Regardless, their presence gave me comfort.
“Who do you think you are?” Monica shouted. “You could have gotten us killed.”
I didn’t open my eyes. I felt like I had been wrung out. I wanted my princess bed and my mother and a cheeseburger. I didn’t answer, because why would I fight with a prima donna in the graveyard? Instead, I pushed to my feet and reached for the telltale rectangle in keeper leader’s pants.
“Hey,” he said as I took his phone. I ignored him and called Felix.
“What’s up?” Felix’s voice said.
“Your girlfriend is a ripe super-cow, and that comes from a person raised by Autumn Hallow. How is my mother?”
“She’s good. The healer said she’d be okay. You did good.”
I closed my eyes and let the relief flow over me.
“She’s going to a place for injured magic users. They’re going to give her like electrolytes and a few potions, but mostly, she’ll need to sleep a lot.”
“Are you with her?”
“I’m sitting outside the Quietus Building.”
“Come get me,” I said.
I added, “Please,” too late for politeness but given the dagger eyes I was getting from his girlfriend, I guess he had more to worry about than my bad manners. Even still, I said, “I’m going to be coming out by the oak grove.”
I tossed the phone back to keeper leader and then scrubbed my face before turning to make my way to the edge of the graveyard.
“Where do you think you’re going,” Monica snarled. “You can’t just leave.”
But…of course, I could. And I was going to.
“Rue,” Dr. Hallow said. “Please wait.”
“Thanks,” I told keeper leader. He nodded and didn’t try to stop me with the others.
And then another voice said my name.
“Rue,” the voice was soft and young. Too young.
I looked back. A little girl looked at me through the white, dead eyes of a spirit that wasn’t fully in either world.
“Don’t trust them,” she said.
“Who?” I asked.
“Oh, any of them.” And then she winked away.
I looked at the others, and they were all looking to where I had been, but there was no sign that they had heard what I had heard.
“Great,” I said. I turned back to the path to where I would have a ride.
“If you’d have had the talisman,” Dr. Hallow said. “You wouldn’t have needed to fight so hard. You could have sent the spirits back with one swipe of it’s focused power.”
I shook my head and kept going.
“Someone needs the talisman, Rue.”
He probably wasn’t wrong. But I wasn’t sure that someone was me.
And I wasn’t letting anyone push me into anything.
Not today anyway. Today I was going home to my princess house, where I would curl up in my princess bed, and sleep the sleep of the people who were once wanted for murder, but no more.
Should I go sit by my mother’s bed? Probably. But she was sleeping this off, so would I. I knew she’d live. I could feel her strength returning.
Should I call my sister and find out what she was up to? Yes. But I wasn’t going to. I knew she was fine. Having fun, even. Should I call Elizabeth or the sharks? Nah. What was the keeper team for if not for the responsible stuff?
“Rue,” the keeper guy said. I’d reached the edge of the oaks and saw Felix pulling up in a battered green station wagon with wood paneling.
I turned back and looked at him.
“You got lucky,” he said.
A blind and deaf monkey would know that. I wasn’t going to argue. I raised my brows in silent question instead.
“You were brave, smart, and lucky. Don’t think you’ll live so easily if you poke your nose in next time.”
That was when the fury hit me. It was strong and vicious. I suspected that he was a boy scout. Because his eyes widened to dark brown pools of shock when I lifted him up and threw him into an oak tree with my magic. I guessed he had probably taken Magical Ethics 101 or something.
“How long,” I asked quietly, “Have you lead this makeshift team of keepers?”
“Three years,” he coughed. He was not demanding to be put down, and I admired how he ignored what I was doing to him. If he hadn’t been the only person to make me as angry as my mother could, I’d have been impressed.
“That was three years of a ghost-possessed villain being a secretary for you fools.” Every ounce of my disgust reflected in my voice. “I don’t want your job. I want to go to school and study and be a college freshmen. I want to go somewhere hot on Spring Break and cram for finals. I have every intention of going back to that life. You don’t want me to take over your job? Do better next time. Stop the murders. Save me from your ineptitude.”
Everything I had said was utterly unfair. I knew it. But I didn’t cut my magic until I’d slammed the wood-paneled station wagon door.
“Caught the bad guy,” I said to my former DM. “Sent her to hell. Time for a burger. Let’s get the girls.”
And it was that simple. We returned to my mansion, Martha, picked up Chrysie and Jessie and then found a burger shack that made milk shakes, fry sauce, and burgers that could be ordered with bacon, cheese, more cheese, and avocado. No ketchup.
And when I was done creating a food baby, I found my bed, saw the ancient knife brimming with power that had been left behind by Martha, and carefully tossed it onto the floor without touching it.
I could feel it on the border of my mind, but I ignored its pull to curl into my princess bed and sleep the sleep of the living.
The sleep of the dead was a problem for another day.
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 Hungry Graves which is available now.
If you happened to have read the Inept Witches series, the next one is coming in March! If not, you just might enjoy Inconvenient Murder about a pair of witches who live on Rue’s home island.
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
Paris Murder
Murder By Degrees (coming in March 2017)
The Rue Hallow Mysteries Hallow Graves
Hungry Graves
Lonely Graves
Sisters and Graves Yule Graves
Fated Graves
Ruby Graves (Coming Soon)
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 Persuaded to Love
Other Novels These Lying Eyes
Author’s Note
It remains ever true that books, even simple light ones like this, don’t happen without the help of others. Thanks to Auburn Seal for helping me create this world and the idea of Keepers. I can’t wait to see your take. Thanks to Pamela Welsh and Louisa Lechner for your invaluable feedback. Thanks to Emily Pavlina for the many hours of babysitting and the surety that I can leave my children in loving hands to work. Thanks to all of my family and friends for your constant support.
I am ever grateful, 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.
/> Amanda A. Allen, Hallow Graves
Hallow Graves Page 16