Suit up? Suit up? Lewis was hovering like a wraith over Vivi's shoulder and she wanted Arthur to just suit up and talk?

Numbly, his fingers fumbled with the latches of the prosthetic. An additional set of hands helped fit and lock it in place, but he hardly registered them.

They were all there in his head. All the pieces, or at least most of them. Was it most? It was a lot more than he'd had before, but they were jumbled together in his mind and he wasn't sure where one ended and another began. Tell Vivi what was going on? There was nothing to tell until he could put it in order.

And how was he supposed to put it in order when pink flames scorching up along his body oh gods this was what hell must be like staring down at him like an insect to be squashed how did he get like this Harvey says he'll have Lewis' back and then is Mystery all right? Vivi says he didn't kill Mystery but did he hurt him? He has to apologize, but Mystery knows he would never ever kill Lewis, it should be obvious, how could he not understand have your back all the time just like you have mine and cursed, a mortal could never understand, one who's never seen the face of a god flightstripped like her mother, I flightstripped Mrs. Pepper but it wasn't me, it was wound all around you, can't you see it has already woven you into its design don't go, little boy, don't die please he won't break he isn't any use to me he was after Mystery's soul fated to kill Arthur-

The sea. He could smell the sea, and he buried his face in the scent, shuddering. He couldn't bring his mind around to anything.

"I think it's going to have to wait." Someone was talking, and he clung tighter. Such a melodic voice. "Look at him. He can't even put it back on by himself. He has had three attempts on his life today, plus a possession. No, Vivi. I'm sorry, he needs rest." It whispered in his ear, and he hoped it would never stop. "I'm sorry, Arthur. Sleep now."

There was nothing more he wanted….

…..

The shaking stilled and Arthur's head lolled back. Kay swallowed back her guilt, hoping he would forgive her later. Was this what Mom felt every time she made a definitive statement around Dad?

"Vivi, I think we should leave," she said quietly. "That thing said it would see very personally to the fulfillment of my curse, and it seemed to be after something from Mystery. It was in Arthur, so it probably knows where we are right now."

Viv's jaw worked for a moment before she turned to scoop up the laptop, slipping it into her bag. "You're right. We gotta blow this place. Lewis, make yourself useful and grab the gear. Mystery, what do you think you're doing? You just hold still." She scooped Mystery into her arms and glanced back at Kay. "I'll come back and help you with Squire."

Lewis simmered, but reached toward Arthur. "I'll bring him to the van."

Kay's talons flashed, tearing across his suit and sending him staggering back. "Don't. Touch. Him."

The rips mended themselves, and Lewis stared down at her, his shoulders rising. "Of course you can handle this yourself. Why just look at yourself, all feathers and claws and dragging an unconscious man. They won't suspect a thing."

Kay drew Arthur closer.

"We don't have time for this!" Vivi snapped. "Lewis, get your insubstantial bones out to the van as inconspicuously as you can. Kay, take a few minutes to retract the birdage. I'll be at the front desk, checking us out."

Lewis grabbed the luggage, brushing past Kay to phase through the wall. Muttering under her breath, Vivi carried Mystery out of the room.

He was right, though. She couldn't leave the room like this, but she didn't have the luxury of time. She also didn't have a huge coat like Chloe, that would be useful. Maybe the sheets-but then she'd be caught for stealing.

She glanced down at her arms, biting her lip. What were the chances someone would really believe the feathers were hers? Nobody believed creatures like her existed. While there was the occasional bigfoot report and groups like the Mystery Skulls chasing ghosts and demons, she'd never seen a single mention of a siren. There were, however, many convincing costumes out there, and makeup artists who could do fantastic things.

Pulling Arthur's arm over her shoulder, she stood to her feet. She wrapped one arm around his waist and carried him toward the door, allowing his feet to drag on the ground to lend the illusion he was hard to carry.

