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

by Elle Adams

  At the Riverside Inn, I found Allie pacing outside the front doors of the restaurant.

  “Have you seen Carey?” she asked me. “I think she went out, but I didn’t see her.”

  “She went out alone?” Right, it was Sunday, so she didn’t have school. “I haven’t seen her around.”

  Not that I’d been looking. A shiver of unease went down my spine.

  “She’s not answering my messages, either,” she added.

  “I’ll ask Mart.” I walked into the lobby, scanning the area for my brother. “Mart?”

  My brother appeared out of thin air. “Back already?”

  “Have you seen Carey?” I asked. “Allie said she went out alone.”

  “I saw her heading downstairs, yeah,” he said. “I assumed she was meeting you.”

  “I didn’t know.” My heartbeat quickened. “I think… damn. Those kids from the academy aren’t plotting another ghost-hunting mission, are they?”

  “How should I know?” he said. “Want me to go looking?”

  “No!” I said. “I mean… can you please go back to your room and stay in there? I think that beast will come back to the inn, and we intend to catch it before it does.”

  “You’d better.” He spoke to my retreating back as I ran outside to join Allie again.

  “Mart said he saw her going out alone. She’s not going after those kids again, is she?”

  “I hope not.” Her expression shadowed. “Were they planning another trip to that old house?”

  “You’d think they’d have learned their lesson after last time.”

  Okay, nothing had actually happened the last time, though given that I now knew about the hellbeast in town, they’d had a lucky escape. More to the point, if Carey had followed them, or even if they’d forced her to go with them… no, I couldn’t risk Carey’s safety. And I wouldn’t ask Allie to take the risk either. Or Drew.

  I returned outside and walked over to Shelton. “Change of plans. I have to go somewhere else first, but you and Drew can stay here and wait for the beast.”

  “What do you mean by that?” he said. “I thought you wanted to lure the creature into your trap.”

  “My friend Carey might be in trouble,” I explained. “She’s been dealing with these kids at the academy… they’re the ones who broke into the old house where I found you. They’re obsessed with hunting for ghosts, and I think she might have followed them again.”

  “They were at the site of the beast’s summoning?” He swore under his breath. “Remind me never to listen to your suggestions again.”

  “That’s enough,” Drew said sternly. “Maura, do you think there’s a good chance they ran into the beast?”

  “If they’re back at that old house?” I said. “That’s where it was summoned. I don’t know if it’s likely to return, but I’d say there’s a fair chance they’re up to no good. I can set up some wards on this place to make sure the beast doesn’t come here while I’m gone, but you two—”

  “I’m coming with you,” Drew interjected. “If there’s any chance of you running into danger, then I won’t stay behind.”

  I should have known he’d be obstinate. “Drew—”

  “You can’t do a thing against that beast,” said Shelton. “Either of you. You’d need a scythe to even touch it.”

  “I’ll take my chances,” I said. “I have to help Carey.”

  15

  Ignoring Shelton’s annoyed huff, I took off at a run, heading across the bridge and towards the house I now knew had been the summoning site for the beasts. I should have guessed those kids would return at the first opportunity, but if they’d put Carey in danger, they’d get more than a stern talking-to next time around. Maybe I could ask Drew to lock them in a cell, like Faith Murray, to shake some sense into them. That could come later, though, once I knew Carey was safe from harm.

  I skidded to a halt in front of the old house, hearing voices behind the door. I should have known.

  “Can you wait outside?” I asked Drew. “I’ll see if they summoned anything before turfing them out.”

  He didn’t look thrilled, but he said, “Fine, but if I hear anything that concerns me, I’m coming in.”

  Kicking the door inward, I entered and made straight for the living room. Cris and her friends gathered in a huddle… and Carey was with them, too, looking pale and terrified.

  “Hey!” I said. “What the hell are you doing?”

  Cris glanced at me. “Go away. We don’t want you here.”

  “Tough,” I said. “Why’d you bring Carey with you, then?”

