I STOOD IN THE DOORWAY, STARING. WHAT ELSE WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO? Dannie was supposed to be dead. I was the one who buried her. Six feet under, after breaking the only promise she had ever asked me to make.
I had done it with the understanding that once you were dead, you couldn’t come back. Not unless an asshole like me raised you, and even then you weren’t actually alive.
Obviously, my understanding of everything was taking a major hit, so why shouldn’t I be wrong about that, too?
“Well?” Dannie said. “Are you just going to stand there gaping at me, or are you going to invite me in?”
I stood there gaping for another few seconds.
“Dannie?” I said.
“No, Beyonce. What do I look like, Conor?”
Did she know what I had done? She hadn’t slapped me in the face
yet. She wasn’t cursing at me. Did she even remember being dead?
“I just. I just can’t believe you’re here.”
In the moment, I had forgotten about my hand. I let it out from behind my back, reaching out to embrace her.
“Fuck, Conor,” she said. “What the hell happened to you?”
I ignored the question, taking her into my arms. I could feel the tears welling up. Only a soulless asshole wouldn’t cry in a situation like this. I was crying, so maybe they would. How was this even possible? Death had said there was still a lot of shit I didn’t know. A lot of shit I was better off not knowing. It was probably better to leave it at that.
“Heh,” Amos said behind me. “What’s up, Dannie?”
She pushed away my embrace. “Amos.” She walked over to him, giving him a hug. He was crying, too. Oddly, she wasn’t.
“It’s good to see you,” he said. “I missed you so much.”
“I missed you too,” she said.
“Do you know this fox?” Frank asked, watching the scene unfold. “Yeah,” I said.
“Danelle, this is Frank. Frank, Danelle.”
Frank put out his hand. “A pleasure.”
She took it. “Are you a friend of Conor’s, or just working with him?”
Frank laughed. “I’m not sure. Friend, I think?”
“He’s a friend,” I confirmed. “Dannie, can we talk? Somewhere private?”
She turned back toward me. “Don’t you think you should get that taken care of, first?”
She pointed at my hand.
“It doesn’t hurt,” I said, lying. “We really need to talk.”
“We can talk here,” Dannie said. “We’re all friends, right?”
I opened my mouth but didn’t say anything. This wasn’t going to be pretty.
“Yeah, Baldie,” Amos said. “We’re all friends, right?”
He had told me he knew what I had done. Had Death told him? “Ok, fine,” I said.
“Dannie, you know you were-” I waved my good hand, trying to come up with a more delicate word.
“Dead?” she finished. “Killed in action? Shot by a fucking little goblin because he was too damn jumpy?” “I take it that’s a yes,” I said.
“Yes, I know I was dead, Conor. Let me condense things for you since you seem so skittish at the moment. I remember dying. I remember being somewhere else. I remember Death. He came to me there.”
“Where?” I asked, probably a little too eagerly. It was the question I had always wanted an answer to. The answer I was terrified of.
“He told me he needed your help,” she said, ignoring my question. “I laughed at him. Your help?” She smiled. “He told me what happened to me. It was a little hard to take at first, but I’ve always been adapt‐ able. He’s got power, Conor. Serious power. He makes you look like raising the dead is a parlor trick.”
“A gross parlor trick,” Frank said.
“Thanks, Frank,” I replied.
“He let me see you. He let me watch you like you were a reality TV show.”
“How much did you see?”
“As much as I could. He couldn’t always find you. But I saw you with Jin in the garage.” She laughed. “That was smooth.”
I felt my face turning red.
“What garage?” Amos asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” I replied. It didn’t now, except to prove she was telling me the truth.
“I’m sorry she’s gone,” Dannie said, her face softening. “I know you liked her, and regardless of anything I still want you to be happy.” What did she mean by that? I was tempted to ask her if she knew about the graveyard, but if she didn’t, I would be giving it away. I knew I was a coward to stay quiet, but I had proven that part of myself plenty of times already.
“Thanks. I got a new friend out of the deal. You’ve probably seen him?”
“The dragon? Yeah.”
“What garage?” Amos asked again.
“I said it doesn’t matter,” I repeated.
“I want to know about the garage, too,” Frank said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because you don’t want to tell us.”
“Let’s just say he was about to hit a home run with Ms. Red, but he wound up with a broken bat, instead.”
The heat in my face increased while Amos and Frank both laughed at me.
“Thanks, Dannie,” I said.
She winked. Did that mean she knew? Fuck, this was going to kill me.
“Can you get to the point?” I said.
“You have three days to decide whether or not to help Mr. D deal with Samedi,” she said, her face turning dead serious. “You need to know that if you do, you’re going to die.”
“I’ve taken dangerous jobs before.”
“No, Conor. Not, you might die. You will die. The only way to stop Samedi is to bring him to the other side. Only a necromancer can even begin to access the other side, so only a necromancer can do it.”
I felt a sudden chill. “Why doesn’t Death do it himself?”
“He isn’t mortal.”
“So?”
“So he can’t touch mortals. Didn’t you notice that he never physically laid a hand on you?”
“He just put his hand on Kirin’s shoulder. I saw it.”
“No, he put his hand near her shoulder. You saw what you wanted to see.”
“Whatever. You’re saying if I take the job, I have to drag Samedi to where, exactly?”
“Through the gate to the other side.”
“What’s on the other side?”
“Conor,” Dannie said.
I was trying to get her to give something away. She was playing it cool. It was just like her.
“Okay, tell me more about the gate. Where is it?”
“I’ll tell you what I know once you make up your mind. If you help Samedi, you’re going to die.”
“And if I don’t help him?”
“I’m going to die. Again.” She looked at me, half-amused. “The good thing about that is, I’d rather be dead than be witness to what Samedi is going to turn the world into. Hmm. Oh. Who freed him again? That’s right, you did.”
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