She passed Vivi, who shot her a hard look as the clerk gaped. Kay managed a small smile. "I'm gonna have to get him to tell me where he learned to do this, after he wakes up." She nodded at her arms. "Pretty convincing getup, huh? I'll be the main attraction at the event."

Vivi raised an eyebrow, nodding. "Yeah, he's, uh, always been quite the designer. Looks like the really gave it his all this time. Better get him to the van."

Relieved, Kay hefted Arthur out to the parking lot. As she approached the van, she noticed Lewis smoldering away in the passenger's seat. Her stomach knotted, but she averted her eyes. Loading Arthur into the back, she locked the doors and crouched next to him, trying to pretend it was just her and Arthur there.

Or even better, that she was just alone in her sycamore. She shut her eyes, burying her face in her arms. Maybe none of this was happening, and she'd already lost her mind. That would be easier. She could just wait for Lewis to come tell her how ridiculous she was being, and that everything was going to be all right.

"You should have told me. None of this would have happened if you'd told me."

Kay said nothing. Her brother wasn't speaking to her. Her brother was dead and buried. She'd been mistaken, and this was an imposter here to torment her. She wouldn't give in, wouldn't acknowledge it any more. Vivi, Arthur, and Mystery existed. This thing did not, and she would treat it accordingly.

"I could have told you exactly what would happen. Look at him, falling asleep on cue, like a dog." The temperature in the van rose. "Eventually you'll kill him, whether you mean to or not. It's just your nature."

Kay clutched Arthur close, as if she could put him between the cruel words and herself.

"You knew this, but you still picked him. And then he didn't have my back when I needed it."

It isn't Lewis, she mouthed to herself. Not my brother.

"I hope you're happy with him. I hope you learn to enjoy his servitude, because you'll never have love."

She tilted her head back, opening her mouth for air. How could words hurt so much?

"I… I waited for you." She ran a hand down her arm. The feathers were finally receding. "At the sycamore. Waited. You didn't come. You were supposed to come tell me… it was okay. You weren't really dead."

"I'm really dead," he returned, "and nothing about this is okay."

"I want to go back. Please. I want to go back to the sycamore. Come get me, Lewis."

"I never wanted to go up there to begin with! Mom always ordered me to go after you! Do you think I really enjoyed climbing that high myself?"

Maybe going mad would be easier than this. It had to hurt less. But then, who knew what she would tell Arthur to do in such a state? No. That was not an option.

The front door slammed, and the engine roared to life. "You'd better not be trash talking Kay," Vivi warned, backing out of the lot.

"I'm not touching either of them," Lewis muttered, "I'm allowed to talk to my own sister."

Kay lifted her head, turning it slowly toward the front. "No. I'm not your sister. I'm Lewis' sister. And you're not Lewis."

"Don't say that!" His skull lurched forward, stopping inches from her face. "Don't you dare tell me who I am! I know who I am! I am Lewis Pepper!"

"Lewis doesn't have flames," she said quietly. "He's kind and he makes me brave enough to come out of the tree myself, and he's dead." She turned away. "You're not Lewis."

Sweat ran down the back of her neck and the air sizzled like the desert at noon, but he didn't say anything else. His skull retreated to the front with the rest of his suit, and Kay lay down next to Arthur, wishing she could be unconscious too.

….

It wasn't like any dream Arthur was used to, and that set his teeth on edge. Below him, Kay hauled his body out of the room, past Vivi, and loaded him into the back of the van. He heard every cutting remark Lewis had for her, but couldn't twitch, much less punch Lewis' skull across the van like he wanted.

Did he want that? Lewis was the one wronged.

But he wasn't the only one wronged, and his lashing out wasn't helping anything. The vines were tightening around Kay's head with every word Lewis-

Vines. How had he not seen them before? Little green shoots wound around Kay's neck up through her hair, framing her head like a crown. They spread out from the middle of Lewis' torso, wrapping all around his waist in a vice grip that strained the suit. Even on his own body he could see them, winding up and down his arms, curled around each finger.