  “She’s the one who followed us,” said Cris. “She’s always getting in our way, so we decided to let her come and see it for herself.”

  “See what?” I said. “What are you doing here? If you want a ghost, there’s a few dozen other possible places in town for you to go looking where you won’t run the risk of the house collapsing on top of you. Why did you pick this one?”

  “We’re not looking for ghosts, moron,” Cris said.

  I raised a brow. “Then what’re you looking for, mildew?”

  “Do you like pretending to be stupid?” she responded. “I don’t know how you stand those ghosts being around all the time, but I’ve had enough of it.”

  “What did you expect from a haunted house, then?” I tried to catch Carey’s eye, but she’d dropped her gaze. “Also, you can’t even see ghosts, can you?”

  “This house isn’t haunted,” Cris proclaimed. “That’s why we picked it. Anyway, soon, nowhere else in town will be either.”

  Incredulity bled through me. “Are you implying you want to banish every ghost in town to get back at Carey, who never did anything to harm you in her life?”

  “What’s it to you?” said Cris. “You’re the one who spends her free time hanging out with the biggest loser in our class. We’re going to get rid of the ghosts, and that’ll be that.”

  “And did you make that decision yourself?” I said. “Was it your idea? Or did someone else put you up to this?”

  They couldn’t have concocted this scheme themselves, surely. No matter how confident they might be, they didn’t truly know what they were messing with.

  I took a step forward when Cris didn’t answer, and my feet caught on a pile of herbs. A summoning spell. They’d set up a new one—which meant they’d had the intention of summoning even more hellbeasts in order to finish the job and wipe out the town’s ghosts.

  A growl sounded, raising the hairs on my arms. I arched a brow at Cris and Ann. “Please tell me you didn’t use that summoning spell.”

  “So what if I did?” said Cris. “Bet you’ve done the same before.”

  “It’s not a ghost you summoned,” I said. “And no, I haven’t summoned up a soul-eating beast from the depths of hell. I’d like to think I had a bit more sense than that even when I was your age.”

  The growling noise deepened, and a large, shaggy form slipped into the room, followed by another. Oh, boy. Three hellbeasts circled the room, their jaws slavering. My body tensed, shadows rising into my hands. I hadn’t even been able to take on one of those things alone, let alone three. Why didn’t I borrow old Harold’s scythe on the way here? Or ask for his help? Yet even a Reaper in their prime would have difficulty handling three beasts at once.

  Cris’s smirk wavered. “I didn’t know it was still in here.”

  “You can’t have thought you had that thing under your control, can you?” I said. “Even Reapers can’t control hellbeasts.”

  “You can’t?” said Ann.

  “She’s lying,” said Cris.

  “She’s really not.” Carey tried to edge towards me, but the beasts continued to prowl around their group, and just because the kids were alive didn’t mean the creatures couldn’t cause them any harm.

  “Call them off!” Ann yelped.

  “Who, me?” I said. “I’m not the one who summoned them.”

  “I thought Reapers could control the dead!
” Cris tried to run, but one of the beasts got in the way. Its jaws opened wide, and I didn’t stop to think. I stepped through the shadows and emerged in front of the beast. Its heavy body slammed into me, and I staggered back under the creature’s weight. Shadows formed a shield between me and the beast, but the other two walked free, prowling around the others. If there’d been any ghosts in here, they’d be screwed, but in the absence of any other targets, those kids might be in real trouble.

  Then the door flew open behind me, and Drew sprinted into the room. No. Drew, stay back!

  The beasts all turned his way, distracted by the noise, and I shouted a warning as one of them ran at him—only to miss its target entirely.

  Drew had vanished, and a wolf had appeared in his place. He roared, leaping at the creature, and the pair of them rolled around on the floor, pawing at each other. I watched in mute horror, not daring to intervene in case I made things worse. His motion had knocked the other two beasts off balance, but they soon recovered, growling at the detective. Dammit, I couldn’t watch him get hurt, either.

