Ghost Walk

by Cassandra Gannon

  “Witch!” Clara Vance bellowed again, pointing a finger at her. “You’ve been the one plaguing our town, Eugenia Wentworth! You’re the witch!”

  Clara and a few of the braver (possibly stupider) townsfolk hadn’t fled at the first sign of a monster attack. Instead, they’d grabbing up shovels, sticks, and anything else they could find in an effort to defend Harrisonburg.

  Eugenia staggered to her feet. The black dress was in tatters around her shrunken body, but she’d somehow managed to hang onto the knife. Springing forward, she seized hold of Clara, dragging her around to use her as a human shield.

  Clara let out a wail of panic. “Help! Help!”

  “I’m not the witch!” Eugenia shrieked, all her crazy-fied attention on Jamie. “It’s her!” She jerked her still-transforming chin at Grace. “She cast a spell on me! She’s behind all of this. Don’t you see? She is just another whore trying to get between us. Just like Lucinda and Anabel and Clara…”

  “Me?” Clara scoffed, not knowing when to shut up. “As if I’d ever allow a pirate to court me.”

  “Clara, zip it before you get yourself dead.” Grace warned. “And Jamie, don’t get too close to the armed maniac.”

  He shot her a quick look. “She tried to kill you, Grace. She not going to just walk away from this.”

  “She won’t. There are plenty of people around who see who she really is. She’ll go to jail and we’ll go to Jamaica and everything will be fine.”

  Eugenia clearly wasn’t ready to give herself up, though. “You and I are supposed to be together, Jamie. That’s why I had to do this. Our connection is too deep to deny! I know you feel that, too!”

  “All I feel for you is fucking disgust.” He stalked towards her, patriot blue eyes burning with fury. “You just tried to murder my fiancée!”

  “She turned me into a troll!” Eugenia shouted, moving backwards and dragging Clara with her. “You all saw it! I’m sure you’re under some kind of a spell. That’s why you don’t feel our love.”

  “I donea feel any love for you, because I donea love you. I love Grace.”

  Eugenia gave a sob that was part heartbreak and part rage at his refusal to drop to one knee and propose. “She’s turned you against me!”

  “You did that yourself! Starting with the night you slaughtered poor Lucinda for no goddamn reason, at all!”

  “That was probably her doing, too.” Eugenia tried, gesturing to Grace again, desperate to win Jamie to her side. “I never would have killed Lucinda if that witch hadn’t made me do it! It was probably another spell.”

  “It was you being an evil, heartless lunatic.” Jamie retorted. “How could you do that to your own sister?”

  “Eugenia killed Lucinda?” Clara squeaked. The blade at her neck still wasn’t doing much to curb her hall-monitor tendencies. “Well, wait until I tell my father! You can forget about teaching Sunday school next week, I can promise you that, Eugenia Wentworth!”

  “Clara, shut up!” Grace repeated forcefully.

  “I knew you’d take Lucinda’s side!” Eugenia gave up all pretense of being even kinda sane and screeched at Jamie so loudly that spittle flew from her mouth. “She let you bed her, and had a pretty face, and that’s all that men need to fancy a girl! No one even looks at me, unless I make them!” She kept moving backwards. “But, now everyone is looking at me. Now everyone knows who I am. Now I’m the Wentworth sister that this whole blasted town will remember. Now I’m the one…”

  Her words ended abruptly as the heel of her practical shoe came down on a weird metal framework laid out on the ground. It took Grace a moment to realize it was the launching pad for the fireworks. The rockets poking out of it were cruder than their modern counterparts and way, way bigger than the kind sold at roadside tents during the summertime.

  And the long fuse on them was already lit.

  Someone must have started it burning before they fled from all the trolls and cannons and hostage situations. Grace knew very little about eighteenth century fireworks, but she could take an educated guess that flame heading towards them was a bad sign.

  “Jamie.” Her fingers grabbed his sleeve, dragging him to a halt before he could get any closer. “Wait…”

  Wheeeeerrrrrrrr!

