by Heloise Hull
“Thank you for sharing one with me,” I said quietly.
“You’re very welcome. I enjoyed doing it. In fact, I haven’t shared one in centuries.”
His words made my heart rattle around my rib cage like a little bird wanting to escape and give hugs. Maybe kisses. As the She-Wolf, I was older by over a thousand years. What a cradle robbing cougar.
“What about your…” I made a circular motion like I was wrapping, well, a mummy.
“We didn’t preserve our bodies as the ancient Egyptians did. I do not require wrappings. Bodies found in the Tarim Basin were merely desiccated by the arid conditions. We are an accident preserved perfectly down to the braids in our hair and the wool on our caps. Even our eyelashes survived the ages. I merely require rest.” He grimaced. “A lot of it at my age.”
“Wow. I’ve never heard of that region before.”
“As the old saying goes, ‘the world will never starve for lack of wonders, but for lack of wonder.’”
That spoke to my soul. I’d been wasting away for years in a suburban home because I’d given up my desire to do anything remotely soul-fulfilling. I had literally starved it of adventure, and I let it happen because it was safer.
All night long, I had felt something kindred stirring in my almost-shriveled soul. Now, in this moment, it strengthened beyond recognition.
Was that check or mate?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Did you know Aurick is a mummy?”
I was helping Nonna pick walnuts from the yard in order to store them for the winter. The breeze was chilly off the ocean, and I wondered briefly where Thessaly was now that she could walk on land.
Nonna and I had gone through the zucchini and other squash, canning and preserving as we worked through the last of her garden. It was oddly comforting. Despite having never quite taken to domestic life—I relied on Stouffers or the microwave most nights—helping Nonna felt like helping my actual grandmother, whoever she may have been. Like I was finally at her knees, gathering long lost secrets to the universe.
For the last two days, I’d spent my mornings at the bakery learning yeast and my afternoons with Severus’s scrolls. Most of the time, nothing happened and many of the pages stayed blank. Despite calling casually for Piero and his lute a few times, he never showed his doublet again, and without his help, I was in the dark. Worse, I wondered if he was stuck in limbo on some weird ghostly plane. Ghosts couldn’t possibly die again—right?
Nonna chucked a walnut in her basket. “Ah-ha! I figured something ancient, possibly a bloodsucker, but my eyesight has been getting bad these last few years.”
“You said you were certain he wasn’t a vampire, that he’d eaten plenty of your garlic bolognese!”
Nonna shrugged. “Nothing is certain. Plus, I couldn’t very well tell you that I’d actually stuffed a few cloves up his nose to make sure. You’d just arrived and we barely knew each other.”
I didn’t ask if she was serious. “He’s from the Tarim Basin. Apparently, they’re different than linen-wrapped mummies.”
Nonna watched me bend down to grab another handful of walnut shells. “A Tarim Basin mummy. Powerful creatures.”
“You’ve heard of them?”
“Sì. Maybe you were right. Best forget about mummies and men. Think of your boys.”
I knew Nonna was right, but he was someone who made me feel like a lovestruck teenager, which was something I could honestly say I’d never felt before. When I heard his voice, it made me jerk and rub my chest where my heart sped faster. There! I could feel him, even before he spoke.
“Would you like some help picking walnuts?” Aurick asked. He was wearing a linen shirt and tailored slacks with Italian leather shoes. I could see a few curly chest hairs wisping out of the two buttons he left undone at the top. I immediately looked at the sky and squeezed my thighs together.
Nonna handed him a wicker basket. “Be my guest.”
“I had a lovely evening the other night,” Aurick said softly so that only I could hear, although with Nonna, you had to operate at jet level proportions to get her to hear anything, especially if she didn’t want to respond.
I felt my cheeks go warm again, remembering how we’d walked home from the square, both to the same villa, and how he’d kissed the undersides of my wrists goodnight outside my bedroom door. Hoo boy, let me tell you. That was way more intimate than a kiss on the lips.
