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He stared at me as if I had three eyeballs. “Because she looks exactly as she does in her picture.”
“She does?” That didn’t correlate with what I knew of ghosts. They didn’t die old and come back looking young again when they became spirits. They looked the same age as they did when they died. “But Wayde said she died in her eighties, so how does she look so young in the Netherworld?”
“She didn’t die in old age,” Alexander cut in. “Tess, I think you need to read that book.”
With my heart hammering in my ears, I turned to the book and flipped through the pages. I passed by the diary entry Wayde had showed me. “No, this can’t be.” I flipped through the pages in a rapid speed, but what I saw remained, which was absolutely nothing. “What the hell?”
Kipp’s icy finger once again slid up my arm. “Problem?”
My breath caught in my throat, not only from his touch, but from sheer shock before I forced my voice out. “There’s nothing else in here.” I continued like a mad woman to find anything written, something at all showing what happened to Nettie after she entered the Netherworld. Now I realized Dane had been right—Wayde didn’t lock the diary away, because it held no information at all.
Once I reached the last page and turned it, I notice a newspaper clipping. I grabbed the old piece of paper, opened it over top of the book, and angled my flashlight down. I only had to read for one second before the floor dropped out from under me. “Oh, shit.”
“What?”
Kipp’s full hand rested on my arm, causing me to grit my teeth from the frostbite rushing through my veins. I slowly glanced up at him and raised the newspaper in my shaky hand. “Nettie died the night after she made the journal entry I read.”
Wayde had lied—she didn’t die of old age. And stupid me, I hadn’t pressed Alexander when he told me she had passed away, since I hadn’t even considered that Wayde hadn’t told the truth.
Kipp cocked his head, his eyes searching mine. “Meaning, she remained in the Netherworld after her second trip there?”
Dropping the newspaper clipping onto the workbench, I raised my hands to my face in absolute horror.
If things could get any worse, they just did.
Chapter Twenty Three
I didn’t k
now for sure if it had any connection at all, but it wasn’t a coincidence that could be overlooked. Had Nettie died because she traveled to the Netherworld?
What frightened me most, as it seemed, that first trip I took to find Kipp had been my second time in the Netherworld. “Oh my God, I’ve been there two times—the same amount of times Nettie went before she died.” I looked at Alexander, who stood off to the side of the workbench. “Do you think these headaches mean I’m going to die?”
His eyes went huge and he shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“Nah, it doesn’t make sense,” Kipp agreed, cool and collected. “If Nettie died after, you shouldn’t have been able to ever come back. You’ve been there two times, so that doesn’t add up.”
While his theory did seem accurate, the awareness I might have become stuck in the Netherworld was so scary my heart skipped a beat.
“But a thought…” Tension radiated off Kipp, his eyes blazing. “If Wayde knew that Nettie never returned after she went into the Netherworld, do you think…”
A sudden loud creak echoed throughout the barn and I jerked toward the entrance.
“Dane?”
At Amelia’s soft voice, I exhaled a long breath, relieved it was her at the door and not some crazy-ass killer coming to remove my head with the gardening tools. Sure, maybe I was in full-out panic mode and not thinking entirely straight, but this barn, the dark night, the eerie silence—it all freaked me out.
At the same time, I wondered how Amelia had known we came into the barn. Either Kipp’s idea was stupid and she noticed my dull flashlight from outside, or she’d been watching us to see where we went, which I doubted, since…why would she be watching us?
Opening the door farther, she stepped into the barn and shut it behind her with a loud bang, sending dust to fly through the beam of my flashlight. “Why are you in here?” she asked.
“Tess is getting Nettie’s diary,” Dane replied.
“It’s hidden in here?” She eyed him suspiciously before she approached, the floorboards creaking loudly under her footsteps. “How did you find it?”
Dane didn’t hesitate. “Gretchen did a locating spell on the book and discovered Wayde had hid it in the barn.”
Two things with his statement worried me. First, Gretchen wasn’t here to confirm that lie, since she was packing our things in the house and I made a mental note to ensure I told her later. Second, Dane had lied so easily. Why should I trust a man who could think up a lie that quickly? I always stumbled over my thoughts when confronted and needed to bullshit my way through it. It definitely rubbed me wrong he could do it without a hitch to his breath.
