Ghost Silk (Ghost Perfume, Book 2) | ✔

19 - Stand by me - Part 2

Rose (continued)

Arthur glared. "How did it end up in his hands before?"

"I think one of your people, a revenant, was using it," I said. "He wanted to talk with you and you refused."

"Sounds like a family matter," Michael said. "Sort it out amongst yourselves."

"Please, listen to me," Samantha said, switching tactics. "We were only following the law when we didn't engage with the dead who used to be our people. And she broke the law when she brought the dead back! She brought them back! And –"

"Bringing them back wasn't illegal," I said, amazed at her hypocrisy. After they got my letter, I had thought that they were happy to have them back.

"– she's trying to set us up," Samantha said, waving a paper that I recognized as the letter I'd sent them. "She wanted to convince us to break the law, and we were briefly taken in by her, but we have always been compliant, mediator –"

"What law?" Michael asked.

"The law not to talk to our own dead."

"The priests set those laws. Is it the law, priest?" Gabriel asked me.

"Um. No." I cleared my throat. "Not anymore. We changed it."

Samantha slowly lowered her hand, blinking. I'd was glad I'd said we.

"Have you got a declaration from the priests in writing?" Michael asked. "The original copy with the sun-priest stamp?"

"She's holding our declaration," I said with more confidence.

Michael held his hand out for the letter. He read it like he'd never seen it before.

"Then you haven't broken any law in speaking to your dead," Michael said. He handed it back. "Why did you believe you had?"

Samantha wrung her hands.

"I believe you thought you were doing the right thing when you refused your dead," I told her. "But the law has changed. Do as you wish."

"Okay," Samantha whispered. "Wonderful."

"Not wonderful," Michael said. "Did you attack the mortal?"

"Yes," Tommy barked. "They were totally out of control. They practically broke down my door, they chased me down, did something that paralyzed me."

"Why?" Michael asked them.

The Wischet were silent.

Michael and Gabriel glanced at each other.

"He was the one who had the epistol," Mabel said. She'd darted a look at the thin strand of gold in her mother's hair. "We thought he stole it. We were justifiably angry."

"That's all?" Michael asked. "And did you attack the priest merely because she defended her brother? To harm a priest warrants punishment in its own right, Wischet."

I realized something, something that was almost sure to be true, and elation spread in my chest.

"All their real grievances are with me. I would guess they wanted this," I said softly. I pulled the silk out of my pocket. "My hair or the hair of my family. She took the first chance she could to steal a bit of my hair herself." I pointed to the gold tied to Samantha's hair.

Her hand flew to cover the side of her head.

"That's ... your hair," Gabriel repeated in confusion.

I offered him the strands in my hand. They lay delicate on his gloved hand.