Dead Witch Walking

by Nova Nelson

  “Care to explain?” said the sheriff.

  “What time is it?” I whirled around in my chair to check the clock before she even had time to register my non sequitur.

  My heart sank. It was five till seven.

  The train had already left.

  Mannan and Serena were gone.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Did you have an appointment?” Sheriff Bloom asked, appearing slightly amused.

  Actually, I did need to be at work an hour earlier, but that wasn’t a top priority. At least not this time.

  “No. Well, sort of. It’s just that—”

  Before I could answer, there was a knock on the open door.

  “Knock knock. Heh.”

  Ted leaned into sight in the doorway that was mostly blocked by Giovanni’s body.

  “Mind if I take this now?” He pointed at the corpse.

  Bloom nodded. “I take it you found his spirit finally?”

  “Yep! Or rather, he found me. Wanted to make sure his body was properly cared for. I assured him it would be, showed him to the beyond, and now I’m here.”

  I pressed my palms into my eyes, trying to get a handle on it all. “But he refused to move on until he was sure the Fifth Wind couldn’t mangle it.” The facts didn’t add up.

  “The Fifth Wind?” said Bloom. “You mean Mannan?”

  My hands dropped to my sides and my eyes shot open. “You know his name?”

  “Oh yes,” she said. “Asking for a name is an important part of arresting someone.”

  “You arrested him?” I looked at Ted, who shrugged. So I looked back to Bloom.

  Her professional demeanor remained intact, except for the faintest hint of a grin somewhere around her eyes. “I didn’t arrest him. Ruby and Deputy Manchester did.”

  “But how? How did they know where to find him?”

  “I told them.”

  This was exhausting. “And how did you know?”

  “Landon Hawker.”

  I gasped.

  “So, uh…” Ted pointed down at the body again. “Am I good to take this?”

  “Yes,” Bloom said. “Before it starts to stink, please.”

  He nodded, grabbed the ankles, and began dragging it down the hallway.

  There was only one way Landon Hawker would know to go to Sheriff Bloom. “It worked. Six forty-seven. He understood.”

  “Not exactly. He had no context. But he was smart enough to come to me about it. And because Donovan and Leonardo had already reported both you and Serena missing a couple hours earlier, the pieces snapped together.” And now she looked at me probingly. “This telepathic connection you have is strange. It doesn’t make sense that it would work after your circle is severed.”

  “You’re right. But I’m glad it did.”

  She sighed and resumed her story. “I sent Ruby ahead with Stu, since she has much more experience with this sort of magic, and then I stayed behind to prepare a cell. Special precautions must be put in place before capturing a Fifth Wind with as much power as he’d thus far displayed. You can’t have them psychically reaching out from their cell to bring up an army of the dead.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose, the headache growing more acute. “No. I don’t suppose you can.”

  “Why don’t you come with me? I believe everyone will be back at the station by now, and we’ll need to sort out the details. We just had a dead witch walking around town, and I suppose the public will want an explanation. At the very least the Eastwind Watch will. Whether or not they’ll listen to a word we say or simply make up a more sensational story is yet to be seen.”

  Bloom helped me to my feet, and when I squeezed my eyes shut against the pain, she frowned. “Psychic exhaustion. I’ll summon Stella as well. I’m sure she’ll be happy for an excuse to tinker with her necromancy ingredients.”

  * * *

  By the time we reached the station, I almost had my head wrapped around the events of the evening. That momentary feeling of impotence that had washed over me when I’d thought I was too late to help still lingered like that last drunk guest at a dinner party, totally oblivious to the new developments. But I had helped. Or rather, I’d managed to get Landon to help.

  Yeah, after you got yourself kidnapped. Ugh. It rubbed me wrong that I’d needed rescuing at all, but I could feel sorry for myself later.

  As we entered the Sheriff’s Department, I realized there was already quite a crowd there.

  Ruby was the first to notice me. “Oh, hello, dear.” Someone had dragged a table into the center of the waiting area, and an assortment of coffee and pastries sat on top of it. Ruby and Stu had been chatting closely, and the deputy turned to look once Ruby spoke. He had a piece of icing hanging from his mustache that must have just gotten there (Ruby wouldn’t hesitate to tell him about it if she’d seen it).

  In the chairs along the wall, Serena had a warm blanket around her shoulders and looked to be snoozing on Leonardo’s shoulder. He cradled an arm around her and nodded at me as I caught his eye.

  When Landon’s eyes locked onto me, Donovan, who’d been speaking low and intensely, broke off and turned. He was out of his chair in a heartbeat.

  Grabbing each of my elbows, he gazed down at me and didn’t speak right away. I stared back up at him, wondering how long we would be stuck here before we could go get some rest together—truly, rest was all I wanted, but if I could use Donovan’s shoulder as a pillow and feel his arms around me each time I stirred, even better.

  “I looked for you,” he said. “We doubled back and you were gone. We looked everywhere.”

  I reached up and set a hand on his cheek. “It’s okay. I’m here. It worked out.”

