Page 13 of The Witch & the Wolf

Wonder what they were up to, Holly thought sourly.

The students hesitated when they spotted them. “Oh, hi!” the woman said. “What are you guys doing?”

“We…” Arlo glanced at Holly, “we thought we heard something from the well. So we’re just looking into it now.”

“There’s nothing there. We checked earlier,” the woman said, blue eyes bright. The man nodded in agreement.

“You don’t sense anything?” Holly asked, glancing at Arlo. “Nothing at all?”

Now, the man approached. “Nope,” he said, plucking another leaf out of his shirt. “You guys said you heard something?”

“More like felt something,” Holly said, a cold feeling prickling at her heart. “What type of magic do you guys have?”

The man could shapeshift into various animals, while the woman manipulated wind magic. When Holly and Arlo mentioned their powers, the woman said with a laugh, “Oh, maybe there’s a dead body or spirit trapped down there. You never know!”

She didn’t seem to believe her own words, though, and tugged her leafy boyfriend with her, leaving Holly and Arlo standing there, feeling dumb.

With two people confirming that they felt nothing (and not seeming to care), it made them nervous.

“Shall we… use our powers?” she asked Arlo.

“We don’t have any supervision. Though… I don’t think there would be anything really risky about it.”

Holly didn’t say anything about that. Certain kinds of spirits could be risky if they were around. But at the same time, she wanted another opportunity to tap into her powers. She saw that Arlo wanted that same opportunity as well. It wasn’t as if they could practice their powers on a daily basis.

She closed her eyes, searching the darkness, stumbling over the threads that lingered of whatever supernatural energy they’d both sensed. Reaching for it felt as if she were seated on the bucket, slowly being lowered to the bottom of the well. On impulse, her hand reached out, brushing over the bucket.

A scream – a piercing, terrified one, along with a strong sense of vertigo and a rush of air, came up to meet her. Her eyes snapped open. She stumbled backward and tripped, landing squarely on her butt.

“Holly?” Arlo bent down beside her, his eyes wide. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“I…” Her heart fluttered, and she swallowed nervously. “I heard a… a… psychic echo.”

The terror still lingered within. The stark, keening wail of someone who knew they were seconds from death. She shivered, and Arlo rubbed her shoulders, helping to keep her grounded.

“What kind of echo was it? You’re pretty shook up. You’re pale, ashen even.”

“I… think I heard someone’s last moment. I felt their terror.” She squeezed her eyes shut, remembering the rush of air. “I felt them fall. They…” She bit her lip. “I don’t know how they fell, just that they did.”

Arlo’s hands stayed on her, and he inhaled deeply. “Then I will try and reach for… a body, a spirit. It’s less risky for me than it is for a medium.” He smiled briefly before going back to the well.

Holly felt the ghost of his touch linger on her shoulders, and, oddly enough, she found she missed it. She watched Arlo attempt to engage with his magic while trying to understand what she was feeling toward him.

He dug in deep, channeling his magic, and a faint blue flicker gathered around his fingertips. “The spirit is close,” he murmured. “Hey, Holly, can you see if you can drop the bucket? Assuming the rope doesn’t snap, I might be able to bring the whole thing up…”

Holly hesitated only a second before scrambling to help him with his request. “Sure, but isn’t that dangerous…?”

“Not as long as I have control over the body and what’s happening,” he assured her. “It should be fine.”

It didn’t exactly feel fine, but she did as he asked, unraveling the rope and bucket. She gave a few test tugs to the rope and then lowered the device down with her hands, being careful not to release the rope as she continued. It took far longer than she expected for it to stop moving. The rope slackened, and she kept it steady.

“Hold tight,” he said. “You’ll feel a weight. Try not to let go. I’d try to help, but I really need to keep my focus on the channeling. It shouldn’t be too heavy, anyway…” He flashed her an apologetic smile.

“Noted.” She didn’t voice it, but the thought of hauling up a corpse in the bucket made her break out in a cold sweat. She didn’t want to think about it – and nearly flinched and let go of the rope when something weighed it down. That sensation terrified her. She kept thinking, picturing something clinging to the rope, waiting to launch itself at her with a rattling scream.

The rope grew taut, and she waited until Arlo whispered, “Okay, haul it up. I’m focusing on keeping them together.”

Bit by bit, she pulled the bucket back up. It wasn’t as heavy as she expected, but her heart thumped violently in her chest at the uneasy thought of whatever was using that bucket as a seat. A minute later, a head emerged, followed by a blue, glowing, knitted-together skeleton.

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