“Well, they’ve come just in time to help,” I muttered sarcastically. Then I saw what one of the witches was holding, realized that their eyes were all for me, and shock went through me. One of the witches was holding Luna, who started squirming to get away once she caught sight of me, but the witch kept an iron hold on her tiny body.
“Selene Vanream,” the one standing in front said. “You’ve been discovered as a reanimator, and we are here to take you in to be stripped.”
“I’m on your side, I promise, Selene!” Amy called. “You don’t have to worry about me!”
I would have laughed at her attempt to side with me under the fear that I’d try to do what Trevor and Larry did, but this was one situation even I couldn’t find the humor in.
Chapter Twenty-One
There went my theory that putting Luna’s ghost back into her body would help me not be discovered. I guess I couldn’t really expect that to work since the dog had undergone reanimation twice. Before the witches could descend on me though, Ilyse stepped in front of me and faced them.
“She cannot be stripped. She is ghost bound.” That made the government witches stop dead in their tracks, and it also made everyone else in the suite stare at me. “You should know better than I do what that means,” Ilyse continued. “If she’s stripped, she dies, and I do hope the government isn’t into outright murder now.”
For the first time, I saw the dead witches look hesitant and uncertain. Then, the one who seemed to be in charge composed herself and gave me a level gaze.
“Ghost binding is an illegal practice,” she said. “A practice that is punishable.”
“I assure you I never intended to do it,” I said. Ethan had finally peeled himself off the floor and drifted over to pay attention to what was going on.
“Meet Ethan,” I said. “The ghost I’m bound to.”
They regarded Ethan for a moment.
“Bonds can be broken once the ghost returns to his body,” one of the witches said. “Then you can be stripped.”
“Indeed,” I said. Then I gestured to the pile of ash. “Let me introduce you to Ethan’s body.”
The hesitant and uncertain looks were back once they took in what remained of Ethan’s body. They then looked around the suite and seemed to realize that it hadn’t been a regular workday they’d interrupted, especially when police officers started pouring in. Well, they were too late too. The head witch narrowed her eyes and looked at Ilyse, Ethan, and me again.
“What transpired here?” she asked.
“Boy do we have a story for you,” I said.
* * *
I spent the rest of the day with the dead witches from the government, explaining everything from the very beginning when I had tracked down Ethan’s ghost and attempted to absorb him for transport, right up to the showdown with Larry that had resulted in the loss of Ethan’s body. They let me have my dog back, so Luna sat on my lap while we all gathered in a conference room. Ilyse and Ethan came with me, and Ilyse backed me 100 percent.
I knew I was guilty of a few crimes, using an illegal binding rune included, but I was hoping the witches would see the bigger picture and not be in such a rush to lock me up and strip my reanimation power. They looked extremely unhappy by the time we finished telling our story. And of course they took the binding rune from me, but since I had my own lifetime supply at home, I was okay with that.
“We have to take you into custody,” head witch, whose name was Tielle, said. “Then we will decide what to do with you.” She motioned one of the officers forward, and I was immediately on my feet, as was Ilyse. She took a step forward.
“Where is your warrant?” she asked. They hesitated, and it was clear they did not have one; they had simply tracked me down after scooping up my dog. Despite how desperate the government was to strip reanimators, there was still protocol, and a warrant was needed before they could round me up.
“It will not take us more than twenty-four hours to get one,” Tielle said icily.
“Yes, but then do you want to risk the frenzy Selene’s story will cause in the media?” Ilyse continued. “You should know better than I do that the outrage against what is done to reanimators is so great it would be impossible to go about this quietly, especially with all the witnesses we have. Selene saved a lot of lives today. Would you rather the news focus on that or the fact that you hauled her off to jail?” Again, there was hesitation among the dead witches. A few moments later, they all stood up.
“Selene Vanream, for the time being, you will remain free,” Tielle said. “But make no mistake, once we convene with our higher-ups and are granted a warrant, we will come for you.” I could have collapsed with relief; it might be only temporary freedom, but I’d take it. I was sure the government would find some way to strip me. I just had to hope they didn’t fear reanimation magic so much that they were willing to kill me to ensure my power died.
