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

  I jumped and then took hold of her as her eyes opened. “Chrysie,” I started, feeling another leftover tear roll down my cheek. I was not crying. I was not, damn it.

  “It’s ok,” she said. Her eyes were red instead of their usual bright blue.

  “Oh Hecate,” I said staring.

  “We need to get Chrysie something to eat and some more potion,” Felix said. All of us were kneeling inside the pentagram. What if we hadn’t been in one? What had I done? What had I risked by just blithely pressing forward?

  “What about the ghost?” Chrysie asked.

  I hadn’t even thought of it. I stared towards the shadows where it had been anchored and saw it was empty. I had no idea of that was a good thing or a bad thing. I had no idea what I had done. I was such a fool.

  “Is that the sun?” Chrysie asked.

  I gasped and looked around. The shadows between the trees was still dark, but the black of the night’s sky had brightened to that weird gray of early, early dawn.

  “How long were we out?” Felix asked.

  But I was sure I hadn’t passed out. I had just lain there, racked in pain, and thought it had felt like forever. I hadn’t expected that so much time was actually passing.

  “We need to get your friend,” Chrysie said. It took me long time to realize she meant Saffron. Gods.

  “We need to take care of you, Chrys,” Felix said. “You need potions and food.”

  “And rest,” I added. “We’ll just have to be late.”

  I pressed my lips together at the thought. The very last person I wanted to be late for was Saffron. But it couldn’t be helped. I broke the power line on the pentacle and stepped into the trees, feeling with my supernatural senses. It was empty. I was sure.

  I met Felix’s gaze and mouthed, “I’m so sorry.”

  He just nodded. and then wrapped Chrysie’s arm around his shoulders to bring her home. Normally, Felix felt like a dreadlocked version of Shaggy from Scooby-Doo. Right this minute, he felt like a hero. I was such an idiot. Such a stupid, self-absorbed, over-confident fool. And I’d put people I cared very much about at terrible risk.

  “I’m sorry,” I said again.

  “It’s ok,” Felix said.

  “It was stupid,” I said again.

  “Yep,” Felix agreed. “But we’re all stupid sometimes.”

  “Like you with Monica,” Chrysie said and then started giggling. I couldn’t help but join in. Even Felix laughed after a minute. It was music. Chrysie’s laugh. A perfect song.

  CHAPTER THREE

  “Hi,” I tried and failed to say brightly to Saffron as she stepped into the wagon. Our car was an ancient, 1952 Mercury station wagon. It was pine green with wood paneling. It was both awesome and horrible. We bought it from an old lady right after we’d moved into Hallow House, but Felix had been slowly working on it with both real mechanical skills and magic. Which meant it purred and had amazing gas mileage. It smelled like the old lady, one step from death, something to the effect of old roses and mold.

  Saffron was probably in her late twenties or early thirties. I couldn’t really tell. She scared the pants off of me. Today she was wearing a pinstripe skirt suit with pointy-toed shoes that made me think she could and maybe would kill me with her heels. She had long black hair up in one of those fancy buns and pretty green eyes. She was, in fact, gorgeous if you could get past the fear.

  “What happened?” Saffron asked.

  I started to lie about things coming up since I was so dang late. The truth was I’d grilled Chrysie three steaks with mushrooms and onions before leaving, but Saffron cut me off.

  “Don’t lie, Rue. You can choose not to answer.”

  Well that made me feel like a big jerk. I reminded myself that Hazel had sent Saffron and Hazel would not have done that if she didn’t trust Saffron. This was a conversation I had with myself at least a dozen times since I realized she was coming. And I had to remind myself that my mother walking warily around Saffron didn’t mean Saffron was evil. It could just mean that my mother knew Saffron was a real challenge. And maybe more ruthless than Autumn Jones. Which was saying something.

  I didn’t say anything for a long time. It wasn’t awkward though. It was like Saffron got it. Or maybe she was just used to other witches being wary of her. Well shiz. That made me feel bad. I was soft. Or maybe, I was just off because of what had happened with the ghost and Chrysie and Felix and how I might have almost killed us.