Waiting.

"It's wound all around you too. You're already affected. Whatever happens, you will be part of it. You can't stop a god's curse."

This is what Mrs. Pepper had meant. If she could see the curse like this and who it touched, then… then it wasn't his fault. She'd known all along, and hadn't done anything. Relief and rage coursed through him. She could have averted everything! Maybe even Lewis' death! She was far more responsible than even Mr. Pepper guessed.

Vivi! Was she-no. She was clear of any vines, as was Mystery. The curse hadn't touched them. He turned back to his own body, studying the vines. Why had the curse affected him? He wasn't part of the Pepper family, he shouldn't have fallen to it. Unless…

"The early death of eldest son. The firstborn's mind to come undone. The second one to kill and rage. The third to live within my cage."

He didn't understand Dulcie's curse yet, but three out of four lines seemed to implicate his actions or potential action against him. Had he been drawn in by proximity? Did the curse latch onto people it deemed useful? Was it alive? It had to be, it presented itself as a vine for crying out loud. This changed everything. Affected people could be quarantined. Vines could be poisoned. Mrs. Pepper was wrong, there had to be a way out of it, he just needed the right information.

And there it was. It was all a jumble in his waking mind, but now he had time. First, the curse. Who cast it?

"Imagination, milked from the mind of a broken child, to give the curse adjustment."

One of the Shiker fragments. The Shiker cast curses. Farmed children, in fact, for one of the ingredients. Lewis must have been one of the children, but he hadn't broken. Imagination. It made all the sense in the world. If a curse was cast hundreds of years before, it would need to adjust to new surroundings, times, and situations in order to fulfill its purpose. Who had a greater range of imagination than a child?

What were the other ingredients?

"Unicorn's horn to give the curse longevity, and the cruelest kind of hope."

The Shiker kept referencing the "paddock" and had Lewis take care of the "herd." Was it possible? He chuckled at himself. He was dealing with demonic memories embedded in his head, dating a siren, running from a ghost, and yet he paused at the idea that unicorns existed. What longevity meant in this case, he wasn't sure yet, but it was something to keep in mind.

His mind shuddered to a halt. Horn. Not unicorns, unicorn horn. Just the horn. Chloe was always wearing a bandage on her forehead… no, it was too great a leap. He couldn't assume one head wound meant-and yet Vivi claimed Chloe had healed him, and the consensus was that Chloe could not be human, though she had no knowledge of what she was. But she was wearing a corrupted hoshi no tama, how did that impact the situation?

"A corrupted hoshi no tama to incubate the curse from planting to harvest."

If he needed further proof that this vine was the curse, the Shiker thought in terms of planting and harvesting them. Whatever properties the hoshi no tama had, it must be enough protection to nurture the curse. Chloe and Duet each wore one, were those harboring would-be curses? Were they walking incubators?

He had to apologize to Mystery. Mystery had showed him exactly where to find his hoshi no tama, and the Shiker now had access to that knowledge.

Don't sidetrack. Stay on the curse. So the Shiker cast the curses, but Mrs. Pepper had talked about a goddess, so the Shiker was likely carrying out someone else's dirty work. Maybe even selling curses. If he was farming them it wasn't much of a leap to guess that a market existed. The idea that the law of supply and demand could extend beyond the mortal plane made him laugh.

So, he had to find a way to kill the curse. Many antidotes were made from the venom they were intended to cure, was there a way to do that?

No. He couldn't. The cost was too high on each of the ingredients. There had to be another way. And he needed the brainstorming power of the whole team on this.

The van was still gunning down the road at the speed of Vivi's anger. How long had it been? They had to be far enough away for a measure of safety by now. Kay had told him to sleep, but not for how long. Could he wake himself up?

She lay next to him, curled up in a fetal position with her head on his chest. As soon as he woke, so would she. And she'd been through enough for one day.

It wouldn't hurt to let Vivi put a little more distance between them and the hotel.