She glanced at me before her eyes flickered away, a worried look pinched the corners of her mouth. “It’s not, Dante. It’s true, even ghosts get lonely. But you see, I sort of felt this was my penance for a life such as mine.”
I frowned. In the conversations Annabelle and I had had we’d never broached her past, not because I hadn’t been insanely curious about it. I had been, but I hadn’t wanted to pry.
I leaned back in the swing, resting my arm along the back of it and shivering at the delicious cold that rolled through me as she too moved further into me.
“Why would you think you deserved this fate?”
She wrapped her arms about herself as she shivered. I frowned.
“Annabelle, you don’t have to tell—”
She turned just slightly, so that it appeared as though she was caged in by me. I swallowed hard, wishing fiercely that she and I were just two normal people and that I could lean down and kiss her now.
Just touch her rosy-hued lips with my own. She almost didn’t look translucent tonight. There was just the slightest of blue glowing around her head and shoulders. I’d never seen her look so alive before.
My skin tingled as her eyes travelled down to my mouth. My pulse hammered, and I caught her playing with her fingers.
“I wish I could touch you,” she whispered, staring down at her lap now, “just once. Just to...to remember what it felt like.”
I shivered, biting back a groan of desire. Wishing so much that I could do the same.
“You must think me foolish.” Her voice cracked, and my soul trembled.
“I would trace my finger down the soft velvet of your cheek until your flesh rippled beneath my touch.”
She shuddered. “Then what would you do?”
My voice grew throaty and husky as I let her hear the truth of my own desires. “I would gently grip your chin until your eyes were locked on mine.”
She looked up, dark purple eyes fixed tight on me. “Yes?”
A breeze ruffled through my hair, causing a thick lock of it to slide over my forehead. Not a hair on Annabelle’s head shifted.
“Then I would kiss you like I was dying, desperate and full of need. I would hold you so tight, Annabelle, and you would feel just how badly I wanted you too.”
She gulped, shuddering almost violently. “I...I think that would have been nice, Dante.”
Our smiles were sad when we looked at each other again.
“I had a child,” she said it so softly I almost missed it.
“What?”
“You wonder why I think I’m paying penance? That’s why. I had a child, with a terrible man who hurt me. He cast me out, told me I was a liar and a fallen woman. I was alone, just a poor theater girl with no prospects and no money. I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t raise a child in that kind of a life. I would have had nothing to offer it. I could barely survive myself. And I grew up in the system. Unwanted. Unloved. Shunned. I saw the very worst sort of devilry committed upon those of us with no voice and no one to fight for us. What kind of life would that have been for my child? To condemn my child to that fate? My parents should have done the same to me. I did the only thing I could do. The only merciful choice left for that baby. I’m a terrible person.”
Tears rolled heavy down her cheeks as she began to sob softly.
My heart squeezed, hurting so badly for her. The pain of what she’d been forced to do then was a millstone tied to her neck even now.
“Annabelle, stop. Don’t do this to yourself, it’s—”
Her tiny nostrils flared as she glared at me, “Go ahead. Say it. Now you know the truth, why I’m haunted, why I can never leave this place. I’m a wicked, wicked woman. I deserve—”
“Stop.” I reached for her hands that were waving wildly about, but I shivered the moment I phased right through her.
Her teeth clacked together and her eyes were wide in her pretty face as she shivered violently. My soul trembled, hating that I couldn’t even comfort her. I squeezed my eyes shut for half a second before saying, “You’re not wicked and you’re not terrible. You made the best possible choice you could.”
“I wish Sister Mary had let me die,” she whispered as a giant tear slid down the side of her cheek.
I lifted my hand, hovering it just over her face. Feeling her energy burn like frost through my hand.
“I’m glad she didn’t.”
“How can you say that? I’ve brought nothing but misery to those around me. Look what I’ve done to Jules, he didn’t deserve this fate. Every stupid, and reckless decision I ever made led me here. To this place. Where I brought nothing but death with me. Jules was a good man with a kind heart. He didn’t deserve this. Only I did.”
I shook my head, dropping my hand to my lap. “Don’t say that, Annabelle. You don’t mean it.”
