Witching Time (The Wild Hunt #14) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,21
had to watch him to make certain he didn’t eat the seeds, but otherwise, he loved just hanging out with me while I worked on them. I always bought an extra one, though, so he could play with it. He liked rolling them around outside.
I finally found everything I wanted and paused at the cash register, where Dray weighed them and handed me my change.
“Can I use the cart to take them to my car?” I asked.
He started to nod when there was a scream from the patch. We both whirled, only to see a little girl running toward us, sobbing. Her mother was right behind her, and I caught sight of a misty vapor that was hovering over the area where they had been.
“What the hell?” Dray said, sliding off his stool behind the counter.
“Ghost, I think.” I pushed my cart to the side and headed down the path to reenter the patch. By then, the mother had caught her daughter up and was making her way toward the booth. I paused as we crossed paths. “Excuse me, but what happened? Are you all right?”
The woman, pale as moonlight, nodded. “I think so. I’m… I don’t know. We were picking out a pumpkin and all of a sudden, there was…something…there. You can see it still.” She pointed toward the nebulous figure swathed in fog, hovering over a large pumpkin.
I thought quickly. There was no way they’d be going back in the pumpkin patch—that much was written on their faces—so I decided to help out.
“I have some pumpkins at the register. Why don’t you pick out what you like, and you can pay Dray for them. I’ll find more and he can deduct what I already paid for them from the new batch.” I didn’t want the little girl to go home disappointed.
Dray caught up to us at that moment. He glanced at me, but I gave him a quick shake of the head. “Are you all right, ma’am?” he asked.
The woman was still shaking, so I decided to save her the trouble.
“They had a bit of a scare. I’ll check it out. Meanwhile, let her pick what she wants of my pumpkins. She can buy them, and I’ll find new ones. That’s all right, isn’t it?”
Dray nodded, turning toward the woman and her daughter. “Come this way. We’ll get you situated. Thanks, Raven,” he added, glancing over his shoulder at me. “Be careful.”
“I always am,” I said, knowing that was a big lie. But I could handle ghosts, and I was pretty sure that was what they had seen. The misty figure was still there as I headed down the path toward it. It was still in the same place, hovering over the pumpkins like an isolated patch of fog. When I approached it, it began to swirl. I waited, but it made no other move toward me and I wondered if it could understand me.
“Can you hear me?” I stood, hands on hips, waiting.
The ghost shifted a little, and I reached out, trying to touch the energy with my mind. After a moment, I felt something. I felt a sadness, a sense of loss and regret, but I still couldn’t see the spirit clearly. I had a sense it was feminine, but wasn’t sure if she had heard me. She didn’t seem to be reacting to me, and she didn’t seem dangerous. I thought about trying to trap her and take her elsewhere, but then decided that, until I knew who she was, I’d better leave her alone. She hadn’t hurt the woman or her daughter, and didn’t seem to be bothering me.
Still not sure what to think, I moved a few steps closer. The filmy mist stopped swirling, instead hanging heavy.
“Hey, can you hear me?” I tried again.
This time, there was a sudden swish as the mist coiled around me and then dissipated. I looked around, turning full circle, but she was nowhere in sight. Cautiously, I closed my eyes and checked my chakras, but the ghost hadn’t corded into me. Sometimes people, spirits, and other creatures could cord into your energy and piggyback a ride. It wasn’t the same thing as possession, but neither was it a good idea to allow it to happen. That was one way that people carried things—and by things, I meant entities—home with them.
Dray was jogging down the path, looking concerned. “I sold them two of your pumpkins. What happened? What was that thing? I saw it swirling around you.”