what I’m sort of saying here. There’s something in our bloodline on that side of the family that’s not human, and while whatever it is doesn’t seem to be hurting anything, it would be nice to know what we’re working with.
“And where will you go?” I asked, in a challenging tone.
Grandma sighed, looking around the room at my friends before focusing on me. “You really trust these people.”
“They went with me to face the crossroads, so yes, I really do.”
“I’m so glad.” She smiled so broadly it looked painful. “I was worried you’d never find people you could trust that way. Verity can take up all the air in a room—she gets that from my side of the family—and Alex is good at holding his breath, but you never could. You needed to get out, and you needed to breathe. And now you can go home and keep on breathing. My perfect girl.”
“Where are you going, Grandma?”
“Off to talk to Mary, and then to find my husband, and this time, I’m not coming back until I do.” She offered me her hand. After only a momentary hesitation, I took it. “If Mary says he’s alive, he’s alive. I’ve known her since I was a baby, and there’s no one I trust more where the crossroads are concerned. If he’s alive, he’s out there somewhere, waiting for me, and I need to go find him before he gives up.”
Somehow, I didn’t think he was going to hold out all this time only to give up on her now. If he was still out there, he was going to be thrilled when his inexplicably young, hot, emotionally disturbed wife showed up to pull him out of whatever weird oubliette the crossroads had chucked him into. I couldn’t imagine my grandmother would be this dedicated to a man who didn’t deserve it, although it was difficult to ponder what he might have done so wrong in his life as to deserve her.
I made a face. Grandma laughed. “Did you honestly think telling me you’d found and killed the crossroads would get you any other response? Of course, I’m going to go find your grandfather. You know he must be dying to meet you all.”
“Um,” said James.
“All right, probably not all of you, but he disappeared while I was extremely pregnant, and he probably knows it’s been long enough for his children to have had children. I know I would be wondering about my descendants if our positions were reversed.”
“I would certainly hope so, since I’m one of them,” I said.
Something rustled in the backpack next to the couch. James flinched away from the sound.
“Is it another tailypo?” he asked. “Or worse—rats? Do you put traps down here?”
“I would never,” said Grandma, and reached into her bag—not with a grasping hand, like a normal person, but with her fingers fully extended and her palm flexed. It was a position I was deeply familiar with, and I smiled even as she pulled her hand free, displaying two mice, one brindle and one pale fawn, sitting in the center of her palm. Both of them were wearing jewelry made from bullet casings, and the brindle had a cloak of stitched-together candy bar wrappers.
“Whoa,” said Sam. “More mice.”
“More?” asked James. “I wasn’t aware that mice were a risk.”
“Why are those mice wearing clothes?” asked Fern. “Does this mean that all the other mice I’ve seen were naked?” She sounded genuinely distressed by the idea.
Cylia nodded toward my grandmother’s palm. “S’up, Aeslin buddies?”
Grandma and I both turned to stare at her. She shrugged. “I get around. I’ve heard the rumors about you people having an intact colony. A lot of jinks get mixed up with the exotic animal trade. Easier to poach when you’re guaranteed to find what you’re looking for. You know what your friends there would go for on the open market?”
Grandma pulled her hand closer to her body, taking the mice with it. “Our mice are not for sale.”
“I never said they were, and that whole gig isn’t my thing. I have cousins who work the shows, but I haven’t spoken to them in years. I’m not threatening your mice, I swear.”
Grandma looked at me. I nodded encouragingly.
“I trust Cylia,” I said. “She’s saved my ass more than once. She’s not going to hurt your mice. Speaking of, hello.” I shifted my attention and address to the mice. “Are you the current head clergy of the Pilgrim Priestess?”