“It’s fine. Itches more than anything.”

  Liv jumped on the opportunity to sneer. “I thought you were supposed to be his wife, not his mommy.”

  My bark was a little overzealous. I blame the pain meds. “Don’t you talk about his mother!”

  Foss placed his hand on mine, a flicker of appreciation shining through. “You’re worried. I’m okay.” He let me check his wound with all the patience of a two-year-old. “Quit doing that annoying thing you do. That scared face. It’s unsettling.”

  It was my turn to roll my eyes. “Yes. The caring thing that’s so annoying. It’s my one joy to irritate you. Job well done on my part.” I looked into his eyes and saw that his pupils weren’t dilated. I exhaled. “You’re you, for better or worse. I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you woke up.”

  Foss shrugged. “It’s fine. I understand.” A note of concern drifted through his harsh tone. “You... you’re okay, then?”

  “No,” I answered succinctly. I don’t know why I told the truth; I just didn’t have it in me to lie.

  Foss examined the resigned look on my face with a hard expression. “About time you admitted it.” He leaned over and pecked my lips. It was on the border of romantic and friendly, and like everything was with him, it left me confused. Heat rose in my cheeks, and Foss cracked half a smile at me.

  Lucy! This is not proper! Jamie scolded me.

  I heard Liv’s intake of breath, but Jens addressed it. “You’ll get used to that.” Then in warning to Foss, he clarified with, “Only that. Understood?”

  Foss ignored Jens and kept his voice between us. “Liv tells me you saved my life.”

  “Again,” I corrected him. “I saved your life again.”

  He looked from side to side, ensuring no one overheard him. “Thanks.”

  Despite my impending task, I lifted an eyebrow. “Did that hurt a little? Being the minimal amount of nice like that?”

  He didn’t fall for my shtick. Instead he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me between his open knees, engulfing me in a hug that had my chin resting on his shoulder. He was so much taller than me; I was used to my head leaning on his chest when he held me. This cheek-to-cheek hug was different, and the tenderness threatened to squeeze too much emotion from me. He turned his head and pressed his lips to my cheek, whispering into my skin, “Never doubt that I love you.”

  I heard that, Jamie groused.

  When I pulled back, I pecked Foss’s lips again. My husband held my gaze with a look that said more than he would ever admit to aloud, and I nodded to let him know I understood. “I’m glad you’re alright,” I told him, shivering when a gust of icy wind blew into the car.

  “Thanks to you.” Then Foss stood. He took the rake from Jens, who looked like he wanted to weaponize the tool against Foss. “Let’s finish it.”

  I nodded, taking Jens’s hand and holding onto Foss with my other arm. My leg wasn’t broken or anything, but I decided on humoring the doctor who told me not to walk on it for a couple weeks. Jamie was a real stickler for not being in pain.

  The snow was two feet deep, so it made for slow going.

  Foss was crabby because of the cold. “Well it’s a good thing Pesta isn’t here. You’re taking forever! Jens, just carry her. I’m gonna lose it if we keep going at this pace.”

  “You’ve got like, twenty more feet. Chill,” I ordered.

  I heard a snort a little ways behind us, and then a gunshot. No matter how many of those you hear on TV, it’s nothing compared to the real thing, especially when the last gun you heard was used by your own hands to murder your best friend.

  I whimpered, and Jens stopped our progression to hold me. “It was just a Were. The Huldras can keep us safe until the portal’s finished.”

  I nodded into his black winter coat, wishing fear for my life was the real problem.

  The portal was just like the others. It was taller than necessary for a human; I could tell Pesta was used to dealing with the towering Undrans. The structure was terrible and intimidating, as the others had been. But being this close, close enough to slip through, brought to me a new level of apprehension. The portal was completed and fully functional, with a blue glow emanating from the center. “I guess she had enough bones with that Mace guy, huh.”

  Jens swallowed. “Uh-huh. Let’s be done with it.”

  I dropped Jens’s hand and took the rake from Foss, holding up the tool with a reluctant and pounding heart. “Some of these belong to my parents,” I said to Jens. He was the only one there who had known them. The other portals had ancestors represented who had been alive decades ago that Pesta had dug up, and were not known by us. This was different.

