Sisters and Graves: A Rue Hallow Mystery (The Rue Hallow Mysteries Book 4)

by Amanda A. Allen

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Also by Amanda A. Allen

  Author’s Note

  Copyright

  Sisters & Graves

  By Amanda A. Allen

  Dedication

  Obvy this one had to be for you, Em.

  Love you sister

  Chapter 1

  My name is Rue Hallow and I’m the eldest of the eldest of the eldest of the Hallow line. That little trick of fate is important to far more people than I’d have ever expected, but it meant jack to my sister Branka.

  “Tell me what’s wrong,” I begged her for what felt like the hundredth time. We were sitting together at the massive farm table in the kitchen of my house, Martha. The light was pouring in, the radio was playing in the background, and except for the Fruit Loops and donuts—it could have been any morning of our lives.

  “I don’t want to get into it right now. Tell me about the dark witch again.”

  “No. You’ve been here two weeks, and you still haven’t said what is wrong with you.”

  “And the graves in the woods,” she said, ignoring me as she tossed her red curls. I tried not to let the way she flung her perfect hair around irritate me. I failed. If she even noticed the look on my face, it didn’t shut her up. “That’s some spooky sh—“

  I cut her off with my snapped, “No. What is going on?”

  “And your classes.”

  “No.”

  “And about that guy who has the hots for you and the nasty hair.”

  I paused on that one.

  “You know his name,” I said since we both knew he lived in the servants quarters of my house and was around all the time. The wench knew me too well. I bet she had me and Felix figured the moment she walked through the door.

  “Do you think I didn’t notice that you didn’t tell me about ‘Lixy,” Branka said, narrowing her eyes at me.

  My eyes narrowed back at her, but she just took a massive bite of her Fruit Loops and raised a brow. She was fourteen months younger and knew me better than I knew myself which meant that she was well aware how hard I wanted to punch her. That was probably why she started cackling like a crazed orangutan.

  The thing about Bran was despite the fact that she was curvy where I was willowy, under those curves, she was stronger than she looked. I, on the other hand, though not a weakling couldn’t win against her. Bran had been beating me in every altercation since we were toddlers. So instead of punching her as hard as she deserved, I dumped my bowl of cereal down the sink, grabbed my school bag, and left her behind. Laughing at me—like a jerk.

  * * * * *

  St. Angelus is both a town and a college. I’d gotten a full-ride scholarship there which is why I had traveled from one of the farthest parts of Washington State to New England. That scholarship and my mother were plenty of incentive. The town had ancient oaks, lush greenery, and had been settled by my ancestors who had also founded the college. They’d built my house, Martha, too. I suppose you could call it a mansion, but that felt weird. She was layered in spells, had something of a personality, and was my own in every way. She’d chosen me when I knocked on her gate and each day I was astounded by how lucky I was.

  Like my house, the college was one of those stone and brick places that oozed signs of power, money, and exclusivity. I’d been delighted when I arrived at school having no idea my scholarship was because of an accident of birth rather than my skill-set.

  It had been a rude awakening to realize that the real skills I had spent my life developing and pursuing meant nothing to this witch college. They were necromancers. I loved brewing potions and the traditional craft. But I’d been determined to push on which could also be described as not calling my mother for help. Except then I became a murder suspect and did call her. Before I’d even started my first classes, I’d faced off with a possessed necromancer who had killed generations of my family and I’d done it as a murder suspect. That madness was followed by having to deal with an evil necromancer that had been manipulated by the Hallow Family Council and a dark witch who kidnapped a little girl and my roommate. I had barely survived each time.

  At this rate, I thought, I’d be lucky to make it past Christmas. So recovering from my first few months of college had left me without a lot of sympathy for whatever Bran had been up to. Branka, my only sibling, pronounced Brawn-kah had shown up out of nowhere. She’d asked for help and then refused to expand, except it couldn’t be that bad. She was probably just fleeing our Mother since Bran had done something to cripple our mother’s magic. Once Mother got full use of her magic back, there was no way Bran wasn’t facing a nasty hex.

  Was I cold to find her hedging irritating? I hated feeling too much like an evil snake since I did not want to be my mother who was full reptile and partial super-villain. But Bran, I mean…she’d been at home. Nothing happened there that would make her need help. Especially help that made her need to cross the country. So what else could it possibly be? She’d probably hitchhiked her way across the country for refuge from Mother as though I could save Bran from Mother. I couldn’t. Both of us knew it—which did make my theory kind of shaky.

  I wanted to help her. She was my sister. But this wasn’t a good time for her to just be here screwing around. My roommate and cousin, Chrysie, had been kidnapped by that dark witch that had Bran so curious at the table. I had felt like it was my fault she'd been taken, and I had done everything possible to bring her back. But she'd still been damaged, she had barely gotten her hand back—yes the dark witch had removed it. Chrysie was recovering slowly. It made it hard for me to feel sorry for my sister no matter her reason for being here.

  “Hey,” I heard Bran call behind me and turned slowly. Bran and Chrysie were behind me, hurrying a bit to catch up as I headed towards the campus. Because I had to, I paused and waited for them. I’d have enjoyed a quiet walk to school where I didn’t have to worry about my cousin and be frustrated with my sister.

