“Thanks!” I said and cheerfully began to eat it.
Looking back, I could see that he’d used the bacon to intentionally distract me, but it had worked beautifully. Who could blame him?
When I’d devoured the whole plate, it still felt like all the food had only taken a little more of the edge off my hunger, but I knew logically that I couldn’t keep eating. At some point I would literally burst. But my head felt a little clearer. Clear enough to know something wasn’t right.
“There’s something wrong with me,” I said, feeling a sudden sense of dread.
“It’s okay,” Remy said. Unexpectedly, he looked less afraid. “I’m so sorry, Brighton.”
He came over to me and pulled me up into a hug. In his arms, I could feel a little bit more of me return to the surface.
“Sorry for what?” I asked. “You did what you could to protect me. This isn’t your fault.”
“I’m sorry that I was afraid of you.”
“I don’t blame you for that. I’d be afraid too. I am a little afraid, but I’m more hungry than scared. I know that I should find that more disturbing than I do too.”
“It’s the magic. We need to find a way to at least counter some of its affects. We could ask Amelda,” Remy said. “Or do you think there are any books on necromancy in your library?”
“There might be. There are a lot of books up there,” I said.
“Let’s go see what we can find. We’ve still got a few hours before we can deliver Margery to the crypt.”
Chapter Five
“I’ve got it,” Remy said.
“Already?” I asked.
“Brighton, it’s been three hours.”
“No, it’s only been a few minutes. I just looked out the window at the birds, and now you’re done? That’s impossible.”
“Brighton, baby, you’ve been standing there staring out that window for three hours.”
“Oh.”
“It’s all right. Meri helped me find the books I needed. He can read, you know. I didn’t know that. Anyway, I’ve got a list of herbs that could help us.”
“Herbs,” I said, but I was distracted by the birds again. I was having so much trouble focusing on anything but the birds.
“Yes. We’re going to go to Ruby’s Apothecary and see if she has anything on this list. If she does, then I think we can reverse what’s happening with you, or at the very least, we can slow it down.”
Remy took my hand and led me away from the attic window and down the stairs. He patiently reminded me every time I forgot where we were going.
“I’m hungry,” I said as we got into the car.
“We’ll get something as soon as we’re done at Ruby’s,” Remy said.
“Ruby’s?”
“We’re going to get herbs for a spell, sweetie. Put your seatbelt on, please.”
“Oh, right,” I said. “I’m so forgetful.”
“We’re going to fix this,” Remy said.
“Do you think we can?”
“We have to. I don’t know if I can do this without you. You’re the one who solves the murders around here.”
“Murder,” I said. “Oh, right, Margery is dead. She’s in the trunk. Remy, we’re driving around with your dead aunt in the trunk.”
“Hey, that’s great,” he said with a smile. “I mean, it’s not great that we have a body in the trunk, but it’s good that you’re able to remember.”
“It comes and goes,” I said.
And then it went again. We rode in silence to Ruby’s shop, and by the time we got there, I’d completely forgotten why we were going again.
I felt better as soon as we walked into Ruby’s shop. Not completely better, but it was a significant improvement. She was burning patchouli and the scent seemed to clear my head.
“The patchouli is really helping,” I said to Remy. “We should get some oil while we’re here.”
“I was hoping it would. I looked around your house for some earlier, but your bottle was empty.”
“Meri knocked it over a couple of months ago. I haven’t had occasion to use it, so I hadn’t replaced it.”
“It’s good that you remember that,” he said.
“No, Nope. Uh uh. No way,” Ruby said when she saw us. “I don’t want to be involved in this.”
“Ruby, I don’t know how you can not be involved. You’re the only apothecary in a town full of witches, and we’re in the middle of a magical crisis and possible zombie apocalypse,” Remy said.
