“Fine,” Finn snapped. His teeth clenched, and you could see it in his perfect jaw. The stupid pretty boy. I shouldn’t have to remind myself so often that he was just a pretty face. But he kept getting under my skin.
"So what you're saying is that we're going to make our way to a haunted church with a ghost that probably killed a girl as the sun sets? Does anyone else feel like we need to be slapped?"
"You go running in the middle of the night, Rue," Felix said. glancing over his shoulder at me.
"Too true. Someone should slap me for that too." No one replied, and I took a step randomly. It set the others off, and we started walking towards the old church. Finn led the way, of course. What surprised me was how Felix kept up with Finn as if they hadn’t almost come to blows. But maybe they hadn’t. Felix wasn’t that aggressive. Maybe he could just shake things off. Didn’t he know anything about holding grudges? I’d have been fuming.
* * * * *
“Rue,” Cyrus asked as we wound our way through the St. Angelus side streets. He was so normal. He was what I imagined experiencing in my classes. Back at home when I’d been dreaming about witch school. Normal type kids who could do magic too. But instead, I had Chrysie with her graceful vampireness and Felix with his Shaggy come to life ways except he had dreadlocks and ran a black market potions business. Felix’s girlfriend Monica—yet another example of someone who wasn’t like what I’d been expecting at all. She looked like a super model and fought ghosts at night. And Finn. Jerky, commanding, dedicated, gorgeous Finn. Jessie, even, who was the most normal of us all. She had gorgeous long red hair and if you slapped her in a black dress and hat—she’d be the stereotypical witch.
“Can anyone learn to be a witch?” Cyrus asked softly as if he were afraid I'd judge him. I didn't. Magic was wonderful. I didn't blame anyone who wanted to play with it. But...he asked me. Like I was the one who was the most worthy of secret confidences.
I had to take a minute. I wanted to be nice. But I wasn’t nice, I reminded myself.
“Technically, if you work hard enough you could eventually do magic.”
“But not like you.”
I shook my head and then clarified, “Not like me.”
“Is it because you’ve been learning since you were little?”
“That. And because there is a gift of witch ability. If you really wanted to learn, you could. But you'd always be less able.”
And look at that. I’d made another guy clench his teeth in frustration.
“But I could learn. Except St. Angelus doesn’t teach people like me.”
“You’d flunk out of a 101 class. You need something like remedial level classes.” I felt Finn gearing up by pulling the ether magic through him. And I wanted to do the same. But I told myself no. I couldn’t risk necromancy in the thinning. Not and keep my freedom, so I filled myself with my magic, and the magic I could call on that was woven into the very depths of Martha, and the oak grove, and the lane of cypress trees. I pulled and filled myself to bursting.
“How do I find someone to teach me remedial stuff?”
I wanted to shut him down. And I didn’t want to. I felt sympathetic which was weird. But, I could understand the desire to learn. That side of me—that hungry for knowledge and ability side—totally got him. Got his desire to learn once he’d seen what others could do. Which wouldn’t have been enough for me. But, I couldn’t help remember him puking into the corner at the theater. You’d think he’d been puking because of the terror, and maybe that was part of it. Only when I’d been holding my magic in that pentacle, I’d felt in Cyrus the same intense horror I felt. And that horror was because of what had been done to the ghost. I respected Cyrus for it. He’d seen something that normal humans fear. And he’d felt empathy instead of vindictiveness. And I was pretty sure he was still haunted by what had been done to that ghost instead of feeling happy the ghost had suffered for what it had done to Jen.
“I could teach you,” I said shocking myself, Jessie, and Finn. Felix, however, didn’t seem surprised. Was he not listening? Did he not care what I did? Or was it something else? Was it that he wasn’t surprised because he thought this was the type of thing I did. It wasn’t. It really wasn’t.
Who was this person walking next to Cyrus? What had happened to Veruca Jones? And was this who Rue Hallow? Was Rue Hallow a girl who taught normals witchcraft and looked for rampaging ghosts and dirty necromancers? Was Rue Hallow a girl who let her aunt stay in her house? Was she someone you could…ask for something of, and she’d say yes? I wanted to scoff, but I knew I would teach Cyrus for as long as he worked at it.
