Something I Don't Know

16: puppies make excellent valentine's day gifts

When I tell Rob about the mayor's invite, he tacks an extra hour onto my lunch break and sends me out the door. Twenty minutes later, I'm shouldering open the door to the loft, calling Midge's name.

My voice bounces off the brick walls and echoes back at me, but there's no response.

I drop my keys in the tin by the door, calling again: "Midge?"

Nothing.

I turn the corner into the kitchen, but it's empty, a mortar and pestle sitting like an ancient ruin on the countertop, the sunlight illuminating the streaks of fingerprints on the stainless steel fridge. The den's vacant, too, though there's a single pillow tossed on the ground.

"Margaret Osborne," I call, my voice carrying up to the wooden beams. "If this is an elaborate game of hide and seek, you know you can't beat me, I can turn invisible."

Still no reply.

I'm standing there, coat still on even though the heat's quite obviously working, trying to decide which room to search through first, when I hear it: her voice, and someone else's. Not Jamie's, I realize a second later, but the ghost's.

"I swear, I read all the directions in the grimoire. It should've healed him. It shouldn't have done this."

"Well," says Levi, his voice muffled through the walls. "He's quite adorable."

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph," Midge curses. "Grey's going to murder me."

"Don't worry, lass, he's not going to—"

"He's absolutely gonna kill me. I'm gonna die, this is it, he's gonna kill me..."

My eyebrows knit as I cross the den and head down the hallway, towards Jamie's room, the source of the voices. I wait a moment before entering, not sure I want to know what's going on. What could she have done that's so bad, anyway? That's so bad she'd think I'd be so mad at her?

"He leaves Jamie in my hands," mutters Midge, "thinking I'm gonna heal him, like a witch should do, like I should do, and then I do this—"

I bump the door open, previously cracked, with my hip. "Do what?"

Midge jumps and flips around to face me, her shoulders square and her eyes wide. Levi, beside her, is grinning, though I don't know why. I wonder when they became acquainted. I wonder if it was as ugly as I'd imagined it would be.

"Grey!" Midge exclaims cheerily—too cheerily. There's a soft thunk behind her, but before I can look around, she steps in front of me to block my view. "You're home. Wait. Why are you home?"

"The mayor invited me to check out one of his 'projects.' I came to pick up Jamie. Buddy system, in case he decides to get kidnappy again."

Midge's smile twitches. "Are you sure you need Jamie? You could take River. Or Safiya. Or, like, literally anyone else."

I'm trying to give her a chance to cough it up on her own, but it doesn't look she's going to take it. "Why? Is he not well? River said once he got the elixir that he should be fine."

"Yeah," Levi says, still grinning. He tugs on his old timey jacket to adjust it. "The elixir."

Midge glares at him.

"Okay," I say, stepping further into the room. I nudge Midge aside, ignoring her yelp of protest. "Whatever you did, I'm sure it's not that bad—awwww, what's this?"

I'm not sure why she was hiding it, but prancing around on the carpet is a puppy, if you can even call it that. Truly, it's a tiny ball of white fluff, like someone breathed life into a cotton ball. It's about the size of my palm, and when I lean down to pick it up, it lets me, nuzzling its forehead into my hand.