Page 16 of Devils and the Dead
My chest felt tight. I rubbed it, thinking it was a particularly bad time for me to dwell on all the things that burdened my heart.
I had no love-of-my-life, when all my sisters were happily coupled. I had creepy magic that no one really understood, and that weirded out even my own family. Dad had left right after I was born, abandoning us all. Mom ditched us soon after. Even Grandma had died when I was young, leaving Cassie to raise me.
It’s like I was some sort of pariah, like I didn’t belong even here in Accident whereeveryonebelonged. It didn’t help that Cameron, my last boyfriend, had up and vanished on me, not even bothering to return my calls. I’d thought we were in love, but clearly I’d been wrong.
Looking back, there had probably been red flags that my unconscious mind had picked up on. We’d dated for months, but I’d never introduced him to my family. Heck, I’d never even mentioned him to my family. Deep down, I must have known something was wrong.
Everything I did seemed to fall apart. My parents. My love life. Maude.
I needed to help Clinton and the werewolves, and the cursed elves. Freeing them would give me a sense of purpose, a feeling of legitimacy. I’d be able to take my place as one of the guardian witches of this town, even though I had icky magic. Even though I would probably spend my life alone, surrounded by animated dead rodents. Even though I was convinced I was the reason our parents had walked out on us. Maybe if I helped the werewolves I’d feel as if I belonged here, as if I were truly part of this family and not some misfortune, some freak of nature.
“I don’t remember Mom ever mentioning the elves.” Cassie broke into my reverie with her words. “Grandma mentioned them a couple of times, but nothing specific. They’d left when I was really young. I got the impression from what Grandma said that they kept to themselves—even more so than the werewolves. When they vanished, everyone just assumed they returned to their homeland.”
“Maybe there’s something in the journals?” I suggested.
The attic was filled with the spell books and journals of our ancestor witches. Going through them wouldn’t be a quick task, but perhaps we could narrow our search to a specific timeframe and only need to read a dozen journals instead of all of them.
“If you want to go through a few today, you’re welcome to go on up to the attic,” Cassie replied. “Or you can wait until tomorrow after dinner and we’ll help you.”
Seven witches’ hands would make quicker work of it. “Tomorrow is fine. Maybe I’ll come early for dinner to look at them. Do you think the fairies in town might know anything about the elves?”
Some of our fairy residents had been here for over a century. They were distant kin to the elves. Surely a few of them would at least know what, or who, might have caused the curse.
“Ask Mirabelle,” Cassie suggested. “She’s lived in Accident on and off since Temperance Perkins founded the town. If anyone knows about the elves, it will be her.”
Mirabelle owned Mirabelle’s Jewelry. I made a note to swing by the store tomorrow as well.
“And talk to Sylvie,” Cassie added. “She knows more about curses than any of us.”
Our sister Sylvie was gifted with the magic of charms as well as curses, although she never discussed the darker side of her abilities. She might be able to give me some insight on what sort of curse had trapped the elves on Savior Mountain, and what I might be able to do to break it.
“I’ll do that,” I promised. “And thanks for your help. I want to free these spirits as soon as possible. The werewolves are completely freaked out. They’re making noises about ditching the compound and rejoining Dallas’s pack if I can’t get the ghosts to leave the Mountain.”
Cassie grimaced. “Then we’d be right back where we started.”
We’d have one werewolf pack with opposing philosophies and increasing tension. Fights. War. And all the effort the folks of Accident had made to support the new splinter pack and peace among the wolves would be for nothing.
“I’ve got this,” I told her, feeling the pressure and worried that I absolutely did not have this. It wasn’t the first time. And that thought brought me to the second reason I was here to see Cassie.
“There’s…a problem I need to talk to you about.” I motioned for Cassie to sit. Her eyes narrowed as she sank into one of the kitchen chairs. “Remember when those demons attacked Addy and me at that bonfire party?”
She nodded, the air crackling with magic. Sparks lit her brown eyes, telling me my sister was a hair away from lighting the kitchen table on fire. Cassie had been furious that demons had attacked two of her family. She’d gone straight to Lucien, her main squeeze and the son of Lucifer himself, and informed him that the next time a denizen of hell attacked one of her sisters, she was going to personally incinerate him. I didn’t know if regular fire could harm a demon, but I was pretty sure Cassie’s magic was more like a nuclear crematorium than the flames I’d roasted marshmallows over this past summer. Either way, Lucien had taken Cassie’s threat seriously and gone to his father.
Lucifer did what Lucifer wanted, regardless of what his heir demanded, but I got the impression he approved of this union between his son and the most powerful Perkins witch in centuries, and that he was hoping for some future grandbabies. So he’d intervened, and between his influence and some negotiating between the demons, the issue was resolved without anyone being set on fire.
Cassie took a deep breath and dialed down the magic a bit. “Sorry about that. What were you saying about the demons that attacked you and Addy?”
I also took a deep breath, feeling as if I were about to confess something to a parent—because that’s pretty much what Cassie was to me. A mother and father all rolled up into one, even though she’d still been a teenager herself when she’d been thrust into that role.
“I animated some dead to defend us.” I winced, then amended my statement. “Well, actually I didn’t animate them. I needed them to think for themselves because I was too busy to actively pilot all of them and fight off demons myself.”
Cassie nodded. “Zombies. I don’t normally approve, but it was absolutely justified in this instance. There’s no harm in raising zombie insects, rodents, and birds when you’re defending yourself and your sister.”
Ugh, I so didn’t want to tell her this, but I needed help. And although Nash might come through for me, I couldn’t continue to keep this from Cassie.
“It wasn’t just zombie insects, rodents, and birds,” I confessed. “There was a graveyard on the farm. I raised the human dead to help us.”
Cassie’s eyes widened. “Zombie…people?”
