by Nova Nelson
“That’s fine. You don’t have to right now.”
“She deserved it, that stupid woman!” Frankie shouted, practically foaming at the mouth as she struggled against her cuffs. “Marrying scum like Lucent. Going against the order of things.” She spit in disgust and Deputy Manchester moved his boot out of the way just in time to avoid the projectile.
“Is she talking about Heather Lovelace?” he asked me.
Rather than giving him a simple yes (not nearly satisfying enough), I said, “I’ve been thinking about what you said, Deputy.”
“You have?” He clearly had no idea what I was talking about.
“Yes. And even if ninety-nine percent of the time it’s just a shadow, that still means that every now and then, it’s actually a hidebehind.”
His curiosity withered. “Oh. That.” He cleared his throat. “Well, how about this, Ms. Ashcroft? I’ll handle the shadows and leave the hidebehinds to you, since you have a knack for finding them.”
“Fair enough.” Then I added, “Thanks.”
He slammed the door of the wagon behind Frankie and turned toward me. “For what?”
“For showing up. I wasn’t sure if you would.”
“Of course, Ms. Ashcroft. Showing up for the people of Eastwind is my job. You’re one of those people now, so here I am.” A small smile stirred at the corners of his lips, and he nodded curtly before climbing on the seat at the front of the wagon and disappearing down the street with Frankie in tow.
And somewhere in her home in Hightower Gardens, Heather Lovelace crossed beyond the veil for good.
Chapter Fourteen
“You don’t seem happy,” Ruby said from her place opposite me at the parlor table. She lifted her cup of tea to her mouth, watching me like a hawk. “Shouldn’t you be happy? You just solved another murder. You’re two for two, if my tally is correct.”
A fog had hung over me since leaving Atlantis Day Spa two days previous.
No, since before that. Since leaving the Lovelace home, leaving Heather behind with Lucent. I couldn’t shake it. Her emotions clung to my skin. Word had traveled fast around Eastwind, as it always did, and my regulars transitioned quickly in our small-talk from congratulating me to asking if I were alright. I must have worn it on my face just as much as I felt it hovering over me, weaving its tendrils through me.
Before you say depression, it wasn’t that. I’d had that. If depression was a heavy stout beer, what I felt was a cocktail more intricate with flavors more delicate yet potent than even Donovan Stringfellow could concoct. If I had to describe it in a word, though, it would be restless.
“Am I supposed to feel happy?” I asked, looking up at Ruby True.
She wore that knowing smirk I’d grown used to as a precursor to another lesson. Her gray eyes penetrated me. “I’d be worried if you were. After all, did you bring Heather back?”
“Um, you’re not making me feel better.”
“That’s okay. You don’t have to feel good all the time. Kids your age always want to feel good all the time.”
I arched a brow. “Kids my age? You mean thirty-two? I’m hardly a kid.”
“Let it work through you,” she said. “Loss is inevitable. Nothing in life lasts, and our wanting it to has no effect.”
“Are you trying to depress me? It kinda feels like you are.”
“That’s because you’re not listening.” She leaned forward and tapped me hard between the eyes. I blinked quickly. Definitely hadn’t expected that. “Trust me, dear, I’ve been where you are. But the bottom line is, if you spend your life trying to avoid death and loss, making plans and backup plans and last-ditch plans, you spend your life ignoring life, ignoring the good things while they’re around.”
Her advice sounded vaguely familiar. Then I remembered that Jane had said just about the same in Franco’s Pizza the other day. “YOLO,” I whispered, then began laughing.
Ruby narrowed her eyes and leaned back in her chair.
“You’ve finally snapped,” Grim said from his spot by the fireplace. “Frankly, I’m surprised it took this long. Not exactly the most mentally stable witch I’ve ever met.”
The laughter felt so good, I never wanted it to end, so I indulged in it. Because, seriously, what both Jane and Ruby said was true, and it essentially came out to a sophisticated argument for YOLO, or You Only Live Once. Which was, of course, untrue for me. I got to live at least twice. YOLT.
