“Can’t argue with that,” Malcolm said.
I wasn’t surprised. A lot of magicals from other countries fled them and were used to staying under the radar for safety. They didn’t believe the Pinnacle would protect them any more than their prior magical governments, and I couldn’t blame them for that.
“She has a beautiful name.”
“Yeah, she’s from Iceland. We call her Petty, which ticks her off. Anyway, she met her first husband out there. He died while she was pregnant and apparently that was part of the reason he stuck around. He wanted to see their child.”
“So, he chose to stay? Did he say that?” Malcolm’s eyes gleamed with fascination.
Lysa nodded. “It’s why I thought maybe my mother would choose to stay. I was very hurt when she didn’t. But I’ve spoken with Petronella and then a few years ago, there was one man who came through the bar. He was a Darklight and we got to talking. He said that of the ghosts he’d seen in his lifetime, only those with a true ache to stay here do so.” She gave a pained grimace. “That didn’t feel good to hear. But Petronella’s husband stayed for an unborn child. She said he stayed three years, until their son was killed in a car accident. Then she never saw him again. His reason for staying had gone and so had he.”
My chest grew swollen with tender emotions. Then had Mom been the reason that Dad had stayed behind all these years? Had he been waiting for her? A tiny bit of hurt pinched my insides that he hadn’t stayed for me or Matthew. But I shoved it down.
“What did the Darklight say?”
“He said that the way to get someone to stay was to be their light. And the way to end them was to extinguish their light.” Lysa gave a bitter laugh, tossing the lower half of her hair, the pink and purple strands, back behind her shoulder. “I told him I didn’t want damn poetry. But he slammed down his drink and said he didn’t want any lip.” She leaned back in her chair. “He was a funny guy, I’ll give him that.”
“Anyway, that’s all I’ve got. It’s not much, I know. It’s probably not even helpful.”
“It’s better than salt and sage,” I told her, tossing my elbow on the table and lifting my hand to circle the rim of my coffee cup. “Does a light have to be a person? Or did he mean it literally?”
I knew shadow repelled them. But, this sounded different. Claude could pull away from my shadows. He could disappear and reappear. Shadows could fight him but not defeat him.
Lysa wrinkled her forehead. “Okay, I’m trying to remember. The guy said that, somehow, whatever a ghost gave their light too … it made their own soul incomplete? So … I mean, I think for most people, it would mean a person. I don’t think he meant it literally.”
Who in the holy fuck would Claude stay to see? I wasn’t his light, that was for damn sure. I was more like a thorn in his side, the gum under his shoe. He hadn’t stayed for mom or Ginny. They were both gone. What about that other dude? The ghost pirate? Could a ghost stay for another ghost?
“I don’t know if it has to be a person,” Lysa admitted. “But you said this ghost is a jerk right? It would make sense if his light wasn’t a person, but a thing.”
“A thing would last longer than a person,” Malcolm added.
Lysa grinned. “Worked for Voldemort didn’t it?”
That made us all laugh. But Lysa’s words had a ring of truth to them. As we finished up our coffee, I checked my watch and turned to Malcolm. “We have a little time. You up for a field trip?”
He shrugged. “As long as it’s short.”
“It’ll be short. And it will involve things that go boom.”
His eyes lit up like a little kid.
“Alright, I’m feeling like that was an innuendo. So, I’m gonna take that as my cue to go.” Lysa slid her chair back.
I thanked Lysa profusely for her information and Malcolm stood, shaking her hand and slipping her a diamond we’d lifted during our heist. Gray’s people had pried it out of its setting and cleaned of spells. “For your time,” he told her.
She’d stared at it with an odd look in her eyes, before looking up and giving us a tight little smile. It was a strange form of payment. But far less traceable than the serial numbers on cash.
“Not a problem,” Lysa said. Then she’d turned and walked away, climbing onto a bike down the street. The woman from the coffee shop followed behind and got into a car as Lysa pulled out into traffic. I watched until they both had disappeared from sight.
“She’s cool, but that was weird, right?” I asked Malcolm, trying to get his read on her. He was a far better human lie detector than I was.
“Yeah, it was weird,” Malcolm’s response was distracted as he typed on his phone.
We left the coffee shop and wandered casually down the street, until I spotted the bus stop that Gray had wanted us to use. He thought we’d had the Honda long enough and wanted us to swap rides. I appreciated his paranoia, and also how he just kept bankrolling said paranoia.
I dragged Malcolm, who had his nose in his phone as he researched, over to the bench and we sat down to wait for one of Gray’s people to arrive with our new ride.
I nodded at a homeless guy who rifled through the trashcan and sent him off with five bucks. Then I turned to Malcolm and nudged his shoulder. “So, what do you think?”
He shook his head before he lifted it to stare at me. “I think Lysa’s sources are a little shady. Some random guy? Some old unregistered magical?”
I shrugged. “We don’t get to be very picky when the best we have is a How-To written by some mom blogger who’s probably never seen a ghost in her life.”
“Yeah, well how would you feel if I told you I found out who Petronella is?”
“Oh, I’d be interested.” I leaned over and peered down at his phone to see a picture of an older woman with silver hair. “What’d you do? Hack the Zoo’s hit sheets?” I’d checked the gang’s lists before I’d started recruiting because the last thing I’d wanted was someone on my crew who had a price on their head.
“Didn’t even have to hack. It’s rumored this Petronella woman is the last known Terra. It’s why the Zoo wants her. I’m guessing any gang who knows about her wants her.”
“A Terra?” The magicals who controlled earth and stone had been killed off, or killed themselves over the centuries. Their power basically gave them access to any precious gem or metal … which had turned them into the pawns of the evil and powerful. I was skeptical. “There’s got to be more than one Petronella from Iceland in the world. And why the hell would Lysa give us her real name anyway?”
Malcolm shrugged. “Lysa’s got nothing to hide from us. One phone call and she could stick pinheads all over us. We’d be worse off than a voodoo doll.”
That was true. But all of it was secondary to the issue at hand. My mother’s funeral was this afternoon. And there would be at least a hundred people who’d say Claude’s name, summoning the bastard. I needed to try to get rid of him before then. Good sources or not, Lysa’s info said we needed to try to get rid of Claude’s light, of something or someone he loved.