AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Good.” Sister Walker rubbed the top of Isaiah’s head affectionately. She stood to address the room, towering above Isaiah. She was a tall woman, and in her heels, she was even taller. “We’ll meet here at the museum every night at closing time, five o’clock.”
The room erupted in protest.
“That’s impossible. I have to work in my parents’ restaurant,” Ling said. “What can I tell them? How can I get to Sixty-eighth Street from Chinatown every day?”
“I’ll have to think of some story for Isaiah to get past my aunt,” Memphis said. “And I’ve got two jobs.” And a notebook full of poems to write.
“The Follies are in rehearsal for a new show,” Theta said. “Looking through creepy files won’t pay my rent.”
“And I’ve got an aversion to boredom,” Sam said.
“This is important. We need all of you here,” Will said. “We can’t just hope this will all go away—it won’t. That’s quite clear now. And no one is going to swoop in and save us, either. It’s up to us. All of us. We have to figure this out together.”
“Fine. But I’ll have to work around my radio show,” Evie said, reaching for her cloche. “As it is, I’m late to WGI right now.”
“Evangeline, I don’t think you should continue to do the show,” Will said. “We don’t understand the forces at work here. You could be drawing evil into our world with each object you read.”
“Didn’t you just ask me to use my gifts in your merry jazz band of ghost-hunting Diviners?” Evie sputtered.
“That’s different.”
“Ohhh, I seeee. It’s perfectly swell for me to read objects and dance with the Devil if it helps you and the museum, but not if it makes me happy. And famous.”
“What if your uncle’s right?” Ling asked.
“Sure. Why don’t you just give up dream walking?” Evie shot back. Anger pooled in her gut. “Will never lets himself think he might be wrong. It’s a swell magic trick if you can manage it. Oh, don’t worry—I’ll help you. But I’m not giving up my show. Nothin’ doing. Same old Uncle Will. Only looking out for himself.”
“You’re one to talk, kid,” Sam snapped.
“Says the thief,” Jericho said.
Sam smirked. “Pal, I’ve never pretended I wasn’t looking out for myself. And anyway, you should be happy now that the coast is clear.” He jerked his head in Evie’s direction. Too late, he caught Mabel’s pained expression. Nice going, Lloyd. Great work. “Applesauce,” he muttered, feeling like a real heel.
Everyone began talking at once until Sister Walker’s strong voice rose above the squabbling. “‘The skies alight with strange fire. The eternal door is opened,’” she read aloud from Liberty Anne’s prophecies. “‘The Diviners must stand, or all shall fall.’” She shut the book. “Tomorrow. Five o’clock. I’ll see you then.”
Henry whistled. “And that, in the theater, is what we call an exit line.”
Evie bounded up to Mabel, hoping she wasn’t too upset by Sam’s thoughtless remark. “Hiya, Pie Face,” she said with extra please don’t hate me brightness. “Say, do you want to come to the show with me tonight? There’s a pos-i-tute-ly darb party I know about on Beekman Place afterward, and I have the most scandalous story to tell you!”
“I can’t. I have a meeting,” Mabel said, fighting with her coat. She was still smarting from Sam’s comment. It wasn’t so much that he’d said it as that he was right: Jericho liked Evie, not Mabel. Everyone knew it. It wasn’t anybody’s fault—people got disappointed
all the time. Mabel only wished she could stop liking him.
“Mabesie…” Evie started.
“Please, Evie.” Mabel sighed and blinked up at the ceiling. “I forgive you. All right? Honestly, I do have a meeting. I’ll phone you later.”
As the others gathered their coats, Memphis followed Theta into an anteroom off the library. He shut the door, and Theta ran over and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him until they both had to break for a breath.
“Pretty spooky stuff in there, huh, Poet?” Theta said, laying her head in the crook of his neck. Memphis could smell her perfume.
“Mm-hmm. Fortunately, I got a cure for that.”
Theta raised her face to his, and his breath caught anew at how much space one person could take up inside him. When he looked into her eyes, he saw home. He saw hope. “Yeah?” Theta teased. “Is that a power you’re gonna work on with them?”
“Nah. Just you.” Memphis kissed Theta then, and for a minute, there were no ghosts or bad prophecies. There was only the world of them.
“Meet me at the Hotsy Totsy after the show tonight?” Memphis asked, touching his forehead to hers.
