It was nearing ten o’clock when Nest finally got home. Everyone else, Allen included, seemed to have put the incident on West Third behind them, but she was still uneasy about it. Two encounters in one day with Penny Whoever-she-was seemed a bit of a stretch for coincidence and two encounters too many in any case. The whole business troubled her, particularly since it had forced her to confront anew what it meant to employ her magic as a weapon. It was something she had hoped never to have to do again. Tonight’s incident suggested her thinking was incredibly naive.
She walked up the drive and slipped in through the back door. There were lights on, but the house was quiet. Hawkeye was curled up on his chair in the kitchen, the one he had adopted for this week anyway, and he did not even open his eyes as she passed through. She left her coat, scarf, and gloves in the hall closet and eased down the hall to the den, where the television was playing. Bennett was dozing in her grandfather’s big leather easy chair.
She opened her eyes as Nest entered. “Hi,” she murmured.
“Hi,” Nest replied, sitting at the desk chair. “Harper asleep?”
Bennett stretched and yawned. “About an hour ago. She was pretty worn out.” She stood up. “Me, too. I’m going to bed. Did Reverend Gask ever catch up with you? He was here earlier.”
Nest went cold, her whole body stiffening. She had forgotten to warn Bennett about Gask. But then, what could she have said? “No, he must have missed me.”
“He said he was here to pick you up. He wanted to come in, but I told him I couldn’t let anyone in someone else’s house. I hope that was all right.”
Nest responded to the wave of relief that washed through her by giving the other a big hug. “You did good.”
“Thanks.” Bennett trundled toward the door. “Oh, I almost forgot. He was looking for someone named John Ross, too. Said he thought he was staying here, but I told him I didn’t think so.”
“You told him right,” Nest assured her, growing angry again with Gask. “Go on to bed. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Alone, she sat thinking anew of John Ross and Findo Gask and what their conflict meant. Gask was not going to give up. He would keep coming around until he found Ross and whatever it was that he thought Ross was hiding from him. Demons are persistent. Time means nothing to them; they operate on a schedule as foreign to humans as life on Mars. She had dealt with demons half her life, and she had a pretty good idea what she was in for.
She got up and turned off the television, then sat down again, staring out the window into the darkness. At times like this, she wished Gran was still alive. Gran, with her no-nonsense approach to life’s problems and her experience with the ways of demons and forest creatures, would know better than she how to deal with this mess. Gran might have some thoughts about what to do with Bennett and Harper, too. Nest would have to try her best to think like Gran and hope that would be enough to see her through.
After a time, she went out into the kitchen and made herself some dinner. She ate a small portion of the leftover tuna and noodle casserole and drank a glass of milk, sitting at the kitchen table, listening to the ticking of the clock and to the whisper of her scattered thoughts. It wasn’t as if John Ross wouldn’t show, she realized. Too much of what Gask had told her suggested he would. The problem was what to do about him when he did. Or, more specifically, what to do about the fact that he was coming to find her, which was really the only reason he would come back.
She shook her head at the idea. So much time had passed with no contact between them. What would bring him to her now? What did he need?
Surrounded by memories of her past, of a childhood and girlhood linked inextricably to him, she searched in vain for an answer.