She scoffed as she angrily swiped at her cheeks. “But I do. I’m a curse to all who know me. You should leave too. Save yourself the heartache and—”
“There is nowhere else I’d rather be and no one else I’d rather be with.”
She shuddered and shook her head.
“No, it’s true. I...I’m lost, Annabelle, and have been for a long time. Stuck in a rut. Dying slowly from the excruciating monotony of the life I’d built for myself. I’ve forgotten how to live, how to even have fun. Do you know I haven’t kissed a woman in over a month? And I had a girlfriend.”
A sound between a choked sob and laughter squeezed off her tongue. “Well, that is depressing, isn’t it?”
I chuckled and winced all at the same time. “You have no idea. I might be alive, Casper, but you know how to live. I don’t. Somewhere along the way I forgot who I even was. It was just like I was breathing, but I was dead inside. Nothing was right, but I didn’t know it until I got here, to this weird place full of monsters and one beautiful ghost.”
My words trailed off, and in my voice I heard the depth of my burgeoning feelings trembling heavily upon my tongue. She sucked in a sharp breath.
“What... what are you saying?” she asked into the heavy veil of silence.
My smile was crooked as I whispered, “Only that I’ve never felt so alive before. You make me smile, Annabelle. Really smile. You make me remember what actually matters.”
“And what’s that?”
“Being surrounded by the people you care about most.”
She wet her lips, voice low and heated as she said, “I am dead, Dante, and have been for many years. But you’ve given me the most glorious gift I never hoped to receive.”
I frowned. “What’s that?”
“Joy,” she nodded slowly. “Peace. And maybe that’s all I needed, maybe that’s all I needed to be bold enough to face my past so that I could finally move on.”
Her words brought ice to my soul, and I shook my head.
“Annabelle, that’s not what I—”
Zinnia suddenly poked her head out the door, glass green eyes almost looking like they glowed as she said, “We’re ready for you guys. Are you ready to lay your ghosts to rest, Annabelle?”
She looked at me one final time, smile blazing warmly even as tears shimmered in her lovely indigo colored eyes. “Yes, I’m ready for this to be over now.”
A cold the likes of which I’d only felt once before sucker punched me and left me reeling. I wasn’t ready to let her go.
I wasn’t sure I ever could be.
Chapter 10
Annabelle Lee
I FELT A TUGGING DEEP within my spirit the moment I crossed the threshold of my doorway. I was yanked almost violently into the center of the living room. A pentagram poured in salt called me to it.
But the spell wasn’t dark or violent. I recognized the witches’ handiwork. Strange orange and white glowing runes dotted the walls of the living room, burning like fiery embers, flaring like beacons when I was brought to the center of their spell.
Hyacinth and Zinnia stood just outside the circle, their grimoires held in their hands. Zinni
a smiled softly at me.
Dressed in a gown of darkest blue that fell to just below her knees and with her hair pinned up in soft curls, she looked lovely and gentle compared to Hyacinth’s stern counterpart. I trembled as I watched Dante gaze wide-eyed at the room, uncertainty evident on the tight lines of his handsome face.
My fingers clenched recalling our conversation of just moments ago. For all the pretty words he’d said out there, the truth was, he and I couldn’t possibly be any more different.
I hadn’t lied when I’d said that Dante had given me hope, he truly had. And though my bond to him grew stronger daily, I knew I could no longer be the selfish woman I’d once been. It was time to let him go and let him live a life full of wonder and joy and happiness. One not bound to the dead, but tethered to the soul of one vibrantly alive and able to give him all the things I never could.
“You’re going to be just fine, Annabelle, I promise you. Don’t be afraid,” Zinnia whispered in her husky tenor, before motioning over toward Dante and Blue who’d crept up behind her brother looking more centered and calm than she had earlier. “If you would both please come and join the circle.” She pointed to the pentagram at her feet.
Blue sidled up with a sigh. “Might as well just get this over with already.”
Dante followed just a second behind, his eyes trained on mine. “There are five points, and only four of us.”
