Chapter 7

Chapter

Seven

A nd she hadn't decomposed. When you'd been underground for five years, surely you didn't look like you were simply taking a catnap. And excuse me, when you were pushing one hundred and fifty, did you look like that?

Robbie didn't even look as young, and she was one hundred and eleven years younger than Gwinnifer, give or take.

Man, she sure must have been a busy lady, sucking the youth out of women, because she looked amazing.

Robbie stared down into the grave along with everyone else, completely flabbergasted. Gwinnifer was wrapped in a decomposing, silky-looking violet blanket, her skin smooth and flawless, not a wrinkle in sight. Her hair, much the same color as Greer's, fanned out behind her, without a single gray strand. Her hands were crossed over her belly, and there was a bouquet of now-dead flowers beneath them.

"Okay, so she's here. Now what the fuck do we do?"

"Nina!" Wanda chastised. "Let the man have a moment. Clearly he wasn't expecting to find his grandmother in her grave. Have some respect."

Robbie put a hand on Greer's arm, giving it a light squeeze. "You okay?"

He nodded his head. "I'm fine, Robbie. I'm not upset at seeing her. I'm shocked she's still there."

Nina slapped him on the back again. "So lemme ask you this, why the fuck hasn't she decomposed? She should be a skeleton by now, shouldn't she? What kind of fuckery is this?"

Greer sighed. "It's just a spell, Nina. My grandmother was a vain woman. So vain, she always said upon her death, she wanted someone from the coven to cast a cloaking spell on her corpse, so even then, she'd be beautiful."

"Jesus, she was a real fucking piece of work, huh?"

Greer nodded again. "She was. A real piece of work. A lying, murderous one."

He really hated her, didn't he? Robbie got that. She despised her mother, but there was a very small part of her that wished things could have been different between them. Greer didn't appear to feel the same way about Gwinnifer.

Marty turned off the flashlight on her phone. "I wanna know who her plastic surgeon was, because wowzers. She looks incredible."

Greer scoffed. "That's exactly what she looked like when she died, too. She looked that way because of all the underhanded spells she cast in order to steal the essence of young men and women."

Robbie's leg shook as she tucked herself tighter into her jacket. "That feels like a lot of people."

Greer shoved his hands into the pockets of his vest. "Don't get me wrong, we age very slowly, but we do age. If she were still alive, she should look more like she was in her fifties. She wouldn't look like this."

"But this does mean she's not chasing after Robbie, right?" Wanda asked, swiping at the snowflakes swirling about her head, her cheeks pleasantly pink.

Greer's face looked as confused as she felt. "I guess not. Which means I don't understand what's happening. It's time to go to the coven to figure this out."

"The coven that lied to you?" Robbie couldn't help but ask.

"To protect me," Greer reminded. "And I'll explain what I meant after we cover her back up and get somewhere warm. You're shivering. We can't have you sick when you need to learn how to use all this power you now have."

Nina brushed her hands together. "Okay, that does that shit then. Cover the old bag back up and let's get back to the car. The cats are probably hysterical and that talking dust mop is gonna shit a brick. Plus, my Tater Tot's lips are blue. I can't have my new BFF freezing to fucking death." She pointed toward the way they'd come. "Let's do this and dip."

Greer held out his hand to her again.

"Repeat after you, right?" she murmured, not as terrified as she'd been initially.

He smiled, warm and reassuring, his palm soothing if a bit calloused. "Yep." Inhaling, he said, "Return what was to its place, untouched and perfect; Universe, do so with rapid pace."

Robbie swallowed. "And then point my finger, right?"

"Yep."

She repeated the words he'd spoken and this time, her jab at the air was a bit more confident.

There was that weird silence again before the deafening roar of the earth crashed in her ears. Only this time, the ground shook much harder, almost as if Gwinnifer didn't want to go back.

It shook so hard, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tottington willingly latch onto Nina's arm.

Robbie stumbled, losing her grip on Greer's hand, catching her sneakered foot on a stray root from one of the trees, tripping backward until she fell into a headstone, cracking her head against it before slumping on the ground.

As she tried to regain her composure and pull herself up, the earth began to rock and crumble beneath her.

She clawed at the slick headstone, fighting to stand upright, but the ground kept giving way.

Greer yelled her name over a thunderous roar of noise and rumbling. "Robbie! Hold on! I'm coming!"

Through the snow falling and the litany of sound, Robbie saw everyone racing to her, but with each step they took, they fell back five more.

There was a loud screech, almost as if someone was in agony, and then the ground did the unthinkable—it exploded, sending frozen chunks of dirt everywhere.

From out of nowhere, something tore through the dirt, knocking her to her back and climbing on top of her. The cold soil seeped through her jacket, the feel of whatever sat on her oddly light but heavy at the same time.

Terror raced through her veins, her heart tried to fight its way out of her chest as this…this thing stared down at her.

What in thee absolute hell?

Opening her mouth wide, Robbie screamed as she fought to get out from under it. "Ahhhhhhhh!"

But it didn't appear at all fazed. In fact, it lowered its head as if curious. Its straggly strands of hair brushing over her face like icky cobwebs, the creature's mouth a black hole, it gazed at her as though she were the one that looked like a character from The Walking Dead .

Though, strangely, in the height of her terror, she noted it wore a jaunty ascot around its skeletal neck.

She held her breath as they reenacted a scene straight out of Alien , where it appeared to sniff her until she felt sweat pool between her breasts.

