Lonely Graves: A Rue Hallow Mystery (Rue Hallow Mysteries Book 3) Read online

  LONELY GRAVES

  By Amanda A. Allen

  For Heather Ives

  I miss you, sister. But I ain’t coming back, yo.

  CHAPTER ONE

  My name is Rue Hallow—the eldest of the eldest of the eldest of the Hallow line. Which meant had a mansion to myself near the college of St. Angelus. And like a schmo, I’d told my old coven leader that a member of the coven could stay with me. Sure, I loved my coven leader, Hazel, like family. And yes, she was helping me out by paying for lessons with a potions master for me. But, she hadn’t said she was sending Saffron Ives when Hazel had asked if I would let someone stay. The thing about Saffron was—she scared the socks off of me. My mother, Autumn Jones, was essentially a super-villain. She’s was cold as a snake and nasty, and she’d manipulated me and set me up hard my whole life. That said…Mother walked carefully around Saffron.

  So that meant I would need to run off my anxiety before we picked Saffron up. Her flight came in at 5:00 a.m. I was running at 3:00 a.m. The drive was long and I’d need to shower before we went. My addiction to my energy potion would leave me functioning butt wasn’t me I was worried about. It was those fools, Felix and Chrysie. They hadn’t let me run alone. It turned out that nearly being murdered a time or two while running late at night left those who cared about you a tinge concerned.

  I wasn’t quite sure what to do with that. I’d been running in the nighttime since I was ten. My sister had been an insomniac, and we had middle-of-the-night adventures. I wasn’t prepared to let those go even if Branka was on the other side of the country. But, this wasn’t the same at all.

  Chrysie was skipping circles around me. Literally. The vampirism seemed to be settling into her in a way that left her less of a victim to gravity and her gracefulness would have made me feel like a lumbering giant if not for Felix gagging half a block back. I was trying to keep up the my pace up so I could have a runner’s high, but it was hard to do with the sound of him hurling while Chrysie snacked as she freaking skipped.

  The Hallow Family Cemetery and the cypress grove nearby called to me, but I wouldn’t be able to go there with these two. I sighed and stopped running to stretch.

  “Hecate’s fiery breasts, please say you’re done,” Felix said as he stumbled towards us.

  I wasn’t even halfway done, but I knew I wouldn’t be getting any further running in.

  “Please say you‘ll fix the pool in the house next?” Rue asked a if that would keep her from running.

  “But are Hecate’s boobs fiery?” Chrysie asked musingly. “She’s the goddess of witchcraft not the hearth or hell.”

  Felix wiped his mouth, missing something in his nasty goatee, but I focused on his forehead to miss it.

  “Felix, gods, you have stuff in your scraggly beard hair,” Chrysie said without waiting for an answer to her question. Those two were becoming more and more like siblings. It was just a matter of time before one of them gave the other a wet-willie.

  “I’’m going to die,” he said in reply.

  “The next time the monsters come after us, you’ll die first,” Chrysie told him. “You should probably put down the Xbox controller every once in awhile.”

  “Leave me alone,” he said, “I’m dying. Gods, Rue, you do this for fun?”

  “More for sanity,” I said idly and began walking towards my house, Martha.

  “If I fix the pool, will you swim instead of running?”

  “Probably,” I said, knowing the burn wouldn’t be the same. There was something soothing about the water. There was something enlivening about being alone in the dark, running like the wind, with magic flowing across your body and hovering at your fingertips. But at least they might think I’m swimming if I were to do it sometimes.

  And then I could run alone instead. If I were sneaky. I’m pretty good at sneaky, so…

  Chrysie interrupted my thoughts, “So, tell us about Saffron. I’m soooo excited to meet someone from your coven. Is she really good at magic like you? Are you like this expert witch coven up there in the wilds of nowhere? You are. Aren’t you? You are?”

  Her lilting, happy voice made my eye twitch a little bit.

