Alice tried to keep her face straight, but it was hard not to smile. In fact, it was hard not to do a dance right there in the middle of the shop out of pure happiness.
“Yes, just a second ago. She went that way, down the sidewalk in a hurry.”
Dione sprang to her feet, her face flushed with triumph. “She thinks she can outrun me. Hah.”
The goddess ran for the door without a backwards glance at Alice, slamming the door open, making the bell ring furiously. Seconds later she was running down the sidewalk and then out of sight, and Alice held her breath for a few seconds longer, almost expecting the woman to realize her mistake.
But nothing happened. No one came flying back down the sidewalk, and the shop was empty and silent.
It was empty. No, that wasn’t right.
Alice scrambled to her feet, heart beating wildly again. Where were the others? Gaia had made her first wish come true, Dione had forgotten who she was immediately, but the second one…it had to have happened. The others had to be here somewhere.
“Azura?” Alice walked into the back of the shop. All the lights were on, in fact…it looked like they had left only seconds before, just popped out to get lunch or something. There was a cup of tea on the back desk, still steaming, and the chair was pulled out where Azura had been sitting.
“Altair?” Alice’s voice was shaking as she made her way up the stairs to the apartments. She entered hers first, breath catching in her throat when she saw the lights were on. Hurrying inside, her heart sank as soon as she looked around. It was silent and empty, there was no Emmy curled up on the couch, in fact, she thought she’d probably never see the little cat again. Aunt Ruby was gone for good this time.
There was nobody else there either, the place was silent. Wandering into her bedroom she found herself frowning, staring around at the mess. She hadn’t left it like that, even in the chaos of what had happened. The red lipstick message was still blazed across the wall, and the window was still open, the breeze from outside stirring the curtains, but she’d expected all of that. The strange thing was that her dresser drawers were all open, as if someone had rummaged through them. Alice stepped forward, pulling in a sharp breath when she realized the photograph of the Halfmoon Society was gone.
Natasha. Somehow she knew it had to be her. She hadn’t come with the others when they’d charged in to rescue her, she’d been left at the shop. No doubt the halfmoon order photo would show up on the girl’s blog. Alice ground her teeth together and slammed the drawer shut. Well, it hardly mattered now, did it? Half the order had likely died in the building collapse. She hadn’t even thought about them when she’d made her wish. It was incredibly selfish of her.
But would Gaia have honoured her wish if she’d asked to bring all those people back? She wasn’t sure. Still, she felt the guilt begin to bloom in her stomach and knew it would be something she’d have to deal with for a long time.
But now wasn’t the time for regrets. She still had to find the others. Dread was making her stomach turn and her hands shake. Maybe Gaia hadn’t brought them back. What would she do if she’d been brought back by herself?
She stomped back out into the living room, past the kitchen, which was also empty, and slammed the door open. The last place to look was Azura’s suite. If they weren’t in there, then they hadn’t been brought back with her. If they weren’t there, it meant they were dead.
In the hallway it was dead silent. No voices came from behind the door of Azura’s apartment, and tears began to cloud her vision. If only she heard Altair’s loud voice, or Gabriel and Maya arguing from behind the door. But there was nothing.
Her hands shook as she tried the doorknob, expecting it to be locked. The door swung open with a slow creak, and Alice took a deep breath and stepped inside.
The apartment was dark and silent. Alice walked in further, stomach full of lead. There was only the faint glow of orange light coming from the kitchen, a night light in the shape of a lantern that Azura always kept on at night, since she got up to make tea when she couldn’t sleep.
Alice turned the corner, bracing herself to see an empty kitchen and beyond that, a dark and silent bedroom. She stopped abruptly, socks sliding on the tile floor.
Azura and Shakra were sitting at the table, eyes wide in the dark. Maya and Gabriel were sitting on either side of them, all of the totally silent, all of them sitting perfectly still. In the middle of the kitchen, Altair was standing, his expression shocked and dazed. No one said anything, and Alice had a moment of panic so extreme that her vision narrowed to a pin-point and she thought she was about to pass out. The goddess had brought them back wrong somehow. She hadn’t specified that they had to have souls, or that they couldn’t be insane, or that they had to come back with their voices.
Gaia had tricked her. What had the goddess done?
Then Altair blinked, looked straight at her and said, “What the hell was that about?”
