I didn’t know what to say to that, but Chrysie was gone before I could reply.
CHAPTER 17
It turned out it wasn’t that hard to set a trap when the person you’re trapping really, really wants to get at you. And is certain you’re an idiot.
Given that I was running, by myself, through the campus of St. Angelus—I was pretty sure that the necromancer was right. I was an idiot. But idiot or not, it was easy to trap a narcissistic, evil bastard who doesn’t realize that you’d risk yourself to save a ghost.
It didn’t really make sense when you put it like that, so perhaps the dark necromancer wasn’t as crazy as me. But despite that fact that Jen was already dead, I’d made a promise to see her free and safe. And whatever happened next, if I didn’t keep that promise, I’d be haunted by the very thought of her.
So, as my feet pounded against the pavement, and my long black hair flopped against the back of my neck, and my magic burned through me with a killing spell at my fingertips, I promised myself again that I was going to free Jen’s ghost and then I was going to make a potion with white peony as its base because I could. And maybe I’d do it with Cyrus so that one more normal kid didn’t feel lost at St. Angelus.
And maybe, if I taught Cyrus how to do spells, and I continued to feed Chrysie and house Felix and have lunch with Jessie, I wouldn’t feel so alone. Somehow, though, I didn’t think that would be the case. And, as I thought those thoughts and ran through the campus, I realized that I didn’t want to have to trade things for friendship. Whether it be a place to stay or lessons or whatever it was. I wanted to be wanted for myself.
And maybe it would only be the few people who loved me back at home who would ever do that. Hecate, I cursed, stop thinking these maudlin thoughts. Stop making yourself feel like this. Stop thinking about home—home is Hallow House. Home is the magic that resides in my family and me and the way that scent of fire burns against the bottom of my cauldron and sinks into my hair. Home is the discovery of new spells and making steaks with avocado with Chrysie. Home is telling Felix to take a shower and late night games of poker.
I ran and started counting all the things that I loved about St. Angelus. I loved the zany passion of my astronomy teacher, I loved meeting Jessie for breakfast in the cafeteria. I loved the smell of fall through the oak grove. I loved the look of the old stone buildings of St. Angelus College and the way the rising sun set them aflame. I loved the way the power of the Cypress Grove and lane on the ancient Hallow property called to me.
And I loved—
A giant, metaphysical hook reached out and snared me. It yanked me upside down and hauled me across the campus graveyard that I had been running through. A laugh—evil and triumphant—filled my hearing. I screamed in pain and hoped that everyone who had said they would protect me were in place. Because it seemed that the well-placed word from Dr. Hallow, the frantic phone call from Elspeth looking for me, and my lonely run had gotten the message to the dark necromancer that I was vulnerable.
Now to trust that Finn, Dr. Hallow, Elspeth, Felix, and Jessie were stronger than the person who had ensnared so many ghosts. Sweet Hecate, I was an idiot. This had been my plan. Be the bait, Rue. That’s not stupid at all. The hook dug into my ankles—magical or not—as if I really had been speared by a giant steel hook. I tried and failed to hold back my whimpers.
That was until I saw the face of Jen in the crowd of ghosts that swirled around me. My shriek of pain turned to a shriek of rage when I saw how Jen had faded. She wasn’t bright as she’d been. What was this necromancer doing to her?
“Foooooollllll,” the dark necromancer called from the shadows.
I couldn’t speak, since I was chewing the dissolvable potion vial I had placed between my teeth and cheek.
“Foooollllll, givvveeeeee mmmmeeeeeee thhheeeeee tallllllissssssmannnnn.”
The spell that she had caught me with might be shaped like a sharp, steel, hook, but there was also secondary, delivery spell that was shaped like a rope. Neither existed in a way that you could see and touch, but they existed in a way that sent my body shrieking with pain. And allowed me to set them swinging.
Here’s a little potion lesson. If you combine my perfect, intense, concentrated dose of energy potion with the dare potion I had created, you would have the courage and the strength of will to do about anything. Including ignore the agony of the spell that had snared me while also giving me the ability to reach out my hand and yank her cloak right off.
I coughed and laughed at the same time, and it made my chest hurt while also leaving me giggling. It was possible that I was a little bit high off of my potion combination because I was seeing things in the tree right next to me. A pale face. Tilted blue eyes.
“Givveeeee meeeee theeeee tallllisssmannnnn,” Habitha Leone crooned. She must have been doing some sort of spell because I could see her aura flare with power. I suspected it was something to make me compliant, but I was so high all I could do was giggle some more.
“Fool!” Her voice was a snap with all of the suggestion of the ghost power gone in her anger.
My giggle was so high pitched that I winced even as she yanked on the spell and caused tears to roll down my cheeks. It was as if I didn’t feel the pain—though I did. I was so distant from it—and really everything happening in my body—that I could giggle and cry at the same time. And seem to stare both at the girl in the tree and the necromancer beneath my head.
