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  Valerie hugged her father and put her arm around Mike.

  “We can do this,” Valerie said.

  “By heaven, by Olympia, by earth, and sun, we will sing our Jacob home,” Delphie said.

  “Good,” Gando said with a smile.

  Sam patted his back and started toward the carriage house for a hammer and nails. Valerie jumped off Mike’s lap. They followed Sam out to get tools.

  “Water,” Gando said.

  “Got it,” Jill said. “I’ll call my family. They can help, too.”

  She and Heather moved into the kitchen to get the supplies ready. Valerie followed them close behind, leaving Gando and Delphie in the room by themselves.

  “Tell my fortune,” Gando said. “I feel very anxious — as if this experience will change my life in some profound way.”

  Delphie looked deep into his eyes.

  “Will I die here?” Gando asked.

  “No,” Delphie said. “You will finally live without barriers. You’re right — something is coming. It is not what you expect.”

  He nodded.

  “Should we call in the fairies?” Delphie asked.

  “Know any fairies?” Gando asked.

  “Jacob is of the line of Queen Fand,” Delphie said.

  “Good to know,” Gando said. “Frankly, I’d call in every helper you can possibly find. We will need them before the end.”

  Delphie nodded. Gando put his hand on her shoulder before leaving the room. Delphie stood in the living room of the Castle for a moment. The ghost of her best friend and Jacob’s mother, Celia, appeared by her side.

  “I’m frightened,” Celia said.

  “You should be,” Delphie said. “We should all be terrified.”

  “What do you see?” Celia asked.

  “A great battle,” Delphie said. “Fought in multiple times. The outcome has not been decided.”

  “And these people?” Celia asked. “Should we trust them?”

  “They are the only ones who can lead the charge,” Delphie said with a nod. “They were sent here by spirit, called in by everyone’s love for Jacob.”

  Delphie looked off toward where Jacob’s body lay. For a moment, she stood in silence before whispering, “Time to get busy.” With that, she went to organize the support teams.

  Chapter Four Hundred and Four

  Gilded Dust

  Jacob rolled onto his side and reached for Jill. Finding the bed strangely soft and inviting, he fell back to sleep before his hand reached her side of the bed. He’d been exhausted for such a very long time. He fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

  He woke next when a bright sunbeam fell across his face. He rolled onto his back. There was a funny, metallic sound, and he realized he wasn’t in his bed at the Castle. He turned onto his side to look at the bed. Naked, he seemed to be sleeping on a thick cotton mattress laid over an old-fashioned, open spring bed frame. The cotton sheets were clean and white, and smelled of one part sunshine with a faint glow of bleach. He was covered in a thick down comforter in the same lovely condition.

  The sleep pulled at him again, and he was asleep.

  “I simply refuse to believe that we will not get through this.”

  Jacob startled awake. As if traveling on a speck of floating dust in the sunshine, Jill’s words filtered to him.

  “Jill?” Jacob asked.

  He’d been so comfortable that it hadn’t occurred to him that she wasn’t right next to him. He patted the space where she usually lay on the bed. The sheets were cool, if not cold. He sat up in bed.

  “Jill?”

  He scowled. The world around him was silent and almost too still.

  Where was he? He threw off the down comforter and started to get up when, echoing through the dust, he heard:

  “We can do this,” Jill’s voice said. “We’ve done it before.”

  “Jill?”

  “We can do this,” Sam’s voice said.

  “Dad? What are we doing?” Jacob asked aloud.

  “We can totally do this,” Heather’s voice carried a sparkle of golden light.

  “Hedone,” Jacob whispered.

  “Fuck, yes,” Mike’s voice said.

  “Mike?” Jacob’s voice fell.

  “We can do this,” Valerie’s voice said.

  “And Val?” Jacob asked. “Are we talking about your baby?”

  “By heaven, by Olympia, by earth, and sun, we will sing our Jacob home,” Delphie’s voice said.

  “Sing me home?” Jacob asked. He scowled. “What the hell?”

