Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Crane laughs softly. “I’m afraid I did,” he says. “But I knew what to do to fix you.”
I shift to the side so that I’m sitting on the road and Brom’s head is in my lap. He glances up at me, his eyes exhausted and bloodshot, and even though the feeling of the monster he becomes is fresh in my mind, I can’t help but want to keep him close, especially when he’s wounded. I run my fingers through his hair.
He frowns and lifts his head, twisting it around, wincing in pain as he does so, trying to get a better look at me. “Who did that to you?” he asks, his voice hoarse as he looks from the marks on my throat to whatever damage he did to my head. Unlike the rage that came from Crane, Brom’s expression crumbles in sorrow and shame.
“Did I do that to you?” he whispers.
I look up to meet Crane’s eyes, wondering what to say.
Crane clears his throat. “Brom, I don’t think I need to tell you this, nor do I think there’s an easy way to tell you this, but you’re possessed by a Hessian soldier.”
Brom puts his head back down in my lap and closes his eyes, a tear escaping. “How could I do that to you?” he ekes out, the pain in his words breaking me.
“You weren’t yourself,” I try to soothe him.
“The soldier is a retrieval ghost,” Crane goes on, getting to his feet. He wipes the dust off his trousers and starts to pace back and forth on the road. “Someone conjured him to bring you back, Brom. They used the spirit of the Hessian soldier, the headless horseman, to find you and possess you and physically bring you from wherever you were to Sleepy Hollow.” He pauses, his hands behind his back as he glances at us. “We don’t know who it was. Either your parents, perhaps Kat’s mother, or the coven. But I’m starting to doubt the reasoning was pure.”
I mull that over. Could my mother have conjured a spirit to bring Brom back? That does sound like something she’d do. But why not tell me?
Unless there’s a reason why she didn’t want me to know.
“And there’s another complication,” Crane adds, in teacher mode now. “The spirit should have left you. The Hessian decided to stay. He’s both tied to you in his spirit form and in your physical form.”
“Does that mean that if this is truly Brom right now, that the Hessian soldier is out there?” I ask, looking at the dark fields around us.
Crane shrugs. “I don’t know. Perhaps he’s coming here as we speak. Perhaps he’s waiting for the right moment to take over Brom again. He’s just beneath the surface, Brom. I can see him there. It’s like looking at a dark lake, ripples on the surface of something underneath.”
“You need to get him out of me,” Brom says in horror. “Please.”
“That’s exactly what we plan to do,” Crane says, stopping in front of us and gazing down at Brom. “There are a few rituals that the three of us can try that might just free you from him.”
“Well, we need to do them now,” I cry out, flooded with impatience.
“They aren’t that easy,” Crane says slowly. “They might take some…convincing to get everyone on board.”
“I’ll do anything,” I implore him.
He gives me a quick smile. “I have no doubt you will, sweet witch. But it’s Brom that may need convincing.”
Brom frowns. “I will do anything. I promise.”
Crane gives him a rueful smile. “You say that now,” he says. “But until you remember what I need you to remember, I’m not sure how easy this will be.”
“What do you need me to remember?”
Crane exhales, tilts his head as he holds Brom’s gaze. “I’m going to need you to remember me. And what I was to you. I need you to remember us, Abe.”
Chapter 32
Crane
Brom stares at me deeply and I know he’s trying to remember who I am, where we’ve met before. But every time it looks like he’s on the cusp of something, he freezes. He’s afraid. I know that fear. I know how debilitating it is. I’d seen that same fear in New York City before he’d submit to me.
He swallows hard and looks up at Kat, who is still cradling his head in her lap. A moment passes between them, something instinctual, a product of two people who have known each other a long time, but instead of feeling jealous of their relationship, I just feel love for them instead.
God Almighty, am I in love with both of them? My pretty boy and my sweet witch?
The realization is terrifying.
But I don’t run from it. I embrace the fear.
Because it’s magic.
“Don’t be afraid,” I tell Brom. “Don’t block it.”
“I tried to tell you,” Kat says softly, stroking the side of his face. “I tried to tell you that you knew each other in New York.”