by Viola Grace
“Why do you have an issue with them?”
She gave him a tired look. “They have an issue with me. They are both purely human. A ghost extractor in the family was not something that they adapted to. My mother thought I was unholy, and he thinks I am trying for attention.”
“So, they don’t know what you do?”
“No. They can’t really get their heads around it.”
She picked up her phone and texted Esmy then she paused. She flicked through her contacts and found Laura’s number.
She sent the text and waited.
With her breath held, she pulled her shirt back on and went to her wardrobe to look at the dress that would show the stitches to advantage.
She kept close to her landline, and when it rang, she jumped on it. “Hello?”
“Hello, Hecate. This is Laura. You said you needed to speak?”
The noise in the background sounded like a busy restaurant, Hecate winced. “You are at the rehearsal dinner.”
“I am. Why aren’t you here? Your mother said she asked you.”
Hecate swallowed. “There must have been a miscommunication. She doesn’t know I am going to the wedding, right?”
“Um, I believe that Esmy announced you were going to be there.”
Hecate winced. “Right. Well, I had a bit of a disaster with my dress. Do you know anyone who opens up before eight in the morning?”
Laura chuckled. “I will make arrangements. Just be at the hotel for nine, and it will be fine. We will get you sorted.”
“I don’t mean to be trouble.”
“You aren’t trouble. You have saved the wedding. We will make sure you can enjoy it. Do you have any idea of the style?”
“Something dark that covers the shoulders and part of the neck completely. Nothing fancy.”
“What are we covering?” Laura was matter-of-fact.
“A three-inch puncture, through and through.”
“Ah.”
“My original dress was off the shoulder.”
“That will be no problem. I will see you tomorrow while Esmy is getting ready. Prepare to join our circus.” Laura chuckled and hung up.
Hecate was nervous, but she spent the evening discussing a training regimen with Domerik and trying to explain to Ulysses that he wouldn’t be able to enter the building tomorrow.
Ulysses had been irritated since Domerik came back with her, making notes about her technique and the effectiveness of her energies.
Hecate had looked at the grimoire, and there were only four empty pages. Hell was going to have to send another demon, or she was going to have to leave home. Neither option was particularly appealing.
She set out two sets of shoes that should cover most outfits, one dark, one light.
With her heart in her throat, she set her alarm and went to sleep, hoping to be on time before she got to the happiest day of her sister’s life.
She parked with other vehicles and smiled at the archway being built near the treeline. It was three hours to the wedding, and things looked well in hand.
Hecate headed for the building where the organizer was standing with a clipboard, and she was gripped hard and spun around.
“Stefan. Good morning.”
Her stepfather moved in close and hissed, his hand crushing her left shoulder in that special way that he had. “What are you doing here, Hecate?”
Hecate looked at him and was reminded that he was not her father. He didn’t want her in his life.
“I am here because of Esmy and Leo. They asked, and here I am.”
She could smell her own blood as the wound separated.
He frowned. “What the hell?”
He pulled his hand back, and his pale skin was marked with her blood.
“Congratulations. You opened my stitches. Well done.”
She walked over to the organizer, who had watched the whole thing. “Hiya. I am Esmy’s sister. I am supposed to meet her here?”
“You are Hecate?”
“Yes. I believe you have met our mother. No, she is not Stefan’s, as much as he tells people she is.” Hecate smiled brightly. “My sister?”
“Upstairs to the right.”
So, they were using the old bridal room for this. That was fine. She had stuffed the windows and doors with so much sage smoke, nothing sinister was getting in.
Hecate knocked on the door, and one of the pale and elegant bridesmaids was there. She looked at Hecate and frowned. “I will tell her you wished her well. You shouldn’t be here.”
Hecate let out a sharp whistle. She smiled as the response came from inside the room.
She pushed past the bridesmaid and looked at her sister in her robe, with her hair being twisted into an updo. “Hecate!”
“Esmerelda, you look wonderful. Leo is very lucky.” She walked up and squeezed her sister’s hand.
Laura was in the corner, talking with the flower girl. She looked up with a smile and said, “Ah, Hecate, come with me.”
Hecate nodded and squeezed Esmy’s hand one more time. “You look radiant, sis.”
“You look drained. I will see you soon.”
Laura took her hand and tugged her down to a panel truck parked near the other supply vehicles.
They opened a side door, climbed up some stairs and were inside a room full of gowns and footwear with a corner for jewelry.
“Mistress Galfor, this is Hecate. She is the ghost extractor we told you about.” Laura smiled. “She requires your services.”
The woman turned, and to Hecate’s shock, she didn’t have the standard number of arms.
“Hello, Mistress Galfor. Pardon if I stare. I am very new to the realm of paranormal beings. For the longest time, I thought that the ghosts were as unusual as things could get.”
Mistress Galfor nodded. “I understand. The idea of pulling a soul out of a human is perplexing to me as well. I can’t think of why you would do it.”
Hecate shook her head. “That isn’t what I do.”
“Well, you can take off your clothing, and I will patch up that wound and you can explain it to me. I love a good ghost story.”
