"And the punishment was to turn you into a statue?" I blinked. "Why a statue?"
"Not at first. There were other punishments before that." Jed clenched his jaw, and I could see that he would never tell us about that. "And then it amused the queen to turn me into a statue to decorate her gardens. When she couldn't bear to see even the sight of my stone face, she moved me here, and I've been in the Dead End town square ever since."
Susan whistled. "You know, I'd heard the rumor that your statue just appeared one day, but I always took it with a grain of salt. There are so many rumors, myths, and lies about this town and its residents and history …"
"But again, sorry to interrupt and keep beating on this point," I said, barely able to contain my frustration. "If that dagger really ended up in Dead End in that willow tree, how would all the kids who play there all the time not find it? Or any of the many, many Dead Enders who have magic? Wouldn't they feel it? And if anybody everhadfound a magical dagger in that tree, everybody at Beau's Diner would have known about it by lunchtime. I just find it hard to believe that it was ever there."
"It's a place to start," Jack said, his voice calm even when his expression was anything but. "Tomorrow morning, first thing, we go check out that tree. I know it's a ridiculous long shot, but it might still be there."
"We should gonow," Logan said. "Take all the lights. We need to explore the tree and do it now. There's a deadline, and the sooner we figure this out, the sooner—"
"We can help your sister," I said, not without sympathy. "But it's a bad idea. First, it's—"
"Dead End," Susan said. "We do that, and we're surrounded by people demanding to know what we're doing about this threat, offering 'helpful' suggestions, and getting in the way. My phone and the station's phone have been blowing up since this happened. I finally had to turn it off."
"Oh, crap," I said, eyeing my car. I'd forgotten about my phone when I saw Alejandro, and Aunt Ruby and Uncle Mike were bound to have called me a thousand times. Not to mention everyone else I know.
I took the chicken's way out and decided I'd check it later.
"And we're likely to miss anything thatisthere in the dark," Jack added. "Let's get some sleep and head over there at dawn."
Susan stood, brushing off her pants. "I'm going to have to call a town meeting. I'll call Lorraine to activate the phone tree to have everyone who wants to hear about this meet in the square at eight. The five of us, and the mayor, if she wants, will meet at dawn. See you at six a.m.—"
"Dawn will be five forty-five," Logan said. He shrugged when we all looked at him. "Time is an eagle thing. Sunset will be at seven-fifteen. I don't know how we know, we just do."
"Okay, five forty-five," Susan gritted out. "And let's hope we find that dagger, or at least figure out some way to find it. I'm guessing this queen won't be amenable to negotiation?"
Jed shuddered. "I tried that in 1847, and she hung me upside down from her balcony."
I blinked. "Well, that's—"
"For ayear." His breath caught, and his expression chilled me to the bone.
"I'm so very sorry," I whispered.
He glanced over at me and then studied my face as if searching for something. Before I had a chance to respond to the pain and desperation I saw in his eyes, he looked up at Jack with a shaky smile. "You've got a wonderful woman here, Jack. Why haven't you married her yet?"
Then, before I could stop him, Jedediah Shepherd reached over and grabbed my hand.
And I had to watch him die—all six times.
14
Tess
Jed died.
And he died and died and died.
Because the Fae queen kept bringing him back.
She threw a bolt of lightning at him.
And brought him back.
She drowned him.
And brought him back.