  He rotated his legs off the bed. Half expecting to find that there was not a floor below him, he looked down at his feet. An old, wide-plank pine floor was under the old-fashioned bed. He carefully slid his feet onto the floor. He walked to the half-open door in front of him to find a modern bathroom. He made use of the facilities and came out of the bathroom.

  He seemed to be in some kind of one-room cabin. On instinct, he grabbed his jeans off the back of a heavily used rocking chair and pulled them on. He went to the fireplace, where a nice ember had been banked deep in the coals. He spent a few minutes building a happy fire. The yellow light of the fire danced along the floor as he walked to a small kitchen along the wall. He filled a kettle from the tap and looked around for a stove. Finding none, he hung the kettle on a worn hook over the flame in the fireplace.

  “Where am I?” Jacob asked.

  He went to the pile of his clothing and pulled on a long-sleeved T-shirt. He picked up a thick sweater and started to pull it on. He was holding it over his head when he stopped to look at it. His mother had knit this sweater for him when he was having trouble at the end of junior high. He used to wear it almost every day. As he pulled his favorite sweater over his head, he marveled that it still fit.

  “Not too shabby, Marlowe,” Jacob said patting his stomach — and then laughed at his own pride.

  He went to the kitchen area to see if there was any food. Five beautiful golden apples were sitting on the counter. The kettle sounded. Going to the fireplace to retrieve the kettle, he discovered an iron pot filled with a mouth-watering stew sitting in the back of the fireplace. He lifted a metal spoon from the pot to smell the mixture — lamb, carrots, parsnip, and something he couldn’t identify. He had to swallow back his saliva. He was definitely going to have some of this stew.

  The kettle burbled to remind him that he hadn’t made his tea. He put the stew pot back into the fireplace and carried the kettle to the kitchen. A sunbeam glanced off the apples, and they glowed with golden wonder. He smiled. Taking out a mug, he dug around in the cabinets until he found bags of nondescript tea. He smelled a bag. It smelled like something familiar.

  He stared across the cabin for a moment.

  The tea reminded him of Tanesha. This was Tanesha’s special tea. He smiled. Gilfand had told him that the tea tonified Tanesha’s power, it should strengthen him. Jacob yawned. I could use some strengthening.

  He dropped the teabag into a cup and poured the water over it. The smell reminded him of warm nights in the Castle with Jill and Katy before the boys had come.

  He gasped.

  “Jill?” Jacob asked aloud.

  Once again, he wondered where he could possibly be.

  He had never been a person who sought alone time. If he was at a cabin, Mike or Blane were usually there somewhere. More recently, Aden and his boys — Nash and Teddy, sometimes Charlie — came with them to camp, fish, and hunt. Jacob thought for a moment. He couldn’t remember a time he’d been in the mountains when his father wasn’t somewhere nearby.

  The iron pot over the fire made a bubbling sound and Jacob turned to look at it. It smelled amazing. Without thinking, he took out a bowl and went to the fireplace. In the process, he passed the apples again.

  Jacob stopped short.

  Something was definitely wrong. His mind blank, he stood still.

  He looked at the inviting pot, with its amazing aroma. He looked at the tea that smelled like T
anesha and remembered the warm nights filled with love. He looked at the apples. Taking a step, he set the bowl on the counter and picked up the tea. He drank it down in one gulp. Knowing that the power of the tea was in the repeated use of the bag, he poured more hot water over the same teabag. He drank it down and made another.

  His body burned with heat. He grabbed an apple.

  “Okay, Hedone,” Jacob whispered to the apple.

  He ate the apple fast and then ate another. The dust in the air lit up around him as an errant sunbeam hit the windows.

  “There you are,” Jacob said in a soft voice.

  “I’m not there,” the Goddess said.

  “Where is here?” Jacob asked.

  “You are in a cabin built by love,” the Goddess said. “Every item was created by those who love you. The very structure was built on love — each beam, plank, and nail. The walls and roof are there for your protection to support you and hold you. You are surrounded by the love you’ve given and now can receive.”

  “Where is Jill?” Jacob asked. His hand flew to his heart. “My children?”

  “They are safe,” the Goddess said. “You are the one lost in time.”

  “I am?”

