Page 6 of Aberrant Monsters
Icarried my bowl of chili out of the castle and across the grounds at the back of the building toward the black railings that separated the castle grounds from the cemetery beyond.
According to Uncle Fred, it was a family plot where generations of Veras were buried. My grandmother included.
My mother would have been buried here too and someday so would I. The grounds were sacred, set on a leyline of power, and the souls who’d opted to remain on the spirit realm rather than pass on to the unknown spent a lot of time hanging out here.
Nandi and I had spent hours in the cemetery as teens, conversing with the dead, learning about their lives. We’d made friends here, then Nandi had come into her abilities and the cemetery became a draining environment. They call her kind necromystics, humans with the sight and the ability to walk on the spirit realm. Necromystics are magnets for restless souls, chatty souls, any souls that want to reach out to them. Although Nandi developed shields to protect herself, the power of the leylines in the cemetery rendered those shields useless.
I knew she missed coming here as frequently as she used to, so I made sure to check in often for both of us.
I pushed open the gate and entered the hallowed space, weaving my way past mausoleums and headstones until I got to the crypt I wanted.
The gate was ajar, and I ducked in, allowing my eyes a moment to adjust to the gloom. A small table was pushed up against the wall and an oil lamp perched on top of a coffin. I set my bowl down and lit the lamp before taking a seat at the table. There was a box beneath it loaded with games. I pulled it out and set up the chess board.
I was halfway through my chili when the temperature dropped and Jacob appeared in the seat opposite me. A wizened old man with bushy eyebrows and an epic glower when he chose to use it, Jacob was one of my closest friends and one hundred percent within my circle of trust. He’d taken a little time to warm to me, but once he’d thawed, he’d had the best tales from a bygone era. Battles, romance, and dragons. There were always dragons. Yeah, my great-great-great-grandfather was an interesting man and one of my favorite people. The fact that he happened to be dead didn’t matter.
“You’re late,” he huffed.
“Oh?” I plastered an innocent look on my face. “Didn’t we say nine-thirty?”
He glowered at me. “I may be dead, young lady, but my memory is as sharp as a tack. We saideight-thirty.”
I smiled sweetly at him. “My bad. Are you going to stay mad at me, or shall we play?”
The corners of his mouth lifted, and his eyes brightened. “Stuff and nonsense, you know I can’t stay mad at you.”
He made his move and I countered.
“So, why were you late?” he asked.
Seeing blood on my shirtwouldhave freaked Jacob out—he worried too much about me—butI didn’t like to lie to him either.
“I got into an altercation with one of my client’s husbands.”
He looked up at me sharply. “Was Telarion with you?”
“Not initially, but he turned up and…dealt with the problem.”
“Good.”
“You sound like Uncle Fred.”
“Your Uncle Fred is an overcareful fool. Your Uncle Fred is why you haven’t had any adventures.”
“I think being infected with an eldritch monster is adventure enough, don’t you?”
He sighed and studied me almost pityingly. “My dear child, you stand at the cusp of something amazing, something life-changing.”
I licked my spoon clean. “Uh-huh, so you keep saying. It would help if you explained a little more.”
“That’s not how it works, August, and you know it.”
Nandi had explained that spirits existed in the past, the present, and the future at the same time, a fact that drove some of them insane and twisted them into what humans called poltergeists. It was why those who decided not to pass over made a choice, settling on the past or rooting themselves in the present. But there were a handful, like Jacob, who although tethered to the present could glimpse the future.
I sat forward, needing to know. “What’s meant to happen to me? Go on, tell me.”
He smiled indulgently. “Now that, my child, is entirely up to you. All I will say is that a life lived without risk is no life at all.”
He made his move. “Checkmate.”
