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

by Amanda A. Allen

  Daddy laughed for a moment and then said, “I don’t even know what that means.”

  “And I don’t know what you use random medications for, but you do, Daddy. Hazel will help you.”

  * * * * *

  Portia only let Felix choose three visitors. It was Monica, me, and Chrysie. Monica went first and then Portia sent us in a few minutes later.

  “…understand why you are living there. Or why you consort with them? You aren’t a bad witch, Felix. You could do so much better than some idiot, unconnected Hallow and a vampire. My Father is very displeased.”

  “Isn’t that the point?” Felix’s voice was tired but steely.

  “What?” I could hear the shock in Monica’s voice and I wondered if Felix had let her see that intractable side of him before.

  “The point? The point of me is to make your dad furious, right?”

  “I can’t believe you’re saying this,” Monica’s voice trailed off into her own tears. It seemed to be the evening of weeping.

  “I don’t know why not,” Felix’s exhaustion was pouring through and I was determined to step forward and protect him, but Chrysie took my arm and held me back. “It was obvious from the start. I just didn’t care before.”

  “Oh, but now you do? Why? Because Rue Hallow doesn’t like me? You think I don’t know that you’re taking your chance at a better-connected family? That you mean to slide your way into her life like you did into mine? Please.”

  Holy Hecate, I wasn’t trying to break in and save Felix anymore. I was shocked, and I wanted to hear the answer.

  “I never cared that you were a Preskitt. You were just too busy telling everyone you were to notice.”

  Her gasp was so shocked it echoed into the hall.

  “I can’t… You horrible… Are you kidding me? IT’S OVER!”

  “It’s been over for a long time,” Felix said. “We should have let it go a long time ago.”

  “Then why didn’t you?”

  “Because you were fun and I liked you and I knew that you were using me to get to your dad, but the rest of the time you weren’t such a plastic…Barbie Doll. Gods.”

  “Barbie?” The sneer was vicious and low.

  “Plastic,” Felix said. “I… Gods, Mon…let’s just stop.”

  “Now that you’ve got your insults in?” Monica seemed to be so angry she might set something on fire, but Chrysie still held me back.

  “I’m sorry for saying that,” Felix said. “I’m sorry for everything.”

  “Rue Hallow will never want you. If you don’t think she’s focused on power, you’re as blind with her as you were with me.”

  “Gods, Mon… Just go and be happy.”

  But she didn’t. “She’s going to die in one of her misguided interferences into things beyond her, and you’ll probably die too. If you’re lucky, that’s all that will happen. I wouldn’t put it pass the two of you to take the rest of your inept, incapable, ridiculous coven with you!”

  She slammed out of the room then, saw us, and her eyes seemed to blaze, but she just brushed past and slammed out of the recovery room.

  Chrysie and I looked at each other and then Chrysie took a step forward, pulling me with her as easily as she’d kept me behind last time.

  Felix looked like he’d been drained of blood, he was so white. There were dark circles under his eyes, a drain coming off of his shoulder and another out of his side. He looked like death warmed over.

  “Hey,” Chrysie said brightly.

  Felix looked at her and then at me. “So you heard that?”

  “Not much,” Chrysie lied. “Just the tiniest bit. Don’t worry.”

  “We’re alive,” Felix tried to fake cheer and failed. “Does that mean we won?”

  “I guess so,” I said. I took the seat next to him, wanted to take his hand, but didn’t. “Daddy called. Mother is unconscious, so I guess it’s mine now.”

  I flashed the talisman and Felix nodded, “I knew you could do it. What next?”

  “I’ll think of something,” I lied, because I did not want him to worry after he’d been impaled by two branches. Evil little girl ghosts. Of course. And because life was cruel, I was going to get to remember stabbing the ghost spine of a girl who reminded me of my little sisters.

  “We got this,” Felix said, but as he said it, his eyes fluttered closed and he slipped into sleep. Perfect. I rose. I had things to do.