  “I will not be able to come again,” the Goddess said. “You must be on the watch. There are those who prefer that you stay lost. They can get into the cabin through the tiniest crack of insecurity in your walls. Don’t let them in. You must love wholly and receive love wholly to stay safe until you are able to return.”

  “The stew,” Jacob said under his breath.

  “Yes,” the Goddess said.

  “Can I leave this place?” Jacob asked.

  “Not without a guide,” the Goddess said. There was a sound somewhere a long way away. “I have done what I can.”

  “But the guide!”

  “You will have a brief moment when I go when you can call to you what will save you, guide you,” the Goddess said. “Listen to your heart. You know what you need. But choose wisely, and be certain it’s who you think it is before you let them inside.”

  “When . . .?”

  “Now.”

  Jacob panicked. He knew the briefest moment was passing. He wanted Jill, his father, Blane, Mike . . . Who should he choose?

  He felt the cloying press of the walls around him. Golden love was turning to codependent toxicity. The cabin was suddenly smaller and tighter. The golden sun outside was shifting to a dreary grey. He gasped for breath.

  As he usually did when he felt this way, he made a loud whistle.

  There was a snuffling sound at the door, and then a scratch. Remembering the Goddess’s words, he went to the door and looked out through the peephole.

  There were two identical yellow female Labradors standing on the doorstep. They had the same collars with identical tags. Their eyes were exactly the same. Their ears even looked alike.

  “Now what?” Through the door, he said, “Sit!”

  The dogs’ rumps dropped to the ground.

  “Brilliant Marlowe,” Jacob said. “Shake.”

  He peered through the hole again. The dog to his left raised her left paw. As if she were wet, the dog on the right shook her body back and forth. Jacob scowled.

  “Up!” Jacob said.

  The dog on the left went up on her back legs. The dog stood on all fours and panted.

  “Around,” Jacob ordered.

  The dog on the left turned in place.

  “Down,” Jacob ordered.

  Both dogs dropped to their bellies.

  “Be gone, demon!” Jacob said and pointed to the dog on his left.

  The dog on his left disappeared. His yellow Lab, Sarah, barked her “Let me in” bark, so he did. He bent down to pet her, and she licked his face, ears, and throat.

  “Aren’t you glad I never taught you any of those circus tricks?” Jacob asked with one last scratch of her ears.

  Sarah barked. She started sniffing around the room. While he drank another cup of tea, she scampered from smell to smell, item to item until she stopped at the fireplace.

  “Bark! Bark!” Sarah pointed her nose to the pot of stew.

  “Yeah,” Jacob said. He gulped down the tea. “I don’t know what to do with it.”

  Sarah knocked the pot, and its contents tipped into the fire. What had looked like stew turned to ash in the warm fire. Sarah barked and wagged her tail.

  “Good girl,” Jacob said with a grin.

  Sarah jumped up on the bed.

  “Now that you mention it, I am tired,” Jacob said.

  Sarah seemed to nod. Jacob pulled off his clothing and got back into bed.

  “Let’s go fishing when I wake up again,” Jacob said.