  He shook his head vaguely. “It’s not okay. You could have been—”

  “Stop.” I paused, trying not to grin at his concern. It was cute. “If you’re gonna be my boyfriend, you need to get used to some close calls.”

  “Is it possible to get used to— Wait. Did you just say…?”

  I grinned and, even though I could feel eyes on us, I knew he wouldn’t mind. And, frankly, I was too tired to care who saw. I stood on my tiptoes, wrapped my arms around his neck, and kissed him.

  Okay, admittedly we probably should have stopped it at a PG rating, but we went ahead and pushed it to PG-13 when I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Bloom smiling patiently at me.

  “There’s still some official business we need to handle.”

  “Oh! Right. Sorry, sorry.”

  One of these days, I would learn to be professional.

  As Bloom allowed me a moment to make a plate and pour myself some town-funded liquid jet fuel, Landon hurried up, bouncing slightly on his heels. He leaned in conspiratorially so that only Donovan and I could hear him. “The connection worked.”

  “And thank goddess for that,” I said.

  “But it shouldn’t work,” he said plainly. “Nothing in any texts says that a circle split between two unconnected realms would still maintain that degree of power.”

  I’ll admit, my brain was toast, and the moment he used the word “texts” I lost track of what he was saying.

  But Donovan didn’t. “Do any of those texts even mention that specifically?”

  Landon nodded adamantly. “Oh yes. There are multiple reports of the connection being severed the moment the portals close.”

  I sincerely hoped Donovan hadn’t felt my muscles tense at the implication.

  “Can we talk about his later, Landon?” he said. “You know we love your conspiracies—”

  “You say it like they never come true.”

  “—but she’s just been through an ordeal, and whatever you’re getting at here can wait.”

  I thought I knew what Landon was getting at.

  Landon nodded and held up his hands in surrender. “Fine, fine.” Then he looked at me. “It was smart, sending out the time. You knew I’d never forget it.”

  “I was certainly hoping you wouldn’t.”r />
  “No. Never. Seeing that time written on Grace’s calendar… it was that little morsel of hope that I needed to keep searching for her.” His rosy cheeks flushed an even deeper pink, but he didn’t break eye contact. “I’ll never forget.”

  Donovan watched the interaction closely, and I did my best not to tip him off to what was really being said when I added, “We’ll talk more later, Landon. Just not tonight.”

  No doubt feeling like I’d heard the message behind the words, he left, and I shoved my face full of a cream cheese pastry before Donovan or anyone else could ask me any questions.

  But as I went through the monotony of giving a full report to Bloom, and signing this statement and that non-disclosure, Landon’s words came back like a reverse echo, growing louder and louder each time:

  “I’ll never forget.”

  Epilogue

  I wouldn’t go so far as to say Medium Rare could run without me, but after taking two days off to do nothing but sleep and recover my energy, I found that the diner could limp by without me. And that was good enough. Of course, now I owed Jane and Bryant a hefty bonus for how they stepped up as the only two managers on such short notice.

  But that was a small price to pay for realizing I didn’t have to be at work every day, that I could take some time off and enjoy other things.

  Like Donovan.

  A week had passed since the Ram’s Head Inn, and it was the first time the two of us had both been rested and off work at the same time.

  We sat across from each other in a booth at Medium Rare—I know what I just said about working less, but I wasn’t on a shift and our queso can’t be beat.

  We’d attempted light conversation when the chips and queso first arrived on our table, but now we were just shoveling the melted cheese into our mouths as quickly as possible. It was the proper way to eat this, if I do say so.

  As we made it to the bottom of the bowl, and he pinched a sliver of chip and scraped up the last of the cheese from the side, I asked something that had been on my mind for over a week now.

  “Do you think he’ll go through with it?”

  Donovan narrowed his eyes at me. “Who?”

  “Your brother. You think he’ll actually contact that lead from Ezra? Go through with the whole anti-aging thing?” The term felt so much more accurate in this context than it had back in Texas for all the snake-oil cosmetics designed and marketed specifically to remind women that we were aging.

  He paused and stared thoughtfully at the empty bowl before speaking. “I don’t know. But I wouldn’t blame him if he did.” He looked up at me. “People do some pretty crazy things for love, and I have no room to judge.”

  Neither did I. But it did bring me to another question that had been nibbling at my insides during my quieter moments. “I hate to even bring this up… but that night in the Deadwoods, when we were all there, right before the portal closed, what did you and Eva say to each other?”

  To his credit, he didn’t ask me why I was wondering.

  But he also didn’t seem excited to talk about it. “I thought I already told you.”

  “Did you? I don’t remember it.”

  He turned toward the window, through which the edge of the Deadwoods was clearly visible through the sunlight. But the light couldn’t penetrate that wall of trees, which stood like an army of the dead, always watching, not seeking a war, but inviting it.

  “I thought I told you in the Deadwoods.”

  I shook my head softly and offered my hand, palm up as I rested it on the tabletop.

  He turned his gaze on me, then noticed my outstretched arm and took my hand.

