The Price Guide to the Occult(20)

“You notice me,” Nor grumbled.

Savvy turned back and smiled, the silver hoop in her eyebrow glinting merrily in the glow of the candles and fairy lights at the bottom of the stairs. “Yeah, but I’m nosy. I notice everything.”





Nor followed Savvy into the dining room and saw that a few of her guests had already arrived — including Reed. There was a part of her that was afraid that if she took even one step into the room, he’d disappear. Which would have been such a shame. He makes the rest of the world look like a watercolor painting, Nor thought. All blurred lines and swirling colors. She grimaced.

“Oh, get a grip, Nor,” she muttered, and forced herself down the stairs.

Fortunately for her, Reed didn’t disappear. Instead, he came over to her and fished a small box out of one of his pockets. “I didn’t know what to get you,” he explained, handing it to her.

“You didn’t have to get me anything,” Nor said.

“Yeah, he did,” Grayson called from across the room. He helped himself to a candied fig, then added, “What kind of loser shows up to a birthday party without a gift?”

“What did you bring?” Savvy shot back at Grayson.

“Nothing,” he admitted candidly, coming to stand with them. “But I’m not trying to impress anyone.”

Reed’s cheeks turned pink, and he smacked his brother on the side of the head. “Shut up, Grayson.”

Rubbing his head, Grayson looked over at Savvy and said, “He changed his shirt, like, four times.” Reed clocked him again. “Stop!”

Savvy rolled her eyes and pointed at the box in Nor’s hand. “Open it,” she ordered.

After pulling off the top of the box, Nor peered inside at what looked like — a bronzed crow’s foot? “Oh.” She was unsure what to say. She picked it up and examined it more closely. The talons were curled inward, clutching a translucent stone. “Thank you?”

“What is that thing?” Grayson exclaimed. He shook his head at Reed. “This is what you got her? A dead bird’s foot? Man, how is it that you’ve ever had a girlfriend?”

This time it was Savvy who punched him. She took the claw out of the box and slid it along her little finger. “I think it looks like a ring,” she said, waving her hand at Nor.

“I don’t think it’s a ring,” Reed was quick to say. “I don’t know what it is. I found it over at the Society and thought it was weird and that you’d appreciate it.”

“Because I’m weird?” Nor asked, horrified.

“Only in the best way possible,” he reassured her.

Nor felt her own cheeks flush, and she slid the unusual present into her pocket for safekeeping — or at least until she could figure out what the hell to do with it.

She glanced across the room at Judd and Apothia, bickering over lighting the candles on the cake. In the corner, Antiquity growled softly in her sleep. A knock on the door announced Madge’s arrival. As Savvy launched into some animated story, Nor’s fingers found Reed’s present in her pocket. And in spite of the sense of foreboding she couldn’t seem to shake, Nor smiled, a real smile.

Hours later, the full moon shone its silvery light through the dining room window. Most of the candles had burned out, and the tablecloth was dotted with hardened puddles of melted wax. All that remained of the cake were plates smeared with frosting and raspberry jam. Several empty bottles of Apothia’s plum wine littered the table. Madge had left a while ago.

“You know our midnight tour on Samhain is our most popular tour of the year,” Madge had apologized, kissing Nor on the cheek.

At the head of the table, Judd leaned back in her chair, smoking her pipe and filling the air with the sweet aroma of her tobacco. Apothia disappeared into the parlor, and then the sweeping music of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake filled the room. Nor and her grandmother shared a good-humored groan as Apothia jetéd and fouettéd back into the room. She tried to coax Judd to dance, but instead, Judd pulled Apothia onto her lap. Apothia took Judd’s face in her hands, and they kissed to catcalls from Savvy and Grayson.

Nor would normally have been embarrassed by their public display, but glancing around the room, all she saw was joy. It was in the flush of Apothia’s soft cheeks and in Savvy’s chirpy voice and the lively movement of her hands. It was in her grandmother’s eyes, in the contented sighs of both dogs asleep under the table, and in the clumsy manner in which Grayson attempted to sneak another glass of wine. It was in the way Reed laughed, silently, his shoulders shaking and his eyes squinted shut.

Eventually Judd and Apothia headed upstairs to bed. As Savvy blew out the last of the candles, Nor and Reed stacked the dirty plates and collected the silverware. Grayson feigned sleep at the end of the table until they were finished.

“I was just resting my eyes,” he insisted.

“You were just trying to get out of doing any of the work,” Savvy said.

“Well, yeah. That, too.”

Outside, the air was rich with chimney smoke; Nor could practically taste the cinders. It was a familiar scent that Nor associated with the season, when the creeping cold brought fireplaces back to life.

Nor pulled her sweater more tightly around herself. From the Tower’s front porch, she could see the rush of the waves against the beach below. There was movement out there as well, and she could hear a chorus of low, ethereal moans echoing across the water.