Chrysie was awake. She was filling Martha again with her spirit—and it was still all glitter, but the light of her wasn’t quite so shining. It was as if she’d changed from silver glitter rainbows in my bed to black glitter. She still shon—that was what was important.
I tiptoed through the house pausing at every creak of the house, every shifting of the wind against the windows until I slipped into her room. Our gazes met across the distance of her room, and she forced a smile for me.
“You don’t have to do that,” I told her.
She just gave me that same lie of a smile and I crossed the room to curl into her side on the bed.
“It was dark in my head,” she told me.
“We were lost without you,” I told her.
“Thank you for coming for me,” she said, and her voice cracked. Gods. My eyes burned, and because it was dark, I let a tear slip down my face without feeling like I had to hide it.
“You’re the first friend I’ve ever had, you idiot. The first real one. Of course I came for you.”
She sniffed several times before she cried, “My hand…”
Hecate, I was an idiot. “Elizabeth said she can reattach it.”
She didn’t stop sniffling, so I took her remaining hand and squeezed it as she cried. She finally said, “I’ll be like frankenstein’s bride.”
“She was always kind of sexy,” I told the darkness and then I unaccountably laughed. Maybe it was because everything had been so very horrible, but we were giggling.
When the laughter stopped, Chrysie confessed, “I was so scared.”
“I can’t even imagine,” I told her. And then because I wanted the darkness to go away and the light of Chrysie to come back I said, “Felix kissed me.”
She gasped and then said, “Of COURSE he did, you hooker. He has a girlfriend. Also, FINALLY.”
“What? Shut up! You didn’t know.”
“He has been staring after you like a puppy for weeks.”
“Shut up. He was just caught up in almost dying.”
“Nope,” Chrysie said, and I could feel her shake her head, hurt herself, jump, and then be very still. But she added lightly, as if she wasn’t in pain, “He is enthralled with you. He is kind of obsessed, but not in a creepy way. He’s in deep, deep like and very likely love with you.”
“You’re ridiculous. And a liar. And I’m only listening to you because you’re hurt. When you’re back to you, I’m going to punch you hard.”
“Speaking of getting better, I need the bathroom.”
I probably should have called for help, but I unhooked her from her wires and whatnot and helped her cross the room to her bathroom. I’d have preferred to stick with her, but when she pled for a private moment, I let her have it without argument.
When she came back, she’d washed her face and brushed her teeth. Her hair was combed, and she seemed—well not human—but not vampire crazy anymore. There was a slight tinge to her cheeks.
“Pancakes,” I told her. “Blueberry ones. It’s one of the few things I can do well in the kitchen. Daddy makes them every Sunday morning.
“Bacon. Sausage. Eggs,” she added and I couldn’t help but grin as she kept listening.
We found our way to the stairs, but Leander Hallow was waiting at the base of the stairs as if he’d been hovering.
“Go down the back way,” I whispered to her. “I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”
She slipped away and then I clomped down the stairs far louder than usual to ensure her retreat. Leander didn’t give me a moment to catch my breath or greet him.
“What you did was reckless and stupid,” Leander said.
I passed him and sat down at a desk in the library. And he simply followed, leaning down on his fists to tower over me. “You risked the home of our family. You risked your lives. You risked everything. We would have resolved the matter.”
The pounding in my head from the cleansing spell had not faded in the three days since we discovered—to all of our surprise—that we had lived. It seems when you do a cleansing spell against dark magic on a dark witch, she’ll be essentially scoured out of existence. If you have enough power. We did. The Hallow family was many things, but powerful was unquestionably of them. And generations of Hallows had reinforced the spells we’d used to destroy the dark witch. It hadn’t hurt that we’d combined the magic of friendship with the magic of werewolves either.
“I am disgusted by your entire lack of regard for—”
“You need to stop,” the quiet little voice broke through Leander’s rage. “Rue has a headache, and you’re being mean.”
Leander coughed as he faced down the speaker. It was just hard to argue with a tiny little person with golden eyes, scars on her face, and the feeling of a nightmare standing right behind her.
“You don’t understand,” Leander said, “this is a grown-up conversation.”
“Go away,” Gwennie said. She frowned up at him and said it again. “Go away right now.”
Leander cleared his throat and said, “Well. Then.”
He glanced back and forth between Gwennie and me and then said, “We’ll be speaking again, Veruca.”
“You saved me,” I told her and watched the flicker of a smile flash through her eyes before it faded again.
“Not enough. Not yet.”
