Page 22 of Death and Do-Overs

I couldn’t hear what he said to her, but her frown deepened.

“Yes, it’s too late. I think? Let me ask.” Then she put her hand over the bottom of her phone. “You absorbed Nie’s head, right?I should have asked what information you’d gleaned on the car ride instead of going on and on about my imagination.”

I hadn’t minded the conversation. If anything, I was grateful she hadn’t asked about what I had or hadn’t done with the head in my bag.

Rose looked at me expectantly.

I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. “I didn’t touch her. She’s….”

Slowly, reluctantly, I opened the messenger bag for Rose to see.

Nie’s dead eyes stared up at the sky, and as I stared into the cloudy gray, a pang of some unnamed, unpleasant emotion swirled in my stomach. I didn’t want to name it, or feel it.

A second later, something impossible happened. It happened so fast, I wasn’t sure if it was real or if I’d imagined it.

Nie blinked.

CHAPTER 6

MAR

Rose grabbed my wrist with a grip so crushing I thought she may be trying to juice me. The pain was instantaneous and intense. She led me across the train station lobby in quick strides. I had no choice but to follow or get dragged across the tile.

As we entered the bathroom, Rose released me and bent down to check for feet under the stall doors. There was a startled look in her chestnut eyes. I didn’t know if it was caused by shock over Nie’s continued existence, Nie’s blink, or over something Andrew had told her over the phone. If I were to guess, I’d say her sudden fretting was due to a combination of factors, though she hadn’t confirmed anything through words.

I was certainly curious why Andrew had called, but Rose still seemed to be on the phone with him as she scoured the bathroom, so I likely wouldn’t have to wait long to hear about it.

I lifted the sleeve of my coat and stared at the white marks lingering on my skin where Rose’s fingers had been. It would most definitely bruise. Rose likely didn’t realize her own strength.

“All clear,” she said. Then she hurried back over and locked the bathroom door.

I set my bag gently on the counter next to the sinks and carefully lowered the sides of the canvas in such a way that there was no chance I’d accidentally touch Nie during the process.

Rose set her phone down on the counter beside Nie and said, “Okay, Andrew, you’re on speaker.”

“Marnie, please tell me you havenotyet absorbed the head.” Andrew’s voice was taught with tension.

His tone mademetense.

“I haven’t. Nie is here,” I told him.

A nerve twitched on the side of Nie’s face, pulling her right cheek and eye.

My breath caught in my throat as I absorbed the reality of the situation. I hadn’t imagined it before—outside by the ticket booth, Nie really had blinked. Elation left me lightheaded and lighthearted.

The twitches continued, animating a wrinkle of Nie’s nose, then a lift of her left brow. Nie’s eyes blinked out of unison and with such force it seemed like she was attempting to suffocate dust mites between her lids.

Wendy’s lych magic had actually worked, like a time-release capsule.

“The head is winking,” Rose told Andrew. “It’s…unsettling.”

As a general rule, winking could never be anything but unsettling.

“Wendy’s reanimation succeeded?” Andrew let out a breath. “Nie, can you hear me?”

The entire left side of Nie’s face contracted then released.

“Either she’s trying to tell us something wordlessly, or her nervous system is going haywire,” Rose said.

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