Page 83 of Strike It Witch

“Okay, the same amount of terrifying as you then. Either way, it’s a no from me.”

He harrumphed, cleared his throat. “I will pay you far more than you deserve for two hours and ten minutes worth of work. Two of those hours will be spent in your car listening to yourhorrendousmusic.” He always used a spooky slow drawl, but he’d really leaned into a spot-on impersonation of Vincent Price with the last part. “It will be an advantageous payday for ten minutes of discomfort.”

“Hey. I have excellent taste in music.” And how did he know about it anyway?

He grumbled something in a language I didn’t know, but from his tone it wasn’t a compliment.

“Can you guarantee the ghoul won’t feed on me?”

“Yes.”

Did I trust he could ensure my safety? No. But, if he could…

Still no. Ghouls were terrifying. Death by ghoul was excruciating. It was an all-around terrible idea.

Because I knew he wouldn’t let this go, I decided to postpone turning him down. I had other things to deal with right now.

“Can we discuss this later, Sexton? I’m summoning one of your brethren tonight, and I need to prep the parking lot.”

“My brethren? Tell me what you’re doing and for whom,” he said, sharply. “Leave nothing out.”

Why not? It wasn’t like Sexton was going to alert the coven. He didn’t care for them, either. Demons hated covens.

“There’s this grimoire…” I explained the situation.

“Use caution when delving into my worlds, witch,” he said when I was finished. “It would not be good for you to end up on the inside of a salt circle.”

This from the guy who recently asked me to steal some demon-grown belladonna from Limbo. “I know. That’s why I always pour two. Just in case.”

“With certain of us, you could pour two hundred circles, and it wouldn’t be enough protection.” After dropping thatfrightening bit of trivia, he said, “My artifact can be retrieved once this chore of yours is complete. The funds will be in your account when you need them. I will await your call.”

“Wait,” I yelped. Because I didn’t want to piss him off, I added, “Please, Sexton.Don’t hang up. I have a question about the note you left for me.”

“What is it?”

“All it said wasvita. Is there anything else?”

“Unfortunately, I have nothing more to impart. When I conversed with your soil—no, that’s incorrect.” He let out another long sigh, but this one was less winter and more autumn. Gusty and cool as opposed to blustery. “I was unable to speak with the earth in your park. I was only able to hear it.”

I stared harder at the newly green patch of grass in Mom’s yard. “What did it say?”

“What I told you.Vita. It repeated the phrase over and over.”

“What does it mean?”

“Life, of course.”

“Yes, but I don’t understand what itmeans.” I peered at the front door over my shoulder. “I’ve searched for life in the soil. I’ve walked the park every day since Mom died, pulled up the tiles in the garden room, crawled under my trailer, and even searched inside Mom’s house for anything that might help.”

“And there was nothing there? No signs of life?”

“There are signs when I cast the protection spell, but they’re weak. I haven’t seen the soil here react in any meaningful way to anything—at least, nothing I’ve done. It did react to someone else today.”

I told him about the soil glowing on the mage’s hands, which led to me telling him about Joon possibly purchasing the park.

“No. You must not sell the park to this mage. Your mother would be saddened.”

I decided to walk right past the comment about Mom. I didn’t have it in me to argue with him about it.

---