The Curious Curse of Faerywood Falls Read online

  I swallowed hard and took a step backward. I could hear Athena growling in the dark behind me somewhere.

  “But I guess it doesn’t really matter all that much…” he said.

  “How did you know I’d be here?” I asked.

  “I saw you leaving my house,” he said.

  “I thought you weren’t at home today.” I realized the black-suited woman managing the estate sale must have offered a polite lie.

  He ignored that, continuing with, “When you left, you had the look of a woman who had something to hide, the same sort of look my wife wore on too many occasions before I discovered the truth.”

  His voice had grown dangerous.

  My knees were weak, and I knew I had nowhere to go. I was trapped.

  “So…Marianne Huffler…” he said, stopping just a dozen or so feet away from me. “I see you’ve discovered my secret, haven’t you?”

  “And what secret would that be?” I asked, my heart racing so fast I feared I might lose consciousness.

  Athena’s little body was pressed up against my leg. Her growls vibrated through her whole body.

  He sighed. “That I have a magical ability that allows me to communicate with ghosts.”

  14

  “I already knew you had some kind of power,” I said.

  “Did you?” he asked. “I wondered. Magic seems to run in your family, doesn’t it?”

  “What does that mean?” I asked. Did he know my mother, too, somehow?

  “That cousin of yours,” he said. “She’s a spell weaver, isn’t she?”

  Relief washed away some of my fear. “That’s none of your business,” I said, my voice starting to sound more shaky. I had no way of defending myself, and the tone in his voice was conveying just how unhappy he was about everything.

  “Actually, it sort of is,” he said with a nod. “I’m a member of the city council, and it’s part of our responsibility to know what’s going on in the lives of the normal citizens as well as the Gifted.”

  “Since when?” I asked.

  “I wouldn’t expect you to understand…” he said. “Not when you’ve only been here for a few months now. You couldn’t possibly comprehend the intricacies of how it all works.”

  I glowered at his silhouette.

  “So, what? Are we just gonna stand here all night bantering?” I asked. “I know you killed your wife, Evan. I was the one who found her body.”

  I saw him go rigid. “Really?” he asked. He took another step toward me, which I mirrored by taking another step back. “What exactly did you see?”

  I hesitated. “I didn’t see anything, but I heard her last screams, and when I rushed in here to help her, she was already dead.”

  “See? Then you have no proof,” he said.

  “I have this,” I said, pulling the pink sticky note out of my pocket. “A note you wrote asking her to come and meet you here.”

  “Where did you find that?” he asked, his tone dangerous.

  The knots in my chest were growing tighter. “In a book about getting pregnant. Your wife wanted to have children.”

  Evan froze, and I heard the rustle of his shirt. “Yes…we did…” he said. “We’d tried for years. Eventually, we started fighting because of it. She started to hate the sight of me. Said it was my fault we couldn’t have any children. So I went to the doctor. Turned out she was right. After that, she seemed okay. She started to smile again, and I thought she’d put it behind us, and that we’d try to move on and enjoy the life we had together. Only, a short time later I learned she was having an affair, the first of many. I couldn’t stand living with her anymore after that. I tried to get a divorce but she’d always convince me to stay. I don’t know why. I think she didn’t want to look bad in front of her family or friends. No one knew about the affairs. She forbade me to tell anyone. And it wasn’t like I was eager to…it would’ve completely ruined my career.”

  He was nodding his head over and over again.

  “So I decided I had to get rid of her. I couldn’t keep playing her little games. I had to end it. And this…this was the only way…”

  “So you’re admitting that you killed your wife?” I asked.

  “She deserved it!” he yelled, his voice echoing across the cemetery. “She was always belittling me. She played with me, took advantage of me… And I couldn’t tell anyone!”

  “That doesn’t give you the right to kill her!” I said. “You’re worse than she was!”