  Chapter 16

  “I need help,” I told Portia.

  She was in her office, behind a large cherry wood desk that was spread with papers. She leaned back in her chair, crossed her fingers over her chest and rose a brow.

  “Tonight is the full moon,” I said. “Ghosts will be the strongest.”

  “Yes,” Portia agreed.

  “I need you to meet me at the old Hallow Family Cemetery.”

  “I don’t work at your beck and call.”

  “What do you want from me?” It was an offer and she heard it as such.

  “I want you to give Leander and Finn a chance to transfer the talisman.”

  “So quick to think of something,” I said. I figured I had very small chances of actually surviving the evening with my sister. My agenda for the day included writing a letter of goodbye to my mother, new siblings, my daddy and my coven. I had also created a will that gave Chrysie Hallow House. I wasn’t sure if it was legal, but I did my best.

  Portia just raised a brow and waited for me to agree.

  “Fine,” I said. “But you can’t have it until after I try to save Bran.”

  Portia nodded once. I knew she didn’t think I would be successful. I had no idea if I would be either.

  “Be there at the lunar zenith,” I said. “Don’t bring Leander or any of the council.”

  Portia nodded once.

  It got dark around 5:00 p.m. I had some time before then, and the lunar zenith would take even longer. I had much to do.

  * * * * *

  “Hi,” I said to the ghosts as I entered the cemetery.

  They didn’t reply, but I could feel their gazes. They had helped me once before. I hoped they would help me again. I talked as I set up, littering the graveyard with candles, telling them my plan. The little girl ghost who had once told me not to trust anyone was the first to appear.

  “Risky,” she said.

  I nodded.

  “It could work,” another said. I didn’t think I had seen this one before. It was a man in clothing that fit the movies of the 20s. “But you both might die too.”

  “I googled where to put it,” I said.

  “I do not know what that means,” the man replied and the girl ghost nodded.

  “I…don't have time to explain.”

  By the time I was done with my pentacle around the graveyard, the candles, and the runes I’d burned into the grass of the graveyard, Hiro and Cyrus had shown up.

  “You need to stay outside of the graveyard,” I told them as they set the chair with the bound Bran down.

  “What are you going to do?” Hiro looked at Bran, at the setup, and then shook his head. Portia arrived with Martin, as Hiro said, “It won’t work. Those symbols won’t get the haunt to leave your sister.”

  “Ok,” I said. I looked around and then said, “Don’t come in unless this works.”

  They stared at me and I could hear Portia asking Cyrus and Hiro what I was going to do.

  “Are you ready?”

  The ghosts of my kindred dead began appearing. They nodded, and I crossed to the edge of the pentacle and sealed it. It was a mirrored pentacle made with spelled chalk, pebbles, ash, and bone. It was the first necromancy pentacle I had ever made, but I could tell by the zing of it in my mind I had done it right. The pentacle would keep Bran, the haunt, and I inside. And it would keep the others out. No matter how it turned out, they wouldn’t be able to come and save Bran and I unless I broke it.

  “What did you do, Veruca?” Dr. Martin Hallow tried to come into the cemetery and was blocked
by my pentacle.

  “Just trying to keep the haunt from destroying you all,” I said. I smiled at him, not caring for once what his agenda was. Or whether he even had one.

  I crossed to my sister and said, “You always were the biggest pain. Remember that time you opened all of our Christmas presents?”

  “Hungrrrryyy,” the haunt said.

  I lifted my arm, cut it in front of the haunt.

  “Rue!” Martin Hallow yelled. “Don’t do that!”

  “I need to talk to my sister now,” I told the haunt.

  “Hungrry.”

  I tilted my sister’s head back by the mane of her hair and allowed several drops of my blood to fall into its mouth. Because I was using magic the whole of the time, my blood was infused with it. The haunt screeched when I pulled my arm back.

  I said again, “I need to talk to my sister now.”

  “Mooorreee…”

  “I need to talk to my sister now.”