Once the dead witches left, Ilyse spent some time drawing ghost energy off me, and she didn’t have to say a word to let me know how much ghost energy had been clinging to me and what that meant for the Rot. Well, what could I do about it now, right?
I wanted to go visit Micah, but when I called the hospital, they said he was still in surgery and urged me to visit him tomorrow. So in the end, Ethan and I called a cab and went home. After a long, hot shower, I ordered food and came into the living room to find Ethan huddled on the couch. I sat down next to him.
“Do you hate me?” I asked. He looked at me for a long time, his face sad and expressionless, before he answered.
“No,” he said softly. “I…I know you only wanted to help me. I just…my body…” Tears welled in his eyes, and I felt all kinds of horrible as I looked at him sitting there with my pillow clutched to his chest.
“I want to say something that’ll make you feel better,” I said. “But I know there isn’t anything I could say. I wish things had turned out differently. I didn’t think your body would be lost…”
“I know,” he said, sighing. “It’s just not easy for me to accept that this is my new reality, for however long it may be.” Meaning there was no telling what the government would decide to do to us. “I’m a ghost, except I’m solid. I can eat and drink but can’t sleep or go to the bathroom, which makes me wonder where the food goes, by the way. I’m some weird, in-between thing. And I’m slowly killing you. And I already killed a man.”
We had left that detail out of our story to the dead witches. It worked out to maintain that Larry in Ethan’s body had killed Andrew. He had been there for that purpose after all.
“It’s a hell of a lot, I know,” I said. “But I’m here for you.”
“And I have no home,” he continued. “It was burned down.”
“What?” I asked sharply.
“I never got a chance to tell you, but one of the reasons I was coming back here after I left was because someone set fire to my house while I was hiding out in it.”
“Larry and Trevor must have done that after Larry saw I used a tracking rune to find him,” I said. “So they must have decided to burn down your house so I couldn’t use any more of your belongings to track your body again.”
“Couldn’t they just have stolen everything?” Ethan muttered. “All my things are gone now. Did you know I can take my clothes off? I changed when I went home, but now I have nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
“We’ll go shopping,” I said.
“Yeah, then everything will be all better.” He sighed. “All of this because I was in the wrong place at the right time. What will I do about school? What will my family think when they see my picture on the news in connection with murder?”
“You can still see your family,” I said. “And maybe you can even go to school. You’re a ghost, but you’re a tangible ghost.” I reached out and took his hand, giving it a squeeze. “You’re not even that cold. You could still have your life. You don’t have to resort to haunting an abandoned amusement park or something.”
He didn’t smile at my attempt at a joke. “It won’t be the same. You know that.”
“Yes, I know,” I said. “Nothing will be the same for you or for me going forward. That just means we have to create our new normal.”
“New normal,” he repeated. “New, terrible, unbearable normal.” He sighed again.
“This is still too new and mind blowing and depressing, I understand that,” I said. “So I’ll let you wallow for now, and if it helps to blame this all on me and hate me, then that’s okay too.”
“I don’t hate you. I told you that,” Ethan mumbled against the pillow.
“Then can I hug you?” I asked. “I know I could use one, and I have a feeling you could too.”
His face crumpled, and I took that as my cue and pulled him into my arms. Ethan wrapped his arms around me and sobbed into my neck, and I felt my eyes grow wet as he cried. Ethan clung to me with such hopeless desperation that I would have done anything to get his body back. I felt so helpless. I also realized that this was the most physical contact I’d had with Ethan since we’d met, and that he probably could have used a hug long before now.
It was less than two weeks since we’d met and hell had unleashed around us, but it felt like we were old friends. I wanted to protect Ethan, but right now I knew I had failed at that.
