Page 58 of Death and Do-Overs

“I don’t work for The Library,” Levi said, without missing a beat. “Did you and your friend have any luck finding your…Nie?”

He’d given me the denial I’d been looking for. Surprising.

I said, “We did find Nie.”

“I hope she’s all right,” Levi said. “What happened to the kidnapper?”

“She’s not. She’s gone. As for the shadow creature who broke into our rooms and took Nie’s head—I have no idea.”

Well, I had some idea thanks to Nie’s memories.

“Unfortunate.” Levi’s gaze felt even heavier than it had before. “When you say Nie’s gone….”

“Poof. She died.” Mar absorbed Nie. Now I was Marnie again, whole. So why did I feel like some part of me was still missing?

Levi shifted his weight. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

I was, too. It sucked. If this magic was going to be a part of my life, if I was going to sometimes spawn a clone and then she’d die, I’d have to figure out a way to numb myself the way I could with everyone else in my life. I had to stop caring about the loss, change my perspective. I gained double the memories, double the experiences.

We were all me, so there was nothing gone, only gained.

Why were these elevator doors still not opening? Was this the world’s longest vertical ride, taking us down not only three floors, but to the center of the earth? Were we trapped, the car not moving up or down, only standing in limbo to prolong my discomfort?

“Where is your friend now?” Levi asked.

“Napping.”

“After the murder of your not-sister, should you be walking around Nevermore on your own?”

Probably not. “I’m inside the hotel. And I’m not alone. I’m with you. Plus, the same could be said for your own situation with your friend being missing.”

I also had the ability to clone myself, and Rose’s petrification potions in my pocket. What did Levi have? Was he planning to magically heal any assailants' wounds for them?

He shrugged. “Fair enough.”

“You said you were following a lead today. What lead?” I asked.

The elevator doors opened,finally.

Except the scene before us was not the lobby I’d expected, but a dark and dank expanse. Levi had taken us to the hotel’s basement. A single dim bulb illuminated the space.

As we stepped across the threshold, I asked, “Is your lead a monster who lives underground?”

“No.”

The clammy stone walls seemed to breathe, exhaling a chill that penetrated to the bone. Cobwebs clung to low-hanging beams. The packed dirt floor was uneven. From somewhere in the darkness came a mechanical hum, the scratchy scurrying of unseen creatures, and the echoing drip of a leaky pipe.

Levi narrowed his eyes and scanned the small room before us. “There’s blood down here.”

Blood? Again?

“Which are you—a bloodhound or a vampire?” I asked in jest, but not entirely.

“No.”

No? His expression was tight, perhaps concerned, but most definitely cold.

I placed my hand over the pocket in my bag that held Rose’s potions. “It wasn’t a yes or no question.”

---