Ten minutes later, the lights were on, and Azura had made a fire in the tiny stove in the living room. The kettle was boiling on the stove, and Altair had insisted that there weren’t enough chairs, and kept pulling Alice onto his lap. For once, Alice didn’t protest this in front of the others. She couldn’t hold on to him tight enough. Feeling the scratch of his whiskers on his neck, his hair under her fingers, his arms tighten around her whenever she shifted, was a constant reminder that he was alive. That they all were alive. She had nearly lost them. She had lost them. And now here they were.
Maya and Gabriel had moved so that they were sitting side by side, and Maya kept reaching out to touch him, brushing her fingers over the top of his hand, or grasping his sleeve, as if she were afraid he might disappear. Alice remembered how she had screamed his name after the collapse of the building, but she didn’t ask what had happened. She could imagine it well enough.
In any case, they weren’t fighting anymore, and the way Maya was looking at Gabriel, with a mixture of relief and rapture, it was evident that Gabriel’s worries were over. They wouldn’t be ending their relationship anytime soon. Alice tightened her grip on Altair’s arm. It was funny how losing someone could put everything in perspective. She should be furious with Altair, for the hairbrush thing, for letting that thing into her house, and starting all of this, but it was hard to be angry with him when she was just so utterly relieved he was alive.
Azura brought a tray of tea to the table, setting it down on top of the glass surface, leaning down to squeeze Alice’s shoulder gently after she did. “You clearly saved us somehow, Alice. We were brought back, a little confused naturally, but all in one piece. I have no idea how anyone would get Gaia to do that.”
Shakra nodded, her dark eyes searching Alice’s face. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“It was Aunt Ruby.” Alice felt a pang of sadness. That was all that was missing here. If only there had been a way to bring Ruby with her too. It would have completed this perfect reunion. “She somehow knew all of this was going to happen, so she put a plan in place.” Alice continuing talking, taking sips of the hot tea between sentences. It was a long story to tell, but the others were hanging on every word. When she was finished, there was a moment of silence that hung in the air.
Azura set her mug down. “We are lucky that you are wise beyond your years.”
Alice felt her cheeks go red. “But not that wise. My second wish isn’t good enough. I didn’t realize it until now, but what about you? The gods know who all of you are, that you’re with me.”
“We can get help from the magical community,” Shakra suggested. “Spread a rumour that you’ve retired from the store, that you’re no longer working here. The rest of the community hate the gods, they’ll be happy to help.”
“They’re not attracted to our power,” Azura said gently. “They’re attracted to you, and since they forget you right away, they’ll forget the power as well. You won’t attract any new gods.”
“But now Dione has it in for me, she’s holding a grudge.”
“We move from city to city, and nobody wants to give the gods information, but the time she figures out where we are, we’ll be gone.”
“It’s not enough.” Alice frowned. “I’ll still worry—”
Altair crossed his arms over hers, pulling her back when she tried to get up. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. There’s nothing we can’t handle. So just relax. Her point is you won’t attract any new trouble, which is a huge advantage.”
Gabriel linked his fingers into Maya’s, grinning around at all of them. “We’re all alive, we’re all well. There’s nothing to worry about, Alice. We should be celebrating.”
Alice chewed on her bottom lip. “I know you’re right, I just feel like…I don’t know…”
“Like there’s always something you should be battling?” Shakra smiled. “That feeling will fade when the trouble does. Trust me, I know. Allow yourself this victory.”
“What about the Halfmoon Order? Did any of them make it out?”
“We don’t know any more about it then you do, but I can send someone out to look,” Azura said. “It’s best if we lay low, and move as soon as we possibly can. If Adonis still knows the location of the shop, staying here could be asking for trouble.”
Alice’s hand drifted to her pocket, which was empty. She’d completely forgotten about the life line that she’d had. It was gone, which meant Gaia had taken it from her when she’d been unconscious in the bed after she’d first fallen.
“I think he has bigger things to worry about. But you’re right, we should move tonight, right after we find out what happened to the order. If any of them are hurt, I want to help.”
Azura stood up and collected a handful of threads from the ceiling, working them into a complicated pattern that quickly took on a peculiar shape. Alice wasn’t sure what it was until it the older woman passed a hand over it one last time, revealing a small, electric blue robin sitting in her palm.
“Go to the building down the street, the one which lies in ruins, collect the information you find there and return to me quickly,” Azura whispered. She released the bird, which hurled itself out the kitchen window with a high-pitched squeak and vanished out of sight.
Alice felt her eyes go wide. “Now that is a spell you’ll have to teach me.”