“I’ll take you up on that,” he swore. Maybe he heard the bafflement in my voice as I made the offer. I don’t think he was going to let me off.
“Hurrah,” I replied flatly.
* * * * *
“We’re here,” Jessie said.
I looked up and found an old brick and stone church with stained glass windows, a graveyard to the side, and a scrolling iron fence. It was lovely and old and wonderful. I wanted to explore its corners, but not in the nighttime.
Then we crossed through the gate.
The moment I took a breath, I swore. Finn held up his fist, and I realized he was telling us wordlessly to stop.
He looked his question. I whispered my answer as we were not alone.
“There is more than one ghost here.”
His eyes widened and then narrowed. It was possible that he wouldn’t have believed me. Except…the chill I had been feeling intensified to the point of chattering teeth. Finn’s gaze narrowed, and the ghosts rushed us.
I dropped and yanked Cyrus down with me. Jessie was a second later, but before she could grab for Lisa—something unseen lifted her off the ground.
I screamed, and I wasn’t alone. Lisa’s cry was horrifying. And then she was spun in a circle and thrown. She was thrown like she was a ball instead of a human and she slammed into the side of that lovely church.
We all heard the crack. I didn’t let myself focus on it. My hand had already dug out chalk from my pocket, and I was sketching a pentacle and wards as fast as I could go. Finn was saying something in proto-Romanian as were Jessie and Felix. It was enough of a protection to let me finish the fastest pentacle of my life.
I focused my will and magic, and the wards of the pentacle flew up around us. The moment they did. Jessie and Cyrus took deep, shaky breaths. But Felix and Finn ran for Lisa.
Jessie fed her power into my shield while Finn and Felix darted for Lisa. I could hear Cyrus cursing for all of us, but I couldn’t focus on his epic blue streak. Instead, I started the second round of wards that should protect us from whoever was controlling those ghosts. When I looked up again, Felix crossed the pentacle carrying Lisa’s body. Finn was only a step behind, and his magic dropped the moment he crossed into the wards.
“Oh Hecate,” Jessie said, touching Lisa’s hair. “Oh please Hecate, no.”
I didn’t look at Lisa. Poor, dead Lisa. Jen’s sister. Someone had lost both of their daughters, and I didn’t want to see it. Instead, I looked at Finn. He seemed as if something intrinsic had crumpled inside of him. Guilt poured down over him like a curtain, and my eyes caught a sliver of gray and black in his aura.
I slapped him across the face as my pentacle shield flared to life as ghosts began attacking and raging against it.
Finn grabbed my wrist and squeezed. His only other reply to my slap was to say my name with deadly threat.
“Hecate! What are you thinking? Rue, Finn, stop it!” Felix’s shout was startling in that he was normally so sarcastically soft-spoken.
“You stop it,” I ordered Finn. I got right into his face like he had done to me so many times. I yanked my wrist away only to grab his shoulders and try to shake him. “This is not your fault. This belongs at the feet of the dirty necro. So stop it!”
“I never should…”
I slapped him again. As hard as I could. “We need you and your necromancy and one
of the ghosts is messing with you.”
He had jerked away only to take me by the shoulders instead, and I could see that he was about to shake me within an inch of my life. But I had said just the right words. “So do whatever you necromancers do and cleanse yourself because you are the only necro here with any sort of ability my friend, we need you, or we’re all going to die.”
Finn took a deep breath. One after another and seemed to calm, but he peeled his fingers off my shoulders one at a time. It seemed to be of near impossible effort to pull his hands from me as if the desire to hurt me had to be battled one finger at a time.
“Please Finn,” I said softly. This time, my voice was a gentle plea. “We need you.”
His eyes closed tightly. He took long deep breaths and then pulled out his phone. “It’s not working.”
“This is a trap.” My words were flat. “They wouldn’t want us to call for help.”
