Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
I open my mouth to tell Ethan what I need to do but stop because he won’t hear me. There’s no time to waste. Sitting back, I release the flames in my hands and close my eyes, whispering the incantation to cross from this realm into theirs. My body slumps to the side right as another shadow rises from the ground behind Ethan. The last thing I see is him slashing his knife through the air, and then everything goes still and gray.
Pushing up, I look around the quiet graveyard, heart in my throat. Holy. Shit. There are spirits everywhere. Maybe going into the spirit world in a graveyard wasn’t the best idea. Inhaling, I push up and ball my fists.
“Hey,” I start, feeling a hundred eyes on me. “I’m not here to hurt anyone else. But this asshole.” I point to the ground. I’m standing over Stuart’s grave. “He murdered innocent women and children and I have to stop him.” My heart races and I can hear it beating in my ears as I look around. Most of these spirits are residual hauntings, just a flicker of who they used to be. They didn’t want to accept death for one reason or another, and tried attaching to their physical bodies.
Now they’re stuck here.
“I can help anyone who wants it,” I go on. “When it comes to unfinished business, I’m your gal and I have a good track record, not to brag or anything.” A few spirits start to fade from view. “I don’t really know how ghost-to-ghost communication works, but whatever he told you is a lie. It’s time for you to rest. To go home.”
A spirit of a woman so far faded she can’t even remember what she looks like starts to move toward me. She’s wearing a dress, and her hair is swept back. But her face is hazy, like someone put a blur filter over her. I can feel that she wants to say something, but suddenly I feel warmth on my shoulder.
Inhaling deep, I sit up. I’m not in the spirit realm anymore, and Ethan’s hand is on my shoulder, gently shaking me.
“Anora?” he rushes out, voice panicked. I jerk my head up and see Rene and Keith standing a few feet from us, no longer being attacked by ghosts. I didn’t think I got through to anyone, but I think they listened. And now this is my chance.
I plant my hands on the ground right over the middle of Stuart’s grave. “Ignis!” I shout and use all the strength I have to send fire down through the ground into the casket. Flames rise out of both tunnels and dark smoke fills the sky. A dark, shadowy hand reaches up from the ground and I narrow my eyes, pushing harder to burn everything in the ground.
Flames travel up from the ground and Stuart’s hand burns and shrivels into nothing, drifting to ashes on the ground. I fall back and Ethan catches me. Panting, I look up at my friends. I listen and reach out feeling no sense of that evil man with a harmless name. It is cool, calm and slightly smoky around us now.
“It’s over.” I say breathlessly. “He’s gone and this time, he’s not coming back.”
“Those two look like they’re on the world’s most awkward first date,” Keith whispers, gazing over at a couple sitting in a corner booth. We went to Steak n’ Shake after leaving the graveyard. It’s the only place open late at night and burning corpses works up an appetite.
We filled in the tunnels the best we could and patched up the grass. I used magic to scatter the salt, and we uncovered the bird cam. Julia said she’d keep the same loop going for another hour and then will cut it back to the live feed.
It’s done. We did it and Stuart Brown won’t kill another person ever again.
“If someone took me here at two AM for my first date, I’d skip the awkwardness and go right for pissed off,” Rene scoffs.
“Ohh, I think he’s a vampire.” I lean in, taking another drink of iced tea.
“Should we order him a muffin to be sure?” Ethan nudges me and I laugh.
“A muffin?” Rene and Keith ask at the same time.
“It’s an inside joke.” I look into Ethan’s eyes, heart all fluttery. “When we first met I was a little tipsy.”
“A little?” Ethan laughs. “You were drunk.”
I make a face. “Fine. I was drunk. And he took me to get coffee and food to sober up but he didn’t order anything himself so I made him eat a bite of my muffin to prove he was human. It made sense at the time.”
Rene laughs. “Oh, yeah. You told me that before. That’ll be a story for the grandkids someday.”
Ethan takes my hand in his. “It’ll be a fun one to tell.”