A Ghost and a Hard Place (A Reaper Witch Mystery Book 3)

by Elle Adams

  “No, they haven’t,” she said. “I had to apologise to Ed for the trouble, but I hope he can put the unpleasant incident behind him now.”

  Hmm. “I hope so, but if those kids have a book on summoning ghosts, I don’t see them giving up anytime soon. Can’t you ask for it back?”

  “I rather hoped they’d come back in person so we could have another chat,” she said. “Isn’t that girl who lives at the inn their classmate?”

  “Carey?” I said. “Yes. She’s my friend, and those kids are bullying her. That’s why they developed this sudden interest in ghosts.”

  “Well, that’s just not on.” Her expression turned aggrieved. “I can call their parents—”

  “Best not to,” I added hastily. “She doesn’t want trouble, but I think their parents need to know they’re practising amateur necromancy in their free time. I found them trespassing in an old house, trying to summon another ghost, yesterday.”

  “I think that’s more of a matter for the police to handle,” she said.

  “Guess so.” I stepped back towards the door. “Thanks for the help.”

  I left the library, stepping over the inexplicable barrier of herbs at the door. Now what? I hadn’t counted on all my theories turning to dust in the space of an hour, but maybe Drew would have some new ideas when we met up again later.

  I’d hardly taken three steps when Mart flew up to me, his eyes wide. “Maura, I need your help.”

  “With what?” I glanced behind me, but the door had closed on Debora, and I was fairly sure she couldn’t hear me talking to a ghost.

  “That witch, Faith Murray, is back at the inn,” he said. “I think she’s casting a spell.”

  “Faith Murray?” I echoed. “Didn’t you tell Carey or Allie?”

  “They can’t see me,” he said. “I tried everything—rattling the cutlery, levitating things, the works. They might have guessed it was me but not that I was trying to give them a warning.”

  “Dammit.” I broke into a run. Mart flew alongside me, his expression unusually sombre. I hadn’t thought of the possibility that he’d be unable to warn the others when there was trouble at the inn and I wasn’t around. “Guess that answers the question of who put those herbs outside the library.”

  I sprinted across the bridge and towards the inn, spotting a tall figure wearing a pointed hat standing on the riverbank with a pile of herbs around her feet.

  At once, I pulled out my wand and cast a freezing spell. Faith’s entire body froze on the spot, giving me the chance to run over and kick her pile of herbs over the bank into the river. When she unfroze, she fastened a glare on me. “What are you doing?”

  “Getting rid of your spell,” I said. “I’m not going to let you cast illegal magic next to the inn. There are innocent people in there—living and dead.”

  “Exactly!” Mart chipped in, his words provoking no reaction from her. Faith couldn’t see or hear him, then.

  “I wasn’t casting an illegal spell.” She scooted over to the riverbank, but what remained of her spell had already been washed away. “You have no idea what’s loose in this town, do you?”

  I lowered my wand. “What are you talking about?”

  She gave me a hostile stare. “I was trying to protect this town, but you insist on poking your nose into everything, don’t you?”

  I frowned. “Protect it from what? You mean the Reaper…?”

  She scoffed loudly. “I give up. Deal with it yourself if you think you know best.”

  “Wait—” I walked after her as she marched across the bridge at speed, but with a wave of her wand, she vanished in a flash of light.

  An instant later, the door to the inn opened behind me, and Allie walked out. “What in the world is going on?”

  I spun around and faced Allie. “Faith Murray was casting a spell outside the inn.”

  “A spirit-banishing spell,” said Mart, drifting over to me. “Don’t forget that bit.”

  “Where?” said Allie.

  I pointed to the dismantled pile of herbs, or what was left of it. “What the hell is her problem?”

  Allie strode over to the riverbank. “Where’d she go?”

  “She used a spell to transport herself away.” I walked up to her side. “My brother came to warn me about her. He said he tried to tell you, but you couldn’t see or hear him.”

  “He’s the one who was levitating things around the restaurant?” she said. “I’d better go back in.”

  “Sure,” I said. “I’ll have another look around and see if she dropped any evidence.”

