Hold Me Closer, Necromancer - Lish McBride [53]
Nick gave her a schoolboy grin. “He’s beautiful.”
“Thank you.”
He turned back toward the baby, hiding his face from her. “What did Kevin say?”
“That I gave him a hippie name. And I’m not sure if he knows,” she said, answering the unasked question.
Nick sighed. “Did he even hold him?”
Tia picked at the tie of her robe. “Briefly.”
Nick tugged off the small blue knit hat and smoothed Samhain’s thin hair back with his hand before cradling the baby’s head in his palm.
Then Nick’s lips parted slightly. “Oh, wow.”
“What?” Nothing seemed wrong. The baby stared myopically at his uncle, but that was normal.
Nick put the hat back on the baby’s head, making sure his ears were covered. “Sorry, little guy.”
“What?” she said again. “Is there something wrong?”
The baby grabbed his index finger, and the sad smile returned to Nick’s face. “No, nothing’s wrong. But I changed my mind. I’ll help you bind him.”
“Not that I’m ungrateful, but why the sudden change of heart?”
Nick waggled his finger, but Samhain held on. “I thought maybe if he was like me, he’d be okay.” He pinched the end of Samhain’s nose. “Why couldn’t you have been like me, little guy, huh?”
Tia bit her lip. “I don’t understand. I thought he was like you. Unless I did the test wrong?”
“No, you did it right. I was just hoping he’d be, you know, weak. Not worth the hassle.”
“What do you mean?” She asked the question, even though she feared she knew exactly what he meant.
“I was hoping his power would feel like a trickle. But it feels like a river. A big, icy river, and he’s just a baby.” He kissed Samhain’s knuckles. “No, you’re right. He needs to be hidden, and now.”
She felt the fear grip her heart, making it trip in her rib cage. “What if I moved? Took the baby with me?”
Nick shook his head. “Wouldn’t do any good. Maybe you’d move into a district with a nicer Council, maybe not. Either way, Douglas Montgomery would hear. No, we bind him. We bind him now and hide him right under Douglas’s nose.”
He looked sadly down at the baby. “I’m sorry, little guy. I truly am.”
The first pass didn’t work. Tia was still tired from the birth and the stress, and it had been hard to gather what she needed while at the hospital.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
Nick pulled a safety pin out of his jeans and pricked his finger. He used the blood to draw a small symbol on the baby’s forehead and another over his heart. “We try again,” he whispered, and closed his eyes. Minutes passed. The temperature in the room dropped, but Nick’s eyes stayed closed. When the cold snap ended, his eyes opened. He sagged forward and kissed his nephew on the head. Tia couldn’t see Nick’s face, but she could hear thick sadness in his voice as he whispered to the baby. She had to lean close to hear that he was begging Samhain for forgiveness over and over.
14
The Devil Inside
I stared at the swirling wood grain of the table while my mom cleared away the mugs.
“So Uncle Nick bound me, and that was it?”
She ran water for the dishes. I got up and grabbed the dishcloth so I could dry. “His seemed to work where mine failed,” she said. “But even that one wasn’t perfect.” She washed the inside of her mug and set it in the sink.
“What do you mean?”
“You kept…leaking,” she said.
“Leaking? I’m not a container, Mom.”
She added a dish to the mug. “In some ways, all humans are. We contain organs, blood, emotions, power. In your case, even with the extra barriers, a little kept slipping out.” She washed another dish and handed it to me. “Do you remember when I made you that pouch?”
“Vaguely. I’d been having nightmares.”
“No, honey, you were seeing spirits. Even with the binding in place, the ghosts were finding you, seeking you out. You were terrified. Your uncle wasn’t around, so I did the only thing I could.”
I dried the dish and placed it on its shelf. “I made your medicine bag. Most medicine bags protect. Yours was more like a shield. As long as it was on, you wouldn’t show up on the spectral radar, so to speak.” She handed me a dripping