Chapter Twenty-Three
Phin
Morgana’s new office was technically a bedroom right off the living room.
It already had a desk, but she had added another.
Elliot must have had some kind of business because an erasable-ink pen sat on top of an accounting book.
I assumed it belonged to Elliot because it was his house.
It was my understanding that he’d lived alone until meeting Grym.
I sat on a couch beneath a picture window.
They kept the curtains open, and the window itself was cracked open about a foot.
A pleasant breeze drifted in. A laptop rested on my lap.
So far, I’d seen possibilities, but reaching out was problematic.
How did you start a conversation about reapers hiding out from the god of death?
And how did you reach out to someone who just liked witch paraphernalia but didn’t have magic?
Ezul sat in a chair across from me. His stare was creepy.
When I met his gaze, he smiled in a cold way he hadn’t at dinner. “What?”
“Are you having any luck?” It wasn’t that I thought he was a secret agent for Donn. Ossy and I differed on that. What annoyed me was the constant staring and that ever-present smirk.
With a name like Hollowbrook, there was bound to be a witch in town.
Maybe I should just go out and ask around.
I could put on a cloak and hide, eavesdropping on conversations.
That sounded like a much better idea than dealing with Ezul’s condescending stare.
Yes, a stare could be condescending, especially when it came with a smile from a demon.
I sighed. “It takes time.”
I would continue my internet search later, after Ezul found something else to do. I shut the laptop lid and set the computer on the coffee table between us. I’d been sitting for a while and needed to stretch my legs. My ass hurt. A stroll through town would help.
Ezul stood when I did, intending to follow me.
“Where are you going?” Morgana asked without looking up from the paperwork she was working on.
She didn’t work for the Bureau anymore, but she must be keeping up with it anyway.
Knowing Morgana, she might have even made up the paperwork herself just to have some semblance of normalcy.
She was the type of person who wanted to be part of hustle culture, even though her job didn’t require it.
“Figured I’d see who I can befriend in town who’s a witch.”
“I’d say it was a long shot, but the town is named Hollowbrook, so maybe not.” She snapped her fingers at Ezul. “Not you. You’re with me.”
“As you wish.” He sat again, folding his hands in his lap and crossing his legs. “I just think I can identify a witch a lot more easily than Phin. It’s a demon’s skill, not a reaper’s.”
“Not this time.” Morgana waved me off, and I left the room. “Stay safe. Find Ossy and stick with him.”
I almost flipped Ezul off but thought better of it.
He might have shadowed me all morning, but he seemed to want to help.
He was an asshole for thinking he could do better than me.
Well, maybe not much of one if he actually could.
Not that Morgana was letting him help. She didn’t trust him.
He would have to work hard to earn her trust. Morgana was no pushover.
If I were going off the property, I definitely needed Ossy there, just in case something went wrong. He was already in town, so my first agenda item was to find him. With that plan in mind, I grabbed a cloak off the hook and opened the door.
Hale came running toward me just as I was about to head out. “I want to go with you.”
He followed me outside.
“Our only hope of protecting this place long-term is for you to stay here. We need you more than anyone right now.” He was the only witch we had. Even if he didn’t know how to use his magic, he still had it.
Donn seemed to want to leave us alone for now. The only demons on-site, or hellhounds for that matter, were the two on our side. Donn hadn’t sent anyone else, so Hale was safer on the farm.
“I can tell when somebody’s a witch, too.” He waved his finger around his head like someone did when they thought a person was crazy, except that wasn’t what he meant. “They sort of show up, and I can just feel it, you know?”
I’d never felt another person, except for Ossy. Even his presence was more of an emotional response.
Ossy was in a sudden panic. Feeling his emotions ramp up made my own anxiety spike. Buddying up might not be a bad idea.
I held out my hand to him, and he took it. Then I pulled the hood up and projected us onto the sidewalk on Main Street in Hollowbrook. Not that I’d ever seen it before, but every Main Street had sidewalks with little shops along them, right?
I’d never used a cloak before. It was the coolest thing. I mean, obviously, I was a reaper, so the cloaks worked for me in theory. But for the first time, I knew they also worked in practice.
The thought was all it took. We ended up in front of the bank. The building had a big clock at the top, with hands that ticked, including a second hand that moved around the face. It was the biggest clock I’d ever seen. The time read half-past eleven.
Main Street looked typical, with a florist shop and an antique store across the street.
An ice cream shop had a line out the door, right next to a hardware store having a sale on lawn chairs and garden tools.
The hardware store also had a bench outside with two older men sitting on it, holding paper coffee mugs.
Together, they watched the souls walking around, and there were a lot of them.
Like, a lot, a lot. It was unreal how many dead people there were.
One man scowled and shook his head. The other had wide eyes.
The most fascinating thing was that the older men could see them.
Fascinating. And odd. In fact, it was one of the weirdest things I’d seen in a while, and I was the reaper’s assistant, so I’d seen some pretty weird shit.
I had a sinking feeling in my stomach and gripped Hale’s hand tighter. “Stay close, Hale.”
He nodded. “I see the shadows.”
That wasn’t what I had noticed until Hale pointed them out, but they were very problematic. They moved in dark corners, searching for beloveds.
I needed to find Ossy. The sooner, the better.