Waiting for a Ghoul Like You (Harmony Glen #21)

Chapter 1

Chapter

One

Soon.

It’s what Sven had to keep telling himself since Margaid and Finn’s wedding a couple of days ago. That was the day Mercedes said she’d be willing to try a séance so he could connect with Florence. In that moment she’d given him something he hadn’t had in a century of loneliness.

Hope.

Part of him didn’t want to put all his proverbial eggs in one basket. There had been times he’d been disappointed before. Okay, only once, and that was the night Flo disappeared. He never knew what became of her.

Until now.

There was also guilt for not knowing, for not confronting her father.

For not protecting her.

That would all change now.

He was going to make sure of it.

Flo didn’t blame him. Mercedes had seen her, spoken with her. She was here in their dead-and-breakfast all this time.

She was so close and yet so far.

It was torture waiting.

Although, it had been torturous for the last century not knowing what happened to her the night they were supposed to run away together, when he thought his own curse would finally be broken.

In the grand scheme of things, his curse didn’t matter because he was so in love with her.

All he wanted to do was be with her and protect her.

No one was going to harm her ever again.

He may not have liked killing, on the whole, but he was still skilled in handling his broadsword, even if it might be a bit rusty.

Not that it mattered. He’d do whatever he had to do to keep her safe because no one was stealing his heart away ever again.

And Flo was his heart.

She always had been

The pain over her loss that he carried with him was something he still hadn’t got over. His twin brother Magnus had many one- night stands over the years, but since Florence, Sven couldn’t be with anyone else.

Nor did he want to be.

“You need to move on,” Magnus stated. “I hate seeing you pine for someone who has probably long since passed.”

“And what would you know? You’ve never been in love,” Sven snarled.

“I’m only trying to help you,” Magnus said calmly, his hands raised.

“You can help me by leaving me alone. You can help me by not talking about her ever again.”

Of course, their repetitive argument was moot as Magnus was in love with Mercedes and freed from the sea witch’s curse that had plagued them both for many centuries.

Yrsa, the aforementioned sea witch, was cursed to never return the sea when they accidentally stumbled on her.

Magnus was hit with the spell at first and Sven ran in to protect his twin brother and was cursed as well.

Only true love could release them from immortality and allow them to leave Harmony Glen, where they’d been stuck for a thousand years. Magnus was freed, he was not.

Magnus never really did believe in true love, but now his brother knew what love was. Whereas he was still in limbo.

Learning that Flo had been here at Room with a Tomb, cursed but invisible, was a lot to take in.

He wished he knew what had happened, but Mercedes told him that Flo couldn’t remember much.

There were theories, involving Mercedes’ ancestors, but that’s about all he knew. It was all any of them did, really.

It didn’t matter, though. He should’ve been there to protect her.

Flo needed his help, and if he could help her through this séance, then that’s what he was going to do. He’d make her remember him and their love. And if he couldn’t, he’d see that no one harmed her again.

Since Mercedes agreed to participate in the séance, she’d been going to Mona, the witch who ran The Clothes Spin, every night to get pointers. Mercedes said it herself that she wasn’t the best witch out there and she didn’t want to make things worse.

Sven was painfully aware of Mercedes’ abilities.

Their grand opening day the dead-and-breakfast had lost one too many feather pillows to the random explosions she caused.

And she was still cleaning up flower petals after catching Margaid’s bouquet and having it combust in her hand. Those flowers went everywhere.

Sven let out the breath he’d been holding.

Not that he needed to hold his breath, it was just a force of habit, and scrubbed a hand over his face as he tried to concentrate on the spreadsheet of business expenses for the dead-and-breakfast. The same spreadsheet he’d been staring at for the last hour.

He just couldn’t concentrate. It was all he could do not to wish the days would rush by faster.

He tried to keep his mind occupied. Menial administrative tasks had kept his mind off the grief over the last century, but he just couldn’t do it.

He felt absolutely powerless and out of control.

It was the worst feeling.

He glanced around the cozy wood-paneled lobby of Room with a Tomb. It appeared empty, but he couldn’t help but wonder who was actually lurking there.

“Flo, I don’t know if you’re in the room, but…

” He stopped himself from saying additional words out loud because he knew she didn’t remember him completely, and he didn’t want to scare her off.

