Part Six

Even before she said good morning, Thursy said, "You have to be nicer to Maple."

Yared blinked at her a few times. He was standing in the kitchen of Coalise’s house, feeling disoriented by the funky smells and unfamiliar environment. "What?"

Thursy hadn’t even brushed her hair yet. She took the package of bacon out of his hands and tossed it onto the counter. "There’s sausage in the fridge," she told him, before returning to her original statement, "You have to be nicer to Maple."

"What are you talking about?"

Thursy threw open the refrigerator door. "She came back down to Coalise’s room last night after she talked to you and just started bawling. She was so embarrassed, she kept saying nothing was wrong, and then – get this – she slapped herself."

She set a package of sausage links on the counter and turned on the stove as if she cooked breakfast in this kitchen every morning.

"Slapped herself?" Yared repeated, wondering if everything he said today would be a mystified request for clarification.

"She hit herself in the face. Coalise and I just stared at each other. By the way, Coalise is great. I know that’s a weird thing for me to be saying, but she’s so funny. I really like her. Anyway, after Maple slapped herself, Coalise and I insisted she tell us everything."

Thursy retrieved a frying pan from the first cupboard she opened and put it on the stove. After tearing open the plastic sausage packet with her teeth, she continued. "She’s had this horrible life. Her whole house burned down and her father died and the entire right half of her body was covered in burns, so even though they finally healed she has no self-esteem and no friends. Then her mother had this terrible boyfriend who used to smack her around, and when Maple was fourteen he killed her mom. So Maple was all alone with her little sister, Amber, and she had no money and no family so – and this is the part that blows me away – she became a stripper. She got an internship with a witch who agreed to teach her potions while Amber was at school, and then at night she stripped. They were living in a rented room above a truck factory when Amber got kidnapped. That was Halloween. Maple didn’t even realize she was gone until Galdwyn showed up the next morning with a big chunk of Amber’s hair and said that if Maple didn’t help him he would kill her. She’s been living with him and Tish ever since, and she doesn’t know where he kept Amber because she only got to talk to her once a week on the phone. Then yesterday morning, she woke up and didn’t know where she was or what was happening, and she found a note to herself saying that Amber was dead and she should come find you. Apparently Coalise gave Maple her wallet, she was trying to bribe her to tell Scotch what was happening, so Maple just followed the address on Coalise’s driver’s license and ended up here."

Her moment of rest was filled with the sound of sausage frying. She poked a fork at the meat and then looked at Yared. "She feels awful. She does."

"I know," he said, although he didn’t. He decided he needed to sit down and pulled a chair out from the table.

Thursy glanced at him and then paused. "Are you okay?"

"Uh-huh."

"Yared." She repeated herself very deliberately. "Are you okay?"

He meant to say that he was, but instead, "I miss Mom and Dad," came out.

Thursy turned around completely, forgetting breakfast on the stove. Caught off guard, Yared said, "I mean, they would have known what to-"

She shook her head and he stopped. "I’ve never heard you say that before."

She hovered over him as if afraid that any sudden movement might cause time to roll back and snatch the words up. Stumbling, Yared said, "I don’t know how to do this. I owe Maple an apology I don’t know how to give and I just want Mom to tell me what to say and what to do. I want her to explain how I’m supposed to forgive Maple when I’m so angry at what she’s done that I could kill her with my bare hands, and how I’m supposed to be true to Kiria’s memory when I want to comfort the girl who helped murder her. I just want my parents around to tell me what the right thing is."

By the time he finished Thursy was standing beside his chair, holding his head to her stomach. He felt like a supplicant, like a child, like the idiot he worried he might be, and knew the illness had changed him. He had never wanted to be the weak one and now he found that he needed to be.

"S’okay," Thursy told him, echoing years of Scotch’s comfort.

He felt her fingers quit stroking his hair and her body stiffen. He glanced up. She was looking over him, to the kitchen door.

He jerked to look. Maple was backing out of the doorway, hands fluttering uncertainly by her sides. When her eyes met Yared’s she jolted and then dart into the hallway.

"Oh, shit," Yared said.

"No, it’s all right."

"No it isn’t," he told her, jumping to his feet. This had gone too far. She might understand missing their parents, but she didn’t understand the mess he was in with Maple. "Don’t you get it? This isn’t you and Osprey, or Scotch and Coalise. It isn’t a blessing for me and Maple, it’s a really sick joke."

He started for the door and Thursy grabbed his arm just above the elbow. He tried to shrug her off but she didn’t budge. He put serious effort into pulling away and found that her grip was like granite. He threw his entire body away from her and she didn’t even have to shift her weight to hold him.

Yared stared at her. She shrugged. "I’m really strong now, I’ll explain later. But listen to me for a second: You have to find a way to forgive her."

"I can’t."

"Of course you can. And you have to. It doesn’t go away, not even in another life. She’s bound to you, like I am, she’s family, she’s pack-"

"Don’t say that," he nearly shouted at her. "It’s...it’s blasphemy, Thursy."

"It’s not blasphemy if you love her."

