Grave Dance

I whirled around. Caleb’s worried, wide-eyed expression matched mine as we made a quick search of her room. The windows were closed, there was no sign of a struggle, and the outfit she’d planned to wear tomorrow was set out on her dresser. The only thing wrong with the room was the fact that Holly wasn’t in it.

“Here,” Falin called from the front room and both Caleb and I took off at a run.

I heard PC barking as I passed the guest room, but I didn’t pause to let him out. He was safe in there.

When we reached the living room, we found Falin leaning heavily against the doorframe. He pointed at something in the front yard and we rushed past him.

A figure lay crumpled in the middle of the lawn, red hair fanning around her head and her bare knees tucked to her chest. Holly.

I collapsed in the grass beside her. I didn’t see any blood, any injury, but the way she was lying could have covered it. I groped for her throat.

“She has a pulse,” I said as Caleb dropped to his knees beside me.

He reached for her shoulder and her eyes fluttered open. She gasped, her hands jerking toward her chest as if she were pulling a sheet over herself.

“Caleb?” She blinked, sitting up. “And Alex? Okay, guys, really, I don’t need nursemaids. I’m fine. I—” She stopped and looked around for the first time. “Uh, why am I outside?”

I shared a glance with Caleb before saying, “You don’t remember coming out here?”

“No.” She frowned. “Should I? Was I sleepwalking?” Good question. I hoped that was it, but the sinking feeling in my stomach was pretty sure nothing as mundane as sleepwalking could explain what had happened.

“Let’s get you inside and see if we can’t work this out,” Caleb said, helping Holly to her feet.

She wore only an oversized T-shirt, and she smoothed it self-consciously where the hem hit high on her thighs. Caleb and I shepherded her past Falin and through the front door, and then settled her onto the couch. While Caleb fetched her a drink, I retrieved my phone.

Tamara’s phone went to voice mail the first time I called. I hung up and tried again. This time she picked up on the fourth ring.

“Alex, it’s four thirty in the morning. You better have a good reason for getting me out of bed.”

Unfortunately, I did.

“Tam, can you get over here. I think Holly’s been spelled.”

Tamara lived only a few streets away—almost all the practicing witches in Nekros lived in the Glen—so her car rolled into the driveway less than fifteen minutes later. By then, Caleb had run a full diagnostic on the house wards and traced all the magical signatures. Holly had been the one who disabled the wards, and no one had entered the house and no unfamiliar magic had brushed the wards before she’d taken them down.

I’d paced around the living room until Holly complained that I was making her dizzy. Then I set about gathering the spelled disks, a task complicated by the fact that I’d released my grave-sight and deep shadows clung everywhere despite all the lights that I’d turned on in the house. Falin had disappeared by the time I got off the phone with Tamara. Holly said he’d asked for a first-aid kit and retreated to my loft. I didn’t want to leave Holly and Caleb, so I hoped he’d be okay on his own. I planned to check on him soon.

Tamara’s loud knock sounded just as I shoved the broom under the couch, searching for any disks that had rolled away. Holly and Caleb jumped to their feet, rushing for the door. I started to rise, but the broom hit something larger than a spelled disk. I swished the broom to the side, knocking the object out from under the couch. Then I yelped, jumping back.

Caleb and Holly whirled around at the sound, and Tamara stopped, her foot hanging in the air where she’d been stepping through the open doorway. My heart crashed hard as I stared at the raven I’d exposed. I lifted my broom like a baseball bat, but the raven only lay in a crumpled heap. It was the one Caleb had doused with the spell, and its chest lifted in slow, labored breaths, but it was otherwise still.

“Oh, eew,” Holly said, and then she ran into the kitchen. She emerged a moment later with the large strainer Caleb had used for last night’s spaghetti. She tossed it over the bird and then piled magazines from the coffee table on top to weigh the strainer down. “There.”

“What is going on?” Tamara asked, her eyes taking in the chaos.

Caleb and I had both frozen at the sight of the raven, and even now, with the bird trapped under the strainer, I hadn’t lowered the broom. I took a deep breath and pried my fingers off the wooden handle. Then I sagged into the closest chair, feeling as if my bones had melted into something not completely solid.

Caleb and I filled Tamara in on the happenings of the night, not taking turns so much as interrupting each other. Holly joined in once we got to the end and related how we’d found her on the lawn. After we’d finished, silence filled the room.

