Page 30 of A Grave Girls' Getaway

Chapter Fourteen

“They did it!” I heard Spade shout, followed by Denise’s glad cry. Then, I heard nothing except the wind whistling by as I saw the ground fall away and grow smaller.

Bones must have decided that flying us in the opposite direction wasn’t enough. Now, he was flying us up and away, too.

For a few blissful seconds, I didn’t care. All I focused on was the feel of his arms around me, the sweet sting of his hair whipping against my cheek, and his scent, like crème brûlée combined with the finest whiskeys. I didn’t even feel pain from the silver or my many unhealed injuries. I was too happy.

At last, we were free. All of us.

Well…not all of us. Ashael had said if we broke the curse, the sea goddess would require a substitutional sacrifice for me and Denise. Morgana had mentioned the same. We had to sacrifice the sister who survived your butchery because our goddess had already been summoned, and lifeblood is required after a summoning.

The freckled boy’s face flashed in my mind. He was still there, and the sea goddess still needed at least two sacrifices to make up for the ones she’d lost, assuming that Spade had rushed Denise away as soon as she could move, too—and he would have. That meant we’d left a helpless kid alone with a bunch of witches who’d shown no hesitation when it came to murdering innocents to appease their goddess.

“Bones, we have to go back,” I said.

Either he couldn’t hear me, or he was ignoring me because he didn’t slow a bit.

“We have to go back,” I repeated louder, punching his arm for emphasis. “There’s a kid back there they’re going to kill!”

That earned me a truly impressive curse, but he did do an aerial version of a U-turn. Soon, I saw the battered, half-collapsed side of Alamere Falls again.

The witches were still there, blue robes fluttering as they scurried about to rebuild the bonfire. That’s all I saw before Bones headed toward the lower part of the trail further down from the bluffs. Once there, he landed, let me go, and then zoomed back up while I yelled at him not to leave me there.

He ignored me. Soon, I couldn’t see him at all, and now I was a few miles away from the cliff.

“No, you don’t,” I growled as I ran up the trail.

Each movement felt like evil pixies were stabbing me inside, but I didn’t slow down. Injured or no, I wasn’t staying behind. The curse was off me now, so I was in no more danger from the sea goddess than Bones. He’d refused to let me face her alone earlier. I’d be damned if I let him do that now.

Still, it took several aching minutes to climb to the top of the trail, and I passed more than a few robed, headless bodies along the way. From how they were still in the process of shriveling, these looked like very recent deaths. Apparently, Bones had decided to make an entrance.

I was about to skirt by them when I heard frantic thoughts about staying hidden combined with a rapid heartbeat in the bushes to my right. Most of the witches had been vampires, but there had been a few humans among them. I yanked the thickest part of the bushes aside, and found myself staring into wide, panicked brown eyes.

“Don’t hurt me!” the freckled boy wailed.

Thank God that he was still alive, and he’d had the presence of mind to hide, too.

“Good job,” I told him.

His eyes darted in every direction, reminding me of a panicked horse. “Stay back. You stay away from me!”

I was anxious to get to Bones, but I couldn’t leave the kid like this. He had every reason to be freaked out. He’d seen things tonight I hadn’t seen before, and I’d seen a lot. That’s why I didn’t bother telling him to trust me (he wouldn’t) or to calm down (in his state, he couldn’t.) Instead, I fired up the glow in my gaze and put all the power I had left into my voice.

“You’re okay now,” I said in the resonating tone all vampires had. “You partied with the wrong girls tonight, and they slipped you drugs that made you hallucinate some wild stuff, but you’ll be fine.”

“Wrong girls…wild stuff,” he repeated in the dazed way of a human under vampiric control.

“Yes, but none of it was real,” I said, still holding his gaze. “It was just the drugs. Now, you’re safe, and you’ll be going home soon, so you’re not afraid anymore. But for a little while, you’re going to close your eyes and stay right here.”

“Stay right here,” he repeated, shutting his eyes.

Good. Now, he’d be calm and stay put until I could come back to get him. I put the thickest part of the bush back in place, concealing him again, and resumed my trek.

By the time I reached the top of the bluff, the bonfire was lit, the sea goddess was swaying in front of it, and Bones was emitting so much supernatural energy that approaching him felt like walking into an electrical storm.

“I don’t care which ones you sacrifice, so hurry it up,” he snapped to a black-haired witch with high cheekbones and tawny skin.

I recognized her as the first witch who’d agreed to undo the hex, and I was struck with an idea.

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