  A nagging voice in my head told me I ought to follow Faith Murray back to the library, but what if that wasn’t where she’d gone? If she’d cast one spell, it might well not be the first time she’d done it, either. She’d left those herbs all around the library, too…

  “Call the detective, too,” Allie called to me as she walked away.

  “He’s going to message me later,” I said. “He’s checking Ed James’s alibi for when Eric’s ghost vanished, but I guess it wasn’t him after all. I’ll send him after Faith Murray instead. Drew has the authority to arrest her, while I don’t.”

  I fired off a message to him, telling him to keep an eye out for Faith Murray, while Allie returned to the inn. Then I shuffled farther down the riverbank, keeping both eyes out for trouble.

  “Over there!” Mart pointed to my left, where another pile of herbs lay scattered around. “She set up another spell. Maybe in case you dismantled the first one.”

  “What’s her issue?” I strode over and crouched to examine the spell. I’d never been top of the class at memorising the uses for herbs with magical properties when I’d been at school, but I wasn’t certain the spell resembled a banishment charm. Whatever the case, I’d rather not leave it outside the inn, so I dismantled the heap of herbs and conjured up a bag to scoop them into.

  Mart yelled a warning from behind me. I spun on my heel, clutching the bag. “What is it?”

  A growl sounded, and a giant beast leapt down the riverbank at me. I pulled shadows around myself by instinct, and the beast flew past me. It landed with more litheness than I’d expect from a beast of that size and veered around to face me again. Its jaws dropped open, revealing slavering teeth, and released a terrifying roar. The sound echoed in my mind, and my limbs froze at the sight of its fearsome shaggy form.

  What in the world is that thing?

  The creature made another lunge at me. Once again, I dodged to the side, and the giant monster sailed over my head, towards Mart’s floating form. He yelped and flew higher, and the beast’s snapping teeth missed him by inches.

  My heart gave a sickening lurch. The creature wasn’t aiming at me but at Mart instead. I know what it is.

  But it was impossible. Soul-eating hellbeasts didn’t just fall out of the sky. They were summoned. I hadn’t known anyone else in town had the skills to summon one of those things, much less wanted to. Worse, I didn’t have any weapons except my wand. The beast was stronger than any ghost, so my Reaper skills wouldn’t be able to bring it down, but I wouldn’t let it hurt my brother.

  I pulled out my wand as the beast leapt at Mart again and cast a free-framing spell. The beast shook it off as though it was nothing. Uh-oh.

  “Help!” Mart shouted.

  Teeth bared, the beast did another flying leap into the air. Shadows folded around my feet as I stepped up and grabbed its flank from behind. I might not have a scythe, but my link to the afterlife ought to enable me to banish it.

  I hadn’t got into a full-on magical fight in a long time, though, and my grip broke almost at once. The beast snarled at me, but I stood my ground and conjured shadows to my hands. “Stay away from my brother.”

  The beast turned pitted eyes toward me, recognising what I was. Come on, then.

  With a leap, it tackled me, knocking me backwards. I used the shadows to break my fall and then threw a wave of shadow in front of me like a shield. Pain reverberated through m
e when the beast slammed into my improvised shield, but I refused to let go.

  “Go away.” I used the shadows to give the beast a firm shove, my strength wavering.

  When the beast shoved back, I landed on my rear on the riverbank. Biting back a wince, I scrambled for my wand and instead picked up the bag of herbs I’d dropped.

  As the beast leaned over me, I waved the bag of herbs in its face. At once, it recoiled. Then it shrank away, disappearing into the distance in several quick bounds.

  I flopped against the bank, the world blurring before my eyes. With difficulty, I forced myself to lift my head to make sure the beast had definitely vanished.

  “It’s gone.” Mart’s voice was faint.

  “Good.” I scrambled up the riverbank, flopping onto my front as the herbs fell from my grip. “Man, I don’t miss this part of fighting the dead.”

  “I’m the one who nearly died,” he said. “I nearly got my soul eaten. It was very traumatising.”

  “Mm.” I hardly had the strength to lift my head. “I guess we know the reason those two ghosts disappeared, then.”