  The high-pitched ignition of the rockets interrupted her. The Independence Day show was about to start on schedule, even though most of its audience had run for their lives. There was nothing they could do to stop it now. Explosions of brilliant orange began lighting up the sky as the fireworks launched. Far less sophisticated and colorful than the modern Harrisonburg 4th of July spectacular, but no less beautiful. …And no less dangerous, if you got too close.

  Too bad for Eugenia that she was standing right on top of them.

  She screamed as one of the rockets ignited beneath her, lighting her long dress on fire. The heavy cotton went up like a candle. She went flailing backwards, trying to escape, even as more rockets began to spark to life around her. It was no use. Within seconds, Eugenia was completely engulfed in flames. One rocket after another slammed into her, glowing with white-hot phosphorescence. No one could’ve survived the onslaught. Within seconds, it was over.

  Grace winced, looking away from the ghastly sight of Eugenia’s body.

  Jamie held up a palm to shield his eyes from the glare of the flames.

  Meanwhile, Clara threw herself forward, away from the fire. She landed on the grass, clutching at a wound on her neck. Eugenia had left a shallow cut on her throat when she fell. It wasn’t life threatening, but it was seeping blood. Clara wasn’t exactly known for her calm demeanor, so of course she reacted like she’d just lost a limb.

  “Heeeeelp!” She screamed, crawling along the ground like the overacting victim in a cheap horror film. “Heeeeeeeeeeeeelp me!” Her hand reached out to grab at Grace, her fingers grasping her ankle.

  Grace tried to dodge out of the way, but it was too late.

  Clara’s blood touched her skin.

  “No!” Grace bellowed, her grip automatically tightening on Jamie’s arm. This couldn’t happen! She couldn’t go back to the twenty-first century! Without Jamie, she would have nothing and she had no idea how she could ever return to 1789 now that Clara was sure to survive. “Jamie!”

  She heard him curse and then the world was shifting around her. Harrisonburg’s town square fade and Grace was on the floor of the museum basement, again. For a second her heart stopped, panic filling her. “Jamie!” She screamed again, frantically looking around for him.

  “I’m here.” He said and waves of relief washed over her. Jamie was splayed out beside her and that meant everything would be okay. “Are you alight?”

  “Yeah.” She got out, struggling to get her heartrate under control. For a second, neither of them moved, just processing it all. “I guess we solved the murderers.” She finally said.

  “I guess we did.”

  “And cleared your name.”

  “Aye.”

  She swallowed, heartbroken that she was back in the modern world and far away from the living version of Jamie. They had been so close to their happily ever after in Jamaica. “But the rest of the plan didn’t exactly…”

  “What just happened? Where did you go?” Robert shrieked, cutting her off. He was standing over them with a baffled expression on his face. “And who the hell is that?”

  And suddenly Grace realized that he could see Jamie.

  She blinked, trying to get her bearings. Her fingers were still wrapped around Jamie’s sleeve. She was touching him. Her eyes went flashing over to the flesh and blood pirate beside her, joy rushing through her. Just like she’d been able to take the shawl back in time, she been able to pull Jamie forward with her. Living Jamie. The Jamie with a three-dimensional body and a heartbeat and all of the Jamies’ memories. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t get back to 1789, because Jamie was now in the twenty-first century.

  Triumph lit beautiful face as he realized what had happened. “I’m al
ive.” He whispered.

  “You’re alive.” She agreed, choking back tears. “Jamie, you’re alive and you’re with me. We really did it!”

  “You did it.” He corrected, his hand cupping her cheek. “It was a hell of a plan, love …Although we seem to have hit a slight bump there at the end. I don’t think we’re sailing off into the sunset on my ship.”

  “No kidding.” She laughed in delight. “That idiot Clara touched my leg with blood on her hand and screwed up our honeymoon.”

  “Well, no harm done. We’ll just be staying in your century.” He gave her a quick kiss. “I’m a bit relieved, actually. I’d have hated to miss Haunted High’s final season and I quite enjoy the look of you in less layers of clothes.”

  “You can’t be in here, whoever you are!” Robert shouted at him angrily. Until that moment Grace had forgotten that he even existed. “My girlfriend and I are having a private conversation. This is an employees’ only area.”

