Our Lady of the Various Sorrows (Voices of the Dead Book 2)

by Victoria Raschke

  “If you insist on doing this, the closest place is Trnovo pristan.” Gregor joined them. “But the steps will be icy from the snow.”

  Leo would figure it out. If he had to jump into the river with her, he would.

  Fat snowflakes landed on Jo’s clothes and in her hair without melting. He wanted to brush them from her face, but he couldn’t stop before the river. If he were a different man, he would have bargained with God, offered to stay in the church to spare her life. But whether Jo lived or died was in the hands of other gods, and he was past bargaining. He had broken his vows the moment he believed she could love him. They only lacked the official ceremonies to cement it. If Jo lived, and she still felt the way she had when she’d kissed him in her bedroom, he would choose to be with her every single day she let him.

  The band of souls who lived on the shadier side of the Veil walked the embankment until they reached the wide concrete steps of the Ljubljana “beach” that descended to the river’s edge under the bare branches of the willow trees. There was a drop-off from the last step into the icy river.

  Gregor had been right about the concrete being slick with snow, but Leo made his way to the water’s edge on the lowest step and knelt, still cradling Jo’s rigid body. Faron joined him and laid Ana in the water.

  The girl gasped from the shock of the cold before she went under. She came up again quickly and flailed against the embankment, trying to scratch her way out of the water. Her lips were blue, but the look of agony was gone. Faron pulled her back onto the steps, and someone passed him a coat to wrap the girl in.

  “Get her and Veronika out of here.” Faron’s anger hadn’t faded.

  Leo didn’t wait to see what happened with the girls. He lowered Jo into the river. As her face slipped under the surface, the water surrounding her turned a luminescent, milky green. Something, or someone, in the water pulled her out of his grasp.

  He dove in after her, searching the river lapping at the edge of the step and shouting her name, but she was gone.

  Chapter 26

  The cold went to Jo’s heart. She wavered between life and death, between freezing and the fire in her nerves. Leo’s arms had supported her weight, but now she floated free. It would have been easy to drift off again, away from life and the pain, but she was tethered to her body by Faron’s magic.

  She sank through the depths of the river. Her coat and dress billowed out around her, obscuring her ability to see what might be in the water with her. Her limbs were too heavy to attempt to swim, and even after the envelope of pain passed, her left arm still felt wrong.

  A face swam into view in the murk. Achelous smiled at her, nose to nose, and took her hands. He pulled her along until they passed through a shimmering curtain of water into a dry bower.

  “You flatter me, Jo. I did not expect you to give yourself over so completely to your ‘reverence’ so soon.” He smiled, but there was more than mirth in the gesture. He lifted the bull head medallion from the hollow of her throat. “And wearing my emblem, as well.”

  She stepped back from him. The necklace was warm against her skin after his touch. “I didn’t know what else to do. Running water dissipates magic. Even shitty teenage revenge magic, right?” Jo rubbed her upper arm. Something was definitely wrong. And Rok had way more secrets than she’d imagined.

  “Your arm is cracked. Broken? I do not always know the words.” He rubbed his palm over her coat, strangely dry after the snow and the river. Warmth spread from his palm down through her fingers. “There. It is not healed, but it should trouble you less until it can be seen by one of your doctors.” Achelous’ magic filled the air around them with the heavy scent of orchids.

  “Thanks.” She flexed her fingers and turned her wrist. “So what happens now?” In just the past few hours, she had been killed by Veronika the Teenage Witch, transported to the land of the dead, tricked by her ex-lover, and thrown into a river in the depths of February. Really, what could happen next?

  Achelous took her hand and led her to a stone bench carved into the wall of his barren keep. She sat next to him and looked out at the rippling water. The magic of gods was fascinating. At some point, she’d like to have enough time to enjoy the good things that came with this gig.

  “If it were up to me, you would stay.” He tutted her protest. “But it is not up to me. You made your intentions clear, and you have obligated yourself elsewhere.”