I held Ethan for a long time, and the only thing that interrupted us was the sound of my doorbell ringing, which made both of us tense up. Couldn’t be the dead witches coming to round us up, could it? Then I remembered I had ordered food and relaxed a little. Ethan detached himself and slumped against the sofa, and I went to answer the door. Luna pranced around my feet; I hadn’t paid her much attention since I’d gotten home. I picked her up as I opened the door, but it wasn’t a horde of dead witches standing there, or a delivery person. I didn’t think I could be shocked any more for the day, but I was.
Andrew’s wife, Cecilia, stood on my doorstep.
“Selene,” she said. Everything about her was what you would expect from a woman from the Upper East Side. She was tall and rigidly slender, though I suspected it was mostly from the plastic surgeon’s office, not the gym, and her blonde hair was brushed back from her face in a slight pompadour style. Her makeup was neat, but it only enhanced a face that wasn’t that remarkable to begin with.
I was never sure what Andrew saw in her, though seeing as he’d shamelessly cheated on her, I was going to bet he didn’t think of her along the lines of soul mate. The look she gave me was probing, and she held something in her hands.
“My husband is dead, as you know,” she said. She couldn’t possibly be here to accuse me of his death, right? Had she found out about the affair and figured I’d killed Andrew since I couldn’t have him to myself?
“Yes,” I said slowly. “We’re all still shaken by it, and I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Looks like I should be saying that to you,” she said, thrusting the papers she’d been holding at my chest. When I looked at them, my eyes widened.
“Divorce papers?” I said, staring at her.
Her eyes narrowed. “Indeed. This is what I came home from my trip to Paris to find: my husband murdered, divorce papers, and a letter stating that he was leaving me to be with you.”
If looks could kill, I’d have long been dead. I had absolutely no idea what to make of this.
“You were having an affair with my husband,” she said icily.
I swallowed hard. No use denying it now.
“Yes,” I said. Her eyes narrowed further. “But I…I never wanted him to leave you for me. I wasn’t interested in…in becoming his girlfriend or new wife or whatever.”
“No,” she said. “You were just interested in fucking him, then sending him home to not fuck me.”
Oh, if words could kill too.
“Mrs. McNabb, I’m so sor—” She slapped me across the face. Then she turned and stalked off. I watched her go with a stinging pain in my cheek, stunned. The indignant part of me wanted to run after her and return the favor, but the rest of me knew that was a well-deserved slap. I stepped back and closed the door, then turned to Ethan, who was looking at me in surprise.
“Well, isn’t that the cherry on top of this wonderful day?” I said, dropping onto the sofa again.
“That was like from a television show,” Ethan said. “A…a soap opera.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I should get some ice for my cheek, but I’m too exhausted to move.”
Ethan shifted and leaned his head against my shoulder, and Luna stood on her hind legs so she could reach my cheek and give it a lick.
“Thanks, Luna,” I muttered. “If only your tongue was made of ice.”
“Andrew was going to divorce her for you,” Ethan said. “That’s…”
“Un-fucking-believable,” I said. “Why the hell would he do that?”
“Maybe he cared about you more than you thought,” he said.
I gave a snort of laughter. “Andrew wanted to own me. I don’t call that caring. It’s just like him to choose to leave his wife for me without saying a damn thing to me. Like he just assumed I would be with him.”
“Doesn’t matter now, though,” Ethan said.
“I guess it doesn’t.” I still found the entire thing unbelievable. “Where to go from here?”
Right now, it seemed like all the roads led only to dark places.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Two weeks later, Ethan and I were still free. Ilyse had kept me informed about our case with the government, and so far, it looked like we’d be okay for a while since no one could conclude what to do with us that wouldn’t involve someone losing his or her life. There was some push to lock me up, but since they could not yet strip me, the court wouldn’t grant them a warrant to put me into custody. There were a lot of people in the government who opposed the stripping practice, thankfully. They could stay in a stalemate for the next eighty years, and it would be fine with me.
Micah was out of the hospital, and I forced him to recover at my house so I could take care of him, though I didn’t really have to force him; he was very willing. His chest and head were bandaged, and he was on a slew of pain medications that made him all kinds of woozy, which Ethan and I made the most of by making him say silly things.