Bone Cold: A Soul Shamans Novel (Volume 2) (29 page)

“These flowers are from George.” Laura placed a handful of white lilies onto the stone surface. It turned out George was wracked with more guilt than my father was. She insisted Nathan had been under her protection, and she should have been able to stop Anthony Lombardi from capturing him. She’d wanted to teach Nathan how to bottle up his spirit side so he could live a normal human life. Everything she’d done had been to protect him, even from us.

If only I’d just trusted her.

After that night, George had explained everything to me. There’d been a massive rivalry between the Proctor family and the Glover family, a centuries-long struggle that dated back to the Salem witch trials. George’s family only tapped a pure kind of magic that focused on nature and balance while Mary Glover’s family wanted nothing more than power, no matter the cost. The only Glover to break away from the dark arts was Wanda, who’d just wanted to run a magic shop in a quiet little town called Seaport. When Mary found out Wanda was trying to help us, Anthony had used a rune to lure Nathan there so his spirit side could take her out.

Her own family had been responsible for her death.

“Have you heard from the Wardwell sorceress?” I asked, referring to the woman Laura had been in contact with online. She’d come to Seaport to break down the barrier spell that night but high-tailed it out of there when she realized exactly what was going on in this town and which sorceress family we were up against.

“No.” Laura sighed and sat back on her heels. “What about your dad?”

My veins turned to steel at the mention of my father. “He’s still MIA. I guess he thinks he’s protecting me from that stupid tarot card reading.”

“Well, I think the reading was right, you know.” She brushed her fingers along the edge of Nathan’s grave. “His being in your life did lead to a young person’s death. Just not yours.”

My heart burned, and a new batch of grief flamed in my belly. “I will never forgive him.”

“He was only trying to save you. Trying to save all of us.”

“He
killed
Nathan.”

Red filled my eyes. The image of Nathan’s body exploding into nothingness was something I’d never be able to forget. It replaced all the memories of his easy smile, of his laugh, of his drawings he’d made just for me. Not only had my father killed the only boy I’d ever loved, he’d erased every sweet moment with a vicious memory that overwhelmed everything else in my mind.

Laura squeezed my shoulder and stood. “Try not to stay out here too long tonight.”

I gave her a halfhearted nod and dropped my head into my hands. Time passed in a blur. Other people came and went all around me, but the only thing in my mind was the shatter of Nathan’s soul and the way his fragments had melted into the dust-painted barn.

A sudden chill swept across my skin, and I glanced up at the world around me. The cemetery had gone dark and the moon was high in the sky. All the visitors from earlier had disappeared back to their regular lives. Shivers raced down my spine as a cool breeze touched my face and fluttered the hair on the back of my neck. Everything else was still, even the brittle leaves on the ground. My pulse jumped against my throat. I wasn’t alone here. There was someone—or something—else around. My eyes darted to the shadows, and every muscle in my body ached to run.

But something in my gut told me that whatever was out here didn’t mean me harm.

Someone settled on the ground beside me. The scent of cinnamon and aftershave tickled my nose, and I knew without looking who was there. It was only Constantine, nothing more and no one else. Suddenly, my heart felt more hollow than it ever had before. For a moment there, I’d thought…I shook my head. That was impossible.

“You’re still out here,” he said as a hello, dropping an arm around my shoulders.

“And you’re still in Seaport,” I said. “Aren’t you sick of this place by now?”

“I don’t have anywhere else to go, remember?”

“I’m sorry you got fired because of me,” I said. “I know that world was your life.”

“Holly,” he said in a low voice. “Your father did what he did for the right reasons, but there could have been another way. He shot Nathan without considering another alternative, and while that makes him a strong man and a good leader, I don’t want to work for someone who doesn’t do whatever it takes to save an innocent person’s life. Especially someone his daughter clearly loved.”

I sucked cool air through my nose and brushed a wayward tear from my cheek, avoiding Constantine’s gaze so he couldn’t see how much his words hit me where it hurt. I’d wanted to hear these thoughts come from my father, not someone else.

“So, what are you going to do?” I asked, opting for a subject change. “You can’t just stick around Seaport forever.”

“Well first, I’m going to get you out of this cemetery and back into the real world.” He gave my shoulder a light punch. Raising my eyebrows, I punched him back, a small smile gracing the corners of my lips.

“So she does remember how to smile,” he said with a laugh.

I scowled. “Don’t get cocky.”

“I also thought I could start looking into your mother’s disappearance,” he said. “She and three others shamans have gone off the grid since the hunt for Anthony started last month. I think it’s time we found out what happened to them.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know if I can take waiting around just to hear about another death, Constantine. Especially not my Mom’s. Anthony obviously lured her away from here. There’s no telling what he had waiting.”

“There’s no reason why you’d have to do that, Holly.”

I blinked up at him. “What do you mean?”

Constantine withdrew a blade from his side, sheathed in thick leather. He placed it in my palms and gave me a slight smile. “That knife is good for blood spells, but it’s also a great weapon against shamans.”

“What are you saying?” I asked, fingering the thick, smooth material. The knife inside was solid and heavy, a lot different than the cheap version I’d been carrying around in my messenger bag the past year.

“I’m saying you should come with me,” he said with a smile. “I’ll train you while we’re on the road, and we’ll follow the trail until we find the missing shamans. And your mother.”

“So, I’d have to leave Seaport?” I asked, gazing down the hill at my town, now fully recovered from the chaos of that terrible night. The familiar New England buildings spread out before me, the shoreline a blue backdrop in the distance, the only home I’d ever really known. So much had happened here the past year, it no longer felt like the safe haven I’d grown to love. It felt dark and full of bitter memories, vague ghosts of Nathan and Jason and Wanda lingering everywhere I turned.

“It would be good for you, Holly.” Constantine tugged me closer. “You’ve been living in a cloud of grief. It’s time to break out of your funk and do something. Focus on something else, something meaningful.”

I turned to gaze up at Constantine’s serious face. My heart began to twitch from its coma, coming to life at the thought of finally having a purpose again. He was right. There was nothing left for me in this broken town. It was time for me to get out in the world and kick some serious shaman ass.

The End.

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Other titles by Cady Vance

Available Now

Bone Carved, A Prequel Short Story

Bone Dry, Book 1

The Madmen’s City

Never Sleep

About the author

Cady Vance is the author of YA and NA speculative fiction. After growing up in small-town Tennessee, she decided to embark on a grand adventure by packing up her bags and moving to NYC. Now, she studies for her PhD in the UK and dreams of seeing the universe.

www.cadyvance.com