“First of all, I think you’re being a little dramatic. Second, I’ll help your family with whatever they need. I would never be stupid enough to tell Amelda no, but you two are bad juju. Half the witches in this town, mostly members of your family, Remy, are saying you guys did this. They’re saying that you caught her doing that dark crap and you killed her for it. I’ve even heard whispers that you were helping her for a while and that’s why you killed her. You did it to keep your secrets.”
“Well, those are just dumb small-town rumors, Ruby,” Remy said. “You know as well as I do that I had nothing to do with her death. Those old gossips know it too. Some witches are just addicted to drama.”
“I need your help,” Brighton said.
“I heard about what happened to you.” Ruby softened a little.
“That’s why we’re here,” Remy interjected. “We have a list of herbs that could help buy her some time. They’re used in necromancy, but they can be used to help protect from it as well.”
“Fight fire with fire,” Ruby mused.
“Here, take a look at this list, and sell me as much as you can of any of these,” he said and handed her the slip of paper.
“Wow,” Ruby said. “I don’t have any of these. I mean, I did, but they’ve all sold out.”
“Today? To my family?” Remy asked hopefully. “If so, then perhaps I can get some from them.”
“You know I can’t tell you that, Remy. Privacy is guaranteed here. It’s the only way I can stay in business. If anyone found out that I told you who bought what, even for a good cause, I’d be done. No one would ever trust me again.”
“Ruby, come on.” Remy pleaded. “Brighton is going to—”
He was going to say that I would die without it, but Remy cut himself off. Or he was interrupted. The order of events is a little cloudy. I was feeling better in the shop, but I’d still drifted off while staring at a particularly sparkly chunk of amethyst geode.
“Is mullein on that list?” a voice came from the back of the shop.
Remy’s Aunt Gretchen appeared from behind one of the displays. She carried a small canvas sack filled with some sort of plant. It had long, thin rod-shaped cones covered in little yellow flowers.
“It is, Aunt Gretchen,” Remy said.
“I just bought the last of it for the rituals Amelda wants to do, but you should take it. I couldn’t buy anything else because it’s sold out. You can have this, though, if it helps.”
“Thank you, Aunt Gretchen. Thank you so much.”
“You should take her over to Bubble & Brew for a cinnamon roll and a cinnamon latte,” Gretchen said.
“I am hungry.”
“It’s an Osiris herb used by the Ancient Egyptians to help achieve immortality. It will buy her some time.”
“Thank you so much,” Remy said.
“I’m sorry I can’t help more,” Ruby said.
“You could if you wanted to,” Remy said gruffly.
“Remy, it’s okay. The town needs Ruby’s shop. We can’t blame her for upholding her policy.”
He gave her a nod, and we left with the mullein his aunt had given us. Following her advice, Remy and I made a pit stop at Bubble & Brew. He went inside and bought a whole tray of cinnamon rolls and a large cinnamon latte.
“I thought you’d be hungry,” he said and handed me the paper bag with a smile.
“I am,” I said and accepted it. “It’s like no matter how much I eat, it’s never enough. The feeling is almost c
ompletely maddening.”
“It’s probably because the food you’re eating isn’t what you’re hungry for,” Remy grimaced.
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it, Brighton. Please don’t tell me you’ve never seen a zombie movie.”
And then, I knew what he was talking about.
“No. Absolutely not.” I shook my head vehemently. “There’s no way that I would ever.”
“Well, it’s a good sign that you’re still saying that.”
He started the car and pulled onto the street. I drank my latte while he drove us to our next destination.
“Are you saying that at some point, this hunger might grow so bad that I’ll lose control?” The thought terrified me.
“We’re going to do everything we can to keep it from going that far,” Remy said. “Everything. And if for some reason, we don’t solve this murder in time, then Meri and I will put you in the garage walking in little circles until we figure it out.”
“What if once I change over, I can’t change back? This thing could be a one-way ticket.”
“I won’t let that happen,” he said.
