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I dropped my head into my hands and wanted to cry in frustration. Dear God, couldn’t I get a single answer for which way it was? I almost would’ve preferred to have heard it didn’t work than being stuck in this back and forth business.
“Now the others, Amelia,” Alexander whispered.
A few hummed words from her caused the same odd buzz to fill the air as it had before I went into the Netherworld. Only a minute passed before sudden loud groans surrounded me. I lowered my hands and drew in a deep breath to control my heady emotions as bodies stirred.
Zach grunted, pushed up against the cement floor, and ran a hand over the nape of his neck. “I feel like death.”
“Me, too,” Gretchen grumbled, looking in her typical bed-head state.
“Well, you’re not dead,” I stated.
Dane pushed up to a sitting position, appearing a little green-faced. “What happened?”
I glanced at Amelia, who looked undeniably scared. Even Alexander appeared worried. No doubt Dane would be less than pleased to hear his wife was the one behind the whole spell business.
After a quick second of thought, I admitted to myself that Amelia and I were more alike than I cared to admit. But it also made my decision about what to do next glaringly obvious. As much as I wanted to hate her—and I did want that—deep down, I couldn’t.
I finally turned to Dane and lied through my teeth. “Wayde did a spell that knocked us all out, but Amelia managed to break it. She woke me up first, then Alexander, then you all.”
Dane jerked his head to Amelia in surprise, but she smiled softly and said, “I know it’s dad. He told me after I woke him.” Dane’s sigh followed and he immediately went to her side, and hugged her.
Max stood, looking ready to vomit on the floor, but appearing to portray strength with his gun in his hand. Even if his gaze hinted that he didn’t believe my story—Max knew I had lied. “Have you seen Wayde?”
I shook my head and glanced at the staircase. I hadn’t heard a sound coming from upstairs since Amelia had reentered the basement. “No, but I found out some other interesting details when I woke up.”
Honestly, I was tired of retelling stories, even if I knew they all needed to hear this. Sure, I gave the condensed version of what took place in the Netherworld with Kipp. I also stated I had no clue if he had been saved, without adding in Amelia’s involvement. And I told them of the motives behind Sammy and Alexander’s deaths.
Basically, I laid out all the important details.
By the time I finished, Max was leaning up against the staircase. Gretchen stared at me with something close to shock. And Zach stood statue-still. When silence continued to greet me, I heaved a sigh. “So, that’s it, and brings us to now.”
Zach gave his head a hard shake, obviously to clear it. “That’s a lot of fucked-up shit to process,” he muttered. “But first, let’s get out of here. Max can call in to get a forensic team for the bones.” He gave me a firm look. “And you need to make a phone call.”
Chapter Fourteen
The sound of a familiar voice repeating the same words over and over again made my blood boil. If I heard Brandon’s voicemail message once more, I would hurl my damn phone out the window.
Zach told me to keep trying and I had been—all the way back from Baton Rouge to White Castle—with no success. Amelia wanted to drive home with Dane and her father to be alone, leaving Gretchen, Max, Eddie, and Zach with me. Which was slightly odd since Caley was my best friend, but I understood Amelia’s desire to be alone with her dad…just as little longer.
So, I didn’t object, and neither had Zach.
Besides, I figured Amelia now thought I hated her, and wouldn’t want to be in the same car. As it seemed, I didn’t give a rat’s ass about that, more pressing matters were at stake.
With the phone stuck to my ear, and with a pitch black night passing by my window, I told the others the finer details of what happened with Kipp in the Netherworld. I also explained Amelia’s interference, and why I wasn’t confident our attempt to save Kipp had actually worked.
Perhaps Alexander’s theory of exhaustion was right. Maybe Kipp didn’t have enough energy to return. But Kipp hadn’t ever acted like a normal ghost, so I found it hard to rely on that theory.
Frustrating me to no end, I still wasn’t any closer to a solid answer. I kept calling Brandon, many more times than I cared to count. When his damn voicemail still greeted me, I tried to call the hospital, but was told Brandon wasn’t in Kipp’s room. Beyond that, any further information was off limits because I wasn’t Kipp’s immediate family.
Beyond irritated, I dropped the phone onto my lap and glanced at Max in the front passenger seat. “Can’t you use your police status to ask the hospital if Kipp’s still there? Or can you ask one of your cop buddies to go look?”
Max glanced over his shoulder with a snort. “I do need to work with these people. How will I explain that and have them still respect me?”
I considered, and then cursed. Of course, it would make Max look a l
ittle insane. I could understand that well enough. Why would anyone ask someone to go and see if someone else was still in a coma? Blowing out a long breath, I looked next to me at Gretchen, who was squished in between Eddie and me. “Can you think of a good reason?”
She glanced out the front windshield before she shook her head at me. “I’m sorry. I can’t.”