  Sarah licked his face. Smiling, he fell back asleep.

  ~~~~~~~~

  Thursday evening — 7:37 p.m.

  Castle, Denver, Colorado

  When Aden had arrived home, the Castle was in great disarray. Delphie had tried to organize everything but she had failed miserably. She was sitting at the kitchen table, crying hysterically. Jill and Heather were arguing over what the shaman had asked them to do. Mike was yelling like a madman at the random people who were standing in the driveway. Teddy and Nash were cutting firewood in such a way that they were likely to lose a limb. After an aggressive run-in with the paparazzi, Valerie was hiding downstairs. Sam, who rarely raised his voice, was yelling at a man Aden had never seen before.

  Honey rolled in right after Aden. They stood together on the edge of the fray.

  “Run away?” Honey asked in a wry voice.

  “Rachel and Maggie are in there,” Aden said.

  “Let’s grab them and run away,” Honey said with a laugh.

  Aden was so surprised at the idea that he laughed aloud. By the time he had recovered himself, Honey was rolling into the kitchen.

  “You organize; I’ll make it happen,” Honey said, looking up at Aden.

  “Any idea what’s going on?” Aden asked.

  “Jake’s been sick,” Honey said with a shrug. “It looks to me like Ooljee’s grandparents have some idea how to help him.”

  Honey pointed to the medical office’s stairway. Aden nodded. There was the sound of a mallet hitting a drum.

  “If this is like the movies, they’re going to start drumming soon,” Honey said. “If the noise gets out, it will draw every crazy within miles.”

  Aden nodded. His eyes flicked from thing to thing.

  “You think Jake taught us everything so that we’d be able to do this now?” Aden asked Honey.

  “I don’t think he’s that selfish,” Honey said.

  Aden nodded.

  “Ready, Boss?” Honey asked.

  “Ready,” Aden said. “Most critical? Most urgent?”

  “Delphie, paparazzi, noise, and your boys,” Honey said. “I’ll take care of Jill and Heather.”

  “I need someone to figure out who’s drumming, who’s supporting, and who’s taking care of food, who’s taking care of the on fire. . .” Aden said.

  “Got it,” Honey said.

  “Tell Mike to suck it up and help Teddy and Nash,” Aden said. “Tell him I said those exact words.”

  “Done,” Honey said. “Call Bambi and Rodney. He and Akeem are drummers.”

  “Good thinking,” Aden said. “Rodney can manage the drummers.”

  “We have a bunch of Native Americans at Lipson,” Honey said. “A couple of them compete at Pow Wows as dancers and drummers. Bambi will know how to connect with them.”

  “Got it,” Aden said.

  “Your phone charged?” Honey asked.

  Aden looked down at his phone and nodded.

  “There’s a charger in the kitchen,” Honey said. “When it gets down to 20 percent, plug it in.”

  “Bambi added that app to my phone,” Aden said. “The one you wrote for her.”

  Honey smiled.

  “There’s Sandy,” Honey pointed.

  Sandy ran past them to where Jill and Heat
her were arguing.

  “One less problem.” Honey rolled forward to the women. “Get going, Boss.”

  Aden slipped into the room next to the main living room and started making phone calls. Ten minutes later, the Denver Police had cleared out the paparazzi, and Rodney, Akeem, and Bambi were on their way. When Aden came out, Valerie was helping Delphie upstairs to her apartment altar. Jill, Heather, and Sandy had enlisted someone whose name he didn’t know to help them ferry the water up to the deck. Mike was showing Teddy and Nash how to split wood. Sam was making his way up the medical office stairs, and Blane was pulling into the driveway.

  The little blond woman in a wheel chair had turned chaos into a kind of melodic insanity. He smiled at her. Honey took the smile as great praise.

  “What’s next, Boss?” Honey asked.

  “We need a list of everyone who’s drumming,” Aden said.

  “Got it,” Rodney said as he walked past with Akeem. “Where are they?”

  “Driveway,” Honey said.

  As Rodney walked away, he yelled to Aden.

  “You need a sing organizer,” Rodney said. “It’s a profession.”

  “Where would I find one of those?” Aden asked. “Yellow pages?”

  “Ben,” Rodney said. He turned to look at Aden. Aden nodded that he knew who Ben was. Rodney gave Aden a supportive nod and went outside.

  “We need to feed all of these people,” Aden said.

  “Bambi’s really good at figuring out what people need,” Honey said with a nod. “She’s going to want toilets first.”

  Aden nodded.

  “Delphie?” Aden asked, as Valerie appeared from upstairs.

  “Delphie’s down for the count,” Valerie said. “Jake’s in real danger, and she’s. . . If she can get herself together, Jake needs her.”

  Aden nodded.

  “Do we know where the children are?” Aden asked.

  “In the Chapel,” Valerie said. “Edie’s called in the Fairy Corps. The babies have almost too much care. Oh, she said to tell you that she created the sound bubble that you asked for.”

  “Good,” Honey said.

  “Gilfand and Abi are coming,” Valerie said.

  “And we think that means?” Aden asked.

  “Heaven and earth are shaking for our Jacob,” Honey said.