Spirit Tree (Part 3)

“This is getting better and better,” I said to Zachary as we scuffed away from the altar and the crowd.

For one, I couldn’t believe we were talking to my dead mama. For another, I hadn’t realized she didn’t want me so much. And last, I couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea that not only did ghosts and the entrance to the underworld exist beneath my friendly front yard tree, but that someone named Jake had a pet demon under it.

That’s what you get when nobody tells you anything.

I'd just figured my mom had told me everything. How to protect against supernatural creatures, how to skin a pig with my knife (which approximated skinning unwelcome boys with my knife), and what kinds of kisses to give acceptable boys… pecks. She forbade other options until I was an adult. She'd even quizzed me on my times tables.

All good wisdom that nevertheless left a gaping hole in my education about my own climbing tree.

Maybe she wanted me after all--she just wanted me alive. I just wished she had told me.

I wished I hadn’t been so stubborn about keeping her ring. I could have given it back years ago and we'd have resumed our usual life. I ignored the knowledge that Aunty hadn't come back after Mama had gone under the tree with her barrettes.

"So, what do you think we should do?" I asked Zachary.

"Isn't that your department of expertise?" he said.

I growled. "I forgot the flashlight, remember? And I came here to learn something because I was ignorant."

"True. I was just wondering what kind of ransom we should offer."

"You think that's real?"

"A few minutes ago, I didn't believe ghosts were real. I'm taking your mom's words with a certain amount of weight."

I sighed. "I guess you're right." I held up my bag. "We always have peppermint."

A voice interrupted our conversation, high but hardly feminine. "If you're really interested in a ransom, peppermint might not be your best option."

I turned to take in the new guy. He was shorter than I would have thought a demon-keeper would be, but I guess people were shorter back in the old days. Or else hell was a bit cramped. He wasn't bad looking but his features weren't all that memorable, either. A bit round in the face with full lips and a mop of dark hair. His black, big-collared robe glowed healthier than the ghosts.

"Are you Jake?" I said.

The man's lips twisted. "Jacobus Nathasson. Welcome to my comfortable home."

"Do you have allergies?" I asked, deciding not to offer my own name just yet. He probably knew it anyway. "The peppermint might freshen things up for you down here."

He smiled outright. "It might. But it wouldn't last very long. And then where would you be?"

I hazarded my most hopeful guess. "Free?"

"In one sense of the word. Free to join your mother, perhaps."

"That's not quite what I was thinking."

"No. But dying never is."

"Correction," I said. "Dying and coming here isn't."

Jake chuckled. "And where else would you go?"

"Um, heaven?" I looked pointedly at the sad guests who had bunched near the far reaches of the cavern. "I don't see billions of dead people hovering around in this place. More like a handful."

He waved a hand. "The others were siphoned off."

"Siphoned?" That didn't sound good.

"They fed my demon, of course."

"Wait," I said. "So you're telling me that everyone who ever died on this planet got digested by your pet demon?"

He sighed. "Not quite that many, unfortunately. Only your ancestors, it turns out."

"Oh, lovely."

He dared a cheerful smile. "But you just might make the situation a little better for us down here. I'm sure you noticed that your mother isn't looking so lively."

It was the demon's fault Mama was different. "I might have," I said guardedly.

"My demon and I could use a little pick-me-up, and you look like just the thing. You and that interesting morsel you brought."

I narrowed my eyes and stepped sideways toward Zachary. My shoulder touched his folded arms. "The peppermint?"

"The boy."

Zachary cleared his throat. "If you'll excuse me for interrupting, sir, there's something I don't understand."

"And here I thought I'd made things clear. What is it?"

"Why are you the one who's in charge? Shouldn't the demon be in charge?"

Jake turned a bit rosy in the cheeks. Not the best look for him, but oh yeah, it was his nasty soul and not the cheeks that mattered. "Certainly not. I am in control of the demon."

"But didn't you just say that he consumes people like Mrs. Corman? Why doesn't he consume you?"

"That's the essence of it, isn't it?" he smiled. "I was smarter than my brothers. I simply traded something I valued very much for something I valued more--my family for my life."

I felt the blood leave my face despite Zachary's warmth. "What an ugly monster you are."

Jake shrugged. "It was either that or be eaten."

A dim light caught the corner of my eye and I startled to see my mama had left the gathering and come close. "He's only telling you half the story," she whispered. She looked so thin the slightest breeze would put her out. "He called the demon first."

Jake shrugged. "There is a cost for every gain. It was the only way I could achieve power over my brothers."

"It looks like all it got you was stuck in the underworld." I wrinkled my nose. "And not even."

He laughed. "Don't worry, it was only a temporary sacrifice. Thankfully, you are here to help me out the door into a better world. And whether it is now or in a few more years, it's all the same. You'll be back here eventually. You and your sweetheart. All it took was getting you here."

Mama didn't disagree and I took a deep breath. "That's what the poem is for?"

"It's part of the spell," he looked pleased. "What I didn't expect was my day of deliverance would arrive so soon."

"A few hundred years is soon?"

"I imagined longer since your mother refused to educate your sister about her duties to the Tree. But you've sidestepped that dilemma for me quite nicely. You and your companion will do."

"We're not related," I said, thinking hard.

He didn't seem fazed. "Yet you are of importance to him or he wouldn't have come."

"He was doing me a favor."

"Call it what you will. What matters is that you are together. All I needed was a boost. Your mother's ring was nearly enough with the memories it contained of your father, but she left it for too long and when she returned, she had nothing of him left inside her. Only you and your sister."

That was the difference from that night so long ago. I'd thought she was sad about the ring. Or about Aunty. But that was also the moment she'd stopped talking about Dad.

"So I waited for you two girls to come," Jake said. "It was almost too long. And now here you are in the nick of time to see the last of your mother wink out, and you and your lover take his place."

Zachary cleared his throat again. "Since my soul is one of those items that is up for grabs at the moment, can I have a say in this conversation?"

"What is it?" Jake snapped. Evidently he liked me better than Zachary.

In the ghost light, Zachary's face looked suddenly like an intense and calculating swordsman, and my heart throbbed inside my chest.

"I'm offering her as my ransom."