Then, as if to taunt her, it opened its jaw wide and screamed back at her. A howl so chilling, it jarred her bones.

She stared up at it in horror as it straddled her with the strength of ten men, nothing more than a skull with black sockets for eyes and skeletal hands that gripped her shoulders like steel bands.

Robbie blinked, her chest heaving, her eyes wide in fear as the ground quaked and they bounced.

"Get off me!" she bellowed as she reared her hips upward enough to catch it off guard and jerk the skeleton from her hips. It fell to the side, crumpling into a weird ball of bones.

Robbie took that opportunity to roll away and scramble to her feet. Slipping and sliding, she took off running. Snow plastered her face as she sprinted away from the skeleton, his bones clacking against the icy ground as he took off after her.

Just as it nipped at her heels, their screams in sync, echoing through the night, Robbie heard a loud cry not unlike that of a warrior before the clack of bones crunched and someone let out a loud, "Oomph!"

Out of breath from running, she turned to see Greer, struggling to hold the skeleton down, his muscles straining, his teeth clenched. "Robbie! Say these words: return, dear soul, from whence you came, and blissful peace you shall reclaim!" He gasped as the skeleton wrapped its bony legs around his waist, screeching like a banshee.

They kicked up leaves as they wrestled, dirt and mud smearing Greer's face, but he held fast to the skeleton. "Hold on, buddy. You'll be back at peace soon!"

The skeleton howled its discontent, its jaw clacking open wide, terrifying her, but it lit an urgent fire under her feet.

As the wind whipped her hair and the snow pelted her face, her heart thumped hard in her chest as she repeated the words. "Return, dear soul, from whence you came, and blissful peace you shall reclaim!"

She waited a moment, but it didn't disappear until Tottington bellowed to her, "Point your finger, Miss! Point !"

Jabbing her finger at the ball of bones and living flesh the skeleton and Greer had become, the same thing happened after she's spoken the last spell. Sparkles of color flickered in the air, dancing in colorful swishes, the world became silent, the ground shifted and poof—he was gone.

Robbie bent forward, putting her palms on her knees as she inhaled gulps of cold air. The sound of the women and Tottington rushing toward her made her straighten and check on Greer, who was pushing himself off the ground with a harsh grunt.

She wrapped her right hand around his muscled arm and helped pull him up, her legs shaking so hard, she thought she'd keel right over. "Are you okay?"

He brushed her mussed hair out of her face with a gentle hand. "I'm okay. I'm more concerned about you. Are you okay?"

"What…what was that?"

He took her hand and led her over to the headstone, now crumbled and torn asunder. "A dead guy. Um…" He peered at a portion of the stone, which read, "Josiah Bean."

"What the fuck just happened, buddy?" Nina crowed.

He stared at them all, planting his hands on his hips. "Necromancy. Another power Gwinnifer was incredibly adept at, and now, so is Robbie."

Robbie's hand went to her mouth to hide her horrified gasp. "Isn't necromancy…raising the…the dead ?" she squeaked.

"It is," he confirmed.

"But…how?" was all she could manage, her stomach in knots.

"You touched the headstone. That's all it takes until you learn to control it."

Tottington turned positively green. "Miss can raise the dead?"

"I can almost bet he wouldn't have hurt you, Robbie," Greer assured. "He was disoriented, as one is when they're yanked from their resting place. He was as surprised as you, I think."

Robbie gulped, her head pounding, her legs like overcooked noodles. "I think I have to sit."

"Okay, enough of this digging up dead people for tonight," Nina said, startling her. "She's freezing, my Tater Tot's lips are even bluer, and I'm tired. Let's get your necromancing ass back to the truck. You want me to piggyback ya?" She pointed to her back.

But Robbie shook her head. No way was she going to let Nina witness her weak and shaken. She held up a hand. "Thanks, but I can walk."

Wanda put an arm around her shoulders and began to guide her back to the car. "Listen, necromancers are a little cool, don't you think? I mean, think of all the dead celebrities you could bring back from the grave. Like Elvis or Cary Grant."

"I'm pretty sure, if they look like that, I won't be summoning them anytime soon."

Wanda laughed, patting her shoulder.

"There's no silver lining here, fucking Pollyanna," Nina reminded her friend, arm in arm with Tottington. "Stop trying to give some freaky-deaky double Dutch an optimistic shine. She can raise the dead, Wanda. The . Dead."

Now Robbie laughed as the car came into sight. "That was without a doubt, freaky-deaky double Dutch. I wonder what else I can do?"

"How about we find out tomorrow?" Marty asked, pushing her wet hair from her face. "I don't know about you, but digging up dead witches who look better than I'll ever look isn't just exhausting, it's a little humbling. How dare she look that good—even in death."

"She sucked souls out of kids, Ass Sniffer. Even you're not that vain."

Marty chuckled with a wink as she popped open the passenger side door. "Don't be so sure, Vampire."

Robbie stopped all movement, still unsure about these people. They had enormous power—all of them. How could she be sure they weren't capable of youth sucking—or whatever it was called?

Marty tipped her head back and laughed. "Oh, the expression on your face, kiddo. I'm kidding! Of course, I'm kidding." She gave Robbie a tiny nudge, chucking her lightly under her chin. "Get in the car, silly goose."

As Robbie hopped in the back with her cats and Hervé, Marty got in the row of seats behind her and whispered in her ear, "Or am I? Buwahahahaha?"

As they took off toward Nina's castle, everyone laughed.

And she did, too.

Sort of.