Mr. Allen went still, his cup drooping absently in his hand. “You know, now that you mention it, I didn’t notice any dirt piles or holes in the cemetery after they were resurrected, but I wasn’t looking. In the morning, remind me to dig out the graveyard books, so we can see where they were buried. Reverend Douglas still has me consult my father’s record book before we bury anyone, so we don’t have any overlap. Their death dates should be listed there too. Most of the families are very intermingled, so it’s anyone’s guess who will end up where in the cemetery.”
“So tomorrow, we need to visit the sheriff’s office, Dr. Miller’s office, the river—”
“And potentially the cemetery,” Gwen added.
Felipe nodded. “And I would like to speak to the foreman at the mill if it isn’t too far from the river. We’ll have to get an early start if we want to get through all of this before dark.”
“We should split up tomorrow,” Oliver said, though he hated the prospect of doing so as much as he hated the idea of being dragged all over Aldorhaven.
A beat of anxiety pulsed across the tether as Felipe’s head whipped up from his papers. Across the table, Felipe held his gaze, searching his features and the tether, even though he knew he was right.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Felipe replied slowly.
“Neither do I, but it doesn’t make sense for the four of us to go everywhere together. You’ve said it yourself, more than two investigators showing up tends to make people nervous.”
Looking between them, Gwen sighed. “I don’t like it any more than you do, Galvan, but Dr. Barlow’s right. We’ll cover more ground that way.”
Oliver thought for certain Felipe would object, but after a long moment, he shook his head and replied, “Then, you and Dr. Barlow will visit the doctor. Mr. Allen and I will go to the river and mill.”
“And the sheriff’s office to check the files. I’m assuming Mr. Allen has the key.”
“I do, and I’ll give you the cemetery records in the morning along with directions to Dr. Miller’s place,” Mr. Allen said.
“So Miss Jones and I will talk to Dr. Miller and investigate the cemetery while you and Mr. Allen go to the river, mill, and sheriff’s office?” At Felipe’s hesitant nod, Oliver tidied his notes and tried not to think about the resignation written across his features. “Good, then we’ll split up after breakfast and reconvene here in the afternoon to discuss what we found.”
With everyone in accord, they gathered their papers and went to their rooms. The moment their bedroom door closed, Felipe leaned against it and let out a heavy puff of breath. When his gaze met Oliver’s, something sharp prickled behind his heart. Oliver tried to focus on it, but the feeling slipped from his grasp, and in its place, fear gripped Oliver’s throat. Should he have not said anything about splitting up?
“Are… are you mad at me?” Oliver asked softly.
“What? No, not at all.” Pushing off the door, Felipe crossed the small room in two strides to stand before Oliver. A crooked frown crossed Felipe’s lips as he stroked his lover’s arms. “I’m not mad. I’m just worried. I don’t like having you and Gwen out of my sight in a place like this. It’s my job to keep you safe, you know.”
Oliver let out a small laugh. “I’m pretty sure figuring out what’s going on is our job. Gwen and I will be fine. I promise we’ll be careful.”
“I know you will. I trust you two to take care of each other. What I don’t trust is this town. You also might not want to trust the tether will reach without checking a map,” Felipe said, laying his hand over Oliver’s heart. “We can only go half a mile apart, remember?”
His mouth opened in silent horror. “I got so caught up in the case and acting normal that I forgot. What do we do now? I—”
“It should be fine as long as we stick to the plan. When I talked to Mr. Allen while you were washing up, he showed me a map of town. It’s a bit out of date, but hopefully, it’s at least to scale. I’ll drop you and Gwen off by the doctor’s office while we go to the mill, but youcan’t go to the cemetery until I’m back in town or the tether won’t reach. If you finish before we do, you may need to kill time and walk around.”
“Gwen and I can do that.”
“When we’re back in town, I’ll give the tether two tugs to signal you can go to the cemetery. It should reach no matter where we are in town, but if you have to go to the far end of the cemetery, maybe you can do that spindle thing with the tether again to thin it out.”
“That should work, though we’ll need to be careful with it. What if everything is farther apart than you anticipated?”
“Then, I’ll turn around and come back to get you and Gwen. I’m sure I can figure out an excuse.”
Oliver stuffed down a rising pang of anxiety at the mistake he had made and the trouble it might have caused as Felipe wrapped his arms around him. Standing cheek to cheek, the tether pulled taut between them as he shut his eyes. He had grown accustomed to living his life with Felipe always at his side, a steady weight under his heart, and he would never take it for granted again. Never.
***
No one could see Felipe where he hid wedged between the yarrow, white sage bush, and the wall of the house. The heat of the day had long gone, and in its place stood the chill night broken only by the buzzing drone of cicadas and the hazy glow of lanterns. The medicinal garden stood empty, and from his pocket of privacy, he could see his aunts, uncles, and cousins walking along the upper catwalk of the compound or silhouetted in the candlelit windows of the kitchen and their bedrooms. This time of night, he should have been settling in with the other children, but he didn’t want to deal with Carmen’s bossiness or his cousins’ taunts. If he slipped out after dinner, no one would care enough to look for him, except his parents, and they were occupied.All day he had felt his father’s disapproving gaze on his back as he struggled through training, so as soon as he heard his father whisper to his mother to meet him in the storeroom, Felipe knew it was about him. Wrapping his arms around his legs and pulling them to his chest, he listened to the voices on the other side of the stucco wall.
“This can’t go on much longer. He can’t fight properly because he’s supposed to be learning healing. He’s not healing, so he isn’t fighting. He’s nearlyfourteen, Marina! Do you know what I was doing when I was his age?”
“Oh, trust me, I know, which is why he must learn to heal.”
“But he isn’t!”
