Rae frowned at the patch of mud, grabbing a stick to poke at it. Nothing else happened outside of my brain matter separating.
“How do you not want to throw up right now?” I shouted.
Rae glanced over her shoulder. As soon as she saw my defensive stance, she shut off the EMF. “Sorry. I forgot.”
“Forgot the powerful sonic weapon you have at your fingertips?” My ears still rang. I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself on what I would have sworn was solid ground.
“It takes some getting used to…I also might have a bit of hearing loss after years of use.” She clipped the EMF onto her belt. “Octavia?”
“I’m still here,” I said dryly as I tugged on my earlobe.
“This isn’t looking good.”
“Tell me about it.” I scoffed. “I think I taste blood.”
“I don’t care what you believe,” she said, ignoring my heavy complaint. “You need to be honest with me.”
A cloud of cold seriousness shaded her expression. She didn’t seem to care about the wet sock or saving face anymore. Her gaze cut through me, ice burning my warm skin.
“What are you talking about?” I frowned, angling my body away from her and toward the stable.
“Have you done something to someone? Stolen an heirloom? Tricked them into giving you money?”
I let out a humorless laugh. “What? Why the hell would I do something like that?”
She pressed her hand to her chest. “I’m not here to judge you.”
“Yeah?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Because it sure sounds like that’s exactly what you’re doing.”
Rae pointed to the mud. “That action is personal. And from everything Esther told me, the accidents involving your other ranch hands probably weren’t solely based on environmental accidents?—”
“One of my hands accidentally fell on a fence post,” I said flatly. “The other forgot to turn the stove off. It can and is that simple.”
“Something pulled my ankle. Touched me. That means this entity has the ability to combine environment and physical touch to inflict harassment. This hostility—especially this early on—is an indicator that someone is pissed. And you’re the landowner, so nine times out of ten, that someone would be pissed at you.”
“I barely talk to anyone on a good day, so how in the world would I have the chance to offend and…kill?” Because if this were a vengeful ghost, this was a person who died a vengeful human.
“You don’t have to kill someone for them to harbor a grudge from beyond the grave,” she said.
“No one has a grudge against me.” But I sounded unconvincing even to my own ears. That’s because she was doing this to me, though. Inserting these wild what-ifs into my psyche.
“I have to be honest, I’m finding it a little difficult to believe you.”
“I’m sorry?”
She closed her eyes for a second and pinched the bridgeof her nose. “I mean…you have a wall that’s the height of a skyscraper.”
“Excuse me for not baring my soul to a lecture hall of strangers for a profit. But I don’t think I’d sell a bobblehead as well as you do. I’m not interesting enough.”
Rae huffed and gave herself a second to recover. “I don’t care about interesting. What I need is honesty.”
“Ask me a question,” I dared. “And I’ll answer.”
She eyed me.
“Why wouldn’t I help you get to the end of the job quicker? I want you out of here as soon as possible. And you prefer working with more agreeable clients, I’m sure. So, ask me anything, and I’ll make sure you have everything you need to move on.”
Rae slowly nodded. “Good.”
