“What else do you miss from the living world?” She asked me.
“Wind,” I answered almost immediately. “I miss the feeling of the breeze against my skin and through my hair.”
The queen seemed to think about this for a long moment before Thaddeus interrupted. “She has the souls,” he told her.
Persephone turned back to us with a large grin. She stood up and walked over to me. “I knew you would find them!” She beamed.
“Boude and Grace searched with me,” I added.
“Let’s get them back where they belong, shall we?” She asked, and I agreed.
She dusted the dirt off of her hands and gave a passing nod to her little inner sanctum as we walked through and into the rest of her home. Her abode was not quite what I would have expected of a queen and goddess of the underworld—even though maybe I should have.
Rich colors of indigo, purple, and magenta decorated most surfaces, with undertones of black and gray. In every room we passed through I noticed wreaths of flowers and small fountains.
I remembered the books Ray had about mythology, and how Persephone spent part of her time in the underworld with her husband Hades, and part of her time in the living world so that spring would come to the earth. With her ever lightening hair and eyes, I wondered if it was almost time for her to leave. And underneath that thought, I wondered where her husband was—and if he was someone I would even want to meet.
We climbed a staircase to the second floor, and I couldn’t stop myself from looking over the railing at the floor below. All of the vibrant pops of color stood out the like the jewels in her staff, and the flowers made what would have been an off-putting place feel like home. Hers was an unusual “palace,” but intriguing nonetheless.
She opened a door to the left of the staircase and we went inside. To my surprise, there were all of the zombies—yes, all of them! They took up an entire floor of the house. They were sitting on couches, staring out windows, and crammed in pretty much every corner of every space. They weren’t talking or doing anything, they were just sitting, totally still and quiet.
“Are they OK?” I asked.
“Well, that is a relative term,” Persephone chuckled. “They aren’t in any pain or discomfort, and they’re not bored or lonely. Now that Rasputin is gone and their mission is over, they are simple shells waiting for orders—or in this case, waiting for their souls.”
“How do we know which soul goes where?” I asked.
“That’s the easy part. The souls know exactly who they belong to,” she smiled, and took the bag from my hand. She took the jar from the bag and unwrapped it, so that all of its glowing magic shone brightly. Then, she took out the stopper, and the large mass of blinding white light slowly floated out of the bottle and hovered over our heads. From there, it split into hundreds of tiny pieces, and then shot like lightning into each zombie.
Each being was knocked slightly back as its soul reentered its body, and then something happened that I didn’t expect: they started disappearing.
One by one as the souls found their person, the zombie would just—Poof!—be gone. A room that had housed hundreds of zombies was suddenly more than half empty. The few zombies that were left were now looking at each other in shock, as they came back to their senses and tried to figure out what had happened to them.
I looked at Persephone to confirm my own suspicion. She nodded as if reading my mind. “Those souls were destined for other places. They’re where they’re supposed to be now.”
I felt relief wash over me, knowing that at least this one problem had been solved. “We’re still sorting through the files of the souls Rasputin promised to other gods,” I reminded her.
She nodded, “Yes, that is going to be tricky. Those other gods aren’t going to be happy when I come into their territories asking them to surrender those souls back to me. And I’m afraid it will take up some of the time I should be spending in the living world.” She bit her lip and her face was thoughtful. Not scared or worried, I noticed—more like she was trying to solve a puzzle in her head.
“I’ll help in whatever way I can,” I offered, before considering the consequences of my words.
Persephone smiled. “That is most appreciated. I believe I’ll send Thaddeus; most know that he is my messenger. He can at least see what kind of terms I’ll need to be prepared to negotiate.”
“Of course,” Thaddeus’s voice echoed as he stepped forward. I jumped, having forgotten he was still that close. It was hard to pay attention to anything besides the queen when she was around.
She glanced at him, and then brought her gaze back to me. “If you were serious about be willing to help, I believe I have a job for you.”
I tilted my head towards her, waiting for her to go on.
“While Thaddeus and I both are away dealing with this, I’ll need someone to take over for me here. You won’t have to do much, just step in if things become unbalanced.”
I swallowed—I couldn’t be understanding her correctly. “You mean fill in as Queen?” She nodded as she tended to a potted orchid in the room. “Yes, I believe you would be quite good at it. And that way I could relax while I tend to these other matters.”
I looked around her home. “Would I have to stay here?”
She laughed a cheerful, light sound. “Only if you would like to. You can stay in the fields if you prefer, and we don’t have to tell anyone that I’m away. I prefer to let the people and vampires govern themselves. This was the first time I’ve had to step in myself, which was unfortunate since that meant exposing my power. Everyone gets so hung up on that; they were doing just fine without knowing me.”
“What do I do if something comes up that I don’t know how to handle?” I asked.
“I’ll leave you a way of reaching me. You don’t have to decide all of this right now. Let’s take care of the files first, and then we’ll send Thaddeus off and go from there.”
“I’ll be thinking it over,” I mumbled. I was suddenly overwhelmed at all of this new information, and at a complete loss about what to say or do. I wanted to see Soren, to talk to him about all of it. I hardly felt qualified to be a fill in for the Queen of the Underworld. But could I really tell her no, since she asked?