“Why can’t you just try to pull it out now?” I asked. “You could yank it out of me the way you did Bridgette. The way the other witches are doing to the zombies they encounter in Coventry.”
“Because it could kill you,” Remy said. “I can yank it out of them because their soul is already gone. This isn’t a virus. It’s black magic, and it’s wrapped like tentacles around your soul.”
“So, you yank out one and the other comes out too,” I said.
“I tried the cleansing,” Remy said. “After it took you, but it’s deeper than anything I can handle. I can take you to the aunties and they can try, but they might not be able to do it without killing you either. It’s too big of a risk.”
“It really does come down to solve the murder or die, then,” I said. “So, what about this mullein? What do we do with that? Do I carry it with me or are we going to put it in spell bags?”
“I’m going to dry it, and you’re going to smoke it,” Remy said matter-of-factly.
“Smoke it? Like drugs?”
“Yeah, it’s the fastest way to get the herbs to your brain.”
“How am I going to smoke it, though? I don’t have a pipe or any papers.”
“You were a pothead, weren’t you?” Remy teased.
“I was not. I saw that in a movie,” I said.
“Either way, we’ll stop by my house on the way and grab my great-grandfather’s old tobacco pipe. You can use that.”
It was still daylight when we got to the cemetery, so Remy parked the car close to the mausoleum and we went to sit under a tree. He used magic to dry the mullein before packing the dried herb in the pipe.
He handed it to me. “Here you go.”
“I hope I don’t choke on it or anything. I’ve really never smoked anything before. I wasn’t a pothead,” I said.
“I was just teasing you,” Remy said. “I didn’t really think you were a pothead, but even if you had been, I’d still love you.”
“Does that mean you’re going to tease me when I start coughing on this stuff.”
“Not at all. Just inhale it slowly, okay? Take light puffs. Not too much at once.”
I almost asked him about a lighter, but no one was around, so I lit the dried herbs in the pipe with a little conjured flame. I tried to just inhale a little bit, but the acrid smoke choked me anyway. Good to his word, Remy didn’t laugh at me when I began to cough and gasp for air. He just put a reassuring hand on my back and told me to take a deep breath.
The most amazing thing happened. When I stopped coughing, my head felt clear. I wasn’t hungry anymore either. In fact, I felt a little stuffed from all the food I’d eaten.
“Better?” Remy asked hopefully.
“Much better, actually,” I said. “How much of that stuff do we have?”
“Enough for a few pipefuls. Let’s just hope it lasts a long time.”
I finished the herbs, and when I was done, I felt like my old self again. Remy even commented that some of the red was back in my hair. Before the zombie incident, it had settled on a bright pink shade for the previous few months. Being in love had stuck with me, and only death had threatened to change it.
We stayed in the cemetery until dark, keeping a watchful eye on the graves around us. Fortunately, nothing dug its way to the surface. I wondered if that was because the necromancy didn’t affect the long dead, or if it was because they just hadn’t made it out of the ground yet.
When the sun finally set, Remy and I put Margery in the Skeenbauer family mausoleum. We didn’t have to break in since it was his family’s crypt, so it was much easier than the last time I’d been in there.
There wasn’t really an opening for her, so we just kind of chucked her in. Remy snatched the amulet from her throat, and the, sealed the door as quickly as he could.
“Now what?” I asked.
“Now we figure out who killed her and put an end to this.”
Chapter Six
Our next stop was Margery’s house, but that would turn out to be not as easy as planned. The horde we encountered on the way to her house was the first I’d seen. It might have been a little dramatic to call it a horde, but that’s how it felt. Even if it was only about a dozen shambling undead.
Fortunately, we’d stopped by the house on the way and picked up Meri and Annika. She’d been sitting on the porch in the dark waiting for us like there was nothing bad going on in Coventry at all. It wasn’t that she didn’t know about it, it was just that she wasn’t afraid at all. The girl had some stones and a serious love of zombies. If anyone was giddy that a zombie apocalypse might have been going down, it was Annika.
