Page 20 of Midlife Demigod Unexpected

“There’s no point calling the demigods,” Mae shook her head. “We haven’t even given the Pentacle of Time a chance to fully develop. I think it’s only fair now the six of us are together that we try to clear out the problems happening in the cemetery.”

“The problem is,” I said, “we’ve got a demigod who wants the portal open and then we’ve got a whole lot of demigods who want the portal closed. Which one are you going to answer to?”

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” Mae said.

I looked down at the cemetery. I could hear the grumbling, moaning and high-pitched keening of the dead souls growing more and more restless by the day.

“Maybe it’s time I took a closer look,” I stood up, downed my Witch’s Brew, and placed the glass on the table. “Who’s with me?”

Chapter 15

Jag was instantly by my side the minute I stood up, even though I hadn’t even realized he’d been nearby. Then I realized most of the guys from the coven were out in the backyard.

“I want to go to the cemetery,” I said to Jag.

“I’ll go with you, but we should take some of them too,” Jag said. “They have a better idea of what’s going on in there.”

“Bianca and I will take you down there,” Mae said. “Jag is more than welcome to come.”

“We’ll want to look at all four quadrants,” Bianca pointed out. “The Celtic martyrs in the southwest corner were three daughters of the original Hayes who ran this district. She ran The Estate and set up the Pentacle of Time. Her daughters died during a big uproar in the cemetery. It’s probably why she set up the Pentacle of Time. Didn’t want to see anyone else have their children die.”

Urgh. I didn’t have kids, but I couldn’t imagine losing all three of them in some supernatural battle.

“There is also Fae Glen where the Fae are buried. Beyond that are the crypts that go into the cliff.” Kartika explained. “Then there’s the lion’s quadrant in the Northeast.”

“Okay,” I said tracking what was where. “Then that just leaves the southeast.”

“Don’t forget the lion,” Kartika said.

“There’s a lion statue, but what’s over here?” I asked, pointing toward the southeast corner of the cemetery.

“The last section is just kind of the swamp, in the southeast corner,” Mae said. “It catches the run-off from the mountains and has a soggy spot that is always pooling water. It’s not very good for dead bodies. A bunch of them sank into the marsh that has gotten worse recently.”

“Like a river?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

Mae and Bianca nodded and looked at me.

“We’re starting to connect the dots now,” Bianca said.

“We thought it was in a cavern down below.” Mae added. “It’s not the only place where Kartika has seen it before. She saw it under Lake Tahoe and then again when she was out in her bunker underneath the Pacific Ocean just off the coast. She saw it there, too. We were assuming it was somewhere by Undirheim.” Mae closed her eyes, leaned her head back, and took a deep breath.

I immediately felt empathy. The weight of the world rested on her shoulders. She was like every other middle-aged woman out there. Kids were grown, relationships over, and she was looking at getting a new lease of life. Unfortunately for us, the new lease of life came with a whole lot of baggage and burdens. Nothing, absolutely nothing, came easily and certainly not for free, especially not when you were middle-aged.

“We’re figuring this out together,” I said, reaching out my hand and gripping hers quickly and quietly. “It’s going to be OK.”

My life hadn’t exactly been difficult. I’d been given a means to be my own boss and pay my own way since I was twenty-one. I’d been able to stay in one place and live comfortably and never have anybody tell me what to do. I could take vacations when I wanted to where I wanted to, but I never felt like going anywhere. I was happy in Cougar Creek. This was my home.

It impressed me the others had moved here. They’d made an effort to come and see what it was like to live in Cougar Creek, even though none of them had any experience with the supernatural world. In that way I was different from all of them. I looked at Mae and smiled. “It’s all going to be fine,” I said. “We’ll figure this out together.”

When we got down to the entrance of the cemetery the sun was high and warm. I stood at the gate, listening to the keening of the zombies and watching the ground as it undulated.

“Are you sure that is safe?” I asked.

“Probably not,” Bianca said, walking past me and into the cemetery.

I hurried to catch up with her on the pathway, even though it was difficult to walk on the moving earth.

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