“Very good. You are free to go whenever you need to,” she said to me, then looked at Thaddeus. “Thaddeus, take these people to be assigned, please.”
I watched as Thaddeus began talking to the people, who were now back to behaving like normal. Having their souls returned made an obvious difference in their personalities. Was it the souls themselves, or just the spell that Rasputin had used? It made me wonder about vampirism as well: how was that so different than zombieism? What was the magical, vampiric spark that changed it all? I couldn’t answer that question, but the more I learned, the happier I was that I was still hanging onto my soul.
I bowed my head to the queen and told her goodbye. I didn’t even attempt a curtsey; that just always left me feeling stupid. I let myself out the way I came in, admiring the gardens the best I could through my fuzzy brain, and headed back to the Assignment Hall.
I suppose I could have waited and helped Thaddeus wrangle the zombies—er, people—since we were all heading the same way. Maybe it was rude of me that I didn’t wait, but I seriously needed a few minutes alone with my thoughts.
The darkness of one of the smaller entrances to the Vampire Quarter caught my eye. It caught my eye not in a way of something that grabs your attention, but more like something was missing. You could walk right by it and miss it, thinking instead that whoever designed the city just put the buildings too far apart, leaving a dark void. It didn’t seem as menacing to me as it had all of the other times. Now it was starting to feel like just another part of the city.
Soon, I found myself at the Assignment Hall. I didn’t even bother looking around, I just made my way down to the basement where my friends were all shuffling through piles of documents.
Grace and Boude were st
anding against the wall.
“It’s about time you showed up,” Andreas sneered from behind Margaret’s desk. Jeremy sat at his feet like a little puppy.
I started to speak in my defense, but he interrupted, “We know, we know: you had important business with Her Royal Highness.”
I straightened my spine and raised my nose in the air. “Indeed, I did,” I said, in a terrible attempt at a snooty accent.
Margaret observed our banter, unphased. “Helena, I think we have most of it done.” She pointed to several stacks of files on the floor. “They are separated by location of where the souls are in the different afterlifes.”
I placed my hand on her shoulder. “Thank you, Margaret. Is there anything left for me to help with?”
“Hel, can you come here a minute?” Grace called, and motioned me over to where she was standing. Boude had stepped away.
“Can I help you sort those?” I asked, pointing at the files in her hands.
Grace swallowed hard and took me by the arm, leading me away from everyone else. She pointed to the floor. “Sit.”
“Grace, what is going on?”
“Sit down and I’ll show you.” Grace’s one eye watched me closely.
I reluctantly sat down and looked up at her, waiting for her to say whatever it was she was going to say. Grace nervously shifted from one foot to the other before sitting down herself.
She gripped the files tightly. “Boude and I made sure we were the ones to look at every single file that needed to be sorted by location, so that we could keep an eye out for one particular file.”
Oh shit, my brain interjected, I see where this is going. I put my hand on the file and she didn’t stop me from taking it. “Raphael,” I breathed.
Grace nodded.
I didn’t open the file, I just stared down at it. I didn’t have the courage to look inside just yet. “Was he supposed to stay? Or is he where he’s supposed to be?”
Grace put her hand over mine. “He was supposed to stay.”
I heard a noise coming from somewhere, and realized I was the one making it—some kind of half choking sob. I quickly covered my mouth with my hand and tried to pull myself together. I knew that meant that he would be coming back with the queen, if he chose to.
I looked back at Grace’s lap, where there was another file. “Who is that?” I asked.
“This one isn’t for you, but I’ll let you decide how to handle it.” Grace cleared her throat and bit her lip, giving me just a glimpse of fangs. “It’s Soren’s wife.”
“Eira,” I breathed. I felt the room sway and I had to close my eyes. I pulled my knees to my chest and put my head down, trying to breathe slowly and deeply.
“Dammit, Hel, maybe I shouldn’t have told you,” Grace agonized beside me, rubbing my back.
“She isn’t recently dead. How did you come across her file? She died a hundred years ago.” My voice was muffled against the jeans, but I was certain Grace still heard me.
“Actually, she did die recently—again. She was reincarnated after the first time, and that life just ended.”
I raised my head and looked at her with blurred vision, my eyes too wide with shock. “Do I even want to know where she is now?” I looked at Grace instead of opening the file myself.
“She’s in one of the other worlds where Rasputin sent her. So I guess the queen will be bringing her back when she brings back Raphael, if they decide not to stay where they are,” said Grace. “Are you going to tell Soren?” I nodded with my head still against my legs. “I have to.”
We stepped back into the room with everyone once I had regained my composure… at least, once I was sure I could fake it.
Andreas was still sitting behind the desk looking bored, and Jeremy was still looking up at Andreas from the floor with big puppy dog eyes. I was very confused about the dynamic of their relationship, and at the same time had no desire to ask for clarification.
I turned to them. “You guys can go on home. Thanks for helping.”
Andreas immediately arose from the chair and stretched far back enough that I caught a glimpse of his smooth stomach peeking out from underneath his blue shirt. He caught my gaze and winked at me. “Appreciating the view?”
