“That’s more than fair.”
The transfer of one thousand dollars to her former pack’s alpha went through in seconds, and I held the screen up as proof. That she chose to help the loved ones she left behind made me happy to contribute.
“Okay.” She settled in on her side of the divide. “Get your pen and paper ready then start reading.”
The biggest downside with using a deceased lawyer was the time commitment.
Meg couldn’t very well reach through the ether and accept a printed copy, so I had to read and notate. I got a discount for having to play paralegal for her, for which I was grateful, but it meant I wouldn’t sleep much tonight. Not that sleep and I were on a first-name basis these days. Or ever, really.
There was a soothing rhythm to the collaborative process, but that came from years of working together anytime I got twitchy about papers I was asked to sign.
I hadn’t met Meg while she was alive, though she had been friends with my mother. We met when she executed my parents’ wills from the beyond, and it hurt too much to surrender that link when I would never see them again.
Black witches have no afterlife. We simply stop. Here one day, gone forever the next.
I had been taught that we consumed so much life on this side of the veil we ate through our afterlives.
I wasn’t sure what I believed. If I believed anything at all. It hadn’t bothered me, none of it, until Colby.
Not even when Mom, a powerful white witch, failed to appear no matter how often I scried for her.
Six hours later, I squinted at words as they swam across the page, ready to sign anything to get sleep.
“That ought to do it.” Megara took a puff. “Let me know if you need more assistance.”
“I will.” I yawned. “Thanks.”
“I wasn’t wrong about your glow.” She blew smoke against her side of the barrier. “I mistook its origin.”
The safest response I could manage was, “Oh?”
“The thrill of the hunt.” Her eyes gleamed with approval. “Your predatory nature is awakening.”
“That’s the last thing I want.” I studied the notes spread around me. “I don’t want to regress.”
“Your mother ran with our pack on the full moon.” She laughed at the memory. “Naked as a jaybird.”
That woke me up with a cringe. “What did Dad think of that?”
“This was before your father tamed some of her wildness.” She curled her lip. “The point is, you are your mother’s daughter. You’ll always have her fierce spirit. Your father was a good man.” She rolled a hand. “As far as black witches go.” She shook her head. “I can’t blame him for falling in love with her. What she saw in him? That, I’ll never know, but God as my witness, she loved him more than anything. Until you.”
“I have to walk a path that doesn’t haunt me for the rest of my life.”
Curling smoke cast shadows onto her features. “I know, darling.”
“This contract is as good as it gets for people like me.”
“It’s a breadcrumb.” Her mouth pinched. “Follow that path, and you know where it leads.”
Right back to the loaf. Or maybe the bakery? One or the other.
“Clay says they’ve got a Silver Stag copycat. He—or she—is taking young girls in groups of four.”
“Albert couldn’t have baited his hook better if he cut them to chum the waters himself.”
That painted a vivid mental picture I wouldn’t soon forget. “Do you think he’s involved?”
“No,” she sighed her disappointment. “Black Hat’s reputation for training monsters to hunt their own is his legacy. He would never tarnish the Bureau’s reputation and would kill to keep its record spotless.”