  “Rue, your magic feeds the haunt. You’re making it stronger. Making it want to come after you.” Martin sounded almost frantic. Given that I wasn’t likely to survive, I finally decided he was trustworthy. Too late for us though.

  “Mmm hmmm,” I said. That was, of course, the plan.

  “Rue,” Hiro asked carefully.

  But Bran’s eyes opened then and it was her green gaze. I smiled at her and she scowled.

  “What are you up to, princess?”

  “Saving the damsel,” I told her.

  “I thought I wasn’t saveable.”

  “You know I am more stubborn than that,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

  And with that simple statement, I pulled out the talisman and ran it into her lower right side, below—I hoped—her liver.

  Her scream was horrible to hear. But worse was the way the haunt fled her. The talisman hadn’t just stabbed her, it had stabbed the haunt. It fled the failing host and came at me.

  “Ruuueeeeeeeeee!”

  I wasn’t sure who was screaming because the haunt was diving into me. Diving through the cut, striking at me, breaking the containment of the runes and tattoos. I screamed, the pain was astounding. My body arched up, digging my head and my feet into the ground with my belly in the air.

  Someone was screaming in pain, and then I realized it was me, but there was more. The cold. The overwhelming cold. My kindred dead were coming to my rescue, fighting the haunt in my very body, and all I could do was hold on and hope to survive.

  Chapter 17

  “Rue, oh gods, Rue.”

  Someone was pushing back my hair, holding my hand and weeping. I cracked opened my eyes and found the face of my sister. All freckled and cute with eyes I never wanted to see any other color.

  “Please,” she was crying, “Please don’t leave me. I can’t do this without you.”

  “Bran…”

  She stopped brushing back my hair to meet my eyes and gasped.

  “How’d you get free,” I asked because I didn’t want to think about how I couldn’t feel most of my body.

  “Magic,” she sniffed. “Rue…you’re not moving.”

  “I’m ok,” I lied.

  “Don’t lie,” she cried. “Don’t do this.”

  She was holding her and to her side, where I’d stabbed her, but did not seem to notice the wound outside of that.

  “Girl up,” I told her.

  “You weren’t supposed to exchange yourself for me, you big dummy. I am going to make you pay forever.”

  Someone was yelling beyond us. I slowly turned my head and saw Hiro, Portia, Cyrus and Martin banging on the pentacle wall.

  I wondered if the haunt were dead, or if it were just hiding in me. Was it safe to let them in? The little girl ghost appeared and leaned down to say, “Thaddeus took it through the ether. He won’t be able to come back for some time.”

  I closed my eyes and as I did a memory came back to me of my kindred dead, the one who didn’t understand Google. He had wrapped his spirit around the haunt and used my magic to form the ether cage and push them both through.

  “I can’t believe you stabbed me,” Bran said. She must have decided I wasn’t dying just then. I didn’t have the same faith in her state, an alarming amount of blood was spreading between her fingers.

  “Whiner,” I said. I couldn’t move. But I couldn’t let her bleed out. I focused not my body, but my will and my magic and threw the talisman at the pentacle. It shattered as my head dropped back to the grass.

  My eyes fluttered close and then open. I could see my sister’s mouth move and then Martin and Portia’s faces.

  The little girl ghost was there with them, between them. She was talking too, but I couldn’t hear any of them. The girl reached down, placed her hands on my head, and said, “It’s because my name is Angela.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “The angel. I was their angel. Even though we’re pagans.”

  “Ohhh, the statue.” It was good to know. I could feel my soul’s anchor shifting. I was dying. It was good to have the mystery solved. Would they bury me here? I hoped so.

  “No,” Bran cried, and it reached through the haze. She reached her hand down to my chest and poured her magic into me, her strength, and her love. She poured it in a way that no one else could have—through the connection between our hearts. Where the magic of our souls linked so often and so regularly that it was as natural as taking a sip of water. “No you are not allowed to leave me alone with Mother.”