Her green eyes were the color of olives; he didn’t think he had ever seen her more serious. He forced his anger down.

"Even if I could forgive her," he said, "nothing I could ever do would make her believe it."

Then he walked out, because he didn’t think he could stand talking about it any more, and Thursy let him go. He hid in Coalise’s stepfather’s lampshade workroom until he heard he heard everyone else assemble in the kitchen.

Maple drove. He sat directly behind her chair where he knew she couldn’t see him if he slouched down. Thursy and Coalise sat in the back end, facing the road behind them, and talked about television. Scotch gave up trying to engage Yared in conversation and instead asked Osprey to hand him the driver’s manual from the glove compartment, which he spent the ride reading. Osprey listened to NPR and grimaced.

Yared tried not to think. He closed his eyes and willed the potholes to knock all thoughts out of his head, but it didn’t work. Either the government was spending unprecedented time on highway maintenance or else Maple was an excellent driver.

When his parents died, no one had wanted to believe it. Mia and Alus were a life force in the pack. But after three days of searching, it was clear that nothing had made it out of the flood alive.

Yared had been in his puma form because he didn’t want to have a face. Prowling the living room, Thursy trembling on the couch and reaching out every few minutes to run her hand along his tail, all he had thought about was himself and how much he needed his parents.

Simone had been the one who finally called off the search. Yared refused to believe it until she sat down in front of him, right there in the living room with Law and Narsa and Jinchae and Thursy watching, and offered him her throat.

When he froze, no one said a word. No one offered encouragement or an explanation. If his parents had been there, they would have done that. His eyes met Thursy’s and she shrugged helplessly, and in that moment that stretched a decade – that somehow, he was still living – he realized he would have to be a leader for his pack.

His tongue lashed out and he dragged it over the skin of Simone’s neck, leaving a long, damp mark behind.

Thursy had never understood what taking her mother’s place meant. She was content to adore everybody and ignore their faults as much as possible. For a long time, Yared had convinced himself that was all that needed to be done. He had followed Thursy’s example.

Sitting in the Echo, watching the Oregon mountains close in around the station wagon, he began to understand that he had never really claimed his place. Symbolism didn’t matter, action did. He had a chance now to save the pack and, whether this was a position he wanted to be in or not, he was obligated to them.

The Echo slowed down. High noon was upon them as they climbed out and gathered themselves at the end of the driveway.

"They’ll be on the lookout for us now," Osprey said. "Is there a way we can sneak around the circle of houses to get to Scotch’s?"

"Sure," Scotch said. "No problem."

"Where are you going?" Thursy asked Maple, seeing the lamia girl pulling a canvas bag and the box of potions onto her shoulder.

"Galdwyn is expecting me back," she said quietly, her thick bangs obscuring her eyes. "I’ll try to distract him."

"And when I call the pack together," Yared said, "you’ll tell the truth about what happened?"

She nodded without looking at him.

"Good," Osprey said. "Then let’s go."

"Wait a second," Yared broke in as they began moving. "What is Coalise doing here?"

"I’ve evidence," she told him. "Everybody assumed that Thursy bit me, but Maple says it was Galdwyn, so we can match his teeth up with the marks in my shoulder. More evidence against him."

Apparently she thought that the explanation was as weak as Yared did, because she added, "Besides, I don’t want to miss all the action."

He decided not to argue. If Coalise wanted to risk her brittle human neck, that was her decision. Contrary to Thursy’s opinion, she was not pack and he was not obligated to protect her.

"Whatever," he said. At the other end of their group, Maple turned away and began walking in the opposite direction.

Yared almost spoke to her. He almost called out, Be careful. He wanted to watch her pause and nod before she went on.

But everyone was watching, and he doubted Maple wanted to hear it, so he just started walking in the other direction.

It wasn’t the best of homecomings.

There was a moment of stunned silence when the group entered Scotch’s house through the back door and found Kvyn, Gedmark, and Ramble sitting around the kitchen table. Then Ramble sprang to his feet and hissed at Coalise, who nearly backed through a window trying to get away, and Scotch threw a nearby pot at his father. Nobody would touch Thursy and Osprey’s gaze was venomous.

"Shut up," Yared barked. No one had been talking, but they all quit moving. Scotch, his arms closed protectively around Coalise, looked at him with surprise.

Yared dropped his voice to a whisper. "We’re going down to the basement now," he told them. They were least likely to be overheard there. "Kvyn, Gedmark, and Ramble go first. Then Osprey, Thursy, me, Scotch, and Coalise. Nobody touch anybody else or I’ll break your neck."

Despite their obvious shock at Yared’s harshness, they all followed his orders.

In the basement, surrounded by boxes of decorations and old, moth-eaten skins, they formed a rough circle. "Okay," Yared said. "Talk, but keep your voices down."

Immediately, Kvyn said to Thursy, "You’re a bogeyman."

Inexpressible hurt flashed in Thursy’s eyes, but then she managed a smile and said, "Beats being a Republican."

Coalise laughed. No one else did. The sound rang for a few beats before she abruptly silenced herself, by which time everyone else was chuckling, not at the joke but at her. Ramble got out, "Are you okay?" to his son and a conversation slowly began.