But I still got the gist of the argument.
“Sorry,” I said, and as the laughter settled in my chest, I realized that some of the emotional plaque had been flushed from my body. When was the last time I’d laughed that hard?
“Feel better?” Ruby asked.
“Yes, thank you.”
“See?” she said. “The only way to live with the possibility of death is to accept the present possibilities of life.”
“I don’t fully understand, but I think I’m starting to get it.”
“That’ll do.” She finished off her tea and scurried over to the kitchen to grab the kettle for a refill. “Now there’s something else we need to talk about.”
Her tone.
“Uh-oh … somebody’s in trouble …” Grim said.
I felt like a teenager whose mother had just found out I’d been sneaking out to do drugs. “Yes?” I said cautiously.
“You said Heather spoke through you by moving your hand to write. Now, that coupled with the fact that you’ve been in a mopey haze since you wrapped this thing up makes me think you might’ve channeled the woman.”
That had been my assumption, too. Was that bad? Was I in trouble as Grim thought? The tone of her voice made it sound like I might be, and as she carried her cup back to the parlor table, I couldn’t meet her eye. “That’s what I thought happened. But that’s something I can do, right?”
She tipped her head slowly. “Yes, it’s something you should be able to do a year from now after training, but not something you should’ve been able to do two days ago without any bit of training from me.”
Yeah, I was definitely in trouble. “Sorry?”
“You’re lucky Heather only wanted to talk dirty with her husband. Otherwise, she could have taken you over and not let go. You lack the training to make her let go.”
“Oh.” Wait, was Ruby implying what I thought she was about Heather taking me over? Could she have made me … do things? With Lucent? Yuck. That visual was enough to make a person never channel again.
“But,” she added, “it’s intensely interesting that you were able to manage it as well as you were. You just, what, played it by ear and figured it out?”
Her harshness was fading to curiosity, and thank goodness for that. Ruby True had the face that could reprimand even the most murderous criminal to tears of remorse. “Yeah, I just sort of felt around until it made sense. Then I shut my eyes, used some of my meditation training to clear my mind, and off my hand went.”
“Hm.” She sipped her tea again then turned to Clifford. “What do you think, Cliff?”
I couldn’t hear his reply, of course, since he wasn’t my familiar, but he lifted his head and I assumed he was responding.
“That’s what I thought, too,” she said, “but we shouldn’t jump to any conclusions.”
My gaze jumped between her and Clifford. “Care to enlighten me?”
“Grim?” I asked. “You can hear him, right? What’d he say?”
“Nothing interesting. Probably a heap of unicorn swirls, anyway.”
“It’s nothing to worry about, dear. But I do think we need to get serious about your training. Especially if you’re going to pull another stunt like that. You haven’t tapped into even one one-hundredth of your abilities, and I shudder to think what might happen if you intuit your way into another one with the wrong spirit. Not all of them are who they say they are.”
I enjoyed learning new skills, so this was great news. “When do we start?”
“Whenever you finish that tea you’ve b
een nursing over there.”
“Oh.” I chugged the rest of it, ignoring the bitterness and wondering what Ruby had in mind.
Kayleigh, my pixie doppelgänger at the apothecary, greeted Ruby and me with a wide grin and a wave as we entered her shop. I responded in kind, but Ruby ignored her, mumbling, “Too dang chipper. She should know by now that I abhor small talk,” as she made a beeline for the necromancy section. Grim and Clifford had come with at our insistence—the familiars were packing on the pounds lately, and neither Ruby nor I wanted to be the one to mention it overtly, so we’d decided to encourage minimal movement when possible. As the hounds parked themselves by the front door, just beside the trickling water feature, I followed Ruby further into Pixie Mixie.
We paused in front of the shelf as Ruby scanned the rows. “At least she keeps it well stocked. But then again, I was her only real customer until you came along. Sure, you get your fair share of teen witches who think it could be fun to dabble in necromancy, but if they’re not necromancers, which they aren’t, they don’t pull it off. Usually, they just end up losing a finger or a whole hand.”