“Speak!” Her order was in proto-Romanian, and I answered through my laughter.
“I don’t have it,” I whimpered between my giggles. “I have never had it.”
“Don’t lie to me,” Habitha ordered, and she yanked again on the spell holding me upside down. My shriek echoed in my own ears as if I could hear a bunch of voices at once.
And then I saw them. Finn and Monica and the rest of his team. All in black. So professional and focused. I laughed in their direction and gasped as I was thrown to the ground only to be yanked back into the air. And there was Elspeth. And Dr. Hallow. I could see their mouths moving, but didn’t really understand what they were saying. The buzzing in my ears was too strong.
“No,” Habitha said. She dropped the spell again, and I fell to the ground and stared up at my hallucination. There, in the tree above me, vampire Chrysie pranced among the branches.
I felt something cold on my neck and realized with shock that there seemed to be an athame pressed against my jugular.
“That’s cold,” I giggled to Habitha feeling like she should kill me with magic if she was going to kill me. An athame was a weak way out.
“What is wrong with her,” Habitha demanded above the sound of my giggles.
“She took her dare potion and energy potion together,” Jessie said. She walked boldly towards Habitha not caring that the woman had killed who knew how many people.
“She’s crazy,” I laughed at Jessie. “Run away.”
And then I sang it, "Run away, run away, run away.”
Jessie smiled at me and shook her head. And then held her finger to her lips as her gaze darted up and back.
“Shut up,” Habitha snarled. “This is all your fault. Why did you come here? I was so close to finding the Talisman. But then you came.”
“What?” The high was fading. I still felt like anything was possible but the first rush of madness had faded. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You turned the attention of the Hallow Council from me. Did you know I was the leader of the team before Finn? I was their star. Until you came along and distracted everyone.” Habitha snarled into my face and pressed harder on the athame. I could feel a stream of blood starting.
“How do they do it,” I whispered up to her. “How do they make you people want to work for them?”
I shook my head and ran my hands down my arms towards my wrist. My jacket had hidden what I’d taped to the inside of my wrist, but Habitha suspected nothing from me—even now.
No one knew what I’d done. Though F
elix had watched me run up to my work room and come back with the jacket on even though I always ran in running clothes. Dr. Hallow and Elspeth had said they’d see to my safety. But I wondered how dedicated they would be to the safety of a relative they didn’t really know.
I worked out on my own the potion I had put into a needle and hidden on my body. I had done it despite Finn’s promises that his team would save me. Because, in my head, I’d heard the voice of my mother asking me about my arsenal. She’d have been disgusted at the idea of me as bait. And even more so as unarmed bait.
So I’d come with my own weapon. One that was pure Rue Hallow.
“Habitha,” Dr. Hallow said softly, “Asking you to work for the council was not intended to be a demotion. You are a valuable member of the team.”
“Then why did you do it? Why did you take the team from me? Do you think I don’t know that you would have given the Talisman to Finn if you had gotten it from Veruca? Do you think I don’t know that you had your own plans and intended to leave me as a glorified secretary?”
Her mocking laughter filled the air, echoing in that otherworldly way she’d acquired and she threw the ghosts in her control at Dr. Hallow. He threw up his arms, but he was too late. Finn rushed forward, and I didn’t see what happened. I was too busy jabbing my potion into Habitha’s thigh.
She shrieked and looked down at me. Surprise was on her face, but she didn’t have time to realize what I had done before the potions hit her. I had given her the most intense doses I’d been able to come up with in the time I’d had. It was that dare potion—but I’d combined it with a love potion, the energy potion, and something that would make her lose control.
She did.
She laughed as I had and rose into the air with her magic. But her control was gone. Of herself. Of her magic. Of her voice even. But mostly, her control of the ghosts was gone.
And without control, the ghosts were free. Free and furious.
They left Dr. Hallow immediately and turned on the two of us. I grasped the pentagram necklace at my throat and hoped the ghosts would focus their efforts. They combined into one solid mass, a hurricane of eyes and faces and howls. I couldn’t hear, couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe.
But they didn't target me. Their leader was Jen, and her focus was Habitha. They flew at her and lifted her, tossing her around like trash with shrieks and protests. She tried using her magic, but she was out of control. I had done that—she had been able to control the ghosts before and now she couldn’t.
And then I felt something grab my hand and yank me into the air. It wasn’t painful this time, but I was sure a ghost was about to throw me as they’d thrown Lisa Abuela. I was going to be crushed by power from beyond the grave.
* * * * *
My gasp filled the air as I landed, gently, in a tree. I cracked my eyelids and found the pixie face of my cousin.
“Are you okay,” Chrysie asked, feeling my forehead as if I might have a fever.
