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Exhausted as I was, it seemed I couldn’t let sleep claiered out of bed and drew a hot bath, stripping off wai perched on the side of the tub, reaching out one cautious paw to bat at drops of water dripping fro

Ithe my tail back and forth in the ater Bit by bit, rieve for Jojo in all her ridiculous, foulmouthed valor If I hadn’t screwed up, Jojo would still be alive Hell, I hadn’t even known fairies could be killed Not like that

But Jojo had made her choice, too I hadn’t asked for her help, I hadn’t proer this time If she’d offered, I would have told her to stay far, far away froht

Her choice, her sacrifice

"I’’s talis around ht he would understand

The water was tepid by the time I finally hauled myself out of the bath, dried off with a towel, pulled on a clean tank top, and crawled under the covers

According to the glowing red nu Midnight had long since coone Halloas over and I’d beaten its deadline with time to spare Downstairs, I could hear the sounds of Mrs Browne bustling about efficiently in her kitchen Froh the vents, I could tell she’d already fired up her ovens for the first batch of the day I was one of the few people who’d ever been privileged to witness Mrs Browne at work in her bakery

Oh, in case I haven’t mentioned the obvious, Mrs Browne isn’t human Mrs Browne is a brownie

Eyes closed, I inhaled deeply It s, it smelled like comfort, it smelled like normalcy; at least in Pemkohere Mrs Browne bakes her supernaturally delicious crusty bread, ly flaky pastries, and cinna

Curled against wai purred loudly in approval

All ith the world

The gate between the real and the dead was closed I was Hel’s liaison, and I had kept ht

For about a week afterward, Pe with reporters

To no one’s surprise, Aed to spin the Tall Man’s return frohs into an enthralling,over the finer points of how and why it had occurred

At my insistence, she also made it clear that the episode was over and that Pehost hunters had come to an end

Okay, she may have hinted that the cycle could repeat itself in another generation, but I could live with that

Although hostbusting footage, not to mention a handful of spectators who’d had the presence of mind to document the battle with the Tall Man, I kept a low profile So did Cody, , and Stefan, whose skill with a broadsas drawing a fair amount of attention in historical reenactment circles In fact, everyone in the eldritch community kept a low profile Whatever else may be true of us, none of us are e, Lurinedifference between being i outed by Gawker

Anyway

Once it was apparent that Pe put, interest waned and the toas left in peace again

The coven took up a collection to buy Sinclair a ticket to Kingston to lay his grandfather’s spirit to rest He was gone for four days and quiet upon his return, saying only that it was done and there would be noor dead

I’ll admit it, there was a part of me that felt a little cheated by the lack of resolution in my own confrontation with Letitia and Emmeline Pal all the way to Jamaica with Sinclair, even if I could have afforded a ticket, which I couldn’t, but it would have been nice to know that they were s, and pride was one of the Seven Deadlies I had to tread carefully there I reh to have kept Pemkowet safe, that I’d made mistakes, that a member of the eldritch co of Jojo, after Sinclair returned froether to do the same for the fairy’s re of joe-pye weed to the le of fairies with cowslip dew last suenous plants and wildflowers Now the rass and the thin stalks of weeds crunching underfoot I stood shivering in my leather jacket while Sinclair cleared a patch of earth He dug a hole in the dirt with his bare hands, laying the ragged bit of joe-pye weed in it and covering it tenderly Side by side, we gazed at his handiwork

"Maybe she’s not gone for good," Sinclair said "Maybe she’ll return in the spring Do you think?"