"And you and Tess of the Callahan must visit us sometime and let us host you. I am sure … Frazzle … will be pleased to see you."
I nodded, too tired to argue. "Thank—I mean, that is most gracious of you."
Viviette threw back her head and laughed. "You're learning, child. You're learning. And I shall take the thief with me."
She pointed at Albert, and he floated up and through the portal on his own. I didn't care enough to ask what she planned to do with him. Maybe he'd be her next garden statue. At least he'd gotten what he wanted—he was going to the Fae lands.
Just before Iona followed the queen through the portal, she flashed an impish smile at me. "Interesting dreams, Tess. A salad monster? Really?"
And then she was gone, and the portal winked out of existence as if it had never been there.
Jack and Aunt Ruby looked at me.
"What was she talking about, Tess?" Aunt Ruby asked.
"Never mind," I said firmly. "Let's go to my place and have a pool party."
We climbed up the ladder the firefighters handed down to us, now that they could. Susan told us that a magical force field had kept everybody from following us down into the underground space. Probably the dagger's doing.
I was too tired to figure it out, but then I thought of something else. "Aunt Ruby. What was that key to the city you gave the queen? It looked familiar."
She started laughing. "Oh. That was the key to the padlock on the feed shed."
We were all still laughing when Uncle Mike and Shelley reached us.
After a lot of hugs and reassurance, I repeated my invitation. "My place. Pool party."
We were halfway to the car before Uncle Mike's voice rang out. "Tess? Since when do you have a pool?"
38
Tess
In the end, it was me, Jack, Jed, Uncle Mike, Aunt Ruby, and Shelley at my house, instead of half the town, like I'd originally planned. After Susan sent out the text blast that Dead End was safe, I think everybody wanted to stay home, unpack, and hug the people they loved.
I called Molly and briefly filled her in, but although I could tell she wanted to rush right over, she also understood how exhausted I was, so we settled on Friday for movie night, now that Friday evening was something to look forward to again instead of dread.
Alejandro even texted and told us they'd found the unicorns, safe and sound, and he sent me a video of a baby unicorn that Shelley forwarded to her phone and played again and again.
Susan called and said that the schoolkids all demanded to still be allowed to go to Orlando. Since everything was prepaid, and everyone was in shock about Mr. Washington, the Dead End school system went with it. Shelley came right out and asked Jack at one point if he'd been the anonymous donor, but he started telling her a story about "some rotten kid who'd put a live pig in the principal's office," and she giggled so hard she forgot about the donor question.
I just sighed and wondered what a budding witch who could levitate heavy stone could do with principal's offices and livestock, but decided that was a problem for another day.
We swam and ate—food and the cake Jack mysteriously produced—and relaxed and told each other everything that had happened to each of us. Some of it we didn't tell until after Shelley had worn herself out and fallen asleep with Lou on my couch.
Some of it was hard to tell.
Some of it was brutal.
I confessed the cold cruelty that had come over me in that underground chamber, and Jack held me while I cried a little. When I wiped my eyes, Uncle Mike gave me a steady look.
"You stood for the ones you love, Tess. And you came out of that awful experience—remember, it was just this morning that you were caught in an explosion—you came out of all of that with your soul intact. I believe the fact that you're questioning your actions means that you're still a good person and always will be."
Jack shrugged. "Sometimes being a good person means making hard choices and living with the stain on your soul, so that the people you love don't have to."
That made sense, but it was also hard to hear.
Jed had taken Viviette up on her offer to stay in Dead End to live out the rest of his life. He'd walked out into my backyard earlier, held the dagger box up in the air, and called out his decision to the sky and trees. Moments later, a golden light had surrounded him for a full minute. When the light vanished, it took the dagger box with it.
