A Little Night Magic Page 0,39

him up and looked underneath while he protested with much twittering and scrambling of little ceramic feet. "I don't know. It just says Gibson." I turned him back upright and he calmed down.

"Gibson," she said. "I like that. That's a good name."

"I'm not naming him." I set him down on the ground, where he clacked across the front-hall floor toward my living room, bouncing into a wall on his way. "I don't want him. I don't want any of this." I swallowed hard, finally saying out loud the plan that I'd had in my head. "I'm going to find my father and have him bind my powers again. Then I'm leaving."

Davina watched me for a moment, her eyes hard. "Oh, that's the plan, is it?"

"Yep." I wished I felt as confident as I was trying to sound.

"I see. And you know where your father is?"

"No." I looked at her, feeling like a surly teen. "That's where you come in. I was kind of hoping you might know something about that."

"I do," she said, and I had just enough time to work up a decent surge of hope when she said, "He's dead."

My heart plummeted. "You know that? For sure? How?"

"I don't know, not for sure. But he's been missing for ten years and I just don't think your plan is exactly ... realistic." Davina reached out and touched my arm. "I'm sorry. I really am. I knew your father, he was a good man, and it was a great loss to the community when he died - "

I gave her a sharp look, and she changed course.

"... I mean, went missing, but I'm afraid for you that this determination to find him is going to bring you nothing but heartache."

"I'll take that chance." And then I had a thought. "Unless I don't need to find him. Hey." I pointed a finger at her. "You did this to me. You can undo it. Un-whammy me."

Davina crossed her arms over her chest and gave me a doubtful look. "Un-whammy you?"

"Yes, get out your stinky gym sock and take it back."

"Doesn't work that way. And what's more, I wouldn't do it if it did. I gave you a gift, and I don't mind saying, I think you're being a mite ungrateful about it."

"Fine." I pulled the door open again. "Then it's back to Plan A. If not my father, then there's got to be a grandparent or a cousin or someone out there I can find who can do this. I don't mean to be rude, but I've got things to do. So, it was nice seeing you, but..."

She stood where she was for a moment, then said, "So that's it?"

I nodded. "That's it."

"You don't even care what kind of danger people are in?"

I paused, leaning on the doorknob. "Who's in danger?"

She hesitated, and said, "I'm not sure. But this thing with your friend and the walnuts ... you said it was at night? After dark?"

"Yeah, but I could have imagined all that." I thought about the gray smoke, the walnuts falling from the oak tree. "Okay. Maybe not."

"It must be him," she said quietly, a troubled look on her face. "He's started it, then."

I felt a shiver of unease, and I shut the door again.

"Who's started what?"

She looked at me. "Baby, this may come as a surprise to you, but this whole thing? Is not just about you. I came to find you because I wanted to get to you before he did, and it's a good thing I did, but now..." She bit her lip and said, "He's doing the same thing he did in Tennessee."

I touched her arm. "Who?"

She met my eyes. "Cain."

"Cain?" I said. "The drunk guy from the alley? The one you knocked out with a trash-can Frisbee?"

She shook her head. "Don't underestimate him. He's much more dangerous than he seems. If he finds out who you are..."

I felt a shock of panic go through me. "He knows who I am," I said. "He asked me if my father was Gabriel Ford. I said no because I didn't know who my father was, but he obviously did."

Davina closed her eyes, released a breath through her nose. "Why didn't you tell me that before?"

"I didn't think it meant anything. It means something?"

"It means everything." She grabbed her coffee cup out of the carrier and walked into the living room. I grabbed mine, and followed her.

"Davina, who exactly is this guy?"

She cleared off a space on the couch, sat down,