“It was interesting,” I said judiciously.
Aurick stopped picking walnuts and looped his arm through mine, gently turning me into his chest. It felt like we were the only two in the yard. “Interesting enough to go on a second date?”
I tried to laugh off the intense feeling of intimacy. “You didn’t quite figure me out so you need a second try?”
“Or I enjoy your undivided attention.”
“You are quite the Casanova,” I shot back.
Aurick bent his lips to my ear, his breath and body warm on mine. Goosebumps spread up and down my arms. “Is that a yes?”
I let my body feel all of the adrenaline coursing through me at his proximity and tried to picture the same with Luca. Maybe it was a lack of imagination, but I couldn’t. Aurick was igniting different pieces of my mind.
“Yes.”
Harpies didn’t make natural teachers, more like natural prison guards. Rosemary only needed a baton or a whip to crack to complete her look. “Not like that!” she barked before smiling at me sheepishly. She was still getting used to the fact that I was probably a terrifying beast who had no idea yet how to control my powers. “Sorry, darling. Maybe step away from the flour for a second. Let me collect myself.”
I held up my hands. “I know it’s the harpy talking, but I promise not to do irreparable damage to your shop, even if you turn your head for a second.”
“Just the dough,” she chided.
I threw a handful of flour at her. It dusted the air as it sailed, way missing its mark. Rosemary wrinkled her nose at the fine powder and sneezed once. Then a second time. Soon, she collapsed in a torrent of sneezing and laughing while I ran to grab the dust pan.
“Okay, darling. You’re right. I’ll loosen up. After you clean my bakery.”
“Fair enough.” I began to sweep as Rosemary flicked her wrist, spraying flour out in sheets to roll her pizza dough. This morning’s toppings were burrata with eggplant marinated in roasted garlic and olive oil.
“Have you talked to Luca since we ruined your date?” she asked. Her pizza doughs were perfectly fluffy balls of dough.
“Besides that morning in the bakery when he let me use his phone, no.”
“Hm. And Aurick?”
I jumped at his name. “Marco told you?”
“Of course. We are incapable of keeping secrets.”
“Like, as a supernatural thing or just a madly-in-love thing?”
Rosemary laughed again and covered her dough balls with a damp tea towel. “The love one. Your date sounded romantic. Marco said he made you his lobster special.”
“Yes, I loved every bite. You did the hazelnut tart?”
“Guilty.”
“Thank you. It was delicious.”
“And Aurick?” Rosemary lowered her voice and shot me a sly look. “Was he as delicious as I imagine?”
My cheeks flamed. “We haven’t kissed. But the conversation was nice. He’s interesting. And a mummy.”
“Really?” Rosemary actually stopped her prep work on the bombolni dough to gape at me.
“Really. He’s a Tarim Basin mummy, so he doesn’t need wrappings. Just rest.”
The front door bell rang. “Hello?” Rosemary called.
No one answered.
“Did you leave the door open?” she asked.
“No, it’s locked,” I said, just as a cool wind whistled through the kitchen. It ruffled my hair and I shivered, immediately recognizing the familiar feeling. “It’s a ghost wind.”
“Come close, Ava.”
I could
hear her breathing grow quicker as I slipped next to her, the familiar questions filling my mind. Was it a friendly ghost or something more sinister? Surely, there had to be deadly ghosts with vengeful intentions in the world.
Rosemary’s hand found mine, and she squeezed rather hard. “We’ll be fine,” she murmured. “But just in case, do you think you can use your mother magic?”
“I don’t even know what it is,” I whispered back.
“Focus on the flour. See if you can make it grow.”
I took a step back, a little surprised. Was that how it worked? Well, her guess was as good as mine. I sucked in a breath and placed my hand on an uncovered ball of pizza dough. On my exhale, it doubled in size. Another inhale. Another exhale. It grew again.
“What’s the plan with the dough? Force the ghost into a food coma?”