  Nobody had banished them after all. Something else entirely was going on. Something I could hardly begin to grasp, with my head spinning and my strength fading by the second.

  “And I think we also know why our friendly Reaper is in town,” said Mart. “I wonder if he’ll be happy that we found what he’s spent the last few days searching for.”

  “I think he’ll be thrilled,” I mumbled.

  That was when I passed out.

  13

  I came back to alertness when I heard voices nearby. It took me a few long, confused minutes to figure out who they belonged to. Drew… and Allie. My body felt weighted, cold, not at all helped by the dampness of the riverbank.

  “Maura!” Drew said. “Are you okay?”

  I managed to shove myself into a sitting position. “Yeah.”

  “I don’t think you are.” Concern laced his voice, and he walked over to me with his hand outstretched. “Let me help you up.”

  The hellbeast’s attack had drained me, and I was in no shape to argue, so I let him pull me to my feet. I swayed a little, but I managed to stay upright.

  He didn’t let go of my hand. “Maura, can you tell me what happened back there?”

  “My fault,” I slurred. “Bit off more than I could chew.”

  Or rather, the beast had almost bitten a chunk out of me. Well, it was more aimed at the ghosts than at me. I’m not appetising enough for it. A weak chuckle escaped me, and Drew looked at me with a faint trace of alarm in his expression.

  “Was it that witch’s spell?” asked Allie. “Did it hurt you?”

  “Who?” Drew asked.

  “Faith Murray,” said Allie. “She was setting up some kind of spell outside the inn. Maura’s brother fetched her because I couldn’t hear him trying to warn me, but Maura said she was going to deal with it herself.”

  “Whereabouts is Faith Murray now?” Drew asked in a low, dangerous voice that made the hairs rise on my arms and my limbs quiver for reasons not entirely to do with my exhaustion.

  “Gone,” I mumbled. “It wasn’t… wasn’t her.”

  The words tangled together in my mouth. There was far more to say, but the hellbeast… that was a prime example of classified information the Reaper Council didn’t want the public to find out about. No wonder Shelton had been so reluctant to tell me what he was doing here. The question was, had the creature run here of its own accord and decided to stick around due to the number of tasty souls for it to snack on, or had someone sent it directly to the inn for a reason?

  “C’mon, we’ll get inside.” Drew gently tugged on my hand and helped me walk to the lobby, which I appreciated. I had to lean on him more than I’d have preferred, but it was that or collapse into an undignified heap again.

  “Thanks,” I mumbled. “Drained me. Need more practise.”

  “What did you mean, it wasn’t her?” Drew caught my arm as I swayed, and the bag of herbs caught on my feet, making me stumble. “What’s this?”

  “Faith’s herbs,” I said with difficulty. “I dismantled her spell.”

  “I’ll take it.” Allie stepped in and picked up the bag. “Drew, get Maura up to her room.”

  I mumbled a protest, but the detective was already steering me towards the stairs leading to the first-floor corridor. I didn’t play the invalid well, but my strength was waning even as my head whirled with thoughts.

  The beast couldn’t have got here by itself. Someone had summoned it here… someone who must have known there was a Reaper in town. Had I been the target, or had it escaped into the area and the Reaper had chased it down?

  “Which is your room?” Drew asked, indicating the corridor ahead.

  “This one.” I fumbled in my pocket for my key and managed to unlock the right door. Luckily, the room was fairly neat, since I didn’t have many possessions aside from a broomstick and a suitcase of clothes, so I didn’t have to worry about the detective seeing anything I didn’t want him to.

  I collapsed face-first onto the bed, cursing my spinning head for making it impossible to appreciate that Drew was in my room.

  “Typical,” I muttered into the pillow.

  “Will you be okay?” Drew asked from somewhere near my shoulder.

  “Sure,” I slurred. “Just need to sleep.”

  “Just as long as you aren’t going to drop dead on me,” he said. “You had me worried for a moment there.”

