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<p> “So that’s it?” I asked. “We just give up?”</p>
<p> Ve
<p> I didn’t watch how she did it, but I heard Ashan scrambling, and heard him cry out, once. Then they were gone, and the door shut behind them.</p>
<p> I didn’t take my eyes off my daughter, the Oracle.</p>
<p> “Can you hear me?” I asked. “Imara?”</p>
<p> Her eyes slowly swirled back to that lovely shade of gold, but she didn’t smile this time.</p>
<p> I waited, but the candles began to dim, slowly winking out one by one. While I could still see her, I said, “Please say something. Please, baby. I need to know that you’re okay.”</p>
<p> She was just a dim shadow against the deeper shadows, a glimmer of gold eyes in the dark, when she whispered, “Hang in there, Mom. I love you.”</p>
<p> And then she was gone.</p>
<p> I sat down hard on the pew, put my face in my hands, and prayed. Not to my daughter. Not to the Earth, whoever that was.</p>
<p> I prayed to God, whose chapel it was. Who’d built this glittering, beautiful, hurtful world with all its magic and deadly sharp edges. I needed a higher power to get me through the rest of this, because I didn’t think I could do it by myself.</p>
<p> I don’t know if He answered, exactly, but after a few minutes I felt a kind of peace inside, a stillness, and an acceptance.</p>
<p> My child wasn’t suffering, and she wasn’t totally beyond my reach.</p>
<p> Maybe that was enough.</p>
<p> I scrubbed my face clean of tears, got up, and went to find Ve
<empty-line/>
<p> Ve
<p> He’d killed my daughter. And if he’d gotten his way, she’d have been completely dead, not sitting in there in the chapel, elevated to some level I couldn’t understand. In a very real way, he’d still taken her away; Imara the Oracle wasn’t Imara at all, not the way I’d known her.</p>
<p> <i>You never knew her at all</i>, some cold part of me said. <i>You never had a past; you never had a daughter. Remember?</i></p>
<p> That was the point. I didn’t remember. And Ashan had done that to me.</p>
<p> Miles to go before I could see that put right.</p>
<p> “So,” I said. “Where now?”</p>
<p> I’d expected her to hesitate, but instead, Ve
<p> “Pardon?”</p>
<p> “It’s in New Jersey.”</p>
<p> I hadn’t forgotten geography. New Jersey was a long way from Arizona. A long, long way.</p>
<p> “We should go,” Ve
<p> Yeah, like I was going to let a kid behind the wheel of <i>that</i> car. Even a many-centuries-old kid. “One other thing,” I said, and pointed a thumb at Ashan. “<i>He</i> needs a bath. I’m not smelling him all the way to the East Coast.”</p>
<p> Ashan shot to his feet, ru
<p> He slammed face-first into an invisible wall, staggered back, and whirled to face us. Ve
<p> “Ashan,” she said to him. “You know you can’t fight me. I’ll just keep on hurting you.”</p>
<p> He tried it again, as if he hadn’t heard her, and I winced this time at the sound of flesh and bone hitting the barrier. “He’s <i>trying</i> to make you hurt him,” I said. “He wants you to kill him.”</p>
<p> Ve
<p> “That’s human. And kind of crazy.”</p>
<p> “I will <i>never</i> understand mortals,” she said, sounding aggrieved. “How do I stop him without hurting him?”</p>
<p> “Let me handle it.”</p>
<p> This time, when he lunged at us, I took the Taser out of my purse, switched it on, and zapped the holy living shit out of him. Ashan convulsed and went down. I crouched next to him. His eyes were unfocused, and there was blood dripping from his chin in a gory mess. “Ashan. Can you hear me?”</p>
<p> He could. He just didn’t answer. I could tell from the immediate flicker of rage in him that I had his attention. The shock had incapacitated him, but it hadn’t done much to make him like me any better.</p>
<p> “Ve
<p> “Yes.” She wasn’t forgiving me anytime soon for an attempt at a pet name; that was clear from her tone. “Up, Ashan.”</p>
<p> At first he couldn’t get up, and then it was clear he didn’t want to. The smile Ve
<p> “If you don’t,” she said, “then I’ll make you, brother.”</p>
<p> <i>Brother?</i> I didn’t know if that was literal or figurative, but either way, it worked; Ashan climbed silently to his feet and walked down the steps without trying to run, pitch headlong to his death, or take me with him. I looked back up at the Chapel of the Holy Cross; it was quiet, no signs of life. No sign of my daughter haunting its warm, incense-scented shadows.</p>
<p> I wanted to run back up the steps and throw my arms around her, but somehow I knew that it wasn’t the time. Not here. Not now.</p>
<p> Not until this was over.</p>
<p> Ve
<p> Ashan coughed, and spit a mouthful of blood at Ve
<p> I raised the Taser and activated it, letting him get a good look at the jumping spark. “Get in the car, Ashan.”</p>
<p> He slid into the backseat. I pointed a finger at Ve
<p> “Of course.” She gave me a cool raise of her eyebrows, as if I were being completely stupid, and climbed in the passenger seat.</p>
<p> I stood there for a few seconds with my hand on the car door, looking up at the chapel. For a second, I thought I saw…something. A flicker of red, a dress fluttering in the wind.</p>
<p> A smile.</p>
<p> “I’ll see you soon,” I promised her, and got in the driver’s seat.</p>
<p> We drove out toward the main road, and when I reached an intersection I idled and waited for traffic. Ve
<p> “Ve