She smiled up at me, flowers painted all over her face, poor Terry Johnson squirming on her lap.

“Here,” I said, and handed her a vampire cookie. “From Kira, frosted today.”

“Thank you, sweetheart. You two go have fun now,” she said. “Midnight, okay?”

“Midnight,” I croaked through my swollen throat.

Sweetheart. Easy. Like it was what she always called me.

And I did not mind.

Sean took my hand. “Don’t want to lose you in the crowd is all,” he said. “Safety first.” I gave in and held his fingers tight in mine.

He was not wrong about the island’s deal with Halloween. A million little kids raced around blocked-off Main Street, and it made me feel better. Familiar. I yelled at them to slow down their running, tie their shoes, pick up that wrapper they dropped.

The Salishwood booth was all about Sean and me showing taxidermied owls and mice to the kids who came by, and I sat on a stool applying temporary tattoos to little arms and faces.

“Glad you came?” he asked.

I nodded and reached into the bag to put a shortbread vampire in his mouth. “So good, right?”

He nodded, chewing and grinning at me in the dumb beard, which I reached out to straighten.

“Young love,” came a voice from the crowd, and then Natan emerged, leering in a vape cloud, the stupid pipe jammed in the corner of his mouth like he wished he were a nineteenth-century British detective. Bun stringy and high on his head, his usual Teva sandal situation on his feet but wearing a wool sweater and a batik wrap skirt, which, good for him smashing patriarchal clothing norms but then negating that with his vape-free arm wrapped tight around a pasty, waifish girl, lank blond hair to her waist. She took a hit off the vape pipe and gazed, glassy-eyed, up at Natan.

“Hey there, my wee protégé. How’s the Halloween lovefest going? You two sneaking in a make-out sesh?”

I felt Sean’s entire body tense beside me.

“Hello,” I said, extending my hand to the waif. “I’m Muiriel.”

“HarmonyOceanJustice,” she said.

Of course.

“Having a good Halloween?”

Natan smiled and lifted Harmony’s hair from her shoulders and answered for her. “We’re just riding the autumnal high of Gaia’s beauty,” he said. “Hook us up with some sweet ink?” He picked up the temporary tattoos, sat on the stool beside me, and pulled his sweater off his bare shoulder. “Right about here, I think, Muiriel.”

Sean hopped over the table, slapped a tattoo on Natan’s shoulder, and whacked him on his back. “All set, man. See you at work!”

Natan smiled at me, stood and put his arms around Harmony, and steered her into the crowd to infect it with his patchouli stench.