Bone Cold: A Soul Shamans Novel (Volume 2) (8 page)

Wanda flipped over the cards. This time, Death didn’t show up on the table. She quickly ran through the cards at hand, tapping each one as she read out its name. The Lovers, Queen of Cups, and Queen of Swords. All of it seemed so much more positive than the hand I’d been dealt. When Wanda came to the end, Laura stared deep into her eyes.

“So, does that mean it’s right?” Laura’s voice was a hush.

“Yes.” Wanda shuffled up the cards and slipped them back under the counter. “I believe this means it is indeed right.”

Laura’s shoulders sagged, and her breath whooshed out of her. Curiosity prickled at my brain, and I grabbed her arm to lead her outside. We were done here. Maybe Laura had found an answer to her question, but all I had were more questions. This had gotten me no closer to finding out what was going on in my life.

When we stepped outside, Laura gazed up at the morning sky with a strange expression on her face. I couldn’t tell if it was relief or something else. “So, what’s this thing you needed to know about?”

She glanced at me before casting her eyes to the ground, kicking her boot against the snow. “It has nothing to do with your dad.”

“Okay.” I shrugged my jacket around my shoulders and blew hot air on my hands. “So, what does it have to do with?”

“It’s…” She trailed off. “Nothing.”

“Laura,” I said. “What’s going on?”

“It’s not important.” She let out a sigh. “Let’s just drop it, okay?”

Blinking, I stepped back. Laura had never kept anything from me before, and I couldn’t understand why she would now. I’d told her every secret of my life, and I thought she’d done the same with me. I twisted away so she wouldn’t see the tears building up in my eyes. If there was something she didn’t want to share, I wouldn’t try to force it out of her, but it still hurt that she felt she couldn’t tell me whatever it was she was hiding.

“Well, I’m glad you got your answer.” My keys jangled as I pulled them from my pocket. “I, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky.”

“I don’t suppose that death warning is going to stop you from trying to find out what’s going on.”

“Of course not.” I unlocked my truck and yanked open the door, a fierce determination filling my chest. “One way or the other, I will find my answers.”

CHAPTER 7

D
ialling Nathan’s number on the way to the cemetery, my knees jiggled and banged against the steering wheel as I thought about what Wanda had suggested. If she were right—and let’s face it, I couldn’t be more than about ten percent sure she would be—I’d find answers at some random grave on the hillside.

Not that this made any sense whatsoever.

Nathan picked up after fifty million rings, his voice heavy and rough. “Hey, Holls. I just heard from Jason. Why didn’t you call me?”

“I knew you were busy with your web comic,” I said.

Plus, I hadn’t wanted to drag Nathan into my shamanism again. Last time Seaport went to hell in a hand-basket, Anthony had knocked Nathan out and used his life as a bartering technique to get me to cooperate. I didn’t want to put him in danger again, especially not when he was mere days away from taking his online comic business to a whole new level.

“I want to be there for you, Holls.” His voice was soft. “You know that.”

“I do know that.” My neck twitched from where I’d jammed the phone between my ear and shoulder. “Which is precisely why I didn’t call you.”

“Are you heading home?” he asked. “I’ll stop by. Since your mom is gone, I could stay the night…”

I coughed. My face went hot, and I bit the insides of my cheeks to keep a grin from seizing control of my face. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Laura’s head swivel in my direction, as if she knew exactly what Nathan had said just by my flustered reaction.

“No, Laura and I are headed to the cemetery.” Flicking my blinker, I turned off the main drag and headed up the sloping hillside where the cemetery sat watching over the rest of the town.

“Say what now?” I could hear his frown through the line.

“It’s a long story that I’ll have to tell you later.” My foot eased off the gas as the stone church loomed before us, the snow-painted hillside beyond it peppered with graves. “Basically, Laura and I are going to see if we can get some answers about why my dad’s in town.”

“Your dad’s in town? Okay, that’s it. I’m coming there to meet you.”