  Chrysie was eating a bag of pecans. She was awkwardly holding the bag in her bad hand and pretending like it wasn’t bothering her, but I knew Chrysie better than that. Magic might have given her back her hand, but it hadn’t made it easy. Bran was traipsing after Chrysie as if everything was normal.

  “You don’t have anything else to do but follow me to school?”

  “Nope,” Bran said cheerily. She tossed her red curls over her shoulder and shrugged at me. “I thought I’d visit the library.”

  I met her gaze and she gave me a mischievous grin that dared me to call her on that load of bull crap. I looked at Chrysie, but she didn’t realize how out of character that statement was for Bran. My attention was caught how Chrysie was sort of plodding along—she had lost her air of pixiness. It made me want to scream in frustration. What happened to my dancing, always on the tips of her toes friend? Oh, that’s right. A dark witch had kidnapped her.

  “Brawny,” I said flatly, “For the love of Hecate and Hestia combined, I don’t need you to lie to me about what you do. I’m not Mother. Do whatever you want. Try not to be too stupid.
”

  “Rude, I am going to the library. I read.”

  “They don’t have choose your own adventure there.”

  “Shut your face.”

  I grinned at her, and she grinned back. Then she punched me on the bicep.

  “You’re going to have to tell me eventually,” I said, shaking out my bicep. She stuck out her tongue and ran up the steps of the Quietus Building.

  Chrysie and I watched Bran throw herself up the steps two at a time and then looked at each other.

  “She makes me tired,” Chrysie said with the tiniest of smiles.

  I nodded and asked, “Did you take your potions?”

  “Yes Mum,” she answered and smiled for real. “I’m ok.”

  She was lying. She wasn’t, but maybe she believed her lies or maybe she just wanted me to feel better. Because I wanted her to feel better, I said, “Yeah you are.”

  “What do you think is going on with her,” Chrysie asked as we swung away from the Quietus Building to head towards our own classes.

  “I have no idea,” I said hardly believing myself, though it was true. “I don’t understand why she isn’t telling me.”

  At that thought, I texted Jessie to keep an eye on Bran. My coven mate and friend, she also worked at the library and could easily check in.

  “Give her time,” Chrysie suggested.

  “If we don’t figure it out, my mother is going to come get her. I can’t really believe that she hasn’t come already.”

  “Or even called. I feel like your Mom is an axe hanging over the door every time I open it.” Chrysie said and then winced and immediately apologized.

  She wasn’t wrong. My mother was a snake. Hers was a dream. Elspeth, Chrysie’s mom, been visiting non-stop since Chrysie had been taken. Her mom would drive 10 hours to visit us for an evening and then go home early the next morning. She’d brought Chrysie’s little sisters twice and her dad once. I was about over it. I wanted things to go back to my new normal, which was my mostly empty mansion filled with my coven who consisted of Chrysie, Felix, Jessie, and Cyrus. With just us, the house was so big it was more like we were people who lived alone until we wanted to spend time with someone else.

  “Bran is up to something,” I said. “She’s acting too weird to not be hiding something huge…as hard as that is to believe.”

  “Hmmm,” Chrysie said. She turned to go and stumbled, and I caught her. I wasn’t a slouch by any means, but before the dark witch, Chrysie has been one breath from flying. Now she trudged and tripped. “Ooops.”

  The word was so light, airy and intended to make her little faltering seem like no big deal. It was, however, a huge deal when you were a vampire. I let it go just as she wanted. We were so very good at lying to each other without saying a word—just like real family.

  Chapter 2

  “Are we going to talk about it?” Chrysie said while both of our gazes were fixed on our roommate, Felix. He was across the courtyard where he was eating with his girlfriend, Monica and Finn—the pseudo Keeper of the St. Angelus Thinning.

  “Hmmm?” I asked, pretending not to know what they were talking about and hoping playing idiot would work. It didn’t.

  “About how he kissed you?” Jessie took a large bite of her sandwich and then shrugged. “Felix loves you, Rue.”

  “Felix has a girlfriend,” I said clearly. “Who I have always hated. It isn’t love to make a move on a girl when you are with another.”

  “Monica is a real something,” Chrysie said, which was her way of laying down a slew of insults. I was eating a chicken salad sandwich. Jessie had a cubano. Chrysie had a triple cheeseburger, a large fry, a tuna salad sandwich, and two ice cream sandwiches. She was a vampire which required blood-based potions and a ridiculous number of calories to keep her well. She was also recovering from her kidnapping so….she was eating even more than normal.

  “What I am saying,” I interrupted, “Is that Felix and what happened are not something to be talked about when he has a girlfriend. Why don’t we talk about you and Cyrus? Are you sleeping together in Martha? Because I’m not sure she’s prepared for that kind of ew-ness.”

  Jessie blushed in a way that told me if she wasn’t sleeping with her boyfriend, she was close to crossing that line with Cyrus. I wouldn’t have thought of them together, but he was just genuinely kind and thoughtful. Anyone would love him given a chance. Hells, I loved him a little bit though more as a brother.