  There was a femur with a pin in it. I closed my eyes when I realized it belonged to my dad. He’d broken his leg once when he’d been a teenager. I opened my eyes and began counting the femurs, knowing there should be six. I frowned when I only found four. Two were whiter, indicative of their freshness. The other two belonged to my dad.

  “Where’s my mom?” I choked out, emotion gripping me around the throat. “There’s only four femurs here!” I counted the pelvises, but again only made it to two. “My mom’s not here!” I turned and clung to Jens’s jacket. “Does that mean she’s alive? Is my mom still alive?”

  Jens looked like he might be sick. “No, honey. Your mom’s dead. If her bones aren’t here, then Pesta did something else with them.”

  “No!” I shouted. “Pesta needed all the bones she could get to build this portal! She would’ve used them if she had them! Mom!” I screamed, not hopeful that calling out for her would actually do anything.

  Foss was stern when I was on the edge of losing my mind. He gripped my chin and sneered into my face. “Your mother’s not here. Now take the rake and tear down this portal. We can deal with the rest later.” When I took too long to gulp down my anxiety, he growled, “Finish it!”

  I extracted myself from Foss and lifted my hand to touch the bones, but pulled back when I realized my dad wouldn’t want my memories of him to include this. It was the closest I’d been to him since he’d been taken from me, and the grief washed over me anew, forcing out a solitary sob like a rough pat on the back. I sucked down my sorrow and stored it away for another day.

  Today was for my dad – for both my parents, really. There’d be plenty of time to break down after the fact.

  I took the rake, and with great care, knocked the bones down, starting with the ones composing the crest of the arch.

  Without a word between us, Jens knew what to do. He caught each bone before it hit the ground, treating them with the utmost respect for the death and the resonating pain I carried with me every day. “We’ll burn them properly. Have a eulogy and everything for them,” Jens commented as I moved to the ones on the left side, knocking them down one by one.

  The portal flickered, but as with the others, it did not go out and would not until the last bone fell.

  The bones on the right side were newer, and the color whiter. They must’ve belonged to Charles Mace, poor guy. Though I didn’t know him, I treated his bones with respect, knocking them carefully down for Foss to catch.

  First the femur, then the humerus. I was halfway down the row when the portal turned from its bluish hue to a brilliant purple. “Um, is that supposed to happen?” I asked them.

  “Hurry and destroy it!” Foss yelled, his fear giving birth to mine.

  I pulled back the rake to swing at the other bones like a baseball bat, but before I could deliver the blow, a man’s hand reached out from the ethereal purple pool and grabbed my jacket.

  No one saw it coming; there was no precedent for it.

  The hand yanked me forward, rake and all, and pulled me into the portal.

  The last thing I heard was the sound of Jens and Foss roaring my name in unison.

  Thirty.

  Limbo to Limbo

  My brain struggled to keep up as my body morphed like Jell-O through the portal I had almost destroyed.

  I was shaking like a leaf, trying to assess my new surroundings and not have a total freak-out. I stood on a rocky floor with no walls and no ceiling that I could see beyond a dark, murky fog that blocked out everything about a quarter mile out from where I stood.

  “Goose? Do you not recognize me?”

  The voice cut through all the confusion, giving me something to cling to I quasi-understood. I sounded small as I turned to the man standing next to me, the sound going out into the abyss that surrounded us and not echoing back off any surface. “Uncle Rick?” I questioned.

  True enough, it was my Uncle Rick. Gray beard, dark skin, sparkling gray eyes and orange cardigan – all six and a half feet of him. My jaw dropped, but I made no move toward him.

  The indulgence in his eyes he had toward me was back, renewed since I last saw him. “Is that all the love you have for me? I’m an old man, after all.”

  When he reached out to touch my arm, I stumbled backwards. “N-No! You’re not here! I’m not here! I... I hit my head. I’m crazy.” This made far more sense than anything else.