  She’d offered no other gods any kind of loyalty. Dušan sure as shit hadn’t earned her devotion.

  “You knew what Dušan had planned for Faron, didn’t you?”

  “‘Planned’ is a very precise word.”

  “What does that mean?” She pulled her coat more tightly around her.

  Achelous tapped the ground in front of them with the toe of his soft leather boot, and a blue flame sparked into existence.

  “Jolene Wiley, some things simply are. No planning involved.”

  “What? I’m supposed to resign myself and my son to the Fates, and whatever happens, happens?” The fire warmed the air quickly. Jo stood to face Achelous.

  He pulled her back down to sit next to him and turned to look at her. “You act as if you are the only person troubled by the hand she was dealt.”

  “I do not.” A lot of shitty things had happened in the past few months, but there had been good things, too.

  “It is the nature of humans to place themselves at the center of the world. You can only see out of your own eyes.”

  “And whose eyes can you see out of besides your own?”

  “Only mine, but they have seen millennia.”

  “Okay, I’m selfish. Other people have it just as bad as me, and–”

  “You are not that selfish, for a human, but you are as short-sighted as humans usually are.”

  “Thanks, Lord of the River Dance, I’ll take that under consideration. None of that answers my question about what happens next.”

  “I will take you back, and you will have to figure the rest out on your own. I will give you this piece of advice, though. Dušan may seem like your enemy now, but he will be your biggest ally in all that is to come.”

  “You’ll have to excuse me if I find that hard to believe.” She cocked her head at him.

  “You may believe whatever you choose, but do not let your anger stand in the way of your safety.” He stood up and offered her his hand. “This part will, as you say, suck.”

  “No magically depositing me on the shore, dry and unscathed?”

  “No.” He walked into the water, pulling her behind him.

  The shock of cold took the breath out of her lungs. The river quickly found its way into her clothes and chilled her to the core. Achelous pushed her in front of him as they neared the surface and put his arms under her as if he would carry her out of the water.

  Her knees and face hit the air first. The cold was stultifying, and someone else was in the water with them.

  Leo reached for her. “Jo. Oh, God, Jo. I thought you were gone.”

  Achelous released her and disappeared into the depths with a faint glow that faded beneath them. Fucker. He was going to leave her to save herself again.

  Leo pulled her into his chest and paddled his legs with the current back toward the embankment. They hit the concrete, and other hands reached in to pull her onto the steps — scraping every bony bit over the edge of the concrete.

  Gregor pulled her to a standing position. Dr. Struna appeared with a heavy blanket on her arm and a concerned look on her face.

  OK. She had some help with the saving.

  “It’s nice to see you conscious, but I’d prefer it if you stayed out of the water. Now strip, you two.”

  “What? Here?” She was shivering, and her face was numb.

  “You have to get out of those wet clothes now.”

  Vesna joined them and helped Jo ou
t of her coat and sodden clothes. Her arm didn’t want to cooperate.

  ——

  Leo tried to shrug off the wet coat but needed Gregor’s help to free himself. He turned and bent over so Gregor could pull the sweater over his head and down his arms. The air was freezing, but less so than the water had been. He stood up and pulled the blanket around himself.

  Jo was facing him, pulling her own drenched clothing off with Vesna’s help. He looked first at the tattoo between her breasts and down her stomach. An eclipse with the sun’s corona snaking its way along her ribs and down to her navel. He met her gaze and couldn’t look away. Was she the sun or the moon in that scenario?

  Dr. Struna ushered them up to the street from the embankment to where Faron and Gustaf waited by a white panel van with its flashers on. Faron’s eyes had returned to their regular blue, but the cast of them was ten years older.

  “Where have the others gone?” Veronika and her sisters, Goran, and Matjaž were nowhere to be seen.