“Observant,” Hyacinth harrumphed with eyes gleaming, even though she’d actually seemed a little pleased by his observation too. “Have you already forgotten that there is another ghost among us?”
“You don’t mean—” Dante said.
“Oh, but I do.” And with a cruel looking smirk, Hyacinth snapped her fingers.
I had no idea where Jules had been, but suddenly he stood on the fifth point, glaring and snapping his fangs, drool gleaming from the points of them. I shivered at the mad burn of fire in his ruby-red eyes.
“Oh, Jules,” I whispered, heart shattering at the sight of my beloved friend.
“His madness is what’s kept him away. For your safety, and his,” Zinnia said softly.
Julian lunged, jaws wide, aiming for Dante’s throat. But only a moment later a terrible spark of powerful energy burst, engulfing the shifter’s form, and he cried out, whimpering as if hurt.
“What’s happened to him? What have you done?”
Zinnia shook her head. “It is for his safety as well as ours, Annabelle. He is mad with moon fever and far more powerful than us. Julian actually has the power to harm us when he is like this. He is only tethered to the spot, but he cannot be harmed. Merely contained.”
“What? But...but he’s a ghost.”
“No, he’s not quite, my dear.” This was said by Hyacinth, and the unusualness of hearing her actually being kind had us all turning in shock toward her.
“What?” she harrumphed, back to her old self in no time. “Well, he’s not.”
Jules howled, bucking and lashing out violently with his fangs at the invisible barrier, causing a cascade of sparks to rage around him.
“You’d better hope that mutt can’t jump out of this. I have such a bad feeling about all of this. Oh God, I’m gonna puke.” Blue grabbed her stomach looking unwell.
“You keep that bile in your throat, young lady,” Hyacinth snapped. “Who do ye think we are? Revenants with no but a lick of common sense in our brains? We’re powerful witches and if ye so much as move a muscle and break this chain I’ll break yer leg.”
“Aunty Cinth, mind your manners! She’s naught but a human.” Zinnia glowered, looking remarkably put out, which would be a first for the sweetest and most level-headed of the witches. “I’m sorry. She’s clearly forgotten to take her meds today. What I believe my aunt meant to say was, so long as you don’t break the circle you’ll be perfectly safe. Trust in our magick, Blue. We do know how to drive out hauntings. We’ve done it before. But mind that you stay within the circle, hauntings are dangerous in that tis nearly impossible to tell fact from fiction unless you’re warded by strong magick.”
Blue reached over and snatched up Dante’s hand, clenching down so hard her knuckles turned a shade of bone white.
Dante squeezed back gently. He looked white around his mouth and unsure himself, but his feet were firmly planted, and I knew I could count on him come what may to help me break this curse upon myself and Julian.
We could be free.
My heart trembled.
Zinnia’s glass green eyes caught and found mine. “Annabelle, a haunting is the very worst part of your life trapped in a perpetual loop of time. To break it you must face it, to ensure it can never hurt anyone else again. Do you understand? You’ve shut out this part of your past, it is what binds you to this place. The truth, whatever it may be, is your only chance at freedom. Do you think you’re ready for this?”
I blinked.
Was I ready?
Ready to walk away from the only place I’d never known since I’d taken my last breath in life? The place that had meant hope and security, safety, and a new start?
I felt Dante’s eyes on me.
So long as I remained here, so long as this haunting remained here, he wouldn’t be safe. Jules would be mad with the fever. I squeezed my eyes shut as a lone tear slid slowly out.
“I’m ready, Zinny. Help me remember.”
Dante
THE MOMENT THE LAST word passed her lips, the world shifted. No longer did I stand inside of a circle holding onto my sister’s hand, but now I stood in a place I did not recognize.
A time that wasn’t my own.
I was in a city. Streets full of brackish, dirty water. With the stench of filth and food wafting in the smoggy air. The sky was a blaze of tangerine and peach tones, the sun was setting.
There were lights everywhere. Neon billboards with faces of a bygone era smiling blankly back at me as they hawked everything from toothpaste, to cars, to coffee. Cars and horses zipped by, honking and neighing as they hustled and bustled past.