  “It’s all kind of a blur,” I said. “I don’t remember much of what happened right after the portal closed.”

  He nodded and stared down at our hands for a moment before inhaling deeply. “She said it was her fault that everything was happening like it was. And she said it was her job to fix it. I don’t know why she thought that.”

  Thinking back to the conversation Eva and I had with High Priestess Springsong and Mayor Esperia just before the portal opened in the Emporium, I had a pretty good guess why she would think that. She didn’t know all the facts like I did. And when she heard that the imbalance had happened around the time she came to town, she’d assumed responsibility. But I knew better. The imbalance was years in the making.

  “Is that all she said?” I asked. While I couldn’t stand that I was actually entertaining the insidious insinuations of Count Malavic, it was clear I wouldn’t be able to move on while such thoughts festered in my subconscious.

  Had Donovan orchestrated it all? Had he said something to make Eva go through the portal, knowing Tanner would follow and the two people standing in the way of us being together would be out of the picture?

  “That’s not all she said. It’s just the last thing she said.”

  I gave him a moment to stay silent before I couldn’t stand it anymore. “I’m sorry to pry, it’s just that—”

  “She said she loved me.”

  The rest of my sentence caught in my throat.

  He went on, “She said she loved me, and I was so confused why she picked that moment to say it for the first time, I didn’t say anything back. And maybe I was shocked that anyone as good as her could love me. I don’t know. But I didn’t say anything. And then she apologized and ran through the portal.”

  “What would you have said?”

  He was still staring at our hands, but now he looked me in the eyes. “If I hadn’t been such an idiot, I would have said it back. Not only that, I would have given her my full attention instead of always thinking about… well, about you.” He lowered his eyes again. “And maybe then she wouldn’t have run through and Tanner wouldn’t have followed and it would have saved us all a lot of trouble.”

  Greta, whose shift was only starting, approached with a pitcher of water for refills. I shot her a wide-eyed look and shook my head minutely. She stopped in her tracks then turned on her heels and went the other direction.

  “Do you know why Mannan didn’t kill your brother?” I asked.

  The clouds seemed to lift on his overcast expression as he sat up straighter. “No. Why?”

  “His whole aim was to break them up so she could have a long and happy future without being burdened by the loss of a short-lifer. If he killed Leonardo, he believed he’d be immortalizing him in a way. She’d hold onto the loss and carry it with her forever, that he would become more than a man. So instead, Mannan wanted to kill her image of him. He wanted to convince her Leonardo was a killer so she would move on.”

  Donovan narrowed his blue eyes, his dark brows pinching together as he tried to follow along. “I guess it makes sense.”

  “And it got me thinking. Am I going to immortalize Tanner? And are you going to immortalize Eva? They’re not even dead, and we’re mourning them.” I felt like I wasn’t getting my point across clearly, so I paused and tried to collect my thoughts. “I loved Tanner. I still do. And you just said you love Eva. But they’re gone. And I don’t think I want to hold on to the memory so tightly that it costs me a future with you. And you don’t have to hold onto your guilt at the cost of happiness. I want us to be able to give each other our full attention.”

  He arched his eyebrows at that. “I think I’d like that, too. Very much. Very, very much.”

  “The rest of the town may never understand, but maybe you and I can hold each other to it. We knew them better than anyone else. So if you tell me to move on, I might actually believe you. And when I tell you to stop holding yourself responsible, I hope you’ll believe me.”

  He nodded. “Right, but go back to that part about giving each other our full attention. When you say that, are we just talking intellectual attention or… physical?”

  I hate to generalize, but I was starting to feel a little bit like all men were the same. I held back a grin. “I mean full attention. In all areas.”

  “Mm-hmm.” He pretended to consider it, b
ut I knew he already had a plan.

  He stood up from the booth and motioned with a nod of his head for me to do the same. “Come on,” he said.

  “We haven’t paid.”

  “You own the place! Get up. We need to get going.”

  I got to my feet. “Where are we going?”

  “Back to my place. There’s a long-overdue matter that I think demands our full attention.”

  And though the line earned a serious eye-roll from me, when he made to leave the diner, I beat him out the door.

  * * *

  END OF BOOK 10

  Book 11 of the Eastwind Witches is coming soon. In the meantime …

  * * *

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  Author’s Note

  Do not read this till you’ve finished the book!

  I wish I could tell you why this book was so difficult to write, but I have no idea. I suppose after 9 books, I was overdue for some creative resistance. And on top of my unexplained slow down, the writing process of Dead Witch Walking gave me another big first: once I finished the first draft, I realized the entire final quarter of it needed to be scratched and redone. It was simply not a satisfying ending and I’d left out so many important bits. Ach!

  But I’m much happier with how it turned out on the rewrite. Nora learns some of the darker ways her powers can be used, and that’s always a difficult thing to confront. She even has to cross the line into some gray territory to do what she thinks is right. Did she make the best choice? I’ll leave that up to you. Personally, I’m glad I don’t have to decide whether or not to jump into a dead body and wear it around town. Maybe that’s just me.