“That’s not how it works, poppet,” I told her, standing and saying, “I think we should have some ice cream with the pancakes I’m going to make.”
We made our way to Martha’s kitchen where we found her brother, Felix, Monica, Cyrus, Jessie, Saffron, Elizabeth, and Elspeth.
“It’s a regular party,” I told Gwennie. We stood in the doorway, I considered slipping away and warning Chrysie off but Saffron saw us.
“Too late,” she said.
So we went in. I opened the cupboards and began pancakes from scratch while everyone watched me. I put bacon and sausage patties in the oven, glancing for Chrysie who hadn’t appeared yet. But Martha hadn’t ruffled my senses so I decided to give Chrysie space.
I listened to the others chat about the weather and football and classes. Gwennie was silent and Chrysie was still upstairs, hiding from the crowd in the room I guessed.
“We shouldn’t have left you here,” Elizabeth told us. Since I didn’t disagree with that statement, I didn’t say anything.
“Hazel sent me to help,” Saffron said, “I don’t think she’ll be happy with my performance.”
“How did she know?” Felix asked. His fingers were twinned with Monica’s, and he didn’t meet my gaze.
“Presidium,” Elizabeth and Saffron said together.
My eye twitched at that, but there was a creak in the hallway, a shift of air, and something in the flavor of Martha. I looked up and jumped to my feet. Even though I knew she had woken up, I was still the first across the room with my arms wrapped around Chrysie.
Felix hit us next and then Jessie, Cyrus, and Elspeth. It was one huge hug of perfection as Chrysie shuddered in my arms.
When we pulled back, I looked into her eyes and found…her. Those quiet moments must have given her the time she needed to pull herself to the front of the fragile being who had been left behind by what had happened to her.
“Are you alright?”
She paused, considering, before she said, “Yes.”
“We’re safe,” I told her, not really believing it.
“Ok,” she said, not really convinced.
* * * * *
It was late when the doorbell rang. I had finally fallen into a deep sleep and my stumble down the stairs had left me with a bruise or two. I couldn’t imagine who would be coming to the house at 2:00 a.m, but I was prepared to kill. Except, when I opened the door, I saw the one person I had been aching to see for months. A head shorter, bright red hair, brilliant green eyes and freckles. She was an armful of curves and—usually—liveliness.
“Bran?” I asked, shocked at her paler than normal skin, the dark circles under her eyes, a
nd the small curl to her shoulders.
“Rue—” Her eyes were heavy with thoughts and feelings I couldn’t quite read.
I pulled her inside as I asked, “Are you alright?”
She tried to smile and failed before she said, “I need help.”
The End
Hello! Thank you so much for reading about Rue and her friends. I hope you truly enjoyed this story! Please consider leaving a review to help others who might enjoy the antics of Rue. Reviews don’t just help readers, they help authors too, so thank you in advance for leaving one here.
If you’d like to discover just what has been happening with Branka, check out Sisters and Graves which is coming soon and available for preorder now!
If you enjoy the world of small town witches, you may just enjoy Inconvenient Murder which is the story of the two worst witches of Rue’s home coven.
ALSO BY AMANDA A. ALLEN
The Inept Witches Mysteries (co-written with Auburn Seal)
Inconvenient Murder
Moonlight Murder
Bewitched Murder
Presidium Vignettes (with Rue Hallow)
Prague Murder
The Rue Hallow Mysteries
Hallow Graves
Hungry Graves
Lonely Graves
Sisters and Graves
Curses of the Witch Queen
Fairy Tales Re-Imagined
Song of Sorrow: A Prelude to Rapunzel
Snow White
Kendawyn Paranormal Regency Romances
Compelled by Love
Bewildered by Love
Other Novels
These Lying Eyes
Author’s Note
Once again, it is time to take a moment and thank some people. I have been epically blessed with good friends who support and love me and continually help me in my quest to be a writer. I’m looking at you Laurieann Thorpe, Emily Pavlina, and my family. Special gratitude to my lovely little babies for giving me a reason to keep trying harder and my dogs for being my writing buddies.
All my loves,
Amanda
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by Amanda A. Allen
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
LONELY GRAVES By Amanda A. Allen
Dedication
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
ALSO BY AMANDA A. ALLEN
Author’s Note
Copyright
Table of Contents
TITLE PAGE
DEDICATION
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
ALSO BY AMANDA A. ALLEN
Author’s Note
Copyright
Table Of Contents
Lonely Graves: A Rue Hallow Mystery (Rue Hallow Mysteries Book 3) Page 11