“You’re the She-Wolf!”
“What does that even mean? Wait,” I grabbed Rosemary’s arm. “I think it’s… Piero?”
My Renaissance Romancer hovered into view, but he wasn’t all there. Parts of his face had disintegrated, and his legs were almost translucent.
Despite being seriously creeped out, I drew closer. “Piero? Are you okay? Where have you been?”
But Piero simply stared, as if trying to recognize me.
“What about your lute?” I said, trying to jog his memory. He cocked his head to the side, and one of his eyeballs fell out of its socket.
“Oh gross,” Rosemary gagged.
His jaw worked back and forth. Finally, he got it to open. “Av…a.”
“Yes! It’s me, Piero. Are you there?”
“I’m not sure—I.” Suddenly, he clawed at his face as more chunks began to disappear, as if his essence was dissolving, winking out of this realm. His screams became clearer as he was sucked away. “No! Don’t do it, please, I beg you, Signor!”
And then he was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Being part wolf had its advantages, like my new found endurance. Pre-Aradia Ava never could’ve run back to the villa without stopping. Still, at this pace, everything burned, and my breath came out in heavy clumps, as much from fear as from the exertion.
Rosemary had told me to go find Nonna, but what could she do? Everyone was surprised to see ghosts on Aradia, and no one had a clue what the great evil was or if it would come for the living next.
Right as an idea was taking shape, I skidded into the courtyard and stopped dead in my tracks before the crumbling Venus statue, the one I’d seen on my first day on the island. I sucked in deep breathes of fresh sea air as I stared, almost entranced. She was healing. The stone was knitting itself back together, and now, faint traces of paint peppered her chiton.
The screen door slammed. “Ava?”
I whirled around to see Aurick striding towards me.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Funny you should say that.”
Aurick immediately straightened to his full height and took my hands. “What is it? Do you need help?”
In a split second, I decided to trust my gut. Before Jim, I lived by it on the streets and it never failed me. Why I ever abandoned it, I don’t know. Now I had to trust that it felt something kindred and kind in this mummy of a man. “Actually Aurick, I have a problem. A big one.”
He studied my face with those serious gray eyes, already analyzing the situation. “I’m listening.”
“A ghost problem. They’re appearing and disappearing, and it’s happening more frequently. Have you felt it?”
Aurick’s eyebrows turned down for the briefest moment. If I blinked, I would have missed it. “Disappearing? Are you sure?”
“Yes and it looks painful when they do it, too.”
“You’ve seen it happen?”
“It’s terrible, like their essence is being ripped apart piece by piece.” I twisted my hands together, shaking from adrenaline. “What could do that?”
But Aurick didn’t answer. When I looked up, he was glowing, the same arctic gray-blue color I’d seen at dinner. Energy rippled off him in snaps and sparks. “Ava, get inside the villa,” he said, his voice low and urgent.
“Excuse me?”
Nonna bolted out of the house, her hair in curlers and her Villa Venus robe fluttering in the breeze. She swung her head around, looking for the disturbance. “Something’s coming,” she barked.
Aurick nodded and pointed toward the sea. “From there, through the tear in the veil.”
I looked in that direction, but try as I could, I couldn’t see or feel anything. “You know about the tear?”
Aurick pushed me toward the villa. “Yes. Now Ava, unless you’ve miraculously learned how to control your magic, get inside,” he ordered. “Nonna, you too.”
I inhaled a ragged breath as Aurick flickered between a skeleton and his GQ looks. This was the mummy. He twisted his wrist and tall sheaves of wheat sprang up in a circle around the villa. I stumbled backwards as my own back warmed, finally reacting to whatever was coming. Heat tingled down my shoulders to my arms as the stalks grew thicker and taller than any wheat I’d ever seen.
Aurick jerked his head at me. “Did you mean to do that?”
“I… maybe?” I hedged. I wanted to stay, to help.
“That was your magic, strengthening mine.”
