Had they encountered another Fae artifact? Was he under its spell?
"You okay, Shepherd?" Susan studied him until he blinked and awareness slid back into his eyes.
"Yeah. Sorry." He offered nothing else.
I bit my lip and focused on Jed, who was leaning heavily against the wall but had a small grin playing around his lips.
"Everybody's fine," he said, winking at me. "Boy just realized a few truths on the drive over."
Jack's gaze turned unfriendly when he trained it on his granddad, who just laughed.
"Now," Jed said, looking around him. "Tell me about this wonderful general store and then let's go get some lunch."
It wasn't quite eleven, but okay. Like grandfather, like grandson. I resisted the urge to giggle like Shelley. Wow, the pressure must really be getting to me.
"I'd also like to see this box you found in the tree," Jack's granddad said in a more serious tone. "I might get a feel for something after all those years with the Fae."
"That's a great idea," I said, wanting to smack myself on the forehead for not thinking of it. "Maybe you'll come up with a clue about what we should do next!"
Eleanor, meanwhile, was turning her head from Jack to Jed and then back again, her mouth falling open. "I—you really are his grandfather, aren't you?"
Jed, who hadn't noticed her behind the counter, took one look at Eleanor and pushed himself off the wall, bowing slightly. "Well, hello, lovely lady. Yes, I have that honor. Jedediah Shepherd, very happily at your service. And you are?"
He walked over, took Eleanor's hand, bowed again, and kissed it.
"She's engaged," I said wryly.
"El—El—" Eleanor's mouth was moving, but she didn't seem to be able to manage to make words happen. And she definitely wasn't taking her hand back. Well, I had to admit that Jed was a very handsome man. Bill, her fiancé, was a really nice guy, but Jed had those green eyes and those farmer muscles … I figured I should probably help her out.
"Eleanor Wolf, meet Jedediah. Jed, hands off. Eleanor's engaged to be married," I said lightly, not wanting to embarrass anybody.
Jed flicked a wicked grin at me, but he released her hand and sighed somewhat dramatically. "I'm always too late for the truly beautiful women. They're either engaged or able to throw me in jail."
Susan rolled her eyes, but I caught her quick smile before she put her professional face back on.
I put theClosedsign on the door and locked it, since there weren't any customers in the shop, anyway. Then I led the way to the back, nudged Jed toward a chair, and opened the vault. As the door swung open, my headache roared back like the freight train that used to race past Dead End when I was a little girl. Thunder shook my skull, and I backed away, closing the door again.
"I think I'll sit this one out. Fae magic is definitely a trigger," I whispered, backing all the way to the door to the shop. "Jack, get the box out and show it to Jed."
The pain in my head suddenly made me regret not asking for that oxygen tank, after all. But the farther I got from the vault and its jeweled inhabitant—and the idea that the box was at least partly sentient, like the music box, wouldn't go away—the better my head felt.
"I don't know whyyoudon't make my head hurt," I said to the music box, which had been uncharacteristically quiet since Eleanor had arrived.
Leaving on a Jet Plane
"Really? You're John Denver-ing me?" I put my hands on my hips and then realized I'd just yelled at a box.
The music box must have realized it too, because the song stuttered to a stop and the box vanished.
This time, I really did yell. "Argh!"
Jack burst through the door and immediately went into "where's the danger" mode, except … It wasn't Jack.
My mouth fell open. "Who areyou? How many Shepherds are going to show up in Dead End this week?"
This Shepherd—thisnotJack Shepherd—tilted his head, his brows drawing together. "Tess? Have you forgotten me so soon? Or has the pain in your head driven you to madness? We can still find leeches—"
"Jed?"