  “So your sister was digging through books about necromancy, ancient treasure, curses, beauty spells, shape shifters, vampires, and some of those romances they keep in the light reading section.”

  “Smooth transition,” Chrysie laughed as she finished her burger and started in on the tuna salad sandwich. “But I don’t know if we’re done talking about Felix.”

  Me and my two roomies were eating in the courtyard despite the cold. Felix was our other roomie. He was a Junior at St. Angelus College, Jessie was a Sophomore, Chrysie and I were Freshman. Despite the cold, the sun was high and felt so good on my face that I didn’t care about how my fingertips were going numb. I had my giant puffy jacket on to keep off the worst of the cold and I’d get an earl grey latte to bring to my next class.

  My guitar class was coming up which I loved more than I had ever expected. After that, I’d study for a few hours in the library, turn in my extra credit for Necromancy 101—I had missed too many classes, so extra credit was vital. I didn’t like practicing necromancy very much, so I wasn’t doing so great in my 101 class.

  I would end my day with my favorite part of college so far—Potions Club. Even with most of the Potions Club hating that I was a Hallow, I loved brewing with them, just because the other members loved brewing almost as much as me.

  “But what are you going to do about Felix?” Chrysie was trying to be kind as she asked, but she’d been bringing it up a lot lately. Maybe because she knew I was becoming more and more conflicted.

  “So Bran was just killing time in the library,” I said hastily.

  “Felix,” Chrysie and Jessie said together.

  “No. I’m going to close him out of my mind that way,” I told them since they wouldn’t let me avoid it. “He has a girlfriend. He is not free, and I am not going to make some sort of move on him.”

  “Hey,” Bran said, plopping down. “I assume from Rue’s blush you’re asking her about ‘Lixy? You can’t date ‘Lixy until he cuts his hair anyway cause ew and gross. Chrysie, I got you some pie.”

  My sister handed over the chocolate cream pie and then leaned back as she said, “Rue, this place makes my skin crawl. It’s all books and learning and snootiness. I can see why you love it, though.”

  I did love it. I had come here wanting to love it, fell in love, and then discovered so many things I hadn’t expected. But there was also something about this campus that spoke to my soul.

  “Something is missing with you guys,” Bran said. “You have the big spooky house. You guys need cats. A swarm of cats. I mean…are you witches or are you witches? This is witch school. You should have a toad, like Neville, Jessie.”

  Bran sounded hungry. She hadn’t been eating much, but it was weird how she went all growly talking about cats. I mean…she couldn’t want one that bad? Surely she’d gotten over being the only witch family that didn’t have familiars? I could just hear my mother say, “Even familiars shed and poop, Rue.”

  “Because I am the awkward one?” Jessie wasn’t offended. There was something utterly charming about Bran when she wanted to be liked. Her green eyes were sparkling, her cute little freckles were standing out on her skin with the wind making her cheeks red. She looked like a moving rag doll.

  “Because, the vampire needs the bat. Rue promised me when we were little that we could have kittens when we grew up, and Felix is clearly going to do whatever Rue does. You have to have the toad or the bird.”

  “And why can’t I have a pretty little parakeet on my shoulder?”

  “Trite and overdon
e. I have seen two girls with cute little birds on their shoulders. You, my friend, aren’t trite.”

  “And you,” I told Bran, “Are more of a crow kind of witch. So why were you learning about beauty spells and shape shifters.”

  Bran’s gaze shifted and she shuffled just a bit before she said, “Spy.”

  “Dropout.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Bran said. “What’s for lunch?”

  I handed her the second half of my chicken salad sandwich and looked around the courtyard. The tables were full of other students and witches. The brick buildings were gorgeous and old. If you looked closely or used witch senses, you could see things that you wouldn't find at any other campus. Things that bespoke otherworldly power.

  “Oh my Hecate,” Bran said, leaning forward to stare at Felix where he was kissing Monica. “Who in all the hells is that?”

  “Monica,” Chrysie said gently. “Umm….”

  “Felix’s girlfriend,” I said, my voice was flat. The thing was—when Felix kissed me, I hadn't been thinking of him as a potential partner. And I don’t know that he intended to do it at the time or if he was ready for it to be anything other than just an intense moment. But…he’d sort of burrowed his way into my mind. I liked him a lot. I liked that he was good at his own kind of witchcraft and didn’t care about me being a Hallow. I liked that he was sneaky and sold my potions to get us extra cash. I liked the way he got scared at horror movies despite being a witch and the way he took care of Chrysie as if she were delicate instead of a vampire. But, I didn’t like him having a girlfriend and kissing me and there was this angry wound inside of me because that had been my first kiss.

  Bran’s eyes flared in a way that gave me a bit of a shiver, maybe she followed the instincts of her heart to mine and got a flash of my tornado of feelings.

  I said calmly, “Simmer down. Pirate treasure?”

  “Have you kissed him?”

  “Necromancy? You here to learn more about your heritage?” Perhaps there had been a squeak in my voice. She seemed to read something into my response though I didn’t say yes. Besides, I hadn’t kissed him. He’d kissed me. It was totally different.