  “I already knew that much…” he said. “I’m a slimy politician. Would you like to hear about all the dastardly things I do on a daily basis? The people I lie to, how I twist the truth so that people will like me or believe me? Oh, honey, you don’t even know the half of it.”

  “But at the mortuary…” I said. “You were devastated. You – ”

  “Yes, I suppose I had a moment of grief, but wouldn’t anyone? I’d just ensured the death of the only woman I’d ever truly loved. It was a shock. That didn’t mean I wasn’t still pleased I’d gone through with it,” he said. “I mourned the death of what was, of the pain she’d put me through. It was over. At last. And I could breathe once again.”

  I swallowed hard, glaring at him. “Why here, in the cemetery?” I asked. “I still don’t understand.”

  “I didn’t want the blood on my hands. It was too risky. One mistake and my career would’ve been in tatters. No, I let someone else do it for me. Someone who’d never be found, someone who could never be questioned…” He paused, and I heard a soft, murmuring chuckle. “I asked a ghost to do it for me.”

  I knew they were connected somehow. “So you’re a ghost speaker, huh?” I asked. “This ties up a lot of loose ends…”

  “I’ve had the gift since I was a boy, though I’d probably consider myself more of a ghost waker than a ghost speaker. Most aren’t too keen to be roused from their slumber,” he said. “It’s come in really handy when I’ve needed to get dirt on someone but nobody living is willing to share. It’s how I keep my sources nice and tidy, and the mystery makes people flock to the information I can provide that much more. People are so petty, after all. All they want is some juicy gossip to satisfy them, someone they can poke fun at or ridicule.”

  He started to move again, and I stepped out of his path. He made his way over in the direction of Isabella’s grave. The light of the moon, which had just appeared over the tops of the trees, made it so I could just make him out beside the gravestone.

  He laid his hand upon it.

  “I knew this girl’s youngest brother in school,” he said. “I remember when she killed herself. The whole family had been a mess. But I also knew that people who die in gruesome ways often have hostile and violent ghosts if they’re brought back. I learned to summon ghosts to the world of the living when I was very young. Most didn’t like it and wanted to be sent back, but some chose to stay…especially those with bones to pick with those still living.”

  “So you summoned her, knowing she’d be restless because of her suicide?” I asked.

  “Exactly,” Evan said. “You see… Well, first and foremost, Olivia was petrified of my gift with ghosts. When I told her about it several years ago, she ran from me. I didn’t see her for a week. She hated any and all things supernatural, positively terrified of it. Plus, she had a heart condition that she’d had since she was a child. Some kind of disease left her weakened, and I knew that it wouldn’t require much to take her down. I summoned the ghost in the hopes that it would be able to hurt her, but before the ghost could act, Olivia screamed and dropped right there, dead. Apparently the coroner’s assessment of her having a heart attack was true.”

  I thought back to Cain Blackburn’s evaluation. He, too, had declared it natural, but thought the circumstances surrounding the death were strange. He had been right. And so had I.

  Wasn’t he going to be intrigued when he found out about all this?

  “Now, I don’t think the same is going to work with you,” Evan said, turn
ing back around to face me. “No, you’re younger than Olivia was, and you are rather brave, aren’t you? It’ll take more than a spook to take care of you…”

  “Take care of…” The blood rushed in my ears, and my head suddenly felt like it was filled with cobwebs. “You don’t mean – ”

  I could just make out a shrug in the moonlight. “Did you really think it would end any other way?” he asked with a small chuckle. “I just told you everything, and I must thank you. It was a relief to get that off my chest. At least someone knows what a wretched woman Olivia was. But no… I’m sorry, junior sleuth. This is where your little adventure ends.”

  Athena snarled from beside me, and she leapt across the grass toward him. As quick as lightning, she sank her teeth into his ankle.

  Evan cried out. He kicked out with his foot, and Athena went soaring through the air between a pair of tall gravestones.

  “Athena!” I called.