  Saffron. She was indescribable. Terrifying. But maybe that was because I knew where she was from. Was it betraying her if I told them her past? Or betraying them if I didn’t? Gods, I wasn’t prepared for this sort of…morality. The morality of friendship—it might as well be unexplored wilderness for me. I didn’t have a clue.

  “Ummm” I said, trying to think frantically. I wanted to ask my sister, Branka what she thought. But I had to answer now.

  “She’s hard to describe,” I finally said. “She’s very good at witchcraft, but…not the same kind as me.” Dark magic. Scary stuff. Dead bunnies and kittens magic.

  Felix and Chrysie glanced at each other and then Felix said, “Spill it, Rue.”

  I took a long breath, let it out slowly and said, “Saffron is a dark witch who came to our coven to turn it around. She’s…” Terrifying. “I don’t know her well. But I know that my mother is careful around her.”

  “Your mom?” Felix demanded, rubbing what was probably a stitch in his side. “Your mom?”

  I nodded. He’d met her. Mother was cold as a snake and powerful to boot.

  He whistled.

  “She can’t be all bad. You talk about Hazel all the time. If your coven leader trusts this witch, she must be all right.”

  I wanted to agree. But I didn’t. I trusted Hazel, so letting Saffron into my house was something I would do. But I was very much forcing the trust in this situation rather than having it come naturally.

  “What’s that?” Chrysie asked, looking past my shoulder. I turned to see a shape in the trees. It was dark, but what concerned me was the feeling of utter coldness that was coming over my body. I wanted to run, run, run away.

  “Well shiz,” I said as Felix said, “This is why you shouldn’t run alone.”

  “Shut up,” I told Felix and then debated running.

  I don’t know a lot about ghosts despite being the eldest Hallow of the Hallow of the Hallow—aka a long line of stupid good necromancers. I hadn’t even known I was a member of the family at all when the year started. What this all added up to was I wasn’t quite sure you could outrun a ghost and if you couldn’t,I might as well stand and fight.

  I stepped closer, Felix cursed and followed. And Chrysie. Chrysie skipped alongside utterly unconcerned. Felix shot her a disgusted look, but she didn’t notice. Maybe it was because she’d been a ghost. Or just that she was a vampire. Even baby vampires are really, really hard to kill. I guess. I’d just started reading a book about them. So far, Chrysie seemed pretty typical for a baby one—e.g., always hungry, graceful, but not particularly strong or fast yet. She was faster than me. But not like shapeshifter fast. Aged vampires were as fast or faster than shapeshifters, if they lived that long.

  But that didn’t mean a lot in comparison to a ghost. And all my senses were screaming ghost at me. I stepped closer and closer. It stayed a shapeless darkness in the dark. Gods. It was hard to push each step forward, but I did it without faltering in my pace.

  “Hello,” I said, mostly because I didn’t know what else to say.

  There was a low eerie moan.

  “Gods,” Felix said and then cursed again.

  “Calm down, Felix,” Chrysie said and repeated my greeting, “Hello.”

  Her lilting, happy voice didn’t pull anything from the ghost either. We all looked at each other and then back at the ghost. If it didn’t say anything, did we call real necr
omancers? Or just leave? I didn’t have a clue.

  “I guess we could call Monica,” Felix said, referencing his girlfriend.

  “No,” Chrysie and I said in unison.

  “Did you have a better idea?” snapped Felix, kicking at a rock on the side of the path.

  “No,” Chrysie said. “We just don’t like your girlfriend. She’s kind of…”

  “Nasty,” I said just as Chrysie said, “Mean.’

  “Like a viper,” I said, looking at the ghost and noticing how it didn’t waft or move. It was just a shadow in shadows, moaning in a way that made my hair stand on end.

  “Or a really nasty spider,” Chrysie added.

  “Or,” I started.

  But Felix snapped at me, “I get it.”

  Chrysie ignored him and stood there, bouncing on her toes, “It’s just we don’t like her. Like, at all.”

  “I think we should focus on the ghost,” Felix said, “And worry about Monica later.”

  “Maybe if you just did the gross stuff with her at her place,” Chrysie said, “And never, ever brought her over.”