  I’m worried, too. The only person in town aside from me with the necessary skills to summon a hellbeast was old Harold. I highly doubted he’d been the summoner, so we were looking at an unknown entity that wasn’t one of the people on our suspect list.

  “Is she okay?” Allie said from outside the room.

  “I think so,” said Drew.

  I lifted my head and saw Mart hovering nearby, his expression unusually sober. My thoughts stopped on the old Reaper. Old Harold surely wouldn’t be wandering around alone if he knew there was a hellbeast loose in town, but who knew, maybe Shelton hadn’t told him. He’d been dismissive enough when he’d mentioned the old Reaper to make me think he’d skipped over that step entirely. After all, Harold wasn’t an active Reaper either, so maybe Shelton had assumed it wasn’t worth mentioning to him.

  “Mart,” I mumbled.

  “Yes?” said my brother.

  “Can you tell our grumpy Reaper friend what we’re dealing with here?” I asked. “Old Harold… needs to know.”

  “Of course I will.”

  I didn’t hear another word from the others before everything went black.

  I slept like the dead. Not in a literal sense, of course. Mart’s singing woke me up to prove that point, and by the time I shook off my tiredness, it came as a relief to find that I could stand without falling over.

  The restaurant was fairly quiet that morning, affording me the chance to think over the events of the previous day. Coffee and breakfast revived the rest of my energy levels, and I texted Drew telling him that I’d explain everything when we saw one another again. Part of me regretted not saying more yesterday, but I’d been in no fit state to do so, not when I was still reeling from the encounter with the hellbeast myself.

  Yet the question remained of who’d summoned the beast and why. Had someone wanted to get rid of all the ghosts in town in one go? Or had this been their inefficient method of disposing of the evidence of Eric and Lara’s double murder after all? Surely not, because nobody could control a beast like that, not even a Reaper. Even Harold might not know it was in the area. Or maybe he did if Mart had warned him last night. Besides, living people weren’t the targets. Hellbeasts fed on the dead. There was no reason to worry the living.

  Except…

  Drew’s face came to mind. While the hellbeast was no threat to him or anyone else in town, I’d worried him yesterday, and I owed him an explanation. Carey too. Allie had told me she’d been asking about me last night, th
ough she must have opted to have a lie-in today, since she hadn’t shown her face in the restaurant yet.

  Besides, if I went after the creature again… I had to tell the others first. So they wouldn’t follow me.

  I stayed in the restaurant after the breakfast tables had been cleared away, helping Allie with miscellaneous tasks. She didn’t push for an explanation about yesterday’s events, at least not at first.

  “Maura,” she said to me when I’d run out of tasks and was cleaning a glass for the second time. “Those herbs you found yesterday…”

  “Faith Murray’s spell?” I said. “It was a banishment spell she was casting, wasn’t it?”

  “Actually… no, it wasn’t,” she said. “The concoction did contain herbs intended to repel spirits and other similar beings, but it looked more like a protective charm than a banishment.”

  “Faith was casting a protective spell on the place?” Had she been trying to keep the hellbeast away? It fitted with her bizarre comments, but how had she known it was here to begin with? I’d been so sure she’d been working against us, and it wasn’t as if we actually knew one another. Why would she go out of her way to protect the inn against dark monsters from the depths of hell? It made zero sense.

  “It seems so.” Allie glanced over at the door. “Ah… there’s Drew.”

  The detective pushed open the door and walked in to join us. Allie moved back, giving us space, for which I was grateful.

  “Are you okay?” he said. “I’m surprised you’re walking around after yesterday. You looked completely wiped out.”

  “I did say I just needed some sleep to be good as new,” I said. “Really, I’m fine. Back to normal.”

  “Good.” He smiled. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

  I took in a breath. “I found out what Shelton the Reaper’s classified mission is.”

  He tilted his head. “Oh?”

  “There’s… there’s a hellbeast loose in the area.”

  He blinked. “Am I supposed to know what that is?”

  “No,” I said. “Just trying to figure out how to explain something that non-Reapers are most definitely not supposed to know about. If Shelton finds out I told you, he’ll be furious, and he might even set the council on both of us. Not to mention poor old Harold.”