Cyrus and Jessie were crying. Cyrus’s fingers were tangled in Lisa’s bloody hair, and I could see that he was seeing her alive. Remembering her. And probably imagining her parents getting the next phone call.
Hecate’s eyes, they’d lost both of their daughters in one week. Did they have more? What had they done to deserve witchcraft to steal from them so very horribly?
“Veruuuuca….” The otherworldly wail sent a shiver through me that reached right into my bones. “Veruuueeeca. Give it to meeeeeeee.”
I started to speak. Closed my eyes. I didn’t pretend not to know what they were asking for. I wanted to search, to find the voice, but I knew I wouldn’t. And, I wasn’t going to give them the pleasure of watching me search for them and fail. I finally said, “I don’t have it.”
“Lieesssssss…. I know that you know whereeeeee it issssssssss.”
“Who are you?” My hand was on Finn’s arm, feeding him what power I could spare from our wards, knowing that it would help calm him. Jessie followed suit, but she fed it into Cyrus while Felix gave power to Finn.
“Whereeeeee isssssssss iiiiiiiiit?”
“Stop playing games with me,” I said. “I am not afraid enough of you for you to be a ghost.”
This time, the cackle echoed fully. Whatever she’d been doing to adjust her voice to seem like it was from a dead throat was gone.
“Where is it? I scryed for the person who had it, and you came up.”
What in all the ever-living hells? I wanted to protest, but the best I could do is stall and give Finn time to regroup.
“Did I?”
“You have it.”
“No,” I said, giving enough of a glimpse of my soul that she could see I was telling the truth.
“Your face came up in the scrying.”
“I figured out what happened to it. Maybe I've seen it. But it's gone.”
Finn froze under my hand, and I could feel all those lovely muscles tensing up again. Damn it. I needed him focused on keeping us alive. The rest of us anyway. I wasn’t going to look down to Cyrus and Lisa.
Back to stalling Rue, I told myself.
The unseen voice of the dark necromancer seemed to come from everywhere, “The theory is that it has been bound by dark magic or that someone hasn’t been strong enough to call the Talisman out. Which is it?”
“Neither,” I said. “But I wonder why you think I want to tell you all my secrets. I can’t even see you.”
There was an echoing snort that seemed to surround us and then the noise of it shot back towards the church graveyard and the ancient trees there. A form appeared from the darkness, and the necromancer stepped into the open. The voice made me think female though it was hard to be sure. Either way, the necromancer was covered head-to-toe in a black cloak with a deep hood.
“Telllll me,” she demanded, lifting a threatening palm.
“No,” I said.
She raised her hand and ghosts rushed us—and in those ghosts, I saw the face of Jen.
“I am going to kill you with my bare hands,” I swore, my gaze fixed on Jen rather than necromancer. Jen’s eyes—I couldn’t remember their color in life, but in death—those eyes were black holes of agony. Her face was twisted with pain and her shriek seemed to separate from the others and drill right into me. That wasn’t a shriek to cause terror. It was a shriek of terror. The anger was growing deep and wide inside of me.
“You aren’t necromancer enough to take me,” the dark necromancer said.
“I am not a necromancer,” I said firmly. “Not really, but I am a witch. I am a very good witch. And I will kill you myself with my hands, my magic, or a good old-fashioned knife. You will pay for what you have done.”
“Big words for a child,” the voice said. “A weak, spoiled, untrained child.”
I was brimming with power, and I knew she was baiting me. But, I struck out anyway.
“No,” Jessie shouted.
I might have been more powerful, but she had more book smarts than me, and she showed it with her shout. Her too-late shout.
The necromancer laughed and grabbed for my power. I stumbled and the shields fell.
My eyes widened in utter horror as we were swarmed with ghosts and the sound of laughter from the woman who intended to kill us all.
CHAPTER 14
“Get your shields up,” Finn shouted at me, and I recovered in a second. My mother had taught me how to make my magic a weapon if someone pulled what the necromancer did. As we struggled for that moment over my magic, I knew something very clearly. She was the better necromancer, but I was more powerful at regular witchcraft.