“That’s not good,” I said, downplaying my horror tremendously.
She waved me off. “It’s fine. They grow those things back quick enough.”
I opened my mouth to respond but realized anything I said would sound stupid. So I just accepted it. Witches could grow appendages back. I suppose I should’ve been relieved, since it worked in my favor, should I ever lose a finger prepping food or a foot because I forgot to feed Grim and he lost his patience and thought he’d teach me a lesson.
“There are a few staples you must always have around,” she said, beginning her lesson. “Yew, sage, and licorice root are just the beginning …” I tried to focus and follow along, but there was so much information, and truthfully, the more she talked about casting protection spells and summoning specific entities, the more my brain disassociated from what was going on. I’d been in Eastwind for four months, so you’d think I’d be used to all this magic and weirdness. And in a way, I was. But outside of ghosts visiting me and Grim being able to communicate telepathically with me, I wasn’t yet used to all those things in relation to how I fit in. I still sort of felt like everyone else was a weirdo, and I was just Nora from Texas, a plain human who ghosts and a gigantic dog had discovered means to communicate with.
The moment in Heather’s home, when I encouraged her to channel through me, was the first time I’d become an active and willing participant in this madness, and I hadn’t yet processed that.
But here Ruby was, telling me that it was time for me to be even more active.
“So besides channeling,” I said, interrupting her as she, apparently, read off a mental shopping list. (She couldn’t believe she was being interesting, could she?) “What else can I do? Besides resurrecting people. Kayleigh told me that one.”
Her small wrinkly eyes opened wide, then she shushed me. “Don’t say that so loud. Half the people in this town already mistrust Fifth Wind witches for that precise reason!”
I couldn’t keep from laughing. “Because they think we’ll start bringing people back from the dead? And, what, turn an army of zombies against the town?”
Her hand snapped forward with lightning speed and she pinched me hard on the back of the arm. When I yelped and yanked my arm away, she hissed, “I said shh!” She looked around to make sure no one had overheard. “That’s exactly what they think we’ll do. Especially now that there’s two of us.”
“Wait, is that something we can do?”
“Couldn’t tell you,” she said stiffly. “I’ve never considered trying it.” She leaned even closer, whispering, “Although, yes, technically, with enough training, you could bring someone back from the dead, but I highly discourage it. Nasty business.”
I didn’t need to imagine it for very long before I saw her point. “Ruling that out, what else can I do?”
“You can channel safely, for a start. You got lucky, with Heather, but you could have been in big trouble. Also, you can repel death.”
O-kay. That seemed significant. Why was this the first I was hearing about it? I struggled to keep the sass hidden as I responded with, “You don’t say.”
“I do say. Sometimes events can transpire that make death come for a person. You can forestall it. And you can summon spirits back from beyond the veil, but I don’t recommend that, either. They can be big pains in the hide when you pull them back from the afterlife just to ask them a few questions. Plus, it upsets the natural order until they go back, and upsetting the natural order is something you’d be wise to avoid.”
I sighed. “Is there anything I can do that you would recommend?”
She shrugged. “Sure. Learn as many spells as you can to repel spirits and pretend you’re not a witch.”
“And does that work?”
“Hasn’t for me, and I’ve been at it for fifty years.” She grabbed a glass jar of what appeared to be tiny eyeballs and shoved it toward me so that I had to grab it to keep it from falling to the ground and shattering, sending the contents rolling across the floor. But before I could inspect it further, my arms were loaded up with additional supplies.
And Ruby’s were empty.
I guess playing pack mule was part of the apprentice thing.
As we approached the front of the store, a warm, familiar laugh caught my attention.
Tanner.
I didn’t understand why it made me anxious knowing he was there; I saw him almost every day.
He leaned with his elbows on the counter, one foot crossed over the other as he chatted with Kayleigh. I paused at the end of the aisle, hiding so I could listen in on his overly friendly conversation with the pixie who looked just like me, but cuter.