  Either way, I described to Saffron what happened, hoping I wasn’t being a fool by trusting her.

  “That wasn’t very smart,” she said.

  I swallowed so I didn’t snap at her. She was still Saffron Ives, daughter of the coven leader of one of the darkest covens in the U.S. You didn’t just…mouth off to her.

  “I know,” I admitted.

  “I might have done the same,” she said offhandedly. She kept her gaze out the window as she added, “It’s important, as witches with incredible power, to do what you can for others. To think of those who are weaker and help them. Otherwise, we too easily become true monsters.”

  I paused for a long time. She knew I knew where she was from. She had to know that I’d be putting the backstory to her statement. And yet she’d said it. I had to admit that I admired her for it.

  “Rue,” she said softly, “I…”

  I glanced over when she paused.

  She took a breath turning to face me and said, “That doesn’t sound like necromancy to me.”

  “Are you a necromancer?”

  “No,” she said very clearly. “But I am very well trained in dark magic.”

  * * * * *

  “She said what?” Felix was sitting on the end of my bed. Chrysie was curled up in my pillows sipping her fourth or fifth glass of cocoa.

  “She said it sounded like dark magic not shady necromancers.”

  “Well son of a…” Felix started but Chrysie interrupted.

  “What do we do about that?”

  I stared at them as they stared, expectantly at me.

  “Nothing,” I said. “Nothing at all. We’re not keepers or the Presidium.”

  “You heard what Saffron said,” Felix said flatly. His gaze was fixed on mine. I frowned at him. He frowned back at me.

  “You mean the Spiderman quote?” Chrysie asked.

  “What?” I glanced between them.

  They both gave me baffled looks and then started laughing at me.

  “What?” I might have sounded like a spoiled three-year-old.

  “You haven’t seen any of the Spiderman movies?”

  I shook my head. I didn’t really watch movies. Or do much of anything but witchcraft.

  “Oh my gods, Rue!” Chrysie stood, sat, and then to Felix, “We have to fix her.”

  “But first,” Felix said more carefully. “The ghost.”

  “Or whatever that was,” I said. And…really…it hadn’t seem much like the other ghosts I’d seen. What had it been?

  “The quote though,” Chrysie said. “With great power comes great responsibility. There is a bad witch out there hurting ghosts. Those are people. They might be dead, but so am I. We can’t just let that go.”

  “We could call Monica and those types.”

  “No!” Chrysie and I snapped at Felix.

  “Look, Finny and the team of keeper wannabes are not EVER an option. Do you get me? I can’t stand Finny. There is zero chance I am calling him. Damn it. You jinxed me. Damn it, Felix. Do you feel that? Gods! Gods! Just call him now and get it over with. Or something. I’m out.” I flung myself towards my bathroom.

  “I can’t,” Felix said and there was a laugh in his voice.

  “Why are you laughing?” I was breathing anger. I wouldn’t have been surprised if fire were coming from my mouth or nose.

  “Well the jinx wasn’t for me. It was for you.”

  “No,” I shouted. “No! Not EVER!”

  But there was that falling sense of surety. I would call Finn fo
r help. DAMN IT! I picked up the nearest something and threw it at Felix. He rolled off the bed to dodge, laughing so hard, he was hiccuping between bellows of laughter. Which had Chrysie giggling with tears and all.

  “Shut it,” I sort of whimpered. “Just shut it.”

  Chrysie crossed the room, but it wasn’t a dance and it made me feel so very sad. She almost lumbered, but she handed me her cocoa and said, “I think you need this more than me.”

  “No, I don’t.” I moped as I took it and sipped. It was so very good.

  “I mean,” she said softly with so much laughter in her voice, “He is gorgeous.”

  “No, he’s not,” Felix and I protested together.

  “He’s too…stalwart. He’s like a statue. You can’t like someone like him.”

  “I don’t,” I agreed. “He’s a dumbhead of stupid, manhandler, jerkness.”