  I grabbed my wand and cast a quick spell. A cloud of darkness fell over the two remaining beasts, and while they couldn’t be harmed by magic, I’d rendered them temporarily blind. One skidded to a halt, pawing around in search of a target. The other stopped pacing, growling under its breath, while Drew got the upper hand on the third, pinning it down. With all three beasts occupied, I turned to the cowering students.

  “Get out!” I told them. “Go on, run, all of you. If you see one of the Reapers, send them my way. Otherwise, I’d advise you to run before it’s too late.”

  Without the help of a genuine Reaper, all I could do was stall the beasts until backup arrived. Not much of a plan, but I refused to let anyone else get hurt.

  Carey grabbed Cris’s arm and tugged her towards the door, while Ann and the others unfroze, fleeing the room. Two of the beasts began to prowl after them, so I recast the darkness spell before running in front of the exit myself. Drew still held the third beast down, and my heart twisted inside my chest. We could only stall them for so long.

  The darkness spell vanished. I raised my wand to cast it again, and all three beasts raised their heads as though listening for something I couldn’t hear. Then, without warning, the three beasts vanished as though drawn into the shadows themselves. Drew rolled to a halt, the creature he’d pinned down suddenly absent. Silence fell over the house, while I spun on my heel to look for the missing hellbeasts. They’d utterly vanished from the room.

  “What in the world was that?” Had someone called them away? I ran for the door and saw the academy students huddled together in a pack as they made their way down the road, but the beasts were nowhere to be seen.

  Behind me, Drew shifted into human form again… completely naked. Heat rose up my neck, and my mind would have plunged into the gutter if not for the direness of the situation.

  “Where’d they go?” he asked.

  “I have no idea,” I admitted, my gaze darting around as he made zero effort to cover himself. “Maybe whoever put those kids up to this. I don’t think they decided to summon that beast for the hell of it.”

  I wished he’d put some clothes on. It was sort of difficult to focus on planning our next move with him standing nude in the doorway without any self-consciousness whatsoever. Werewolves. Honestly.

  “Do you have a theory on who it might be?” he asked.

  “I do.” I kept my eyes on his face, with difficulty. “We need to go to the library, but you might want to find some clothes first.”

  He shot me a grin. “I’ll shift again. I haven’t got to let my wolf side go wild like that for a while.”

  And without further ado, he shifted into wolf form and bounded out of the house and down the road, past the startled-looking students.

  “Hold on,” I called after him. “Unless I get my hands on a scythe, we can’t deal with those creatures alone.”

  Not without one or both Reapers, at any rate. Drew, however, didn’t slow, forcing me to quicken my pace to keep him within my sight.

  “Where are you going?” Carey yelled after me.

  “To find the perpetrator,” I said. “Can you go back to the inn? If you see those creatures again, run and hide somewhere safe. Don’t try to fight them.”

  I picked up speed and caught up with Drew outside the library. The room within was dark, and my shoulders tensed when Drew pawed his way through the door, growling under his breath. I walked in behind him, but I didn’t see any sign of the beasts anywhere.

  “Wait,” I hissed at him. “Stay by the door. I’ll have a look around.”

  Debora Lowe popped up from behind the counter. “You again?”

  “It was you, wasn’t it?” I said. “Why, though? Seriously, I’m lost. Why’d you summon those monsters, and why on earth did you set those kids up to take the fall? What were you trying to hide?”

  Her expression flattened as she realised that I’d found her out. “Something had to be done.”

  “About what?” I said. “The ghosts? You can’t see them.”

  “You can,” she said. “Besides, it doesn’t matter to me whether the ghosts stay or leave. I just want you gone.”

  So that was it. She didn’t want a Reaper in town. But for what reason? “Did you send the beast after the ghosts at the inn on purpose?”

  “No,” she said. “Not at first, though it was a handy distraction to keep you busy. I hoped your taste for meddling would bring you face to face with the beast sooner, but I underestimated your tenacity.”