Ugh. If you’ve ever had this experience, where the guy you have it bad for might have a thing for a slightly prettier and more likable version of you, you know what I was feeling. If you’ve never had it happen, well, lucky you. No, I’m not bitter. You’re bitter.
Anyway.
I was only able to hide for so long before Kayleigh spotted me over Tanner’s shoulder and waved at me. “You can come on up! We’re just chatting.”
Yeah, I could tell. Just chatting, flirting, maybe sprinkling pixie lust dust all over him and I just couldn’t see it.
“Hey, Nora!” Tanner said as he caught sight of me. “I passed Grim and Clifford and was wondering when the two of you would appear.” Then his eyes lowered to the pile of objects in my arms, and he jumped forward. “Here,” he said, taking some of the heavier items off the top, “I can help you with those.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled, trying not to indulge in his delicious earthy scent when he came near.
Did he smell like cherry pie all the time? I’m definitely not complaining. I’ve smelled many men with worse natural aromas. In fact, every man I’d ever met pre-Eastwind had a worse one than Tanner, even the bros who completed an entire scent regimen before they left the house.
Or maybe especially those bros and their overpowering synthetic musks.
Someone should tell them that if they’re so worried about their smell, they should get in the kitchen and bake a cherry pie, or maybe rub a little fresh rosemary under their arms.
I’m only sort of kidding.
“I’m gonna go grab what I need while you get them set up,” Tanner told Kayleigh. Then he hurried off, disappearing between the wooden shelves.
“Looks like you two have big plans,” she said, directing the comment at Ruby.
But Ruby didn’t respond.
Right. No small talk.
“Yeah, I have a lot to learn,” I replied. “Probably should’ve learned it a long time ago, but, well, life gets in the way and all that.”
She nodded and giggled, writing down each item in a long ledger. “I do. Life is crazy. And from what Tanner tells me, the two of you have been working almost non-stop to get Medium Rare running smoothly.”
“Well, he has
. I’ve been helping a little, but the credit goes mostly to him.”
“Not true,” Tanner said, appearing again with a half dozen items in his arms. “She’s been helping out so much. And on top of it, she was solving Heather Lovelace’s murder.” He set his things on the counter a few feet from mine, meeting my eyes. “You gotta give yourself more credit, Nora. I’ve never met anyone who works as hard as you. It’s one of the many things I admire.”
“Gag me with a chupacabra bone,” Grim said from his spot a few yards away.
I avoided looking at anyone around me. Accepting compliments did not come naturally to me. I decided to shift the focus. “By the way, I never thanked you for handling Veronica Lovelace for me the other day.”
“Nah, it was nothing,” he said, giving me a playful pat on my upper arm.
“No, I mean it.” I turned to Kayleigh. “He probably saved the woman’s life by going over there.”
Wait, why was I hyping up Tanner to Kayleigh? What was wrong with me?
Maybe I just wanted Tanner to be happy, no matter who it was with.
Nah, probably not that.
Kayleigh nodded slowly, her eyes drinking him in. “You didn’t tell me about that, Tan.”
Tan? TAN? No. Absolutely not. Firstly, that was a stupid nickname. Secondly, she didn’t get to have a nickname for him.
Clearly, I was at war with my own good sense. On the one hand, dating Tanner was totally out of the question, since we were going to own a business together. And in that case, he should be allowed to see whoever he wanted and have idiotic nicknames from whoever he liked.
But on the other hand, no thank you! I didn’t have to sit by and watch this.
“Seriously,” he said, “it was nothing. Veronica’s a nice lady. Very generous and warm and inviting.”
I thought about Bartholomew, AKA Barty, AKA her manservant. Then I thought about Tanner’s instructions to make sure Veronica showered. Surely, Tanner didn’t …
No. He was amicable, but he had standards.
“Are we talking about the same woman?” I asked. “You think Veronica Lovelace is generous, warm, and inviting?”