21. The Road to Spells Hollow

CLOVER

Even though Mip and I were the only ones who could hear Aldrich, Suisy seems quieter as we drive down the highway towards Spells Hollow. How dare he leave me to distract Blobby?

When we get his body back, I’m cutting him off. No sexy times for a month…

Hmm… well… he did do it to save me… So maybe two weeks?

But he’s been without a body for so long…

I’ll just play it by ear.

The longer we’re on the road, the tighter I grip the steering wheel and the more I wiggle in my seat. Trees start popping up on the side of the road and gradually thicken until I can’t see more than a few feet into them on either side. It’s a little unnerving. Mip’s grip on my hair tightens.

“We should be coming up on a small road here soon,” Kushim says.

Sure enough, about a mile later, a dirt road appears out of nowhere. If I’d have been going any faster, I would have missed it. I pull off the highway and if I wasn’t already a bundle of nerves, I would be now. A gate is supposed to be blocking the road, I guess, but it looks like it’s been hit by a bolt of lightning. It’s burnt and in pieces, and a no trespassing sign lays haphazardly to the side.

I creep past it, choosing to ignore the warning. Aldrich said to meet him here, so that’s what we’re going to do. We figure out pretty quickly that this will not be a speedy stretch of our journey. I was already driving slow, Suisy wasn’t made for the dirt, but after Fitzroy’s head bangs into the glass of the window, I slow down to a crawl. I can’t imagine many people have used this road in a long while.

“I’m glad I left my car back in the city,” Kushim mutters.

“Same with my bike,” Fitz agrees.

We soldier on, taking the road one pothole at a time, but after forty-five minutes of the slowest driving Suisy’s ever done, even I’m beginning to get frustrated. “How long is this road?”

“I could sleepwalk faster than this!” Fitz says.

Kushim is clenching his jaw so hard I can practically hear his teeth cracking.

I’m about to give up and suggest we walk, when we creep around a corner and see something besides trees. I don’t dare speed up, as this stretch of road is particularly bumpy, but when we pull up alongside a large building, the three of us breathe a sigh of relief.

“Oh…” Mip says, yawning. “We’re here already?” At some point, he’d fallen asleep, despite all the bumping.

“Can we get out now?” Fitz asks, practically bouncing where he sits. I can feel the anxious energy filling up Suisy, but something is pulling me onward.

“I think we need to go a little farther…”

~Fitzroy

Spells Hollow is a ghost town. I’m not sure if there are ghosts here. In fact, I’d really rather not find out if actual spirits are hanging around. I may be a scary, badass motherfucking shifter, but I don’t fuck with ghosts. No thank you.

But my little mate will not be deterred. She eyes that black line that encircles the whole center of town, and I can tell she’s working up the nerve to drive her van over it.

“What do you think we’ll find in there?” she muses aloud. She’s stalling, and I don’t blame her. This went from a back-burner problem to a fully-on-fire problem in the blink of an eye. Aldrich’s disappearance has really bothered Clover.

“Probably some dusty old crusty stuff,” Mip says, teleporting from one shoulder to the other. “I’ve been in old junky houses before. Sometimes you can find some good loot—I mean, antiques…” He gives a little cough. “But mostly, they’re full of gross, icky, dusty trash and moldies.”

“Well, gee, Mip. You make it sound so appealing. Were these old junk houses you weren’t robbing haunted as well?” I’m only semi-joking. The little thief seems knowledgeable… at least in part.

“Hmm…” He taps his chin with his little doll hand/arm. It’s just a rounded nub on the end. How does he hold his sword? Is the body Clover makes for Aldrich going to have hands like that? Because that would be fuckin’ hilarious.

“You know… now that you mention it,I did run across a house or two that had a resident ghost. Or maybe it was just mice… That trash was moving pretty fast, though.”

Okay, I take back what I said about him being knowledgeable. He’s just a brat. I’d almost bet money it’s because of Aldrich. When we rescue him,it’s gonna be good for Clover, but I’m not sure how Kushim and I will fare.

Clover takes a deep breath and finally turns into the black circle. I’m man enough to admit that even I flinch a little as we drove over the charred black line. She maneuvers Suisy through the winding roads of the empty town until she’s satisfied and finally parks the van just outside of the town square in front of one of the houses.

I waste no time in getting out, shaking out the jitters that have slowly been building since we turned off the highway towards this godforsaken place. Something moves in the distance, catching my eye, and I shudder when I realize that it’s a set of gallows. The rope is still completely intact and swinging in the nonexistent breeze.

Nope. That’s a nope from me, dawg. Maybe I can convince Clover that Aldrich isn’t that great. Maybe the goo beast already ate him. We should just go.

I turn back to the van, and Kushim is helping Clover out. Her face has been blank since Aldrich jumped into the portal to distract the goo beast, but now, determination hardens her eyes, and for the first time since I’ve seen her, my little mate looks fierce, and by the goddess, I’d do anything for this woman.

If that means that I’ll have to fight a soul-sucking goo monster from a realm no one knows just to free her invisible mate, then by the goddess, that’s what I’ll do.