Brody had wanted to come too and was super ticked off that we wouldn’t let him, but his magical skills were even weaker than mine. Plus, we needed him doing research. He had to find a spell that could counter the necromancy without killing me in case we failed at finding the murderer.
Okay, back to the horde. It was roaming down the street where Margery lived a couple of blocks from her house. All but a couple of them were wearing hospital robes, but two of them were dressed in regular clothes.
The horror of the situation wasn’t lost on me, but I couldn’t let myself think about it. I would have broken down in tears if I had, and that would have put the people I loved in danger.
We approached the horde and Meri put them all under the spell to make them walk in little circles. I was impressed because they didn’t run into each other. It was all perfectly choreographed, but I could tell it was taking all of Meri’s energy to cast the spell on so many zombies.
After that, Annika and Remy worked on yanking the necromantic magic out of the zombies, and I bound the energy. I got it right that time and managed not to pass out or take any of the magic into myself.
The problem was that we only managed to get through about half of them before it became completely overwhelming for everyone. We were overwhelmed, and there were still zombies coming at us.
“What do we do?” I asked when Remy and Annika started to look exhausted.
“I think we’re going to have to run,” Annika said.
She sounded out of breath even though we’d just been standing there. Casting spells could be like running sprints sometimes. Remy was pale and shaking.
“The house we need to go to is on the other side of them,” I said.
“Well, we can just run around them,” Annika said. “We can totally dodge them. Just let me catch my breath.”
“They’ll follow us,” I said. “Plus, we can’t leave them. They could hurt someone else.”
“We can help.”
We hadn’t heard them approach, but a group of Skeenbauer witches had walked up behind us. They were a part of the teams that were traveling around dispelling the necromancy and dealing with the bodies.
“You guys go on,” one of the women said
. “We’ve got you covered.”
“Thank you,” Remy responded.
He and Annika gave the woman a hug, and then we dodged the zombies the witches were liberating on our way to our destination.
Had I been alone, getting into Margery’s house would have been nearly impossible, but since I had two Skeenbauers and Meri with me, they made light work of the traps and wards guarding her house.
Well, that’s what we thought, anyway. The three of us, plus Meri, made it into the living room before the doors and windows all disappeared. They were just gone, and it should have been obvious we’d been caught in a trap no one saw coming. We’d all scanned for Margery’s magic, but whatever caught us must have been such a high level we couldn’t even detect it.
“What’s going on?” I didn’t jump into Remy’s arms, but I did reach for his hand.
He clasped mine with his, and I instantly felt better. Though, I still couldn’t quite comprehend what had just happened. It could have been that I needed more of the mullein, or it might have just been panic dulling my brain.
“She’s got us in a trap,” Remy said. “It was so well disguised that none of us picked up on it. Margery was more powerful than we knew.”
“What are we going to do?” Annika asked.
“Well, we can either hope that Margery appears and lets us out since we’re here on an errand for her, or we can go ahead with our investigation. Perhaps what we need to release the trap is in the house somewhere,” Remy said.
“All right,” I said. “Do you think it’s safe to split up?”
“You go upstairs with Meri,” Remy said to me. “Annika will search the ground floor, and I’ll go down to the basement.”
“Alone?” I asked.
“I’ll call out if I need you or the cat, okay?”
“Splitting up feels like one of those dumb horror movie decisions,” Annika quipped.
“Do you want to come upstairs with me?” I offered. “We could search the second floor together and then come down here.”
“No. If you’re okay, let’s get this over with as fast as we can,” she said.
As I walked up the steps to the second floor, I thought about how much Thorn would have hated me going off alone. He would have tried to stop me. The way Remy saw me was so different. He never questioned that I could handle myself. It didn’t upset me that he didn’t try to protect me, because he never acted like I needed protecting. It was nice to have a future husband who saw me as capable.
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