  “They went with Robert, Dr. Struna’s assistant, to her surgery.” Gustaf appeared calm, but there was an unsettled quality to his posture — like a man with shell shock attempting to cover it. Leo felt similarly, immensely relieved Jo was alive but deeply disturbed by the night’s events.

  “It’s where you two are going now.” Dr. Struna motioned for Jo and Leo to get in the back. “I’ve only got room for one up front.”

  Everyone deferred to Faron for the second seat.

  “We’ll walk.” Gregor motioned at Vesna and Gustaf.

  Leo and Faron helped Jo up into the back of the disguised ambulance, and Leo clambered in after her. Gustaf shut the doors behind them while Dr. Struna and Faron settled into the front.

  The doctor stuck her head in the back. “You two need to lie down on the gurneys. You’ll bounce around too much back there otherwise.”

  Leo’s fingers were numb, but he reached across the space between them to find Jo’s hand. Her fingers must have been frozen, as they felt colder still than his. She squeezed back but didn’t speak to him on the slow ride to the surgery.

  ——

  Jo felt every cobblestone under the tires until they got onto the asphalt-paved street. Leo’s hand was warm, but the rest of her was an ice sculpture. She could’ve used three more blankets and a space heater. Dr. Struna probably didn’t have a hot toddy, though, for the existential glacier inside her.

  Dušan had gotten what he wanted. She was more indebted to Achelous than she had been that morning. Helena was still lingering about, and she had Tomaž and Katarina’s shades to deal with after she got her arm cast. She stared up at the white metal ceiling and caught herself humming “Whatever Lola Wants” — thinking of Dušan, but summoning Helena.

  “It’s tight in here. Even for a shade.” Helena squeezed herself into the space and sat on the gurney by Jo’s head. “You don’t have to speak, but I’d like to fill you in on the way to the good doctor’s.”

  Chapter 27

  Veronika sat in the lobby of Dr. Struna’s surgery. It looked like a regular house until you got past the front room, which did an adequate job of masquerading as a den. Ana was quiet now. She didn’t have any lasting magical damage, and she’d been treated for hypothermia after the river.

  Swimming the witch. That’s what had been done to women accused of witchcraft, at least in the books she’d bought. If they died, they were innocent. The logic was stupid. And it should’ve been her in the water, not Ana. Her sister had turned to face the wall when Dr. Struna let Veronika in to see her. Ivanka didn’t speak to her, and Ana wouldn’t look at her. She might be better off taking her chances in the dunking machine.

  Veronika had killed Jo. She’d nearly killed her sister. That had not been the plan. It was stupid to not be more careful around Ana. She was probably going to witch jail. That had to be a thing, right?

  Matjaž, Avgusta’s son, came and sat next to her on the hard couch.

  “More than you bargained for?” He didn’t sound as angry as he probably should have been.

  Veronika nodded.

  “It was careless of my mother to drag you into this.”

  “She didn’t drag me into this. Jo and Faron did.” Avgusta might be a bitch, but she was the first person who had tried to help her.

  “I can see how you would reach that conclusion, but you’re wrong.” He didn’t talk to her like she was a child. That was something.

  “If my parents hadn’t been friends with her–”

  “I’ve been around magic and the supernatural my whole life.” He put his elbows on his knees and looked down at the edge of the busy rug and the shiny wooden floor before looking back up at her to continue. “Some people handle it well, and some people try to use magic to make the world what they want it to be.”

  “Isn’t that what magic is for? If I can make something better for me because I have magic, I should do that.”

  “You can, and many do. But magic has a price. Someone pays when you meddle in the story line. Sometimes that person is an enemy and sometimes it’s–”

  “My sister.”

  “Exactly.”

  Veronika didn’t know what to say.

  “I don’t think you know the whole story of what happened to your parents, but I think you should.”

  “I was there.” Veronika crossed her arms. Now he was going to talk to her like she was an idiot.

  “Not for everything. A demon killed your father. It killed my sister, Helena. It killed Maja, who worked for your father and Jo, and Milo who was Jo’s friend. It took Faron to lure Jo. And it killed your mother because that’s what demons do.”