  Grace blinked, trying to orient herself again. It seemed like a lifetime ago she’d been battling Robert, but it had only been a few seconds in his time. He was still eager to continue their fight. …Only now, the odds were slightly better for her team.

  Jamie’s head swiveled around to look at Robert and his smile was all jagged teeth. “Well that’s convenient.” He murmured to himself, getting to his feet as gracefully as a shark surfacing from deep water. “I donea even have to go hunting for the bastard.”

  Uh-oh.

  Grace’s eyes went wide. “Jamie…”

  “So he’s Jamie?” Robert interrupted scornfully. He smoothed down his hair, as if that would help make the comparison between them less absurd. “The one you’ve been cheating on me with?”

  “I’m Jamie.” Jamie told him calmly. “The one who’s about to beat you to death.”

  Grace cringed as her fiancé knocked out three of her ex-boyfriend’s capped teeth. Crap. If Jamie was arrested for assault and battery, the police would have a field day at booking. His only form of photo identification was a two-hundred and fifty year old oil painting. “Stop, Jamie! You have no idea what a mess it would be to explain who you are in court.”

  He didn’t seem to care about the legal ramifications. He was too busy ripping Robert apart with his bare hands.

  Robert gave a squawk of pain and panic, trying to escape Jamie’s fury. Who could blame him? It was like watching a dog fight between a Chihuahua and a rabid timber wolf.

  “You think you can hit my goddamn wife?!” Jamie bellowed, sending Robert flying backwards with another crushing blow. The smaller man landed on his back, blood pouring from his crushed nose. “You think you can come into her house? Threaten her? Try to rape her? Call her yours? You think I’ll just fucking let that happen?”

  Robert scrambled backward like a crab, his penny loafers slipping on the cement floor. “It wasn’t my fault! She started it! She tried to ruin my life!”

  Jamie followed him down the aisle like the specter of death. “You’re not going to have a life, by the time I’m done with you.” It was a grim promise. “Nobody touches Grace. Nobody.” He hauled Robert up to hit him again.

  Repeatedly.

  Grace realized this was careening towards a murder charge. Jamie had been riding high on emotions for several hours now and he hated Robert with a festering passion even on his good days. Assault and battery was bad enough, but she didn’t want her fiancé locked up in jail for the rest of his brand new life. Especially not over a waste of waste of skin like Robert.

  “Wait!” She protested, cambering to her feet. “You can’t kill him.”

  “Watch me.” Jamie kicked Robert hard enough to break multiple ribs and then planted his booted heel on the smaller man’s neck. “Next time you strike a woman, you’d better double-check if she belongs to a pirate, asshole. We tend to be a possessive bunch.” He gave a meaningful pause. “Oh wait… There won’t be a next time for you, will there?”

  Robert managed a gurgled response, his face turning purple.

  Grace’s eyebrows compressed in alarm. This wasn’t what she wanted. It was sweet and all, but they had seen enough violence and death today. “Jamie, please. You don’t have to do this. We’ll call the police…”

  “Who did so fucking much the last time!” He interrupted at a roar. “They let him out and he came after you again! Do you have any idea what it felt like, standing there and doing nothing, while he hurt you?” His voice was anguished. “I couldn’t help you, Grace!”

  “You did help me. You saved me, but this won’t do me any good, at all. They’ll just throw you in prison and then I’ll be alone.” She gazed up at him. “Don’t do that to us. I need you.”

  His gaze cut over to hers, burning with the intense blue of spacious skies, and shining seas, and every other shimmering American dream. This man was every dream Grace had ever had.

  “I need you.” She repeated quietly. “You’re my Partner, Jamie. Stay with me.”

  The pressure on Robert’s throat eased slightly, as Jamie reluctantly allowed him to gasp in some air. He frowned a bit, but did as she asked. “I do not agree with this decision.” He intoned, breathing hard.

  “I know.” She held out a hand to him. “For me. Just let him go for me.”

  He muttered a Gaelic curse and released Robert. He took his foot off his neck and gave him a disgusted nudge with his boot. “Be grateful my woman is a Sunday school teacher.” He muttered with an annoyed scowl.