  My heart thudded against my ribcage. Where had the beasts disappeared to if not here? “What were you trying to hide? Must be pretty dire if you went as far as to summon something from the depths of hell to be rid of me.”

  She took out her wand in answer. So that was how it was going to be, huh.

  “Did you ever do the same to old Harold?” I withdrew my own wand, and Drew growled at my side. “I guess not, since he never wanted to remember the floods.”

  “If I’d known what you were capable of, I’d have dealt with you a long time ago.” She waved her wand, but I summoned up a wall of shadow to absorb her spell.

  “You’re assuming you’re a match for me.” I let the shadows drop, raising my own wand. “You didn’t call the other Reaper. Someone else did. Faith Murray, right? Did she know what you were up to?”

  “Took her long enough to figure it out,” she said. “She was easy to handle.”

  Had she been the one to see to Faith’s arrest? She’d told those kids to cast doubt on her actions, for sure… and she was devious enough that I suspected I knew exactly who’d influenced her.

  “Did Mina Devlin—” I cut off midsentence as a bookshelf lifted into the air and flew at me, forcing me to jump into the shadows to dodge it. The shelf crashed to the ground, and Debora raised her wand, but Drew pounced on her in his wolf form and tackled the wand out of her hand before she finished casting her spell. She fell behind the desk, and he pressed a paw to her mouth to muffle her yell.

  “Where are those beasts?” I demanded. “Where did you send them?”

  “Let me go!” she squeaked.

  Drew made a growling noise that meant no.

  “All right,” I said. “I’ll go and fetch Shelton, and we’ll track them down.”

  Drew growled again as though to warn me not to go back to the inn alone.

  “You restrain her,” I said to him. “Make sure she’s behind bars so she can’t summon anything else. Then come and find me. Okay?”

  He didn’t look pleased in the slightest, but someone had to restrain her, and I couldn’t do that and hunt the beasts down at the same time.

  Taking a step back from the desk, I pictured Shelton’s face and leapt through the shadows. I landed beside him on the bridge over the river—and found myself face to face with a hellbeast. I scuttled backwards, avoiding its teeth by a hair’s breadth.

  “You!” Shelton bellowed, swinging
the scythe and cursing when the beast dodged him. “You didn’t mention there were three of them. Were you the one who sent them after me?”

  “Of course not,” I shot back, conjuring my own shadows to my hands. “It’s not like they’d have listened to me, besides. I’m not the summoner.”

  Too bad they were a force to be reckoned with even with their summoner restrained. The shadows deepened, revealing the door that led into the true afterlife. To get rid of the beasts for good, I’d have to shove them through it—which would be far easier if I had a weapon. Shelton swung the scythe at one of the beasts while I fought hand to hand with the other, having to move fast to avoid its sharp teeth.

  The scythe struck one of the beasts, sending it flying backwards. I ran after it, giving the beast a firm shove that sent it the rest of the way through the gaping door to the afterlife. One down, two to go. Maybe we could do this.

  The second beast chose that moment to pounce on the Reaper, sending him toppling off the bridge and towards the tumultuous waters of the river.

  I swore explosively, throwing myself to the side to avoid the beast’s swiping claws. Shadows filled the space below the bridge, suggesting the Reaper had been able to break his own fall, but his weapon lay out of reach.

  I gave a wild lunge for the scythe, my hands closing around the end, and swung it upward. The second creature fell on me then howled in pain when the scythe made contact. I was acutely aware of how close I was to falling off the bridge myself as I fended it off with wild strikes. Damn, I was out of shape. I had no choice but to keep on fighting it off, though, and I couldn’t deny part of me had missed the sensation of wielding a proper weapon against the dark denizens of the afterlife. I hadn’t missed the tedious parts of being a Reaper, but this? This felt good.

  Another swipe of the scythe struck the beast, and I let the shadows spread from my feet, revealing the afterworld. The door loomed behind the beast, and with one final swipe, I sent the hellbeast crashing through into the afterlife.