Plus, he was always the levelheaded twin between him and Magnus, and he had a hard time talking to nothing.

It seemed kind of silly to him, the whole idea of ghosts and spirits. Which was ironic, given he’d been cursed by a landlocked sea witch a thousand years ago and was technically a ghoul.

“Odin’s testicles,” he cursed under his breath, slamming his fist down on the desk and upsetting a neat basket of paperclips.

“Whoa. I only hear that come out of your brother’s mouth.”

Sven turned to see Mercedes standing behind him. She was gazing at him softly, and his shoulders slumped as he let out a sigh before picking up the spilled paperclips.

“Sorry.”

“For what?” she asked.

“I don’t usually like cursing in front of a lady. I’m not as barbaric as my brother. I never have been.” He straightened the reception desk back to the way he liked it.

Mercedes grinned. “So, you were more of a lover than a fighter Viking?”

He chuckled. “Dreamer maybe. More like that. I didn’t much like killing.”

Mercedes leaned against the check-in counter. “I’m glad to hear that. Please don’t tell me that my ghoul boyfriend enjoyed killing?”

“Only animals to eat. We were explorers, not raiders.”

“Whew.” Mercedes ran her hand across her forehead in a dramatized act of relief.

“How are you feeling?” Sven didn’t want to push her or pressure her. He was thankful she had agreed to do the séance, but he was also so very envious that she could talk to Flo while he couldn’t, and he wanted to get things moving.

Mona said this séance would help Flo, but Mercedes had to do it. He wasn’t sure how, but he hoped it would.

“I’m good.” Mercedes smiled brightly. “How about tonight?”

If Sven had a heartbeat, it would skip right about now. “Tonight?”

“Well, I need a lot of people here and the Sullivans want to stay on for it. Mona can come over tonight and Pearl is still in town. I feel like Mona and Pearl completely ground me.” She cocked her head to one side and nodded. “So…yeah, tonight.”

“I think tonight is great.” He was so excited, he could barely contain it. “What do we need to do?”

“I think the dining room would be great. We need some candles and I have everything else at Hetty’s. I just have to go grab it and then I’ll come back with Pearl and we’ll do this.”

“Okay. I’ll let the Sullivans know. Say around seven?”

Mercedes nodded. “Yes.”

“Does…does Flo know?” He wasn’t sure why he hesitated in saying her name. Maybe because it had been so long since he dared to even utter her name, because it had hurt so much when she vanished.

Every little snap of twigs made him jump as he waited for her. She was late. The sun would be coming up soon and he’d have to hide again.

Where was she?

Magnus rounded the corner of the cemetery, his expression pained.

“Still waiting?” Magnus asked gently.

“Obviously,” Sven snapped, then his shoulders slumped. “She’s not coming, is she?”

“I don’t think so. No one is at her house either.”

“Well, tomorrow then. It’s hard to get away from her controlling father,” Sven explained.

Magnus nodded. “Of course. Tomorrow.”

Only Sven knew Magnus didn’t believe him. They were twins after all.

“Let’s go back to the cave.”

“Yes.”

It was so hard to walk away, but Sven kept going back every night, for years, waiting.

It’s why there was an old legend about the persistent ghoul who waited every night in the cemetery.

Frozen and on guard. The story morphed into him waiting to steal souls, but that’s how legends and old wives’ tales went back then.

After the Great Revelation and when they came out, residents of Harmony Glen learned he was not some harbinger coming for their souls.

“She knows about the séance,” Mercedes responded, softly interrupting his thoughts.

“She doesn’t remember much, and she’s been a bit flighty with me today, but she’s having a good spell.

Whatever curse was placed on her, I’m hoping this séance will help.

Something was done incorrectly and that’s why she’s a cursed ghoul, phantom, revenant, or whatever you call it, and can’t recall who she is or why she can’t be seen. ”

“I just want this to work. I can’t remember the last time…” He dropped his head into his hands. He wanted to have hope again, but that was something he’d only just regained since learning the truth about what had happened to Flo.

Hope long since crushed when she wasn’t there that night.

The night they were going to run away. His curse would’ve been lifted that night and he could have left with her.

So she could be safe. Instead, her horrible father took it upon himself to hire witches to curse her, and he did nothing to stop it.

“What’s wrong?”

“I should’ve saved her that night. I swore to keep her safe.”