  “Or talked about her,” I added helpfully.

  “Then it wouldn’t be so bad,” Chrysie said, finishing with, “Like she didn’t even exist.”

  “Perfect,” I said.

  Felix’s look was nasty and mean, as if he were channeling his evil girlfriend and we probably deserved it. But, the last time Monica came over she told Chrysie she was a blight on humanity and should be staked. That was when I stopped playing nice. I was surprised Chrysie had joined me, she said, “It’s for his own good. We’re helping him.”

  I walked around the ghost, but it didn’t shift. “This is weird.”

  “But back to the subject at hand,” Chrysie almost sang, “Monica is evil. You can do better. You need to do better.”

  “Shut it, Chrys! What is weird?”

  “Other than you being too good for Monica? It just moans. And then doesn’t move. Remember when Lisa died? She could move and stuff. This doesn't seem right.”

  “What do your necromancy classes teach?”

  “The uses of basic spell ingredients and runes we’re not allowed to use.”

  “Like the one you didn’t use when Habitha died?”

  I grinned evilly and nodded. I wasn’t obeying arbitrary witchcraft rules when ghosts were forming and hated me. So far this school year, I’d been attacked by a person possessed of a legion of ghosts who’d murdered generations of my family and then by the assistant to the Hallow Family Council. A little suggestion for you: if the Hallow Family Council decides something, be very, very concerned about that decision.

  I dropped to my knees, pulled out my homemade, bespelled chalk and drew a pentacle putting on the five points runes for clarity and protection. I motioned my arguing friends inside and then used regular magic to snap the protections into place. Witches use the magic of life and death. The energies running through the world that are otherwise untapped. Dark witches focus on the death magic. Regular witches use the living magic. Necromancers access the power of the other side, the ether.

  As the eldest of the eldest of the eldest of the Hallow, I was in the position to call a talisman of the thinning to me if I used the ether inside of the thinning. Since that talisman was rather like the sword in the stone—in that it gave its holder a position of power—I very much desired NOT to call the talisman. You’d think I’d want power. I do. But I wanted the kind of power earned with learning and ability. I did not want the unpaid, unrewarding job of policing the thinning of the underworld. I didn’t want to hunt up shady necromancers. I didn’t want to send evil ghosts to the other side. I wanted to learn to fly.

  Hence, no ether for this necromancer. Especially given the death rate of the “keepers” of the thinning. No, thank you. I intended to brew dangerous potions and consider learning to talk to cats.

  Then I looked at the world with through the magic clarity rune I’d drawn on the ground. I touched Chrysie and Felix, so they could see what I was seeing.

  Felix’s curse was stark against the sound of Chrysie’s gasp. I was speechless. The spirit in front of me looked as if it had it’s brightness peeled away. It was anchored somehow in the spot. With the rune working with my abilities, I could understand the moan.

  It wasn’t trying to terrify is us at all—it was one long plea for help.

  “Heeeeelllllllpppppp. Hhhhhhheeeeeellllllppppp.” And with that clarity rune, I could see something else. One single blood-red tear rolling down the face of the ghost.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Gods and monsters,” I breathed.

  “We really should call Monica,” Felix said.

  “No,” Chrysie and I said together.

  “Or Finn,” he suggested.

  “No,” I said almost growling. Gods, I hated Finn. I didn’t care if he ran a team of necromancers trying to fill the role of keeper. He was a manhandling jerk who had shaken me too many times. The next time I saw him, I was going to punch him in the man parts. Again. For good measure.

  Felix and Chrysie started arguing again, but my gaze was caught by a slightly less dull strand of gray. As I tried to follow it, I saw how it wound around and around and around the ghost. I shivered. How did you chain a ghost down? Like that apparently.

  “Do you see that?” I asked.

  The other two fell silent and then followed my magical prompting.

  “No,” Felix said, but Chrysie saw it.

  “Is that, like, a rope?” She shivered and I followed suit.

  “I think…”

  “I don’t see it,” Felix said. He squatted down next to me where I knelt and tried to see it again. He shook his head and then said, “We can’t leave him like this.”