  “That’s a very grown up way of saying it,” Felix said.

  “Shut up,” I countered with the precision of a grade schooler.

  “But what do we do about the ghost?” Chrysie asked softly. The laughter was gone from her voice, and she was so very sad as she said it.

  Gods. Monsters. Hecate’s fiery boobs and eyes. Why me?

  “I don’t know,” I said. I sounded as tired as I felt.

  “Could we ask Saffron?” Chrysie asked me tentatively as if I had a clue.

  I shrugged in reply and lay down where I was. I stared up at the ceiling which had been painted here in the passage from the bedroom to the bathroom and dressing rooms. Yes rooms. But, the ceiling over my bed was covered in fabric with this blue stuff that went all the way to a sort of round border in the middle of the room, over my bed. Where the skylight was. My sister described it as a princess suite. I suspected that princesses of poorer countries would have room for jealousy if they could see these rooms. They contained a private library, an office, and a work room for spells. I also had several closets, a dressing room, and a bathroom with a tub you could swim in.

  Martha, my house, kept the water in the tub hot and perfumed. The shower was big enough for several people to shower together. Not that anyone ever did shower with me. There was this bench in the shower that you could sit on if you were too tired to stand and shower, I guessed.

  What was so stupid about this house was that I had just found a doorway at the back of the bathroom that was built into the wall. It lead into a private steam room. I mean…one, a private steam room. That was a huge jaw-dropper. And two, I hadn’t even realized it was there for months!. That’s how luxurious the rooms were. I had been, admittedly, stupid stressed out. In fact, the only reason I think I found it was that Martha showed it to me.My house was layered in so many spells and so much magic and awareness that it seemed the house had a personality of its own, that is why I named her Martha..

  I hadn’t even showed Chrysie or Felix. It was just too much. I mean, Martha had an orangery with a garden that pretty much maintained and grew itself. There was a constant bowl of fresh things from our gardens. In fact, if I was right, Martha had started growing a freaking avocado tree back there. And it was coming along…way too quickly.

  We’d just found a pool in the basement last week. It was this big-shaped thing with roman facades along the sides that made it feel and look like it had been pulled from some roman villa. The tiling along the bottom of the pool had patterns and was gorgeous. There was even statuary. But it also had a slide and a diving board that seemed to just work with it even though it was from another era.

  What I am trying to say is that Martha—my house—the house of the Hallow heir, that had been closed for years, was ridiculous. I had known from the outside that it was a mansion. I had expected it to be a really big place where lots of people could live. It had closed itself down after my mother left, or she had closed it. Who knew with my mother? But Martha had opened for me when I’d knocked. And she wasn’t just big. She had surrounded me in luxury so ridiculous I didn’t even know how to handle it besides kind of ignoring it.

  “What if we did?” Felix asked. “Just asked Saffron what to do?”

  “I think…” I didn’t know why they were asking me. I wasn’t the leader. I was one of a trio of friends. I wasn’t a keeper. I didn’t have superpowers. We were, all of us, supernaturals. And yet they were expecting me to take the lead. Or so it it felt.

  “I don’t know what to do. Or who to call. I don’t know who to trust.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Should we call your mom?” Chrysie asked. We’d moved to the kitchen and were making cookies. Chrysie, thankfully, knew how to do that since Felix and I were hopeless at baking. But we could and did eat the cookie dough and scoop some onto the trays.

  “I don’t trust her,” I said softly.

  The room was quiet in the way that was heavy and weighty and too-meaningful. And then Felix swallowed and said, “What about Dr. Hallow?”

  “I don’t trust him,” I said.

  “And,” Chrysie added as she changed the trays in the ovens for the ones Felix and I had filled with dough. “If he knows what to do or how to answer the question…then I don’t trust him either.”

  Felix made a face. And then said for our benefit, “I don’t think Monica or Finn could help. They’re necromancers.”

