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She paused her knitting. “With what’s coming.”
“What are you talking about?” What’s coming?” Was there something about to hit me that I was completely unaware of that was even worse than what was going on and what had happened? I’d made it through Death Day without her, and the ceremony, butnowI needed her help?
“Well, I didn’t exactly follow the playbook when I transferred my powers to you. Things might look a little different to what we’re all used to.”She vaguely waved a hand in the air, as if dismissing any concerns for breaking some woo-woo rule.
“I went into this whole spirit guide thing blind. It would be a nice change to have some more details.” I was done watching my tone with this one.
“I don’t have any. I gave you what I was given. What I was. I don’t know how that’ll manifest in you as a human.” She shrugged so much it looked a bit overdone, as if she were downplaying some sin.
“Why didn’t you do it the way you were supposed to?” I caught myself leaning on the table toward her, as if I were talking to someone among the living. I leaned back again, just to help keep my mental boundaries in place.
“If I’d come to you and told you what I was going to do, what would you have done?” She rolled her eyes at me again.
I’d have thought the afterlife would’ve improved her personality a little, but I guessed nothing was a sure thing.
“I would’ve said no.”
“Then run to Duncan and told him. No. I did it the way I had to. I couldn’t do a ceremony or tell anyone because they’d have stopped me. This is supposed to go to shifters, not humans. I had to do it this way. There was no choice.” Her voice grew louder the longer she spoke. By the time she finished, she turned her full attention back to knitting, sending out a clear signal of what she thought of my possible opinions.
“Well, if you were going to come, why did you wait until now? I could’ve used some information yesterday.”
“I’vebeen here for months. You couldn’t see me.” Now she tsked to herself, shaking her head.
I started doing a quick catalog of what I’d done, what she might’ve seen at that time. It was too much to think about.
“Well, now what? What’s your useful advice? Things aren’t going so well, and I’m pretty sure Groza wants me dead.”
“Yeah, it’s not really panning out the way I’d hoped.”
“You come back from the dead andthat’sall you’ve got?” I probably should’ve let that one go, since my ghost seemed to be getting riled.
“For now? Yeah. That’s all I have.”
I blinked and she was gone. I was alone in the kitchen again.
If this was what she considered help, I was definitely underwhelmed.
Chapter Eleven
I trudged through the woods,pulling Charlie’s little red wagon behind me. I tried to shake the memory of my conversation with a dead person from a few hours earlier. Groza might not have killed me, but maybe she’d spiked that flask with some sort of hallucinogenic that had a delayed onset. Was Kicks experiencing any visions? Figuring out how to ask him without telling him I’d had a chat with a ghost was going to be tricky. It might be easier to wait and see if the effects wore off on their own. Jaysa was still gone, and no other dead people had appeared yet, which was a good sign.
I had some time to think about it as I gathered up my wood. This time I’d hide it in the back of the cottage. Groza’s goons weren’t bright enough to look back there when they saw an empty stack in front. The idea of booby traps crossed my mind, but without the internet, I was clueless. Before the world collapsed, people always said,How did we get by without the internet?It was worse than I’d imagined.
Reaching a fallen tree, I snapped off a few branches. The sound of footsteps crunching on dried leaves made me freeze, waiting for a hello. A friendly face would’ve offered a greeting, but none came. As I bent down to grab a log from the wagon,I whipped around to find Walter and Berman, Groza’s goons, standing there, watching me.
Now they were going to follow me out into the woods? Would they haunt my every step?
“What’s the matter? Tired of sneaking around like petty thieves? Finally coming out of the shadows?” Goading them was reckless, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself. I was done with Groza’s games, tired of the awkward encounters with Duncan, and utterly fed up with these thugs who had been tracking my every move. If Groza had wanted me dead, she could have poisoned me yesterday when she had the chance. This was just more bullying tactics, her favorite pastime.
“You weren’t supposed to come back. You were supposed to leave. That was the deal. She warned you there would be consequences,” Walter said, his eyes looking dead, as if this was just another day of breaking bones to him.
His words didn’t sound like business as usual. Still, Groza wasn’t that crazy, was she? No matter what else was happening, the pack wanted me, almost to an eerie level. If I disappeared, there’d be questions.
“The pack has accepted me,” I countered. “You can’t just get rid of me.”
“We answer to Groza, and she wants you out. The pack won’t know what happened,” Walter replied coldly.
They weren’t messing around. This wasn’t like all the other times where they just made my life uncomfortable. They were going to kill me. I’d been back for months. Why now? It had to be the ceremony. What did she think I was going to become?
