Marcus stood in stunned silence, with only the wind whispering through the trees beyond the open garage front door. He blinked, and then he nodded. “I’m… sorry, son,” he said, “I think I needed to hear that.”
Aaron nodded and his anger receded. “It’s okay,” he said, “But things are gonna change. I’m going to make sure of that.”
“You’ve grown up to be a remarkable young man,” Marcus said, “I’m sorry I wasn’t a part of that.”
“I’ve put the past behind me. Behind us. You can be a part of my future.”
Marcus approached, hugged his son, and breathed deep. Aaron returned the embrace, patting his father on the back of his leather vest. Amber was coming with him to run with a pack of wolves in Las Vegas, and he needed to set an example for her and for any other female wolf out there who felt like she was being looked down upon or held back from her true potential just because she was a woman.
One step at a time, he was going to change all of werewolf culture.
***
It had been about a month since I had last stepped into the small bookstore on Rosella Avenue. Maybe longer than a month, but no more than two. And yet, it seemed to me as I walked around inside that a lifetime had passed. It was almost comical to think about how much could happen to a person in such a small amount of time. Enough to skew one’s perspective; that much was certain.
I dropped my backpack by the register and took a key out of my pocket. The key opened a drawer beneath the register which held a small safe inside. Within the safe there were papers; legal documents pertaining to the bookstore, the deed to the store itself, and a number of other smaller things that I would have to take with me for safe keeping. James, the owner of the store, would need to be told his employees were leaving the nest, and I anticipated he would want me to keep the valuable stuff on my person until we could figure the details out.
Given that I didn’t know where he was, or what country he was in from one day to the next, I couldn’t exactly overnight them to him.
So I put the box on the counter, opened it, and checked the papers to make sure none of them had been misplaced. That was a lie, though. In truth, I just wanted to see Eliza’s name written on paper somewhere. I had thought about her a lot since my most recent near-brush with death. Maybe losing Collette stirred those feelings up, or maybe my yearning for the past had, but the end result was the same.
James would need someone like Eliza to run this store. She was diligent, passionate, and hard-working. More so than me. I glanced across to the aisles and could still see her mounted atop a step-ladder, dusting the tops of the shelves in her steel-capped black boots, black leggings, and a pink tutu. The memory brought a smile to my lips, but then my stomach went cold.
My eyes feverishly scanned the papers as my throat worked, bouncing up and down as I tried to figure out what in the world was going on. James’ name wasn’t anywhere on the legal documents belonging to the bookstore. The deed, the property license, the correspondences—letters sent back and forth, to and from James—they had been… changed somehow. Instead of James’ name listed as the owner of the bookstore, it was mine.
Amber Lee.
I tucked my hair over my ears and went through the papers one by one, reading and re-reading them until the message sank in. It wasn’t an illusion or a trick of the eye. This was real. The bookstore belonged to me, and the only mention of James was that of a previous owner who had transferred ownership of the store to me some two years ago.
“Holy shit,” I said, unable to keep the thought in my own head.
Then I heard a thud.
Immediately I perked up, my heart in my throat. At first I thought something had struck the window—a bird? Gods no—but then I realized the sound had come from inside somewhere. In the back. Down the aisles. I could feel my stomach twisting and that familiar cold feeling creeping into my heart, succeeding in its quest to drive me from a place of calm into one where anxiety reigns.
I looked at the front door, then at the aisles; and then I made my move.
“Hello?” I asked as I walked around the register desk, past the little seating area, and down the farthest aisle. But there was no one to reply to me, no one waiting in the back. Instead, what I found was a downed book.
It must have fallen off the shelf and landed on its side; probably what caused the thud I had just heard. It hit me that I had been here before, stalking the aisles of the bookstore looking for the ghost that liked to move things around. My humble beginnings. But as I approached and thought about all the things that had led me here, the nostalgia, and what I had just learned—I’m a business owner?—I wondered.
Is Raven’s Glen trying to keep me here?
I didn’t have to look at the book to know it was Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. My hand shook as I went to pick it up as a flood of doubt came rushing from the past like water out of a broken pipe. Was I making the right choice by leaving? Was I being told to stay? The book was cold to the touch. Too cold. Handling it sent prickles racing up my arm, but I opened the book anyway and had a look inside. There, on the first page, I found a message.