  He retracted, rethinking his approach. He stroked his beard like he’d done before knocking one of my pawns off the board during a game of chess. “I can certainly see the merit in presuming insanity. But I can assure you, I’m quite me, and you’re every bit the you I’ve always adored.” He pointed to the leg I couldn’t put much weight on. “Perhaps a little worse for the wear, but all the pieces still add up to my favorite niece.”

  I couldn’t respond. I was too shocked. I turned on my heel and hobbled toward the portal to go back out to the world I understood.

  “Goosy, wait,” he called.

  I paid him no mind. I tried to exit out the way I came, using the rake as a sort of crude crutch, but Alrik quickly blocked my way. “Let me out! You’re not real, and I’m dreaming. I’m stuck in one of Jamie’s dreams. He’ll find me! He’ll bring me back and wake me up. Jamie!” I cried out to the open air that was shrouded in black just a few meters out from where we stood. “Jamie!”

  Uncle Rick waited with his usual air of patience when he knew I was doing something fruitless or stupid. “Darling, I am me, and you are you. I’m the one who snatched you from your world and brought you through the portal to the Land of Be.”

  I looked around at the cloudy blackness that made me feel like I was on a rocky road in the middle of foggy nothingness. “This is the Land of Be? I thought this was supposed to be everyone’s grand retirement.”

  Uncle Rick pointed down the stone path to a point of goldish light in the distance. “The actual Land of Be is that way. We’re in Limbo. This,” he said, motioning around us, “is Limbo. I was not satisfied with simply destroying the portal. It takes much planning, but portals can always be rebuilt. I would not take you on such a quest for a temporary victory. You should know that by now. You’ve played chess enough times with me.”

  I decided to give in and accept that I was where Alrik said I was. That he was really alive, and he hadn’t really abandoned me for Be. There was a plan, an ace up his knitted orange sleeves. “Jens and I were just talking about that. About always being on the run because Pesta’ll never truly stop.” I bristled when conflicting judgments fought within me. I stabbed my finger in his direction, keeping a healthy distance between us. “We’re not friends. For all I know, you could be another Mouthpiece. If you think I won’t shoot you again, you’re wrong. I killed Pesta when she was Tonya, and I won’t hesitate to run you through.”

  “Dually noted, dear. I assure you, I have no trace of Pesta in me.” He wrinkled his nose in distaste. “If she ever tried, I would run myself through on my own, with no prodding from you.”

  I wanted to believe him. I needed someone to make sense of things. Before I knew it, I was hugging him, the rake wrapping around his back. “It’s really you, then?” He was warm, and despite his towering height, I fit in his arms the way I always had.

  “For better or worse. It appears you’re stuck with me yet again. I shall try not to be such a disappointment in this life.”

  I recalled our earlier conversations and grimaced. “You’re not a disappointment. Just a constant riddle I gave up on figuring out.”

  He touched my nose. “That’s the thing about riddles. The best ones keep on going.”

  “Only if you don’t like sleep,” I amended, “which I do.” I looked around, trying to get my lay of the land. “Um, so where are we, exactly?”

  Uncle Rick held his hands out at his sides like a tour guide. “This is the pathway to Be. Most people assume you cross over, and you’re in, but most people don’t know your mother.” His slate eyes shone with pride, and I couldn’t help but lose a little of the chip on my shoulder. “Your mother is the only one who’s ever made it out of Be with her hand and her soul fully intact. Most people dismissed her escape as legend, but I know your mother. I know you. I would never dare underestimate a Kincaid.”

  I grinned. I couldn’t help it, the charmer. “You’re playing me, but I don’t mind it. Anytime you want to sing her praises, I’ll gladly let you. My mom was incredible.”

  “That, she was. You see, Goosy, most people cross over, spend a few moments looking around and assume the only way is forward.” He pointed down the massive hallway shrouded in black clouds to the small golden light at the end. “Don’t follow the light, dear. It leads to Be. A very few have second thoughts, I’ve observed, but the way back is sealed.”

