"Why did you do that?"
He shrugged. "I figured maybe the shirt would give you a buffer from the Fae magic in the box, which might be what's making your head hurt. You first got the headache after being close to the runes in my well, remember? Maybe this is all related."
"I've wondered that myself," I confessed. "We have a piece of jewelry that must be Fae; it has the same runes as the ones in your well engraved into it. And it gave me a major blast of pain when I picked it up."
His face turned grim. "We'll deal with that once we figure the rest of this out. For now, let's give this to Jed and see what happens."
I put a hand on his arm. "I'm worried too, but we can figure it all out once we save Dead End."
He nodded, and we returned to the truck, only to find Jed asleep, looking older than ever. Jack opened the passenger door and placed the shirt-wrapped box on his grandfather's lap, and then gently put a hand on Jed's shoulder.
"Jed? Granddad?"
Jed's eyes opened, and he blinked several times. "Jack? Did I fall asleep? I'm just so tired."
"The box is in that shirt on your lap," I told him. "Maybe put your hands on the wood and see what happens?"
I stood back a good five feet from the truck and watched as he did just that. For a long moment, nothing happened. But then a golden glow rose from the bundled box and spilled over Jed's body and face, burnishing every inch of him in its luminescence for a space of nearly a minute.
When the light subsided, Jed was transformed.
He gave us an open-mouthed stare. "It feels—it felt even more powerful than before. I can't describe … it's like it changed me. I can't even imagine how powerful the dagger is, if the mere box can perform miracles like this."
I worried about him thinking Fae magic was a "miracle," since the Fae seemed to give with one hand and take back with the other, but in that moment, it certainly looked like a miracle had happened to Jed. A spike of pain in my head stopped me when I started toward the truck.
"Jack? Is it possible that we put the box in the back? Just for now," I hurried to say, when Jed tightened his arms around it. "My head won't bear being in the cab with it. Or you can drop me at home for my car."
Jed looked—really looked—at me and immediately handed the fabric-wrapped bundle to his grandson. "Yes, of course we'll put it in the back. My rejuvenation should last for some time, and you must not suffer pain for it."
"Thank you so much," I said fervently.
Jack took the box and locked it in the back of the truck, and then we headed off to Mr. Washington's house. I kept sneaking looks at Jed from the corner of my eye; it really was remarkable what a difference the magic had made.
"It's like a real-life fountain of youth," I marveled, when he caught me. "I'm sorry to stare, but it's almost unbelievable. If only this worked on everyone, we'd be able to reverse the effects of aging! Maybe stop disease! Maybe—"
"Maybe reverse the effects of aging on a surface level, while they actually increase on a cellular level to people's internal organs," Jack said dryly. "The Fae give no benefit to humans that doesn't harm them too, or at least none that I've ever heard about. The same queen who killed my grandfather over and over and over isn't about to give up a fountain of youth miracle cure to humanity."
I slumped in my seat, because he was probably right.
On the other hand …
"I can be a human dowsing rod!"
Jack braked at a stop sign and turned on his blinker to go right before glancing over at me. "A what?"
"A dowsing rod," Jed said, excitement spreading across his face. "Tess, that's brilliant."
Jack drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "Will someone explain this to me?"
"A dowsing rod is—or was; do they still use them?" Jed asked.
I nodded. "I think so, but rarely. And not here in the U.S. so much."
"A dowsing rod itself is as simple as a forked stick. The actual power behind it is the person doing the dowsing. A sensitive, or dowser, can find underground water sources by holding the dowsing rod out in front of them. When they walk over water hidden even deep underground, the stick will jerk in their hands and point down to the ground," Jed explained.
"A stick. That finds water," Jack drawled. "Okay. Sure. Why not? But what does that have to do with Tess?"
"My headache, don't you see? It has something to do with the Fae magic, and especially the magical resonance from that box that held the dagger. If we travel every inch of Dead End, street by street by street, we might narrow down where it is by where my head hurts!"