I glanced around, and that’s when I finally noticed them. Zinnia. Hyacinth. And my sister. We were all holding hands, which I couldn’t feel in a physical sense, but I could see it.
“Dinna let go, this circle binds us, keeps the energy flowing, and the memories alive,” Hyacinth snapped to no one in particular.
“Where are we?” Blue asked, clearly too stunned by our surroundings to be daunted by Hyacinth’s waspishness.
Zinnia nodded. “This is New York, circa 1920s. The time of the flapper girl and the excess of wealth and revelry, prohibition reigned and champagne flowed. This is where we’ll find Annabelle Lee.”
Blue’s jaw dropped and I realized she’d not known near what I had about Annabelle’s past.
“And where’s Jules?”
“His time is not yet,” Zinnia said, moving cautiously back on her heels as a horse drawn carriage nearly ripped through her.
In this place it seemed we were the ghosts, no one noticed us, no one saw us.
“We cannot be seen, but we can still affect the environment. If something or someone touches you, you can feel the echoing imprint of their life and history in your minds. It can be...unpleasant to absorb too many memories, so try not to allow them to touch you, if you can.” Zinnia nodded with her chin. “Now shall we?”
“What?” I asked.
Hyancinth growled. “Goddess save me from fools. Do ye not see the theater, man? Where the devil do ye think she’d be, at the taxidermist’s? Well, c’mon,” she all but growled as she tugged us forward.
Blue leaned toward me. “Is it wrong that I really want to kick her in her prim and proper fanny right now?”
I snorted. Zinnia, who’d been standing closer than we’d realized glanced our way, snickered, and then whispered, “Sometimes I do too. Shh.” She winked.
Blue chuckled.
“What’s all the caterwauling about?” Hyacinth snapped.
“Oh, nothing, Aunty,” Zinnia said with a twink
le in her eye.
“Well, c’mon then, ye three bairns act like we have all day. The spell is timed, so keep to task.”
And with those words she phased through the bright red doors of the amphitheater.
Blue shrieked before phasing through a second later. Zinnia winked at me. “Blink and it’ll be done,” she said, then she too slid through.
I sucked in a breath and experienced a cold so shocking that it lifted all the fine hairs on the back of my neck.
When I came through to the other side, I was gasping as if I’d not taken a breath for minutes. My body had broken out in a wash of goosebumps.
“Oh, God, if I never have to do that again in my life, it’ll be too soon,” Blue groaned and shuddered, tugging on her wrist as though she meant to release Hyacinth’s hand.
“Do not, for any reason let my hand go, ye silly chit!” Hyacinth snapped. “Do ye want to get lost in here? Because that’s exactly what’ll happen to ye if ye do.”
Blue gasped. “I...I didn’t think—”
“No, obvious ye don’t do nearly enough of that.” Hyacinth snorted, tipping her nose up in the air.
“She didn’t know, Aunty, don’t be so harsh.” Zinnia scowled. “Now, if you would please just shut your trap, we can get down to the business at hand.”
I lifted my brow, sure Zinnia hadn’t had it in her, and judging by the sharp gasp of her aunt, Hyacinth hadn’t known it either.
I’d never seen Zinnia be anything other than sweet and soft spoken.
“Well, I never,” Hyacinth said, voice faltering just slightly. “That Zane has got yer head full of—”
“Do not insult my boyfriend, Aunty Cinth. And now hush, and remember who we are here for.”
“Harumph,” Hyacinth scowled, but didn’t say another word.
Blue’s lips twitched, and I couldn’t hide my own grin. Never thought I’d see the day when anyone took Hyacinth to task.
But I soon forgot about all that when the theater was suddenly flooded with lights and people came marching out onto the stage. A vain peacock of a man, slenderly built and clapping his hands walked in front of the actors. He had a thin Ed Wood style mustache that looked ridiculous on his sharp avian features. He wore a tailored, pinstripe, double-breasted jacket and a pair of spats. His hair was slicked back with pomade and shining beneath the stage lights. If I’d had any doubts that we were witnessing the past, his Al Capone getup would have definitely laid them to rest.