The Whispering Dead (Gravekeeper #1) - Darcy Coates Page 0,66
arms folded over her thick parka to protect against the cold. She was looking in the wrong direction and didn’t notice Keira until she stepped onto the stone. Zoe squeaked and pressed her hands over her mouth. “Jeez, don’t sneak up on me like that!”
Keira tried to shush her friend’s laughter. “Quiet. We can’t be seen tonight.”
“Pfft. Ha-ha, don’t worry about that. This town is full of old people. They’re all in bed by ten at the latest.”
“Keep it down!” Keira begged. She glanced back toward the florist. Beyond the shop was a mess of shadows. She could imagine a figure standing in the darkness, easily hidden, watching them. “Please! I was serious when I said we could go to jail for this.”
“Oh, that wasn’t a joke?” Zoe, still speaking too loudly for Keira’s comfort, hopped to her feet. “This sounds amazing. Where’re we going?”
Keira exhaled and took Zoe’s shoulders. She knew her request was going to sound crazy. She could only be grateful that Zoe was possibly the only human on earth who would listen to—and agree to—the plan without asking a million questions. “I want to get into the Crispin property. I want you to show me where Emma died. I can’t tell you why, but it’s important.”
“Oh heck yes.” As Keira had hoped, Zoe seemed not only accepting of the proposal, but enthusiastic about it. “I’ve never seen it myself, but I’ve researched enough to guess where the murderizing went down. Ah, this is so cool! I’ll get to see if he really planted a memorial tree.”
“Please, for all that’s holy, shh!”
As was her mode, Zoe set a blistering pace. Her footsteps were loud and echoed off the main street’s buildings, creating the disturbing impression that a dozen people were jogging alongside them. Keira stayed a few steps behind, constantly scanning their surroundings for signs of motion, and her nerves were frayed by the time they reached the town’s outskirts.
Even in the dim light, she could see Zoe’s cheeks were flushed and her eyes were bright with excitement. She twirled midpace, flashing Keira a grin. “Y’know, for a while, I was worried you’d turn out to be a huge stick in the mud. But you’re actually really cool.”
“No, sorry, your first assessment is probably pretty accurate.” Even though they were leaving suburbia and the empty farmland was outpopulating the houses, Keira still kept her head low and her eyes moving. “I promise you this is very out of character. Let’s just pretend I’ve gone mad for the next couple of hours.”
Zoe snickered. “No, with superhero fighting moves like what you employed against Gavin earlier, I bet you used to be something cool like an assassin or a professional boxer or part of a government division that’s so secret that not even its own members know about it.”
Keira didn’t respond. She doubted any of Zoe’s guesses were accurate, but she couldn’t claim normalcy either. She’d reacted to Gavin’s attack too quickly and efficiently for her skills to have come from any sort of casual self-defense class. She looked at her fingers again. They seemed unnaturally pale in the moonlight. She squeezed them into fists, felt their power, then relaxed them again. These hands might have committed crimes. Might have hurt people. Possibly even killed.
The idea was too uncomfortable to contemplate. She raised her head to see they were nearing the copse of pine trees that surrounded the Crispin property.
Zoe nodded toward the woods. “There’s no wall at the back of the house, which is where we want to get to, but it means going through the forest. You up for it?”
“Yeah. I have a flashlight, but it’s probably better if we don’t turn it on until we’re—” The final words—off the road—died on her tongue. While she’d been distracted staring at her hands, a figure had appeared on the path behind them.
It was after midnight; there was zero chance the stranger’s presence was a coincidence. Keira froze, her mind spinning through possibilities: Drag Zoe into the forest and hide? Try to bluff her way out of the encounter? Run for a farmhouse? Prepare to fight?
Then recognition hit her. The figure was still too far away to see distinctly in the wan light, but the gait was familiar. Keira’s heart skipped a beat. “Oh…crap.”
“What?” Zoe, who had been digging her own flashlight out of her jacket pocket, looked up, and saw the figure. “Did you invite someone else?”