Hecate was bemused by the woman’s lack of concern over the wound, but she took off her shirt, and soon, goblin spider silk was binding it and actually felt pretty good.
“The silk will detach as the oils in the skin return to normal.”
“Thank you.”
“I also have a box of bandages for you to use in the future.”
Hecate felt her cheeks heat. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
“You don’t have to. The Nexus is going to pay my fees. She is also an excellent tipper.” Mistress Galfor grinned, and her teeth were impressively terrifying.
“So, you think you can hide it?”
“Oh, I can do more than that. I can make you second to the bride alone. Shall we?”
Hecate smiled. “This I have to see.”
It took over an hour, but when Hecate left the truck and went down the stairs in knee-high boots, she felt comfortable, and she felt gorgeous. The warmth of the sun heated her skin, and the two days of sleeping and gorging had done wonders for her body heat. Purple silk that felt like it could stop a bullet was wrapped around her, and she felt like she belonged.
Her makeup was impeccable and had been set with some powder that would defy sweat and tears. She was set for the entire day.
She returned to Esmy’s chamber and knocked on the door. Her mother was standing there, and she hissed, “She doesn’t need you here, Hecate.”
There was a cry from inside, “Hecate! Come and button the last few buttons on my gown.”
The bridesmaids laughed, but Hecate pushed past her mother and went to help her sister. Esmy was gorgeous. Stunning and as lovely as Esmy had ever seen her.
There was a photographer who was standing by, and as Hecate reached out and finished the last three buttons, the shutter snapped furiously.
When it was done, Esmy turned and leaned toward Hec
ate. She leaned in, and their foreheads touched like they used to do when they were small.
“I am so happy that you made it. You here makes it the perfect day.”
“I am very glad to have made it. Thank you for inviting me, Esmy.” She squeezed her sister’s hands.
The shutters of the photographer went crazy.
They smiled and laughed as they were ushered downstairs to have more photos taken in the newly refurbished gardens.
Their mother tried to keep Hecate out of the photos, but the photographer wasn’t having any of it. He made sure that Hecate was in several photos alone with Esmy and that she was in all the images with the bridesmaids.
The picture with her, her mother, and Esmy was strained, but they stood on either side with Esmy in between. Everything was very polite until Stefan showed up.
He paused. “What is she doing here?”
Esmy smiled, but there was steel in her tone. “She is here because she is my twin, my sister, my blood from birth. I asked and she came, just as she always has, but I had forgotten how much effort she had to engage in just to render help. I want her here, she is sitting at the head table, and I am not going to hear a word about it.”
Stefan was still looking daggers at Hecate, but they stood for pictures as a family.
Hecate wandered around the corner, and she heard a “Psst.”
She followed the sound and found Leo and his groomsmen getting their own pre-event photos done. Leo wanted an image with her, and they stood for the photo, chaste, with a few inches in between them and both decorously looking at the photographer. The next ones got silly as she was asked to do what came naturally.
She reached into her boot and pulled out the stock of her whip, whirling it lightly before cracking it down.
Leo blinked. “You keep a whip with you?”
“Yeah. It is kind of a distance weapon, and though we cleared out this area, there is going to be another demon coming soon, and I don’t want to be unarmed when it happens.”
Leo grinned. “Sensible. So, did Esmy tell you that you are at the head table?”
“She told Stefan. This isn’t going to be fun.”
“Yeah, but it sets a tone. You don’t get shoved aside anymore. You are part of our family, and if we have to make you remember it, we will.”
Hecate smiled. It had never been her who wanted to forget, but she would see where the night took her.
Chapter Thirteen
The ceremony was lovely. She sat in one of the front rows reserved for family, and her father sat next to her. This day was important enough for her to summon him. He got to see his baby married.
There were more pictures then the buffet and party, and sitting at the head table was a little weird with everyone looking at her, but as the projector screen came down, she knew that things were going to go downhill, just a little.
Stefan stood, and he said, “We are here today to welcome Leo into our family, and I just wanted to share some memories of Esmerelda growing up. We will share these to make room for more memories.”
Esmy looked excitedly at Hecate and then to the screen.
Hecate already knew what she would see.
She ate her dessert and watched the display of a lovely couple and their beautiful daughter. Singular. She had been edited out of her own life.
Esmy stared at the images, and her expression changed. “Stop the projector. Switch to my disk, please.”
She waved, and a groomsman brought the mic over. “Hiya, I thank my stepfather for the video, but it reminded me of someone that I have been missing for a very long time. So, since this is a family day, I would like to offer this as a present for my sister.”
The reels began, and the carefully cropped photos were shown to have a dark caramel smiling face next to her milk-white sister. They were at the beach, at church, making sandcastles, getting school awards, graduating, all the things that Stefan had tried to cut in half.
Then, there was Esmy’s accident after graduation, pictures of Hecate at her bedside. Images of the broken car, and then Hecate helping her with her physiotherapy, helping her learn how to walk again. And then, the image from today, the two girls standing head to head, smiling and happy.
Hecate blotted under her eye at the tears that were trying to get started.
She got up and walked over to Esmy and gave her a hug. The assembled folk who weren’t crying themselves began to applaud wildly.
