Page 106 of Rule the Night

“You can never be too busy for family.” She handed me a loaf of bread and a butter dish. “What is the point of life if not for them?”

It wasn’t meant to be an admonishment, but I couldn’t help feeling like she could see right through me, like she knew I’d been neglecting my family for the past couple of months. “You’re right.”

“Poe says you raised him and Whit?” I wanted to know more about Poe, about where he’d come from.

Jesus, M. You’re a goner.

I willed June to be quiet.

Poe’s gram looked over my shoulder to make sure I was buttering the bread correctly, then nodded with satisfaction. “After their mom — my daughter — disappeared.”

I froze in shock. “Your daughter disappeared?”

“Poe didn’t tell you?” she asked, picking up the pieces of bread I’d buttered.

I tried to remember Poe’s exact words. “He just said she hadn’t been around.”

“He doesn’t like to talk about it,” she said, layering slices of roast chicken onto the bread.

I hesitated, trying to find the words to ask more questions without being disrespectful.

She gave me a sad smile. “Go ahead and ask.”

“Did she leave? Or did something happen to her?”

“The police wanted us to believe she left, but we know that’s not true. She wouldn’t have left her boys. But you know, the police…”

She trailed off, but I knew what she meant. I’d read the stories about Black and indigenous women, who went missing at a far greater rate than white women and never got widespread news coverage.

“I’m so sorry,” I said.

“Me too. It was hard for the boys.”

“And for you, I’m sure.” I paused. “My sister was murdered last year.”

She looked up, her eyes wide. “Your sister…” She put down the piece of chicken she was holding and pulled me into a hug. “You know. You know.”

I nodded. “My mom is really having a hard time. I think it’s harder on her and my dad than the rest of us.”

It was difficult to imagine — June’s murder felt like it had changed me on a cellular level — but I knew it was true.

“Because it’s unnatural,” Poe’s gram said, pulling away to look at me. “Children are prepared to lose their parents. No parent is ever prepared to lose a child.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

She looked into my eyes. “We’re not alone in this loss, and so we’re never really alone.”

I didn’t know if it was true, but right then, it felt true.

It was something.

68

MAEVE

I spentthe weeks leading up to Halloween planning an extravaganza of themed treats. Meeting Poe’s grandparents and learning about his mom’s disappearance had made me feel closer to him. I hadn’t told him I knew — that seemed better coming from him — but it made me feel like we had more in common than I’d thought.

And Remy? Well, Remy was Remy. Maybe I felt closer to him because of all the time I spent helping him clean up the messes that seemed to follow in his wake, like he was an ice breaker barreling through frozen seas, breaking stuff apart every step of the way, but he was pretty easygoing and surprisingly easy to get along with.