  “Ah, so you’re a beast whisperer,” he said. “I thought that creature might have been more than an ordinary pet. Now…” he pulled a blade from the inside of his shirt sleeve, and it glinted in the moonlight. “This will be quick, I promise. You won’t feel it…at least, that’s what I’ve been told. Whether or not it’s true I suppose you can discuss with my late wife when you see her on the other side…”

  He started toward me, and I was frozen to the spot.

  Anger was pumping through me, not fear. He’d hurt Athena.

  My hands balled into fists.

  He was not going to get away with that.

  My blood began to sing, and the lulling hum of magic began to swirl around inside my mind. From somewhere deep within me, I could feel something rising. A thirst, a desire. A plan.

  I wasn’t completely helpless. There was a torrent of magical energy surging through me, and I only had to let it out.

  “Isabella!” I called out, and my voice boomed through the darkness. “I need your help!”

  There was a sudden rush of wind, so strong that it made me stagger backward and cling to one of the headstones beside me. My hair whipped around my face, the gust so strong that I couldn’t keep my eyes all the way open.

  Through my squinted eyelids, I saw a brilliant blue light fill the cemetery in a flash. Just as quickly as it came, the light was gone, and so was the wind.

  There she was, hovering just above the ground in front of me. My ghost speaking gift from Mrs. Bickford had worked to summon the specter of Isabella Delvin.

  The water dripping from Isabella was gone. Instead of the overalls, she was dressed in a pale, silky dress. Her hair shone like starlight and her eyes were clear and focused.

  “Marianne…” she said. Her voice was distant once again, but stronger. “You called?”

  I pointed behind her to Evan, who’d stopped in his tracks, staring up at Isabella with wide eyes.

  “You…” he murmured. “You’re the one I summoned to – ”

  Isabella turned toward him, and Evan cowered. He floundered backward, the knife flying out of his hands. He hit the ground and tried to scurry backward on his hands.

  I glowered at him. Coward.

  “Now I remember…” Isabella said in a misty tone. “You summoned me to kill your wife…”

  “I did, but I – I didn’t think you’d remember – you were so angry, so lost – ” he said, holding his hand up as if it would stop her. “Be gone, you beastly spirit. May you be banished from ever walking this earth again!”

  Isabella didn’t move. She hovered over to him, and I heard a whimper escape him.

  “Why – why isn’t it working?” Evan cried. “Why – ”

  She slowly leaned down toward him, and through her transparent frame, I saw him gaping up at her with pure terror in his eyes.

  “People like you don’t deserve happiness,” Isabella said. “So deep is your selfishness that you seek the destruction of others for your own gain. May you be repaid for all the pain you caused, all the lives you ruined, for I know now that it was many.”

  “No, please…” Evan said, trying to move even further away. But his back made contact with her grave and he couldn’t go any further.

  He was trapped.

  She slowly stretched out her ghostly hand in front of him. I could see the rapid rise and fall of his chest.

  Her ethereal fingers hovered over his flesh, right where his heart was, for only a moment before plunging beneath it.

  Evan let out a terrible cry of pain.

  I turned away, covering my ears, my heart thundering against my ribs.

  What had she done?

  The screaming stopped just a moment later. When I looked up, Evan’s body was slumped against the grave, a hollow stare in his now lifeless eyes.

  “Marianne…”

  “You…” I said to Isabella, not trusting myself to look over in the direction of Evan’s body. “You – ”

  “It was my way of setting things right for his wife,” she said. “I’ve met her. I know her well now.”

  “But you couldn’t have been gone more than five minutes.” I said.

  She looked over her shoulder toward her grave. “Time means little on the other side. You’ll learn that eventually.”

  She turned and started to float away from me.

  I took a shaky step toward her but decided I’d better stop; my legs might give out. “I – I don’t know how to thank you,” I said. “And…I’m sorry for everything.”

  She turned and looked at me. “You have nothing to apologize for. But I must be going, daughter of fae. I bid you farewell.”