"Take some of the past with you and never forget, ma cherie. I will see you again in the afterlife." – Collette
Tears spilled forth unbidden, streaming down my cheeks, meeting at my chin, and dripping onto the page. I closed the book, wiped my face, and held the book close to my chest. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t feel Collette’s presence, hadn’t felt her enter or leave, but I knew it was her. Somehow I knew, with no remaining doubts, that Collette was okay.
I didn’t know if Acheris had lied to me about Collette’s fate and the fate of all other Necromancers that pass, or if my actions had put Collette to rest. Maybe the truth straddled the line between both of those ideas. But Collette had come here and done this, written in this book, to deliver a clear message to me. Death is only temporary, change is necessary, and leaving was the right thing. I would see her again in the afterlife.
The doorbell tinkled and stole my attention. When I turned around, the book still close to my chest, I spied my mother entering the bookstore. She walked around for a moment, her eyes flitting from place to place, and then smiled.
“So this is where you’ve been working?” she asked.
I wiped my eyes and walked toward my mother. “Yeah,” I said, “My home away from home.”
“I can see why you like it.”
“I loved it here. So peaceful and calm. And all the books I could want.”
“It’s perfect,” she said, and she hugged me. “Making a withdrawal before we leave?” she asked when she noticed the book.
“Something like that,” I said.
“It’s good. A great choice for our trip to Nevada.”
I nodded. “Are you all set to come with us?”
“Aaron’s finished with the van. Frank is going to bring it down here and get us. If we leave now and traffic is good, we may make it just in time to pick your father and Corey up from the airport tonight.”
“I’m so glad you’re coming with us. And that dad is coming down from New York with Corey.”
“After all that’s just happened, we could do with a little closeness, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, you’re right. I have to tell him what’s happened, too. I don’t want to live with any secrets.”
She shook her head. “Secrets tear a family apart. Your father may have more zealously buried the past than I did, but he knew what the past was. He can handle your story.”
“Okay,” I said. “Do you mind waiting outside for Frank to get here with the van? I’ve got one more thing I want to do before I leave this place.”
“Sure thing, sweetheart,” she said, and she kissed me on the forehead before leaving me alone in the bookstore.
I wasn’t sure if I would ever come back here. Maybe it was too early for me to think like that, but moving to Vegas was definitely something I needed to do. When Aaron told me
about the deal he had struck with his father, I wasn’t angry at him. I knew he had done what he needed to do for the good of all of us, that this would be harder on him than it would be on me, and that he would need my support more than ever.
A change of scenery was exactly what I needed, but it was as Collette had said in the message she left me.
Take some of the past with you.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket, dialed a number I had come to know even better than my own and waited. One ring. Two rings. Three rings. There was a click, a pause, and a familiar voice said “You’ve got a lot of nerve calling this number, Amber Lee.”
A smile lit my face up like it was the fourth of July. “Eliza,” I said, “Can you talk for a second? I, uh… I have a lot to tell you.”
About the Author
About the Author
Katerina Martinez lives on the Rock of Gibraltar with her husband, her daughter, and their three cats. Her most recent series, the “Half-Lich” Trilogy, put her on the map and opened a number of doors to her that had been closed until the second half of 2016. Now armed with a much deeper understanding of the publishing business and with a firmer hold on her craft, she wants to deliver novels that not only have the power to make your skin crawl, but also make your heart swell.
Get in touch at:
[email protected]
And join her reader-only Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/katwitchcorner
www.katerinamartinez.com
https://www.facebook.com/katmartinezauthor/
Also by Lee Dignam & Katerina Martinez
The Order of Prometheus Series
Book 1: Smoke and Shadows
The Blood and Magick Series
Book 1: Magick Reborn
Book 2: Demon’s Kiss
Book 3: Witch’s Wrath
The Half-Lich Series
Book 1: Dark Siren
Book 2: The Void Weaver
Book 3: Night and Chaos
The Amber Lee Series
Book 1: True Witch
Book 2: Dark Witch
Book 3: Shadow Witch
Book 4: Red Witch
Book 5: Devil’s Witch
The Cursed and Damned Series
Book 1: The Dead Wolves
The Amber Lee Boxed Set Page 109