“Nathan, I—”

“I’ve missed out on too much,” he said. “See you there in ten.”

The line clicked off. Frowning, I tossed my phone onto the dashboard. I was pretty sure Laura and I weren’t heading into anything we couldn’t handle, but that didn’t stop the wariness from creeping up my neck. I’d never forgive myself if Nathan got hurt again because of me.

“That didn’t go well?” Laura asked, plucking my phone from the rattling dashboard as I turned the truck onto the gravel road.

“He wants to meet us here,” I said. “I just don’t want to pull him into the craziness again. He’s not like us. He’s human.”

“Well, I’m half-human, thank you very much,” Laura said. “But I know what you mean. I’ll never forget what my dad looked like, laying there helpless while Anthony threatened his life. We may not be great with our powers yet, but at least we have them.”

I nodded, relieved that Laura was back to her normal self after the strange incident at Wanda’s. “I just don’t want him to get hurt.”

“All we’re doing is checking out a grave,” she said. “It’ll be fine.”

“I’m dying to know if Wanda actually has some kind of power.” Twisting the steering wheel, I edged the truck to a stop just at the edge of the cemetery.

“Maybe she really is a psychic.” Laura shrugged a hoodie over her head and cracked open the door. “Or maybe she’s just a lunatic.”

My lips quirked as I jumped out of the truck to join Laura outside. Gazing up the hill, all I could see under the cloud-scudded sky were rows and rows of hunched stone figures. Most of the headstones toward the bottom of the hill were identical and new, all created by Edmund Cutter, the local undertaker and superintendent of the burial grounds.

Up on top of the hill were the jagged rows of chipped stones from hundreds of years ago, all under a canopy of twisting dark limbs that reached down to the ground. Shivering, I pulled my gray hoodie over my head and began the ascent, boots sinking into the untouched snow.

As we climbed, the snow turned to slippery ice, the grass thin and crackling at the edges. Laura hooked her hand in my arm and we huddled close as we pushed our way through Seaport’s neighborhood of the dead. The sky darkened, casting shadows all around us. Everything was silent and still and bitterly cold. Blinking against the sting, I scanned the rows of ancient headstones, using my phone to shed light on the names carved into the rock.

Laura sniffled and pulled her beanie down over her ears. “The temperature’s dropped.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” A shiver ran along my spine. “Maybe we should cast a spell in case a spirit is here.”

“What spell?” Laura’s voice was low as she whispered. “If your dad is right, our magic won’t do any good against them.”

We stood quiet and still, waiting for the iciness to blast in our faces, signalling a spirit attack. Our breath puffed out clouds of white. My heartbeat drummed in my ears. My Intuition prickled my forehead, shivering through my skull, whispering a warning in my mind. Something was wrong.

A crunch sounded behind us. My heart clanged against my ribcage as I whirled around, one hand thrown into a fist and the other grasping for the dagger in my bag.

Nathan’s familiar laugh settled around me as he crested the hill. “Calm down, you guys. It’s just me. Your friendly, neighborhood Spiderman.”

“You scared the shit out of me.” My hand pressed against my chest as I tried to calm my racing heart.

“I noticed,” he said with a laugh as he came to join our huddled circle. He glanced around at the trees and the dark clouds overhead. “No wonder you’re jumpy. This place gives me the creeps.”

“It’s cold.” Laura’s teeth chattered. “We thought that meant a spirit was about to come charging at us.”

Nathan blew hot air on his hands. “Yeah, I swear it’s colder up here than it was down the hill.”

“Alright, guys,” I said with a quick head shake. “We need to find this grave and get the hell out of here before something weird happens.”

“What are we looking for?” Nathan asked, snaking his arm around my waist and dropping a quick kiss on the top of my head.

“Wanda told us that we’d find a grave on this hill that would hold some answers.” Eyes scanning the headstones, I shrugged. “It’s supposed to have something to do with why my dad is here.”