  With her glance upward, there was another bright flash of light, and she was gone.

  15

  I collapsed onto my knees into the cold, damp grass. The night was cool, and the sound of crickets reached my ears, but they didn’t bring me much comfort.

  The soft brush of a bushy tail did, though.

  “Athena!” I exclaimed, reaching down into the dark shadows and pulling the fox up toward me, squeezing her against me. “Oh my gosh, I thought something terrible happened to you, and I was so angry at him. I would have – ”

  I’m quite alright, Athena said. I’ve learned to land on my feet. If anything, the shock of it just frightened me a little.

  “You aren’t hurt at all?” I asked.

  Perhaps some bruising where his shoe struck me, she said – a flare of anger washed through me again, clearing my mind somewhat – but otherwise, yes, I’m fine.

  I breathed a sigh of relief, stroking my fingers through her glossy copper fur. “Okay. At least that’s good.”

  With a sickening feeling in my stomach, I glanced in the direction of Isabella’s grave, where I knew Evan’s body was.

  “I guess I should call down to the police station and – ”

  “Marianne! Marianne Huffler, where did you go?”

  I perked up. “Sheriff Garland?” I asked, setting Athena down and staggering upright.

  I saw a flashlight appear around a row of graves in the distance.

  “I couldn’t get the darn thing to work until just now,” he said. “I tried calling out to you. Didn’t you hear me?”

  “No,” I said. “Sheriff, you’d better get over here. Something terrible happened.”

  “I saw what I could from a distance,” he said. He was slowly making his way toward me around all the gravestones and bushes. “When I drove up, I saw Evan standing there with something in his hand, coming toward you.”

  I looked around and it was as if the world suddenly made sense again. I could see the lights from the streetlamps along the dirt road, and beneath their glow, I saw the sheriff’s car parked with the headlights glaring brightly into the night.

  “Why didn’t I see him?” I wondered in a whisper.

  Magic, Athena said simply, moving to stand in a shadow so the sheriff wouldn’t spot her. It must’ve obscured your surroundings. That or the ghost did something to shield herself, and therefore you as well…

  “Wh
at happened?” the sheriff asked when he got closer. “Where’s – Oh no…” He came to a stop beside me, his eyes falling where the beam from his flashlight pointed. On Evan, still slumped against the grave.

  He moved toward the fallen man and knelt down, pressing his fingers against the exposed part of Evan’s neck.

  “No pulse,” he said, looking up at me.

  “Sheriff, I – ” I started. My mind was racing. Joe Garland was Ungifted and didn’t know about the Gifted or any other supernatural events going on in Faerywood Falls. And he’d just seen a ghost. Not only seen a ghost, but saw me talking with it before it killed Evan somehow.

  “You don’t have to explain anything, Marianne,” Sheriff Garland said with a shake of his head. “I saw the whole thing.”

  “Then…” I said, icy fear splintering through me. “You saw – ”

  He nodded. “The knife,” he said, pointing to the blade lying on the ground where Evan dropped it. “That’s what I thought it was. As soon as I saw it, I hopped out of the car and came rushing over here. He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

  “N – no,” I said. I was suddenly very cold as my mind replayed those moments over and over again. “Not at all.”

  “I saw him get close to you and then he started staggering around, and I saw him fall over backward…” he said, shaking his head. “How bizarre it is that a man and his wife would both die in the same cemetery from similar causes?”

  I stared at the side of his face in shock.

  I didn’t even dare voice the question that would completely change the way he interpreted what he saw.

  Had he seen the ghost?

  No….he hadn’t, had he? Just like how I couldn’t see Mr. Bickford until I had stolen his wife’s gift, Sheriff Garland couldn’t see Isabella and her intervention.

  Somehow, when I’d said goodbye to her the first time, it must have helped truly put her to rest. It seemed that only violent or restless ghosts could be seen by humans or those without the ability to ghost speak.

  I’d only been able to see her when I called out for her help because of it.