  “There’s the obvious choice upstairs, taking a shower,” Chrysie said as she started to eat a too-hot cookie. I couldn’t answer since I was trying to breath air to cool the mouthful of cookie I’d already eaten.

  “What about your coven leader?” Felix suggested as he waved his cookie around to cool it. He had made the better of the cookie-eating choices.

  I shrugged, set my phone on the counter, pushed Hazel’s name, and then put it on speaker. We told Hazel together why we were calling and what happened.

  “And?” Hazel asked as we finished.

  We looked at each other and then I said, “We don’t know what to do.”

  “Why are you assuming you have to do anything?” Her voice was toneless and gave none of her thoughts away.

  “Because it’s wrong,” Chrysie said.

  Felix added, “Because we can’t do nothing.”

  “Because…” I finished lamely.

  “Because you can’t let it go?”

  “Yes,” we answered together.

  “Hmmm,” Hazel said before added, “You do not disappoint me, Rue Hallow.”

  It warmed me more than could say to hear that from her.

  “A coven leader,” she said, “must take care of not just her coven. But of the magic that happens where they practice. Covens who ignore dark magic, or taking advantage of normal humans, or unethical use of magic are weakened. When covens care for their territory and their people, both witch and human are empowered by the energy of those they serve. Do you understand?”

  “No,” Chrysie said without shame.

  “The power of the Sage Island Coven comes from where, Rue?”

  I thought about it before I answered, “From Sage Island.”

  “And if Sage Island did not trust its witches? Or if it were desolate?”

  My head tilted as I thought back to the coven rituals we did. The times that we’d cleansed the island. Or the time that Hazel had two of our own witches help find a murderer and remove the taint of that shed blood.

  “We wouldn’t be as powerful.”

  “Exactly.”

  “We’re not a coven,” I said. “This isn’t our territory. And there are lots of covens here.”

  “True that there are lots of covens there. And you’d have to coexist with those covens. But I suggest that the three of you examine each other and decide if you are a coven. Because you sound like one to me.”

  We looked at each other and back at the phone.

  “We still don’t know what to do about the dark magic,” I said, setting aside the idea of the three of us as a coven.

  “Saffron knows?” Hazel’s voice was business again. I noticed the change and realized she’d been in te
aching mode a minute ago.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “Then Saffron will take care of the dark witch.”

  * * * * *

  “I don’t like it,” Felix said as we made our way to Jessie.

  “Being a coven?” Chrysie asked, sounding sad.

  “What’s wrong with you?” I asked, ignoring Felix.

  “I’m not a witch. I can’t be part of the club.”

  “Of course you can,” Felix said, softly slugging her in the shoulder.

  “You probably can’t lead any spells,” I said. “But I don't’ see why you can’t be part of them.”

  A bit of spring came back to her step at that and she grinned without saying a word.

  “What don’t you like?” Chrysie asked Felix.

  “I don’t like leaving it to Saffron. We don’t know her. We don’t know what she’ll do or if we’ll be comfortable with it.”

  “We can’t go after a dark witch, Felix. We don’t have that skill set.”

  “You have your arsenal.”

  “And you saw what happened when I used it. We’re lucky to be alive.”

  “I just don’t like it.”

  Damn it, I thought. Damn it. This was the kind of stuff that made you end up being a freaking keeper and having to do things like risk your life.

  “We could join another coven,” Chrysie said, sounding sad again. Only a coven we made would let her in. We all knew it.

  “Can you honestly see Rue letting anyone else tell her what to do?” Felix asked.

  Chrysie giggled at the thought.

  “She’s like a wolf. Some other pack comes into town and suddenly she’s all bristling and mean.”

  “Rude,” I said.

  “But so true,” Chrysie laughed.

  “Shut up,” I said, grateful to have reached the college library, so I could escape. I ran up the steps ignoring the magic laid into the building and down the hall towards Jessie’s desk. Jessie was one of my few other friends.

  Our normal human friend, Cyrus was with her.

  “Save me,” I plead as I dropped into a chair across from Jessie’s desk.