  The other man lay on the floor, sucking in lungfuls of oxygen and sending Jamie a look of total loathing.

  Jamie didn’t so much a glance at him. “For you, Grace.” He agreed, still not pleased with letting Robert go. “I would do whatever you ask. You know that. Even when it is a horrible idea.”

  “Thank you.” She gave him a misty smile. “I love you too much to lose you.”

  “I love you too much to be lost.” He said softly, moving towards her. “There is nothing that I will ever take me from your side…”

  Robert let out a sudden bellow, apparently getting his second wind at the sound of their romantic declarations. He leapt to his feet, the broken saber that Grace had lost earlier clutched in his hand. “She was mine first!” He shouted manically and lunged at Jamie, trying to spear him with the blade.

  Grace didn’t think. Jamie was about to be stabbed and she just reacted. Her palm went up…

  And the River Doomsday Spell blasted at full force

  Power flowed through Grace. More than she’d ever felt, even during Serenity’s séances. The overhead light flickered and then exploded in showers of glass. Papers blew in small cyclones of air. Shelves toppled. Mice skittered away, searching for cover. It was like every cell inside of her had been plugged into an electrical outlet and turned up to full blast.

  Jamie gaped at the ceiling as sparks rained down. “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I knew you had magic in you.” He murmured reverently.

  Robert let out a terrified scream as the Doomsday spell engulfed him.

  …Then he simply vanished.

  All evidence of Robert was gone in a matter of seconds. The box of his office supplies, his knocked out teeth, the blood from his broken nose… It was like he’d never been there, at all.

  Grace stood there, her body still vibrating even as the magic faded.

  Holy crap! A spell had actually worked!

  At least, she assumed it worked. Since she had no idea what it was supposed to do, it was hard to say if it had actually done it correctly, but Jamie was safe and that was all that mattered. She looked up at him, her mind reeling. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, which is more than I can say for that wanker Robert.” Jamie gazed at her in awe. “Where did you send him, love?”

  “I have no idea.” The Doomsday spell didn’t exactly come with operating instructions. It was strictly a “break glass in case of emergency” kinda deal. Grace let out a long breath. “Given my only powers seem to be of the time travel variety, I’m guessing s
omeplace long ago and possibly far, far away.” She wrinkled her nose. “Just so he’s far, far away from us, I don’t even care.”

  “Well, I’d still liked to have killed him, but that was just as satisfying.” Jamie beamed. “I told you ya had magic in your blood, lass. More than anyone I’ve ever met or heard of. Why with your talent, there is no telling the spells you could harness if you tried…”

  She cut him off. “I’m not harnessing any spells, Jamie. I told you, I don’t like them. They never work properly.”

  Jamie arched an amused brow. “Explain that to Robert. Oh wait, you can’t… You disintegrated him.” He chuckled in delight.

  “I didn’t disintegrate him!” At least, she didn’t think she did. Grace looked around, trying to spot some sign of her ex, but he was well and truly gone. This one was definitely going to be hard to explain to the museum board.

  “In any case, we’ll discuss all the fun adventures we can have with your powers later.” Jamie assured her in a humoring tone. “We’ve all the time on the world.”

  “We’re not using my powers for any more ‘fun adventures,’ Jamie. That was my last spell. I mean it.”

  Jamie disregarded that. “What’s important now is you and I are finally together.” He started towards her again, crunching through the antique documents scattered all over the floor. “That’s what I was telling you before. There is nothing that could keep me from your side, Grace. I belong to you, just as surely as…” He stopped short.

  “Something wrong?” She’d been liking that speech.

  “What the bloody hell?” His boot had come down on a piece of yellowed parchment. It was one of the countless documents that Grace had scattered around the basement in her search for the shawl and her tornado of power had stirred it up again. “Holy shit!” He bent down to grab it, an amazed expression on his face. “Grace, you actually found it!”

  “I found what?” Grace hurried over to see what he was holding. It was a faded drawing of a coastline, with some trees and a big red X painted on the beach. Her eyebrows soared. There was only one thing in the world it could be. “Oh my God! Is that…?”