Page 20 of The Blood Witch
Colby flinches as though the name just reached out and slapped her. “What did you just say?” she asks, every ounce of warmth gone from her tone. I can tell she thinks I’m fucking with her, and I really wish that were the case. I’m as lost as she is right now.
I want to screammaydayand quickly dive away from this whole situation, but she hasn’t started screaming at me yet, so this is still not as bad as the mom in the diner was. I straighten my shoulders and try to pull my shit together. I can feel that Diem is here for Colby, that her presence is incredibly important, and I work to clear my mind so I can hear what the bones and Diem need for me to communicate.
“Diem is why you and I are here,” I start, my eyes darting to the ghost on my left before settling on Colby’s again.
Colby looks at the empty space next to me skeptically, and the sound of laughter fills my mind.
“She knew you wouldn’t believe it. Which is silly because you talk to her all the time. She hears you, and she tries to answer when she can, but you dismiss it or ignore it just like you’ve been doing to your instincts,” I declare, but I can see that Colby’s still not all the way on board.
“Gonna need more than that, Diem,” I whisper to the ghost. “Time to bust out the secrets only you would know.”
I smile and shake my head at the response that floats into my mind from the bones Diem points to. It’s as though Diem can only communicate with the bones, and then the bones show me the message. It’s a little weird and somewhat like having a translator filling you in on a conversation, but it’s also humbling at the same time. I get the impression that what’s happening is rare and that it’s only happening now because Colby is special.
“Diem said that she would never reveal secrets even to prove that she’s here with you, but she wants to tell you that Shadow is with her and that she’s throwing his favorite ball for him.”
Colby’s eyes close in anguish at my words, and an audible hitch stalls her next inhale. I recall how she was watching the man with his dog when I first noticed her, and an ache starts in my chest for all that she’s lost. First her best friend and then her dog.
I want to punch fate in the throat for what it’s demanded of the witch sitting across from me. I know everyone in life has their own hurdles and hardships, but why do some people’s paths never clear of obstacles? Just when they climb over one, there’s another demanding to be conquered. Rogan’s face pops into my mind unbidden, and I take a moment to want to punch fate on his behalf too. Then I take another second to daydream about punching Rogan himself in the face. It’s an odd juxtaposition to feel severe empathy for someone but also want to hurt them for what they’ve done to you.
Colby’s breaths pick up, and goose bumps crawl up both of our arms as she blinks just a little faster in an effort to collect her emotions and shove them back down. Her hazel gaze settles just to my left, and in a broken whisper, she asks, “Diem?”
Tears fill my eyes at the overwhelming loss pouring off of Colby, while another part of me wants to celebrate that she believes.
“The one and only,” I confirm, my voice thick with emotion as the phrase is shoved into my mind and comes spilling out of my mouth almost involuntarily.
Colby chokes on a small laugh and brings her hands over her mouth in shock. Her hazel eyes are wide, and I get the distinct impression they’re contacts and not her real color.
“She used to say that all the time,” she tells me, longing sloughing off her words in thick cloying drops. “Does she know,” she starts but has to stop to rein in her loss. “Does she know who murdered her?” she finally asks, her eyes watery but resolute.
I look down at the small moonstone earring and the marked bones it has all around it. It’s the reason we’re here. I close my eyes and take a moment to breathe. What the bones want her to know, to do, is not the happy-go-lucky message I hoped all readings would be. It’s not the map to happiness that Colby deserves, or at least it won’t start out that way. And yet, I know this kind of reading is just as important as the warm and fuzzy ones.
“She doesn’t know who murdered her, but that’s what you’re meant to find out,” I tell her solemnly.
Diem’s presence feels oddly warm and comforting by my side, and it’s clear she’s as much a part of this reading as I am. It’s an unusual sensation. With Paul, I knew about his wife, about the kind of spirit she had and the love and light she carried in this world, but I didn’t see her, didn’t feelher. Not like I do with the very present ghost next to me.
“I’ve been trying to find out what her assignments were, but I don’t have clearance. I hit nothing but dead ends every time I try to find the truth,” Colby defends, and I nod in understanding, not wanting her to feel like I’m saying what she’s doing is not enough.
“I know...she knows, but there’s more to all of this than the Order can help you uncover,” I tell her, and Colby’s brow furrows with confusion.
I quickly look around to make sure we have as much privacy as we can get, given the circumstances, and lower my voice to a whisper. “I wouldn’t normally condone this message, but since it’s coming from the bones and I trust them implicitly, I’m going to say it anyway. Maybe if you can’t find things the right way, it’s time to start looking at them the wrong way,” I declare, trying and failing not to side-eye my bones just a little.
“Ookaaay, but I thought you said stay away from my family, so exactly whatwrong wayshould I be taking then?” she asks, perplexed.
I look down at the bones with a raised eyebrow that says,do tell, how much of a law breaker should this nice witch become?I study the spread of the bones again, trying to interpret the answer. I take in the layout of the bangle and her family line, the pin in relation to her current job, and the path the bones want her to take. And lastly, I observe the moonstone earring, one half of a pair that Colby gave Diem for her eighteenth birthday, a gift Diem treasured in life and Colby treasures now because of Diem’s death.
“You should find a new angle, but don’t go as far as your family has,” I tell her cryptically, but I see that Colby grasps what I’m saying. I point to the earring, and she follows my gesture. “See how the earring is sitting in the middle of these bones?” I ask, and she nods. “These markings resemble a journey, one that’s essential and urgent. Your life and the truth of what happened to Diem is intertwined around this totem. Sometimes with readings, I’ll see multiple paths and outcomes mixed with these bones, but for you, this is it. There’s only one way you can move forward, and it’s not going to be easy. But I think you already know that,” I declare, and Colby studies the earring and the different symbols surrounding it as though she too can see what they mean.
She nods after a beat and seems to steel herself. “Did Diem feel any pain?” she asks, her gaze now hard and determined, but there’s a fragile wobble in her lip showing just how much she’s working to keep it together.
I wait for Diem to communicate with the bones and for the message to be relayed to me. “No, it was quick, and she didn’t see it coming,” I reassure her.
“They said it was fast, that she didn’t suffer, but I figured that’s what they say to everyone. I didn’t believe…” Colby drops her head back, struggling to rein in the surge of acute emotion I see force its way to the surface.
Diem reaches out and sets her hand on her best friend’s arm, and Colby’s eyes immediately drop to survey the new goose bumps speckling her skin. She closes her eyes and places her own hand on top of the phantom hand of her soul’s sister.
Her anguish hits me right in the chest like a kick from a horse, and I feel my own eyes sting from the impact of it. I can see the connection between these two women, feel that they are each other’s family in ways neither of them ever had in their life. Their friendship was pure and beautiful, and what happened to Diem rocked Colby to her core. It threw her off her axis, and she hasn’t been able to find her way since. She’s hiding, and she doesn’t even know from what anymore.
“I know you feel like the world and everything good in it has abandoned you, but you’re not alone, Colby. You never will be. Diem is here, she’s as stubborn as you are, and she’s not going anywhere,” I tell her, my eyes earnest, my heart hoping that she hears what I’m saying, that it sinks into her and holds her up in times where the darkness tries to drown her. Because it will. I hate that for her, but I can also see she’s strong enough to handle it, to find her way no matter what.