“You are a very attractive man, Andreas. But I wouldn’t do anything to divert your attention from Jeremy,” I feigned.
“Oh, I’m certain he wouldn’t mind if you joined us.”
Jeremy’s face clearly showed that he would indeed mind—he almost looked afraid at the idea. His expression softened into submission, though, the moment Andreas smiled at him.
“Thank you just the same,” I said.
“Have it your way.” He ran his fingers through his golden locks, and then brushed a piece of Jeremy’s hair out of his face. They left without saying anything more to anyone.
“Margaret, I really can’t thank you enough for helping us. If you ever need anything, please let me know,” I said, and took her hand in mine. Her small features were endearing and and warm.
“I’m very glad I was able to help all of these people. I am feeling a little beat. I think I’ll go see Billy for a while.” Margaret grinned like at kid at Christmas when she said his name.
I couldn’t help grinning back her. “I’m sure he’d love that.”
“What do you need from us?” Boude asked, with Grace standing by his side.
“If you could take these files to the queen, that would be amazing; and please tell her I’ll be over soon to discuss the specifics of getting the souls back,” I told them—and then happened to remember, “Thaddeus might still be upstairs. He brought all of the people that had been zombies to get assigned. I’ll run up and see if he’s still here.” I started to take off up the stairs, and Boude’s hand on my arm stopped me.
“I’ll go,” he said. “I remember what he looks like. You have things you need to take care of.” His eyes gave me a knowing look. I was either getting better at reading vampire eyes, or just sensing the emotions they were trying to portray.
I handed Raphael’s file back to Grace. “Put this one in the stack where it belongs. I don’t want to see it just yet, and having it with me will drive me crazy. I’ll keep the other one, though; he might want to look.”
Grace nodded in understanding.
I blew them both a quick kiss, and headed back to the fields.
As I approached the fields, my skin began to prickle and the hair at the back of my neck stood up. I didn’t know what was happening, but with all of the recent chaos I doubted it could be a good thing.
I walked towards the field faster and faster with each step. I could see Soren now, not too far away with his back to me, shovel in hand. He was just standing there waiting. Whatever it was that was coming, he could feel it too.
“Soren!” I called, and ran to him. He turned to me just as the force hit us: wind… a cool, strong wind that swept over us and took our breath away.
His eyes were huge with concern, and I began giggling. The rush of air was loud, and I shook my hair down so that I could feel the breeze blow through it. I spun around with arms out as the current engulfed me. “It’s a gift, from Persephone,” I yelled so that he would hear me.
I watched as a big smile crossed Soren’s face, and he scooped me up into his arms and kissed me as the wind blew all around us.
“Thank you,” I whispered into the air, and hoped she would hear it.
In time, the strong wind settled into a natural feeling breeze that came and went. And although I couldn’t have been more grateful for it, I knew it was the type of thing I would become accustomed to quickly, taking it for granted once more. I vowed not to let that happen, but time would tell.
“What’s that you have?” Soren asked, pointing at the file in my hand.
I had honestly forgotten I was holding it. I gave him my best sympathetic eyes and said, “Let’s go in where we can talk.”
Soren had been quiet for a while now, after hearing what I had to say. I sat
in silence with him as he processed the shock. His face was tear-stained and he stared down at the file.
“So she’ll be coming back here?” he asked, startling me out of the quiet.
“Yes, if she chooses to. Same for Raphael.”
Soren rubbed his face with his hands and ran his fingers through his beard. He let out a long sigh.
“If you asked, Persephone would probably let you go with her when she travels to that afterlife,” I added, not really knowing where his head was at, or what would make him happy. I couldn’t even figure out what would make me happy.
He looked at me. “What does this mean for us?”
I knew my face looked worn, and I felt as though I had aged twenty years in the months I had been dead. My heart felt hollow, and some part of me had gone cold. I suppose I knew this was coming, one day. “Soren, you’ve always made it clear to me that no one is above your wife. If she chooses to come back here, I would never stand in your way.”
He sighed and put his hand over mine on the table, giving it a light squeeze. “And you’ll have your Raphael back,” he smiled.
I nodded and tried to smile. The truth was, Raphael wasn’t my spouse: we hadn’t shared a life together or raised a family. We were just falling in love and trying to figure out our lives together. All of the beautiful things I shared with Raphael had happened fast, and although they felt deep, I had no real idea if we would have made it. I had even less of an idea if he would want to be with me now, here.
“What if only one of them comes back?” I asked, and knew I probably shouldn’t have.
Soren’s face dropped even deeper, and I saw the lines on his face that reflected his years of hard living. “A bridge we shall cross when the time comes.”
If only one of our lovers came back, it left one of us out in the cold. There were no two ways about that. Neither of us wanted to admit it. Yes, Soren and I loved each other, but there was love, and there was Love. I was not his wife, the woman he created children with, the one he devoted himself to. And he was not my Raphael, the man I had fallen for with every fiber of my being, without truly being able to give a reason why. I yawned, and groaned. Emotional stuff was harder than physical stuff any day of the week.
Three Witches in a Small Town Page 15