Chapter 9
Chapter nine
Cosmo sat on my lap. To an unsuspecting observer we must look like a middle-aged cat-lady with her sleeping furbaby, sitting outside a café with Genie.
We didn’t say much as we sipped our tall lattes.
Instead, we concentrated on what was happening fifty yards down the road.
I sat with my back to the auction house, while Genie faced it.
That way, we both had a view of her great-great-aunt, who sauntered back and forth down the road.
The idea was simple. Adriana drew energy for her afterlife from all the things connected to her time on earth. That effect should still hold true, even with the stolen items masked from us.
If she started flagging, after being without Genie and the precious brick after a while, whatever had belonged to her was no longer around.
If she received a new boost, it was. Hopefully, we didn’t have to make her patrol the whole town.
It had seemed logical to start with the scene of the crime and from there, increase the search area.
The biggest item was the RCA cabinet. It was unlikely that it had been carried away without some sort of disguise, unless it had been put in the trunk of a car.
Adriana stopped.
Cosmo held his breath.
I dribbled my latte.
The ghost bent to stroke a cat who’d wandered out of a house.
“She’s getting distracted,” I whispered.
Genie shook her head. “We have our own methods.”
Cat and ghost parted ways, and Adriana continued her saunter.
Finally, she returned to us.
Genie used a long spoon to scoop up some milk foam. The next thing I saw, now that Adriana was again invisible to me, was that I watched a drop or two of the milk foam disappear.
Behind me, a chair scraped over the pavement. I glanced around. Two artsy women with full shopping baskets sat down. The waitress followed them with plates of key lime pie and whipped cream at the side.
“Do you think Shawn will survive this fiasco?” the first one asked.
“I warned him. The stars aren’t aligned in his favor this year.”
“The stars, or Pete Grayson? To think that Shawn put his full influence behind Pete’s mayoral campaign. I heard if the emporium doesn’t happen, Shawn’s bankrupt.”
“He’s not the only one. Leila and Fay both remortgaged their homes to become Shawn’s partners. And the builders aren’t too happy either, if the project gets shut down.”
Cosmo nudged me, his way of telling me that he didn’t sense anything occult around us. I cast a tiny spell, one so slight it would barely cause a ripple, to make the women feel at ease and unobserved.
The first one said, “A few more curveballs like this, and Pete Grayson won’t have many friends left in Crystal Springs.”
“I heard it’s all to please a developer who wants to build condos for the rich by the springs, without having to share with us spiritually inclined lower classes.”
“Money laundering, most likely.”
I heard heavy steps approaching. The first woman trilled, “Hello, Pete.”
“Ladies.” He walked past them, and us.
I listened for another minute, but his appearance had jinxed their discussion. The two women chatted about woodcuts and crochet instead.
An eerie cawing set my teeth on edge. I prepared for a witchfire wave to roll over me with the intensity of biting into a habanero pepper – hot enough to set your mouth aflame, not hot enough to send you to hospital.
Instead, I felt an immense sadness. The crow cawed again. A tear trickled down my cheek.
“The poor thing is desperate,” Adriana said.
“What does it say?” her great-great-niece asked.
“I can’t make out words, but –”
“It’s a cry for help.” I shivered. “Would you excuse us for a moment?”
I lifted Cosmo off my lap and took him around the corner, glancing over my shoulder to see if we were alone.
“We have to do something,” Cosmo said.
“What if it’s a trap? What if our opposition is sending the ghost crow out to see if we reveal ourselves?”
“No. It’s resisting the call. It feels that it’s been resurrected with bad intent.” Cosmo touched my cheek with his paw. “If we release it, it’ll be free from agony, and it will make beating the other witch easier.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. Think of it; what would you be without me?”
“I see your point. Which still leaves the question: what happens if we act. What if the witch strikes back at you?”
“You won’t let that happen. And if the other witch was truly evil, the crow wouldn’t have been able to resist. Whoever’s behind this, is on the path of corruption but not completely lost yet.”
“A bit like fudging the truth on your dating profile and ending up lying about everything, from your age to your non-existent achievements?”
He blinked at me. “Pardon?”
I’d forgotten that cats didn’t need dating apps, and neither had my aunt. She’d been happily married until my uncle’s too early passing and had never felt the urge to replace him.
“Something that starts as slightly grubby, but you think is harmless, and then it snowballs.” I breathed easier. Put like this, we didn’t have to brace for the worst. At least, not yet.
“Now you see why we have to step in and save the crow.”
“Do you have a plan?”
He told me on our way back to the table.
The red fire in the ghost crow’s eye sockets pulsed. Three short, three long, three short.
“It’s signaling something,” I mumbled under my breath. “It’s –”
Adriana and I spoke in unison. “SOS.”
A tiny part of my mind was intrigued that the crow knew morse code. Never mind; this wasn’t the moment to be distracted. Like Cosmo had suggested in our private chat, I put my hands palm-down on the table. “We’ll form a circle, for a sort of séance.”
Genie and Adriana touched my fingertips. Cosmo purred, unleashing all the power the vibrations held.
I pictured the crow, shaking off the dark haze surrounding it, revealing glossy feathers and a chest that moved with every breath.
The red fire dimmed and faded away, until the bird sat on the branch in its old form. I took a deep inhale, and, on the exhale, I let my breath spiral upwards until it enveloped the crow. It cawed once more, in a tone of wonder, and with that, its chest became still and the bird vanished.