The party was just getting started.
It was the middle of the afternoon, and the crowd was thinning.
Hecate had ended up at the Nexus’ table, and she asked, “So, you are driving the humans out?”
Abby grinned. “Not me. Not precisely. I just provide the magic to be used, like a giant piggy bank.”
“Huh.”
Hecate’s mom came over and smiled. “Please excuse me, I just want to borrow my daughter.”
This wasn’t going to be good.
Her mother grabbed her arm as soon as she stood, and Hecate took charge, walking with her mother out of the building and into the shadows of a tree near the spot where the ceremony had been held.
When Hecate stopped and turned to her mother, the slap across her face caught her by surprise. “Wow, Mom. What was that for?”
“How dare you embarrass Andrew that way?”
“What way, Mom?”
She flexed her jaw and rubbed her cheek.
“That video.”
Esmy’s voice was clear. “That was my video.”
Their mother whirled and said, “Baby, you should be inside, this is your party.”
Esmy looked at her and shook her head. “You know, I always wondered why it was so easy for me to make space between Hecate and me, but now I get it. You reinforced every moment of jealousy I had, used it to draw a line between us that widened. I was an asshole, but you helped every step of the way.”
“Baby, you are upset. She’s upset you. Go inside and calm down. Dance with that handsome husband of yours.”
A voice behind them spoke, “But first, how about a father-daughter dance. I can’t get inside, but I can dance with you out here.”
Hecate smiled and stepped aside as Esmy properly saw Andrew Wakeman for the first time.
Esmy took a step forward. “Dad?”
Hecate watched as their mother went grey.
“How is he here?”
Hecate looked at her mother and smiled. “He has always been here. Always watching. Always keeping you from hitting me too hard and killing me. Weird, huh? Protected by the dead. How could that be possible?”
Her mother sat down hard on the grass. “He left me.”
“He died. It happens. He tried to protect you, tried to give you everything you needed to survive.”
“All I wanted was him... and he left me.”
Esmy and Andrew’s ghost were dancing slowly in the shade of the tree. The music spilled out, and Leo was leaning in the doorway, giving her a thumbs-up when Hecate caught his gaze.
She nodded.
When the song was over, Esmy smiled at her father. “Thank you for coming.”
“I have always been here. And I would not have missed today for the world.”
Hecate smiled. “He has been really chatty about it, too.”
The translucent form of her father walked over to her mother and crouched next to her.
They spoke softly to each other, her hand constantly going to his cheek. Hecate swallowed at the last words that her father gave her mother, and she blinked away her tears.
Their mother was crying in huge and ugly sobs.
Andrew touched her cheek one more time. Stood up, walked up to Hecate, and stepped into her. It wasn’t her favourite way to transport a ghost, but it was effective. There was no way she was going to let Dad miss Esmy’s wedding.
Andrew Stefan came out and ran to where his wife was sobbing on the ground. He asked her what was wrong, and she waved at Hecate.
Her stepfather was up in her f
ace in a moment. “What did you do, you little bitch?”
“Nothing. I just brought Esmy’s father to her wedding, and he wanted to talk to his wife. Nothing else.”
He gripped her by the arms and shook her hard. “Shut up! Ghosts aren’t real, and I am Esmy’s father. Do I still have to beat it out of you?”
Esmy beckoned to Leo, and she put her hand on Andrew’s arm. “What the hell are you doing? Are you threatening her?”
Hecate turned to Esmy. “It’s fine. I am a big girl, and I carry a knife now.”
Andrew dropped her suddenly, stepping back.
Their mother had scrambled to her feet, and she was pulling at Andrew’s arm. “Don’t, don’t hurt her.”
He looked at her in astonishment. “She upset you.”
“No. That wasn’t. Let’s just go.” She was defeated.
Hecate stepped forward and kissed her mother on the cheek. She whispered in her ear, and her mom paused and then nodded. “I understand.”
Andrew tried to pass her, so she made a fist and plowed it into his abdomen. When he bent over, she whispered in his ear. “Try that again and I will pull your soul out and see how long your body can live without it.” She flexed her fingers in his spiritual energy.
His eyes grew wide, and they left.
Hecate sighed and looked at Esmy. “Sorry about that, but I knew it was going to happen sooner or later. I just didn’t think it would happen at the wedding.”
Esmy hugged her. “I instigated it. It was my chance to actually see them in action, and they didn’t disappoint. Did he really hurt you?”
“Yeah. He liked pressure pain. Mom gave him the excuse that I needed to be punished, and he was trying to keep me away from sullying her angel.”
Esmy winced and leaned against Leo. “Yeah, that is what Mom calls me.”
Leo snorted. “What did your father tell her?”
Hecate felt her face heat. “Um, I was the angel he told her about that last day. He said that he had left her an angel to watch over her. He meant me.”
Leo’s eyes widened, and he covered his mouth. “Holy shit.”
“Yeah. It is a common issue, confusing lack of colour with virtue. Boy, they never did learn about what you did at the chocolate shop, did they, Esmy?” Hecate tried to lighten the mood.