  “Right,” I replied, and took his hand, making him tuck close to me. He still smelled a little bit like vomit, but I didn’t mind so much. Not in the face of this madness.

  “See,” I said in proto-Romanian.

  “Oh,” he breathed into my ear, and I shivered again.

  “Felix,” I started and then turned to meet his eyes. I hadn’t noticed they were like a cat’s eyes before. A little gold, a little yellow, a little brown, all wrapped up in a lovely almond package.

  “Rue, we can’t leave him like this,” Felix said and I adored him a bit for saying it. Of course we couldn’t. Of course. But Finn and Monica, they’d just shove this ghost through the thinning, brush off their hands, and mock us for being unable to do it. That didn’t feel right. Nothing about this felt right. The longer I was there, the more I was sure something different was going on.

  “I…” I started. I didn’t want to be the selfish cow that I was when I said this, but I couldn’t help it. Not even now. “Not Finn. Not Monica.”

  “Dr. Hallow?” He suggested, accepting my boundaries.

  “I…do you see that?” I asked again and whispered into his ear, “See.”

  He frowned and his gaze focused on the ghost. I followed it, and frowned as I saw the little tiny runes in the spell. They were there in a darker shade. They should have been invisible. They would have been without the rune, the pentagram, and the order in proto-Romanian.

  “That doesn’t look like…” He started.

  I finished, “I don’t know a lot about necromancy, but it looks like normal runes to me.”

  “Yeah,” he said. Despite not being a necromancer. Felix was a very good witch. His abilities tended towards mechanical-type things. He could make a metal dragon and then spell it to fly. His magic was beautiful. But all magic was, in my opinion. Except, perhaps, for necromancy.

  The ghost moaned again and the sound of it made me want to cry. I didn’t want to run anymore. I wanted to—slaughter—whoever had done this to this ghost. This was the essence of a person. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. “Hecate, goddess of witchcraft, Morpheus, god of dreams, Hestia, goddess of home, bless this spell.”

  “Rue, what are you doing?” Felix asked. Chrysie just took my hand and ga
ve me her support for she had no power to spare.

  I took a deep breath and reached out a magic finger, wrapping it around the spelled segment of whatever that darker shade of darkness was wrapped around the ghost and then I ordered with will, intent, and power, “End.”

  The ghost screamed. Felix, Chrysie, and I did too. The sound dug into my brain. I curled onto my knees and the pain wracked over and in me. I screamed until I couldn’t hear anything and then I cried, waiting for the pain to end. It seemed to last forever, but finally came to an end.

  I cracked my eyes open, and found that Felix had wrapped his arms around me. I needed to check on Chrysie. I couldn’t hear her. I was afraid if I moved, it would keep hurting. I stared at Felix who had tried to protect me. I slowly reached my tongue out to lick my lips. When it didn’t hurt, I dared to shift slightly. Felix’s eyes snapped open. He stared at me and I back at him.

  I had been ineffably stupid. I had put us all at risk. I didn’t know how to apologize.

  “Are you ok?” he asked.

  I nodded and a leftover tear slipped down my cheek.

  “Are you sure?” he asked, wiping the tear away.

  I took a breath and said, “Yes.”

  And then I pressed my lips together and pushed up to find that Chrysie had passed out.

  “Oh gods,” I breathed and then I reached a shaking hand towards her. She was breathing, but only slightly. And all her hard-earned color was gone. I took her hand and found she was trembling.

  “Here,” Felix said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out two of my vials.

  I stared down at the little vials. The silver one was my energy potion. The other…it was the color of old blood and flecked with black. I could feel the pulsating power coming from the vial without opening even opening it.

  “Do you carry vampire potion?” I asked him softly.

  He nodded.

  “Gods, Felix, thank goodness for your foresight.” My hands shook as I turned Chrysie over. Felix reached out and opened her mouth, and I dribbled both potions into her mouth and massaged her throat. She didn’t move for a long minute and then gasped.