“Wanda?” Nathan chuckled. “No wonder you’re on a wild goose chase through a cemetery in the middle of a snow storm. Wanda’s not exactly reliable, is she?”

“Well.” I crouched by a long row of crumbling graves and brushed the snow off the first stone. “Turns out she might not be such a hack after all.”

“I swear, I go one night without talking to you, and everything turns crazy.” Nathan dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around me, but it did nothing to ward off the chill that had crept into my bones. “Do you want to talk about your dad?”

Heart lifting, I looked up into Nathan’s mossy green eyes. His nose brushed again mine, and my body began to melt. Lowering his lips to my ear, he murmured, “I’ve really missed you. I can’t wait until this show prep is over.”

“Guys.” Laura’s voice held a warning. “I think I’ve found what we’re looking for, and I don’t think you’re going to like it very much.”

Pulling away, I glanced over my shoulder to see Laura shining her phone on a headstone at the very top of the hill, her body backlit by the dark sky. Part of me didn’t want to know what she’d found while the other part of me
had
to know the answer, no matter how terrible it was. Nathan placed a strong hand on my back to lend support as I traced our footsteps to Laura.

The headstone she’d found rose six feet in the air. The top was curved and shiny, different than the old graves around it that were chipped and faded with age. This one looked new, though it didn’t match Mr. Cutter’s standard carvings down the hill. Laura had knocked the snow away to reveal the words hidden underneath.

Here rests Anthony Lombardi. May he live on.

“How?” I gasped, taking a step back. “He can’t be dead. The spirit said he was alive.”

There were no years carved into the stone. Only those eight words.

“Well, turns out he’s dead.” Laura leaned down to brush the snow away from the mound of dirt stretching out from the headstone. “This looks fresh. I wonder who decided to bury him here.”

“I have
got
to call my mom” Ripping off my glove, I stabbed the emergency contact number for Mom into my phone. “Whoever gave her the tip about his location was wrong.”

“I hate to say this, but maybe it was a trap.” Nathan frowned at the grave.

Fire ants skittered along my skin as I let his words sink in. If Anthony was dead, that meant someone had lied to my mother about the tip on his location. It had to be a trap. Gritting my teeth, I listened as her phone rang and rang and rang. She never picked up. Blood roaring in my ears, I tried again. Tears sprung into my eyes as I listened to the steady whirring of the unanswered call. What if I was too late?

“She’s not answering.” I clicked off my phone but didn’t put it away. I’d have to keep trying until I got through. “I should have known it was a trap. Even in death, Anthony Lombardi will end up getting my mom killed.”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Laura said. “She’s with a team of other shamans. I’m sure she’s fine.”

“Last time a shaman attacked her, she ended up almost dead.” My feet carried me closer to the grave. When had this happened and how? My chest ached. No matter how vicious this guy had been, I didn’t want to be the reason he was dead. But I’d stabbed him in the chest, and now here he was, six feet under.

Reaching out, I brushed my hand against the headstone in a silent apology for what I’d done. Something sharp stung my fingers, and my breath got caught in my lungs. The wind whipped around us, picking up speed and turning to ice. I cried out and yanked my hand away, stumbling back from the grave.

Laura found my hand and pulled me away from the headstone. Its surface had turned white from the sudden chill. Frost clung to the sides. Cracks formed around the letters, splitting the rock. The storm warred against our bodies, the sky dumping ice pellets onto our heads.

“Nathan!” I screamed, reaching out my other hand. The wind roared, drowning out my words. Face stinging from the sudden onslaught of ice, I stumbled forward. I couldn’t see anything but the white. “Nathan!”

“Holly, stop!” Laura grabbed my hand and pulled me close. A chorus of high-pitched howls ripped through the air, and under it all, the roaring sound of pain. My throat went tight. Nathan. The spirits were going after Nathan.

Dropping Laura’s hand, I tore through the storm in the direction of Nathan’s screams. My boots knocked into something heavy and hard, and I dropped to my knees to find Nathan curled up on the ground, violent shakes engulfing his body.