Thursy was wounded but forgiving. Scotch was unexpectedly furious with his parents. Kvyn and Ramble tried to justify their actions, Gedmark just smoked cigarette after cigarette in a hazy silence. It took a while to convince them that Coalise was not A. A threat, or B. Completely stupid – which Yared had not been entirely certain of up until this point – and the human girl made the wise decision not to mention that their son was in love with her.

The entire story eventually came out. When Ramble realized that he could redirect his righteous anger to Galdwyn and perhaps regain his son, he jumped on the bandwagon, and Kvyn was quick to follow. Gedmark said nothing and her expression was impossible to read behind the mask of smoke.

Scotch couldn’t be angry at anyone for too long. He tried to soften his fury toward Gedmark by saying, "Mom, do you mind not smoking? Coalise has lungs like paper maché.

She frowned in response, stubbed out her cigarette on top of an old dryer, and said, "I want Galdwyn dead."

All eyes turned to her, but she gave no explanation.

"I agree," Osprey said.

"So do I," Kvyn said.

Yared looked at Thursy. "What about you?"

She shrugged. "I’m a bogeyman. I don’t get a vote."

"You do tonight." When only silence replied, he said, "After Kiria, there’s no one Galdwyn’s hurt more, and her death was at least quick. So tell me if you want him dead."

The weight of the decision turned Thursy’s eyes Paris green. She swallowed and said, "I don’t want him dead. But you can take his legs."

Out of the corner of his eye, Yared saw Coalise wince. "Scotch?"

After a moment’s thought, he said, "I’ll back Thursy."

Ridiculous, Yared thought, but he didn’t say it. "Ramble?"

"Dead."

"Coalise?" She hesitated, and he said, "Your soul is inextricably bound to Scotch’s. You get a vote."

Tonight, everybody got a vote. He was in charge now.

"He did take a bite out of my shoulder," she reflected. "But I can’t imagine that he would try anything after getting his legs cut off, so I’ll go that way."

"And I vote we kill him," Yared finished. "That’s five to three."

"What about Maple?" Thursy asked. "You know how she’d vote."

"Six to three then." He was loath to publicly admit the importance of her opinion, but he knew Thursy would insist.

"You win," Scotch said.

"This isn’t a democracy," Yared told him pointedly. "Simone and I will decide what happens. I’ll just make sure those of you against get heard."

"Maybe we should kill Maple, too," Gedmark said.

A startling pain filled Yared’s chest. So sharp he couldn’t speak, couldn’t even remember what they had been talking about. He almost gasped out loud.

"Not Maple," Osprey said.

"Why not?"

Yared’s right hand crept behind him to hold onto the wall. He heard Osprey said uncomfortably, "Her grandmother was my mother’s sister. Maple is my kin."

The room blurred and the muscles in his stomach cringed. He felt like he had just been kicked very hard in the gut. Even his spine was bruised.

"Maple’s a victim," Thursy said, "just as much as I am. He kidnapped her sister."

"Kidnapping isn’t a crime," Kvyn pointed out.

"It isn’t?" Coalise asked.

"Not around here," Scotch told her. "But it still proves Maple didn’t want to do what she did."

"Of course she didn’t," Yared whispered, but no one heard him. His head was swimming and his heart was beating four hundred times a minute.

"If anybody tries to hurt Maple," Thursy said, "they’re going to have to go through me and Osprey. And bogeymen are very, very strong."

"Well, that’s the end of that discussion," Coalise said.

"What about Tish?" Ramble asked.

"That’s for me and Simone to decide," Yared told him. Speaking sent streaks of pain into his chest.

"What’s wrong?" Thursy asked, dropping her voice so that no one else could hear. She was standing beside him and reached for his hand.

"I don’t know. My chest hurts."

She touched his breastbone, feeling with her fingers for bumps or broken bones. "You cracked your ribs when you feel down the ravine."

"They were healed this morning, and this is higher up."

He moved her hand to his shoulder blade, but she shook her head. "I don’t feel anything. Did you hit yourself?"

"No."

"Could it be panic? Where else does it hurt?"

"My stomach."

"Yared, it sounds like panic. Take a deep breath."

He tried, but the pain simply tore down into his lungs.

Thursy cupped his face in her hands. "Don’t worry," she said. "Osprey and I will watch over Maple. If anyone tries to hurt her, we’ll be there."

He tried to nod and there was an explosion between his temples. He was about to cry out when the pain suddenly slid away, leaving only footprints and echoes. "Yared?" Thursy asked.

"I’m okay now." He didn’t know if that was true or not, but he stood straighter and said to the group, who had been talking among themselves, "Here’s the plan. Gedmark, Kvyn, and Ramble are going to go out one at a time and talk to the rest of the pack. Have them meet at the stump at six o’clock. Nobody says anything to Galdwyn on threat of death, we’ll bring him out once everyone is assembled."

"What are you going to do then?" Gedmark asked.

The pain in his chest had become a dull, hard ache, like a lump of lead. "Whatever it takes," he said.