were. I suspect they were the anima mundi of a dead world, someplace that couldn’t sustain them anymore. So they went looking for something new to eat, and they found us. Or they would have, if I hadn’t been waiting there to kick the crap out of them.”
Grandma stared at me blankly.
Sam nudged me in the side. “I told you that trying to explain time travel never did anybody any good,” he said. “The crossroads existed before you killed them. They did all the things you remember them doing.”
“I know,” I said wearily. “But because I killed them before they could kill the anima mundi, they never existed in this world. It’s a paradox. It sucks, but this is how it is now. We have to live with the repercussions of something that never happened. We have to clean up the messes the crossroads never had the chance to make. Magic is a headache given flesh.”
“You can say that again,” said Cylia cheerfully as she stepped back inside, leaving the door to slam shut behind her. “Cynthia says the chicken will be done in about ten minutes. Annie, your grandmother looks like she’s about to keel over.”
“Breathe, Grandma.” I leaned across the table to touch her hand. She let me. Under the circumstances, that was probably a good thing, and not a sign of shock. I hoped. “Mary is fine, because of us. As a family, I mean. We’re the house she haunts, and so when the crossroads went away, they didn’t take her with them.”
“Oh,” said my grandmother, very faintly. “That’s nice.”
“Mary thinks so.” I took a deep breath. “There were things she couldn’t tell you while she still served the crossroads—not unless you were willing to enter into a deal with them.”
“I never did it,” said Grandma. “I promised Thomas that I wouldn’t, no matter how bad things got or how tempted I might be, and I didn’t. Not ever.”
“I know,” I said. “But that’s why she couldn’t tell you that you were probably right. He might still be alive out there.”
Moving with terrifying speed, she grabbed hold of the hand that was touching hers, bearing down on my fingers until I bit my lip and groaned under the pressure. “What do you know?” she demanded. “Whatever it is, you have to tell me, and you have to tell me right now.”
The temperature of the air to my left dropped by several degrees. “Ma’am, I’m going to need you to let her go,” said James.
“So am I,” said Sam. “I can’t freeze you solid like James here, but I can punch you a lot.”
Grandma let go of my hand, settling back in her chair. “Are you boys really going to sit here and threaten me?”
“Yes, ma’am,” said James. “We just met you. Annie’s our friend.”
I shook my hand, trying to make the throbbing stop. “Boys, stand down. Cylia, why didn’t you join in the threatening?”
“I love you, but not enough to threaten Alice Healy for hurting you,” she said. “Unlike the boys, I grew up in the cryptid community. I know what she can do to me.”
“Smart,” I said. The pain in my hand wasn’t as bad as it would have been if she’d actually broken anything. I still pulled it back, resting it in my lap as I said, “We got confirmation that the crossroads sometimes took people and put them somewhere far away, someplace where they couldn’t get home. The anima mundi doesn’t know exactly where they are, so they can’t help us, but the crossroads aren’t actively working to keep us away from them anymore.”
Grandma stared at me for a long moment, eyes wide and glassy, before she put her hands over her face and said, “Oh.”
“Oh?” I echoed.
“Oh.” She lowered her hands and smiled beatifically at me. “I told you so. I told you all. He’s alive out there.”
“Um,” I said. “He was. I hope he still is, for my sake as much as yours—I’d really like to have someone who could teach me how to be better at sorcery. Trial and error is resulting in a lot of scorch marks.”
“I’d love it if someone could teach her not to set things on fire while she was sleeping,” said Sam. “Burning fur smells terrible.”
“It’s worse for the rest of us,” said Cylia. “Trust me.”
Sam wrinkled his nose at her. The back door banged open, and we all tensed, Grandma reaching for the gun at her hip, Fern bouncing back up into the cobweb-choked rafters