Dead Reckoning

answer.
    “I have a lot of troubles, but I expect you do, too,” I said, not wanting to sound whiny. “I don’t know how Faery fits into this world. Are you all walking around us, but invisible? Or do you have a whole’nother world, like Atlantis?” This was a pretty weak and one-sided conversation. “Well, I better go back to the house before it gets dark. If you need me, come see me. I do miss you,” I said again.
    Nothing continued to happen.
    Feeling both pleased that I’d found the thin spot and disappointed that nothing had changed as a result, I made my way back through the woods to the house. Bob and Amelia had finished their magical doings in the yard, and Bob had fired up the grill. He and Amelia were going to cook steaks. Though I’d had ice cream with Remy and Hunter, I couldn’t turn down grilled steak rubbed with Bob’s secret seasoning. Amelia was cutting up potatoes to wrap in foil to go on the grill, too. I was pleased as punch. I volunteered to cook some crookneck squash.
    The house felt happier. And safer.
    While we ate, Amelia told us funny stories about working in the Genuine Magic Shop, and Bob unbent enough to imitate some of his odder colleagues in the unisex hair salon where he worked. The hairdresser Bob replaced had become so discouraged by the complications of life in post-Katrina New Orleans that she’d loaded up her car and left for Miami. Bob had gotten the job by being the first qualified person to walk in the door after the previous one had walked out. In answer to my question about whether that had been sheer coincidence, Bob just smiled. Every now and then, I saw a flash of what fascinated Amelia about Bob, who otherwise looked like a skinny, rough-haired encyclopedia salesman. I told him about Immanuel and my emergency haircut, and he said Immanuel had done a wonderful job.
    “So, the work on the wards is all done?” I asked anxiously, trying to sound casual about the change of topic.
    “You bet,” Amelia said, looking proud. She cut another bite of steak. “They’re even better now. A dragon couldn’t get through ’em. No one who means you harm will make it.”
    “So if a dragon was friendly . . .” I said, half teasing, and she swatted me with her fork.
    “No such thing, the way I hear tell,” Amelia said. “Of course, I’ve never seen one.”
    “Of course.” I didn’t know whether to feel curious or relieved.
    Bob said, “Amelia’s got a surprise for you.”
    “Oh?” I tried to sound more relaxed than I felt.
    “I found the cure,” she said, half-proudly and half-shyly. “I mean, you did ask me to when I left. I kept looking for a way to break the blood bond. I found it.”
    “How?” I scrambled to conceal how flustered I was.
    “First I asked Octavia. She didn’t know, because she doesn’t specialize in vampire magic, but she e-mailed a couple of her older friends in other covens, and they scouted around. It all took time, and there were some dead ends, but eventually I came up with a spell that doesn’t end in the death of one of the . . . bondees.”
    “I’m stunned,” I said, which was the absolute truth.
    “Shall I cast it tonight?”
    “You mean . . . right now?”
    “Yes, after supper.” Amelia looked slightly less happy because she wasn’t getting the response she’d anticipated. Bob was looking from Amelia to me, and he, too, looked doubtful. He’d assumed I’d be both delighted and effusive, and that wasn’t the reaction he was seeing.
    “I don’t know.” I put my fork down. “It wouldn’t hurt Eric?”
    “As if anything can hurt a vampire that old,” she said. “Honestly, Sook, why you’re worrying about him . . .”
    “I love him,” I said. They both stared at me.
    “For real?” Amelia said in a small voice.
    “I told you that before you left, Amelia.”
    “I guess I just didn’t want to believe you. You sure you’ll feel that way when the bond is dissolved?”
    “That’s what I want to find out.”
    She nodded. “You need to know. And you need to be free of him.”
    The sun had just set, and I could feel Eric rising. His presence was with me like a shadow: familiar, irritating, reassuring, intrusive. All those things at once.
    “If you’re ready, do it now,” I said. “Before I lose all courage.”
    “This is actually a good time of day to do it,” she said. “Sunset. End of the day. Endings, in general. It makes sense.” Amelia hurried to the bedroom. She returned in a couple of