“Have you called the police?” Tamara asked after several minutes had passed.

Caleb shook his head. “I don’t know that we should get them involved.”

“I think we have to,” Holly said, hugging her knees to her chest. She’d added a pair of shorts to her outfit, but with the oversized shirt draping her petite frame, she looked more like a frightened child than a confident prosecutor.

Caleb often said three was the perfect number for a group—there were never ties in a decision. Since I was the final roommate, everyone turned to me. To call the police or not? I dodged. “What can you tell me about the spell on Holly?” And Caleb—the ravens had scored a deep gash on his forearm and raked his knuckles. If all it took was one scratch for the spell to transfer, he’d definitely caught it.

Tamara pursed her lips and motioned for Holly to sit on the couch.

Holly settled herself on the cushion farthest from the trapped raven—we were all giving the strainer a wide berth—and Tamara sat on the coffee table, directly across from Holly.

“May I?” Tamara pointed to the collar of Holly’s shirt.

Holly shrugged. “I’ll take it off.” She turned her back to us and pulled the shirt over her head. She pressed the material over her breasts before turning back.

Yesterday the cu sith’s scratch had looked like Holly had been clawed by a tiger, but today the jagged tears stretching from her collarbone to the top of her opposite breast were thinner, the skin pink and healing quickly from some of the best healing spells money could buy. The ring of teeth marks on her shoulder was a little worse, the scabs still thick and angry-looking, but by all accounts, healing in remarkable time.

I’d scanned them with my ability to sense magic already and I’d felt a tickle of magic that seemed more like a memory of a spell than anything active or malicious. Now I cracked my shields again, peering through the brilliant swirls of the Aetheric to focus on Holly’s exposed wounds. When I squinted, I thought I caught a tinge of gray behind the healing skin. Maybe.

After peering at Holly’s wounds, Tamara looked over at Caleb and motioned for him to show her his hand and arm. She studied his wounds for a while and then leaned back, placing her hands to the side and slightly behind her on the coffee table.

“If I hadn’t been looking for it, I never would’ve spotted the spell,” she said, shaking her head. “And it’s a weird spell. I mean, it’s more a trace than anything active.”

Damn. That was exactly what I was getting as well. I closed my shields and blinked in the sudden darkness clouding my vision.

“Can you sense what it is or how to counter it?” Holly asked. She was an exceptional spellcaster, but she wasn’t the least bit sensitive.

Tamara reached out a hand, but hesitated before touching Holly’s shoulder. “This might feel a little invasive.”

Holly nodded assent and Tamara pressed her palm to Holly’s skin. Tamara’s eyes closed, and whatever she did made Holly cringe, but she didn’t pull away.

“It’s like the spell is hibernating,” Tamara said without opening her eyes. “It’s hard to explain, but it’s like the spell formed a crystallized shell. I doubt it can do anything inside all that protection, but it’s barely traceable and I can’t get a slip of magic beyond the cocoon it’s formed.”

“So it would have to be active to be dispelled,” I said, following her logic, though I didn’t like it one bit. “But we don’t know what triggers the spell or what it does.”

Tamara dropped her hand and nodded that she was finished. Holly dressed quickly.

Caleb leaned back in his chair. “Holly left yesterday morning. When she claimed she hadn’t, I thought she just didn’t want us to know who she went to see.” He shot her an apologetic glance. “But maybe that was just a trial run for tonight.”

It was possible. I drummed my fingers on the arm of the chair. “Both events happened in the middle of the night. Was the timing based on when the caster assumed Holly’s absence wouldn’t be noticed and when the attack would be unexpected, or does the spell’s host have to be asleep?”

“Great. I’ll never sleep again,” Holly said, slumping.

Yeah, like that was really an option.

“I think you should go to the hospital in the Quarter,” I told her. Caleb voiced his agreement and I turned to him. “You too.”

“No.” He pushed himself out of his chair. “Holly, yes, definitely. She should be under observation and under the care of trained physicians and healers. No offense.” He glanced at Tamara. “But not me. I’m fae—the spell might not even work on me.”

“Or it might.” It was probably aimed at me, after all, and I was part fae. I hadn’t told Tamara and Holly that little detail yet, so I kept that thought quiet. Caleb gave me a look that said he wouldn’t budge, and I sighed. “So now what?”

“We need to call the police,” Holly said.

I agreed. Caleb didn’t. Majority vote won and Holly phoned in the call.