I remembered Aurick telling me he kept his grave goods, including seeds of wheat. Now I knew why. For their magic. And my mother magic had nurtured it.
“What’s coming?” I whispered.
Nonna had hobbled inside by now and shut the door. She peered through the curtains, searching for the intruders. Something rustled the grain to our left, like it was taunting us.
“What other grave goods do you have in those magic pockets of yours?” I asked.
“My pockets aren’t of the magic variety.”
“You know what I meant. Just tell me you were buried with a flamethrower.”
“It was hundreds of years ago. Fireworks had barely been invented.”
“Is that a no to the flamethrower?”
Aurick knelt down and pulled out a statuette from his pocket, a bronze warrior with a tall, conical hat that looked Scythian. He spoke a few words, and the warrior, about a foot high, stretched and yawned. Aurick whispered something else, and it snapped to attention and marched toward the barrier, disappearing into the dense forest of wheat. There was a clang of metal and the bronze soldier came sprinting back, its imitation eyes large with fear.
“Sea serpents,” Aurick said grimly.
“Why are they here?”
“Perhaps they found the tear and were hungry. Perhaps someone called them.”
The edge of the wheat swayed and rustled as the serpents searched for an opening. “Oh God,” I said, pinching my nose. The stench of rotting fish wafted over us, thick and choking. It could peel paint in a pinch.
Aurick gave me a tight smile. “They’re primordial beings, here before us, here after us.”
“So we don’t stop them?”
“No, we merely survive.”
I stepped on one of the raised garden beds and got my first look at them. Dark green bodies circled our position, leaving slimy tracks that hissed and steamed. Their heads were worse, with tiny black eyes and beaked noses dripping venom. Long, pale scars shone in the wetness of their bodies from battles long ago. Honestly, it looked like a dragon had mated with an anaconda, and unfortunately, it brought to mind the sculpture I’d been dying to see in Rome—the Laocoön and his sons being strangled by sea serpents. The way my life was going, these two right here were probably responsible for the Iliad myth. Except none of it was actually a myth and now I might actually die.
The very real sea serpents found what they were looking for, a weakness in our wheat barrier, and slithered through a crack in the stalks, their forked tongues searching for anything alive, which apparently was me.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Aurick stepped in front of me, his hands sparking flames.
“Ava, I’ve learned a few tricks over the years. Please get into the villa with Nonna. She can keep you safe.”
From the window, Nonna gestured for me to come inside, no doubt cooking up strega stuff as we spoke. But I didn’t want to. I had faced down ghosts, a killer island, and gazed on the face of a god. I’d received magic and knowledge. I was ready to come into my own. To know who I was. To help.
Okay, so sue me. I also wanted to impress Aurick. I was but mortal.
Right now, he was doing something weird with his hands. He made an intricate gesture, and golden-colored globules dripped from his fingers like molten glass. They twisted and turned in on themselves, forming something oblong that looked suspiciously like a children’s balloon. Aurick blew it gently toward the two creatures.
It floated above the wheat stalks, homing in on its target. As it drew near, the serpents reared up, large suckers visible on their stomachs. They looked painful, possibly even deadly, if touched. With a gurgle, they shot venom at the liquid gold, and Aurick’s magic thingies instantly dissipated into steam.
“That’s not possible,” he gasped.
“What do you mean?”
“Those were practically indestructible. I’ve seen them stop a troll in their tracks.”
“Trolls are real?”
Aurick ran a hand through his hair. “I’ve been weakened. That’s the only explanation. It’s something on this island. That’s why I took so long to recover. Something is calling supernaturals here and destabilizing them.”
“It’s fine,” I murmured, pulling out all of my mom reserves to get us through this. “Maybe I can make the wheat grow thick and entangle them.” I waved my arms in front of me. Nothing happened, except for me looking ridiculous. “C’mon,” I growled. Where was my fairy godmother or wise old wizard to teach me the ropes?