  “How do you know all of this?” Veronika was unwilling to accept a demon, something she couldn’t imagine or lash out at, was responsible for her parents’ deaths.

  “Because I’ve watched my mother my whole life. I’ve watched her anger and bitterness eat at her, like a demon would. She used her power to get what she wanted, and she’s been paying for it for a long time.”

  “But my parents didn’t have any magical powers. They didn’t try to manipulate anyone.”

  “They didn’t. They were victims. Just like Helena and Maja. Just like Faron and Jo.”

  “It isn’t fair. Jo is alive, and my parents are dead.”

  “Veronika, you are old enough to know life isn’t fair. Faron and Jo survived, but not without scars.” Matjaž looked tired.

  Ana had tried in her way to move on from their parents’ deaths, and Veronika had single-handedly given her a bunch of new trauma to deal with. She’d created some of her own, too.

  Avgusta. She was the one her gave her the spell book and told her what to do.

  “I guess you’re right. I shouldn’t have gotten tangled up with Avgusta.”

  “It won’t help you to blame my mother next. You have to take responsibility for yourself.” Matjaž stood up. “Trust me, Avgusta has enough sins to pay for.”

  “I guess that means no more magic.” Maybe she could continue to study quietly on her own.

  “You have a natural talent. It would be a shame to waste it. If you’d like to study magic, I can introduce you to someone.”

  “Can I still study magic in witch jail?”

  “Witch jail?” He laughed. “You aren’t going to witch jail. I won’t say you aren’t in trouble, but witch jail isn’t a thing.” He left her.

  She heard the front door open and close. Matjaž must have gone outside to smoke or wait for the others.

  The front room quickly filled with a new batch of people. Jo was with them, wrapped in a blanket, her lips still blue.

  Jo walked over to where Veronika sat on the couch. Veronika wanted to crawl between the cushions and disappear with the loose change and lint. Jo looked around for someone. Veronika was sitting right there.

  “Where’s Dušan?”


  “He said he would meet us here.” The little gray man moved from the door to the center of the room to answer Jo.

  “Call him. I need him here now.”

  The man got out his phone and tapped the screen a few times before stepping back to the edge of the room to talk. “It’s Gustaf.”

  Jo looked around again and nodded at another corner. “When Dušan gets here. I need everyone to leave us alone for a bit.”

  Heads nodded around the room. Including Veronika’s.

  Jo looked directly at Veronika for the first time. “Except you. You need to stay.”

  ——

  Jo stood in the middle of what looked to be Dr. Struna’s lobby. Leo disappeared through a door with the doctor. Veronika was trying to climb up the back of the couch to get away from her. Gregor, Faron, and Vesna took Jo’s request as an excuse to go back outside, out of the stifling, overly floral sitting room. They joined Matjaž, who was out there smoking.

  Helena stood in the corner, flanked by the shades of Tomaž and Katarina. The anguish on Katarina’s face as she watched her daughter squirm was almost unbearable. Jo had reason to hate mother and daughter equally for what they had taken from her. She wanted to hate them. Not caring about their fates would have made her life a whole lot easier, but she knew too much to hate them. They had all been manipulated by beings with agendas that disregarded human lives. Or worse, if Achelous was right, Jo was destined to be standing on this godawful rug with the weight of the night’s events pressing on her heart.

  If she had a choice, she’d prefer to believe they had all been part of a chess match between gods and demons than believe that things were already written down somewhere. She knew gods, if not demons, could be reasoned with.

  Dr. Struna interrupted her thoughts. “Ms. Wiley, I have some scrubs you can put on if you’d like.”

  Jo nodded. She caught Katarina looking at her. There was still pleading, but the quality had changed. Katarina wasn’t pleading for herself, but for her daughter. But Jo didn’t have any say over what would happen to Veronika now. That was up to Gustaf and the Board.