I shook my head, and together we looked down. Habitha was still screaming--blood was coming from her eyes and I realized that I'd used a too-heavy hand with the smoke of wolfsbane. Well shiz, I thought. Not that it mattered. I wrapped my arms around my cousin, and she wrapped hers around me, and together we watched as Habitha was yanked upon until she finally flew forward, impaled on the tree.
They'd have come at us then, but Finn. Finn, damn it, and his keeper team was ready. When the ghosts lost focus--they were snared by the necromancers who weren't evil. Even Dr. Hallow was working--the pull of the ether made me want to join in. But I had held firm. I would not be lured in by the ether and the cool beauty found therein.
“Oh Hecate,” I whispered. “I can’t believe I am alive.”
“You’re welcome,” She said, grinning at me before taking a huge bite of a Snickers Bar.
“How did you do it?”
“Energy potion, the dare potion, and something Dr. Hallow gave me to give me strength,” I answered.
"She was bleeding from the eyes,” Chrysie said. “Your energy potion doesn't do that.”
"I threw in some other things," I said and felt a tear roll down my cheek. Gods. It was over.
“Dr. Hallow?”
We looked together again and saw him sitting up. His arms were shaking behind his body as he tried to keep upright. Once standing, he rubbed at his chest while one hand held the top of his head. His gaze, however, was entirely focused on the body of Habitha.
I could already feel her spirit rising, but I dropped from the tree, stumbled against the pain that I could still feel in my ankles, and reached down. With blood that was rolling from my forehead and a wound I didn’t remember receiving, I traced a rune on her forehead.
Her forming ghost disappeared and I took a long deep breath as Felix reached down and pulled me to my feet.
“I feel superfluous,” he said. “But I suppose I can help get you home while these keeper types gather up the ghosts and finish sending them on their way.”
I followed his gaze to Monica and then to Finn. They were wielding their magic and they were magnificent. I admitted quietly to myself that Finn was utterly gorgeous. That I both hated him and was intoxicated by him. That I felt better that someone like him wanted to be the Keeper of the Thinning and I hope that he succeeded in calling the Talisman to him when it was finally free.
They had created one of those ominous cracks in the universe that allowed a crossing of the thinning. But no black cages were needed. The ghosts were willingly going through the split they’d made in the thinning and the very first through was Jennifer Abuela. I liked to believe that she found her sister on the other side. The idea of it was a beautiful fairytale and I hoped it was true. Either way, Jen was gone. My promise was kept. I was free.
I looked up at Felix who kept me on my feet, and then higher to Chrysie who was still in the tree. And then I looked over to Jessie who was helping Dr. Hallow to stand. And realized that I had friends who had protected my back.
They’d come for me. They’d distracted evil from my rescuer. They’d been there to pull me to my feet. Like family, they’d stood with me. And I was happy to let them take me back home.
* * * * *
I don’t know what made me wake. Chrysie had helped me to my bed, and I'd fallen asleep while she had been talking about how shiny the stars were now that she was a vampire. But when I woke--even though it was the middle of the night—I rose, put on my robe and found my way to the farm table in the kitchen.
Felix was grilling burgers. Chrysie was sitting nearby, feet swinging, humming under her breath while Felix told a story. There was very little about the moment that was familiar--my mother would never have let Bran and I make food in the middle of the night. My father would have shooed us to bed with a promise of blueberry pancakes in the morning. Despite the fact that it was so very different from home, it was home. So I turned on the radio, found some oldies, and pulled Chrysie to dance with me in the middle of the kitchen floor while Felix made my burger just how I liked it with bacon, cheese, more cheese and avocado. And even though I wasn't quite sure how I would pay the electric bill and just who on the Hallow Family Council that was trustworthy and even with the hanging doom of who would be the keeper, I had never been more happy to find my home had changed and my family had grown.
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.
If you’d like to discover what happens next, check out Lonely Graves which is available for purchase now.
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 Mu
rder
The Rue Hallow Mysteries
Hallow Graves
Hungry Graves
Lonely Graves
Sisters and Graves
Coming Soon
Yule Graves
Fated 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
Coming Soon
Persuaded to Love
Other Novels
These Lying Eyes
Author’s Note
Like all books, this one happened through endless acts of friendship that gave me the freedom to write and edit. Thank you for those who reached out to me requesting another Rue book. Thanks to Emily Pavlina for being my early reader as well as my cheerleader and friend to my babes. I am grateful for the drive that comes from being a mother and the push to excel I feel simply because I have been blessed by the four little lives of my kids. For you—anything.
Thanks to C. Jane Reid for your developmental edit. This story is better for your good work. And thanks to, Auburn for—once again—formatting my book for me.
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.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
Hungry Graves: A Rue Hallow Mystery Page 13