That didn't matter though, if it weren't for Finn, him and his necromancy, we’d have died.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
“Nooooooo!” The dark necromancer shouted.
Finn had grabbed me, so he felt when I slipped the shields and struck out again. Finn's roar of protest made my ears hurt but this time, I waited for the trap, slipped past it, and set her robe aflame. Such a little spell. She screamed, her magic faltered, and Finn let go of me to strike with his magic.
A cage of night appeared as did a break in the world. Ghosts were slammed through the opening of the thinning. Not all of them. Not even close. But enough to send the necromancer fleeing back into the shadows. Some sort of folding spell and she was gone. The ghosts she'd enslaved seemed to be gone with her. Not that any of us dared to leave the pentacle.
“That was stupid,” Finn yelled, turning to grab and shake me again.
I jabbed out with my knee and got him between the knees. He let go of me and dropped down. Felix and Cyrus both winced and Felix caught Finn well enough to keep him inside of the pentacle.
“I am not a doll to be manhandled, you jackass!”
“You almost killed us all,” he ground out around his heaving groans.
“Yes,” I said. “I’m sorry. Tell me how you were perfect.”
He fell silent.
“We all messed up,” I said. My eyes finally fell to Lisa. To Lisa’s body—Lisa was gone. And my gaze was fixated on her too-still form as I added, “We all screwed up so very badly. Let’s get home and safe. And call the freaking police.” I took a long shaky breath and said, “Again.”
“Did you catch what she said,” Felix asked as we waited for Elspeth and Dr. Hallow to come for us. As we waited, I felt for the weak point in the spell. There were so many layers…I wasn’t sure I could find it. I sat cross-legged in the middle of the pentacle searching and searching.
The spells had been layered to confuse me. Deliberately. Whoever did this—they’d figured out what I had done at the theater and they'd intended to prevent my success here. I took long breaths in and out trying to ignore how I was surrounded. Jessie was at my back. Cyrus was cradling Lisa in his arms right next to me.
Her ghost was forming, and I couldn’t allow it to form where these spells were meant to trap her spirit and use it for dark necromancy. And yet, could I break the spell? I had almost killed us all. We’d screwed up so bad. And now
the Abuela family had lost another daughter. We’d helped with her death by thinking we’d be able to find the nun and we’d been trapped instead. This time, the guilt wasn’t ghost-induced. This was…this was what happened when there wasn’t a Keeper of the Thinning.
We needed my mother. I wasn't sure she'd help. But I had to try. I pulled out my phone. We could make calls again. I hoped that meant the necromancer had left. I could hear Finn calling Dr. Hallow as my mother answered. “Tell me how to free the Talisman.”
Finn stopped talking behind me and I could feel the intensity of his listening. The phone was on speaker and I let him learn. The time for keeping my mother's secrets had long since been over.
“Are you going to take it up?”
I shook my head, knowing she'd feel my denial. But the Talisman was caught up in the fact that my mother was alive since she was the keeper. Or maybe it was caught up by that and the fact that no one else had used the right kind of power to call it out. I had no idea how Talismans worked. Was there a way to break the connection? Could a better necromancer come along and take it from the one who was working the thinning? Could they hand them off? Did you have to die to break the connection? Surely not.
Maybe this wasn't the right time, but I couldn't hide her secrets a moment longer. Not with Lisa's ghost forming.
“There has to be a way for the connection between the Talisman and the keeper be broken that doesn’t involve death.”
“There is. You could take it up.”
My head cocked as I considered. Mother hadn't admitted to being the keeper, but I didn't need her to admit it to know it was true. And...she hadn't admitted that she'd pushed me to St. Angelus. Had she? Had she always intended me to be the keeper? Why? Was this a power play? Was it guilt of her own? Did she feel like we owed it to fate? That she could escape the calling of keeper and pass it on to me?
“Surely there is a choice that leaves it available as a free agent. To go to the best candidate.”
There was a long silence before my mother’s voice gently said, “That is you Veruca.”
Hungry Graves: A Rue Hallow Mystery Page 10