Page 42 of Ghost Walk
“It’ll work. I know it will work.” He wasn’t sure what they would do if it didn’t work. Robert was going to get through the door very, very soon. “We donea have another idea, so this one is what we’re going with.”
“I can’tdothis.” She persisted in an increasingly panicked voice. “You’re not listening! I’m a normal person, Jamie! Normal people don’t do this kind of crap. And Ihatespells. Theyalwaysgo wrong. I can’tbelieveyou’re asking me to do this!” She began rubbing her temples hard enough to drill right through her skull. “Peacefulgreencornfields, peacefulgreencornfields, peacefulgreencornfields…”
“All I’m asking is for you to try! For me. Justtrythe spell. Please.” He would beg if he had to. “I’m scared, too. You have no fucking idea how scared I am, right now.”
Grace hesitated. Brown eyes flicked up to his, like those words might have actually gotten through to her.
“I can’t touch anything.” Jamie continued, seeing he had her attention. The girl had the heart of a savior. If she wouldn’t use magic for herself, she might use it to aid him. “You’ll have to protect yourself, because Ican’t help you.” Admitting that hurt worse than the rope around his neck. Grace deserved so much more than a ghost to aid her. “I’m sorry, my love. I am so fucking sorry. If I could, I would go out there and destroy that rat-bastard for you. I swear it. But it’s not possible. So,pleasetry this. I’m not sure what else to do to save you.”
Grace chewed her lower lip, studying his agonized face. “I guess I could try.” She finally said. “It won’t work, but I’ll try if you want me to.”
“I want you to try.” He assured her.
Robert hit the door hard enough, to shift the dresser a few centimeters across the hardwood floor. “I’ll show you what you’ve been missing, you icy bitch!”
Jamie stayed focused on Grace. “I want you to tryright now.” He stepped backwards, heading for the hallway. “I’m going out there and we’re going to try this, okay?”
She bobbed her head, but she still looked doubtful.
Jamie would take what he could get. “Good.” He prepared to phase through the wall. “Just wait for my signal.”
“Jamie?”
He turned back to her.
“When this doesn’t work, it won’t be your fault. Whatever happens, you tried your hardest to help me. Don’t blame yourself.”
His jaw ticked. “It’sgoingto work, Grace. Just this once, try to have a bit of optimism.” He ducked through the wall, without giving her a chance to respond.
Robert somehow managed to look hungover and drunk at the same time. Dressed in a suit he’d clearly slept in, his bloodshot eyes glittered in bleary malice as he tried to kick down the door to Grace’s bedroom.
Jamie hated the man more than the cowards who hanged him. If he could’ve wrapped his hands around Robert’sthroat, he would’ve popped his skull off like a cork from a bottle.
“Miserable son of a bitch.” He instinctively tilted his head, cracking his neck the way he used to before he went into battle. “Ready, love?” He called to Grace.
“This is a bad plan.” She shouted through the door, just in case he hadn’t understood her reservations the first six times. “Valley-Forge-in-wintertime-with-no-shoes bad.”
Robert hesitated, thinking she was talking to him. “What?”
Jamie ignored the idiot. “You are always focusing on the negative, lass. Even a bad plan is better than no plan a’tall.”
“I’m pretty sure that isn’t true. There are a lot of non-plans that would’ve beenwaaaybetter that this idea.”
“What are you talking about?” Robert demanded. “Have you lost your goddamn mind?”
“Oh shut up, Robert!” Grace snapped. “Mind your own business!”
Jamie nearly grinned at her incensed tone. How could he have ever thought this girl was weak-spirited? “On the count of three, now.” He moved behind Robert, calculating the line-of-sight. “He’s standing at about ten o’clock, right in front of that hideous painting of the donkey you apparently commissioned from an untalented kindergartener.”
“It’s ahorseand I rescued it from a flea market, actually.”
“Not even the fleas would have that thing about, lass.” Jamie held up his thumb, beginning the countdown. “One.”
“I hate, hate,hatethis plan, Jamie.”
Robert looked behind him and then up at the ceiling, still trying to figure out who she was speaking to. “Who the hell is Jamie?”
“I’mJamie.” Jamie snarled at him. “The man sheactuallybelongs to.” He extended his index finger and prayed like hell. “Two!”
