from Callum resting inside right before it was closed and knowing we had that made me feel a little better. Sipping my tea, I read through the note from Miss Tilly once again.

  I have some nice young people who will be watching over things while you're away. Everything's in place and we'll make sure nothing happens to your home. We can settle up on things when you return. There's a debt for what your father tried to do, but it can be forgiven.

  I sighed. How does she always know these things, I wondered. She wrote the note before Ernie even came out here. I twisted the words around in my mind, probing at it like a sore tooth, until something else occurred to me. What if there was something else Angus owed her? What if the interaction with Ernie left us even deeper in the hole? The idea made me shiver. Miss Tilly had never harmed me, but she was also a woman I didn't want to cross. Owing her a debt, multiple debts, could be a dangerous prospect.

  Torren walked into the room, his bag slung over one arm like it weighed almost nothing.

  "Morning," he mumbled, pouring himself a mug of Cal's coffee. He drank it immediately, without the addition of cream or sugar to make it palatable. He didn't even give it a chance to cool off. At my wondering look, he shrugged. "We’re going to Hell. This could be the last time I ever drink coffee. I'm going to drink as much of it as I can while we're here."

  "Of course we have coffee Below," said Angus, surprising us both as he walked in. "Hells, what do you think we are? Heathens?"

  I snorted into my tea, and even Torren choked on a laugh. My father helped himself to a cup and set it on the counter, reaching into the upper cabinet to pull out a bottle I kept stored inside. He unscrewed the cap carefully, then gave an appreciative sniff of the cinnamon laced whiskey he’d given me when I’d moved in to this house. He’d called it a housewarming present. I suspected he simply liked the figure of the dancing devil on the label. He poured it liberally into his cup and smiled at me over the rim as he took a sip. "It's not exactly a latte, but it'll do the job. Once we get home, I'll introduce you to my personal barista and then you'll have a real treat."

  "I lived with you. How did I not know you had a personal barista?”

  Angus waved me away. "He arrived after you left."

  "Let me guess. His punishment was to be your barista for eternity."

  Torren's comment was clearly sarcastic, but Angus only shrugged as he responded. "Maybe not for eternity. We'll see how he does."

  I answered Tor's uncertain look with a shake of my head. I honestly didn't have a clue about this part of my father's business. The management of the souls assigned Below had never been explained to me. In fact, it was one of the things I believed my father didn’t really want to talk about.

  Angus shot a glance at the clock. "We should be leaving soon. Waiting much longer will only give Newton more time to consolidate his defenses."

  "We're waiting on some people that Miss Tilly is sending out. I want to meet them before we go."

  "She's got people coming here?"

  I held up the note. "According to this she does. Just to make sure things are safe while we're away."

  Angus gave me his most serious look. "Tell them not to drive my car."

  I saluted him with my mug. "Noted. Don't drive the Devil's car. It'll be the first thing on my list. Top priority."

  "That's the kind of spirit I like to see." The glint in his eyes was approving. "But I mean it. Hands off my car."

  "Uh huh. Got it." I looked over the letter I'd received one more time. "Angus, what debt is there between you and Miss Tilly?"

  My father's hand gripped his mug tightly and froze on the way to his mouth. It was a hesitation for the barest of seconds, but I'd seen it. "That's nothing for you to worry about. It's between me and the Lady of Hazelwood to work out."

  "Are you sure about that?" I asked, worry creeping in. We needed Miss Tilly on our side. That was one fact I knew for certain.

  "Positive," he said, and then left the room, leaving me with no idea what had transpired between the two of them.

  10

  The group from Hazelwood arrived a couple of hours later, with Aften in the lead. She was the heir apparent to the legacy of the town as Miss Tilly's granddaughter, and again I wondered what had happened to her mother. Why wasn't she serving as an apprentice, learning the magic of their family? I told myself it would be impolite to ask, but maybe the real reason was that I wasn’t brave enough.

  Aften directed the people who had accompanied her and they fanned out like trained troops, scouting the property lines. Her eyes flicked to me as I waited on the porch, and when everyone with her had disappeared to complete their assignment, she climbed the steps to where I stood.

  "My grandmother would have come herself, but there are things in town that require her attention." Her words were stiff, formal. I was tempted to question her for details. Knowing it was unlikely she'd share them with me, I didn't waste my time.

  "I appreciate her sending all of you out to watch over the place."

  She shrugged and her answer struck a nervous chord in me. "It was our home before it was yours." A trace of bitterness coated the words, surprising me. I didn't need another battle to fight.

  "True. I've always wanted to ask why she was willing to sell it to me. Any ideas?"

  Aften didn't look at me. Instead, she turned her gaze out, to the white covered ground that stretched from the house out to where the roadway was hidden by the thick stand of evergreen trees. “She’s never told me why,” she finally said. It sounded almost painful, the effort of saying those five simple words.

  "Well, maybe one of these days she'll tell the both of us. In the meantime, I still take seriously the promise I made to her. I'll do all I can to protect this home and the land it's on."

  "And yet, it's already burned once."

  That comment stung. She'd never been this confrontational before, but then again, I realized I'd never been completely alone with her.

  "I was able to restore it to the condition it was in before. If you'd like to come inside, I'd be happy to show you."

  Aften shot a look at the closed front door, then seemed to fold in on herself. The winter coat she wore looked too large, as if she was playing dress up in someone else's clothes. Something had changed, but I had no idea what it was.

  "How are all the people who we
re injured when Newton attacked?" I asked. I'd worried over them but hadn't been able to return to Hazelwood since our battle in the chapel.

  "They'll live."

  "I'm glad to hear that."

  She leveled her eyes on me. There was a simmering anger in them that hit me like a physical blow.

  "If you'd never come here, they wouldn't have been hurt, now would they?"

  I didn't have an answer to that and my throat tightened with shame. Aften was right. The only reason the people from Hazelwood had been hurt were because of me. Because of my presence. I sighed and turned away, planning to go back inside and collect my friends. We had a fight waiting for us Below, and I wasn't about to start another one on my doorstep.

  I offered the only thing I could, paltry as it seemed. "Miss Tilly sent supplies and you're all welcome to use the bedrooms as needed. Please share my thanks with everyone. And let them know it would be wise to keep their hands off the Mustang in the garage. It belongs to my father."

  A frigid silence was the only response I got.

  11

  "What difference does it make, Delaney?" asked Angus, as I tried to rid myself of the hurt I felt following my interaction with Aften. "If it hadn't been you, it could've been something else. Hazelwood isn't immune to the risks of the outside world."

  "But this one happened because of me. And before that, Brett kidnapped one of their people, planning to kill her. That was because of me too."

  "You saved that girl in the end. You did things you swore you'd never do, and you did it for the right reasons. The same is true about the battle outside Hazelwood. You fought there, opening yourself up to something dark, and again, you did it for the right reasons."

  "Do my reasons really matter when people get hurt?" I sounded sulky, even to my own ears, but I couldn't seem to hide the way I felt.