  I laughed. And the anchor of my soul to my body snapped back into place.

  * * * * *

  “I am pretty sure,” Bran said as I sat down at the table, “That I saved you.”

  “Nope,” I shook my head, taking a huge bite of my burger. I was starving. “You’re the damsel. I’m the knight.”

  “The princess,” she insisted.

  “I’m the hero. The one who saved. You are the savee. I am the savior. You damsel. Me hero.”

  She reached over and took the piece of bacon that was hanging out of my burger.

  “Rude,” I gasped, trying for my bacon, but I was too slow. Even though she’d been stabbed three weeks ago, I was the one whose recovery had been full of stops and starts and too many delays. I needed to run, though currently, I was only capable of a slow hobble.

  “That’s what you get for stabbing me.”

  “Did you want to see my bite marks? And I googled where to stab you and everything.”

  She laughed and nabbed the fallen avocado from my burger. Felix reached around her and placed her plate in front of her. “Leave your sister’s food alone. She’s recovering.”

  “I was stabbed,” Bran pouted.

  “She almost died,” Jessie said idly. Her fingers were linked with Cyrus and the way they touched made it evident that something had altered between them. I ignored the pang of jealousy and focused on my happiness for them. “Are you going to wear those cuffs forever?”

  Bran smiled down at the runed cuffs that had helped to keep the haunt in check until we were able to stab it.

  “I’ve grown fond of them.”

  “What’s next for you?” It was Chrysie who asked.

  Bran had left home, high school unfinished, crossed the country, and did not want to go home.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Something fun.”

  “You can’t be trusted,” I told her, only half-joking. “You’re going to probably find some other nasty haunt. Meaner than the last.”

  “Oh…I thought I’d haunt you myself for awhile. Until I’m…you know. Recovered. Plus, I need to get a job and save up.”

  “You could stay here,” I offered, knowing she would say no. She might stay awhile, but the way she felt through our link was restless and ready to run.

  Bran shook her head, shot me a mischievous smile and then said, “Now that I’m not being murdered by a centuries-old curse, I have to consider where my efforts are best deployed. What adventure to undertake next. What country to visit. What
crime to commit.”

  “We’re all glad,” Chrysie said for the entire coven, “That you both lived. Though your life, Bran, may still come to an untimely end.”

  “I think you mean a stupid end,” I said.

  “I have eight more lives to burn through,” Bran joked, “Before this cat doesn’t end on her feet.”

  THE END

  Hello! Thank you so much for reading about Rue and her friends. I hope you truly enjoyed this story! Please consider leaving a review to help others who might enjoy the antics of Rue. Reviews don’t just help readers, they help authors too, so thank you in advance for leaving one.

  If you’d like to discover what happens next, check out Yules Graves which is available for preorder now.

  ALSO BY AMANDA A. ALLEN

  The Inept Witches Mysteries (co-written with Auburn Seal)

  Inconvenient Murder

  Moonlight Murder

  Bewitched Murder

  Presidium Vignettes (with Rue Hallow)

  Prague Murder

  The Rue Hallow Mysteries

  Hallow Graves

  Hungry Graves

  Lonely Graves

  Sisters and Graves

  Coming Soon

  Yule Graves

  Fated Graves

  Curses of the Witch Queen

  Fairy Tales Re-Imagined

  Song of Sorrow: A Prelude to Rapunzel

  Snow White

  Kendawyn Paranormal Regency Romances

  Compelled by Love

  Bewildered by Love

  Coming Soon

  Persuaded to Love

  Other Novels

  These Lying Eyes

  Author’s Note

  Like all books, this one happened through endless acts of friendship that gave me the freedom to write and edit. Thank you for those who reached out to me requesting another Rue book. Thanks to Pamela Welsh and Louisa Lechner for being my early readers. I am grateful for the drive that comes from being a mother and the push to excel I feel simply because I have been blessed by the four little lives of my kids. For you—anything.