  Panic began to settle in over me. “And you pulled me in here, knowing I couldn’t get back out?” Flashes of the life I always wanted but would never have ricocheted through my mind like so many painful bolts of lightning, each one sizzling a scar of loneliness I feared would never be healed over. “Why? Why would you do that?”

  Alrik put his hand on my shoulder in that friendly ally way he’d tricked me into the mission in the first place all those months ago. “But there is a way out. You came into Limbo with the rake, which is the tool your mother used to break herself out decades ago.”

  “So I’m not trapped in here?”

  “I can’t imagine anything worse than a soulless Kincaid girl. I would never let you go into Be.” His eyes sparkled with the indulgence I’d missed. “We have to fight for our freedom first, though. I daresay you were born ready for a fight of this magnitude.” He leveled his gaze at me. “We have to kill Pesta and take her broom.”

  I took a step back. “Come again? What makes you think I could do something like that? Just because I killed her Mouthpiece doesn’t mean...”

  “It means you’re the only one she hates enough to let close. She will find you here, and she’ll come after you. We’ll kill her and take the broom.” His voice hushed to a whisper. “With the broom, we can set the souls free. It’s how she grants a few of them clemency to roam the earth inside bears and other beasts. If we have the rake and the broom, we can set the souls to rest, and go back into the world without forfeiting our arms to her.”

  I scoffed, throwing my hands out in exasperation. “And she’s just going to bring the broom into Limbo with her? Come on. I bet it’s buried in Be somewhere, and I’m not going in there to dig it out.”

  Alrik smiled in that paternal way that was hovering between sweet and the patronizing kindness of a much wiser schoolteacher. “She needs it herself to cross over from Be to Limbo.”

  “Oh.” My brain raced to poke at any holes in the plan. “If she can get out, why doesn’t she use the broom to bust herself out instead of using a mouthpiece?”

  Alrik rubbed his fingers on his thumb. “Magic. Lots and lots of magic from all the tribes in Undra locked her in here. It was either that or kill her, and some were opposed to eradicating an entire race. Pesta was the only one willing to work with us. All the other sirens were put to death. She volunteered to let us lock her in here in lieu of dying.”

  “I like when you say fancy words like ‘in lieu’. Makes me stand up straighter.” We were beginning to feel like us again, despite our grim surroundings.

  “I shall attempt only the most intelligent vocabulary, then.” He turned back to face the light. “The broom will work for us, but it only grants her access between her two realms.” We stood in silence a moment while he waited for my brain to catch up. “You must have truly wounded her when you killed the Mouthpiece. I have you here, plus the rake she’s searched decades for. I would think she should be upon us at any moment.”

  “When Harold came to, he told me Pesta entered him through his mouth.” My throat turned into the Sahara, and I worried the words would be stuck inside me forever. My voice was quiet, and I dreaded the person I was to be able to utter such words. “I shot Tonya in the face, so maybe that has something to do with it.”

  Alrik was quiet, letting my words settle instead of trying to cheer them into something they were not. “Your choice was wise for battle, but harsh to carry for a lifetime. I admire you, though I do not envy the decision you had to make. You’re stronger than perhaps even I realized.”

  The melancholy was sealed when I responded with a glib, “Lucky me.”

  “When Tonya came through the portal, I tried to reason with her, but her mind was made up.”

  “How did she even hear about the portal? I’ve never seen a commercial for one.”

  Alrik sighed. “The Mouthpiece. He crossed over and coaxed her to enter the portal not long before he was killed. The poor child was a besotted mess and quite suggestible. She’s been the only human to enter Limbo. The Mouthpiece booked a room at a motel nearby for her, and she waited there a couple days until the portal was complete. She told me she visited the spot every day until it was ready for new tenants.”

  My mouth was hanging open. “I had no idea she was so sad. All over a little house fire?” Picturing Tonya so despondent was awful. To lose a spark like she had? Utter tragedy.

  “And losing her best friend,” Alrik amended. “She wasn’t thinking rationally. She’d told me of her therapist who recommended she listen to the Mouthpiece and go with him. I can only assume he’d been bewitched by a Huldra. He did everything to sway her, including having relations with her.”

 

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