“You tried to kill them,” she croaks. “And me. You tried to kill me, Matthias.”
You’re rewriting history to make yourself look like the martyr.
“No,” she screeches. “Liar!”
“What is he saying?” Rainier asks Cadence who stands rigid as a lamppost next to him.
She whispers the words her father can’t hear.
His eyes slam into Gaëlle. “He’s trying to get to you. Don’t give in to the guilt. He deserved what he got.”
“I . . . I . . .” Gaëlle steps back, her boots crunching over one of the sticks.
The ghost looks at Rainier, then back at his executioner.What did you tell them? What did you tell them about me?
“Please, Matthias . . .” She takes two more steps back and raises her palms.
Her dead husband begins to sob, long howls that sound like the mistral when it blows through Marseille.
Is it me or has the wind picked up? I pull my coat collar tighter around my neck, eyeballs stinging from the violent chill.
The ghost runs his hands down the sides of his face, his fingers dipping into his cheeks until one body part becomes barely distinguishable from the other. And then he pulls his hands through his neck, chest, and away from his body again.Did you ever even love me?
As though to hear Matthias, Rainier leans forward a little. Any more, and he risks keeling over into the snow, right at Matthias’s feet. Considering Cadence’s old man was hexed once, he better keep his ass glued to the seat.
“Of course I loved you.” Gaëlle’s tone is fierce.
Matthias lunges at her.Then join me, chaton.
“Now!” Cadence yells, and Gaëlle steps to the side.
Matthias lands on the X of sticks.
Adrien and Cadence pour the contents of their saltshakers over the snow. It takes me a half-second to remember the dispenser Cadence gave me. As they draw a circle with the spice blend, I grab my pot, unscrew the lid, and upturn it, the smell of garlic and the bite of pepper tickling my nose.
Surprise fills Matthias’s empty eyes. Gaëlle grabs the rope. I’m not sure what she’s going to do with it, not having been privy to their little specter powwow.
Matthias throws his head back and laughs. Before anyone can even react, he’s out of the circle. Gaëlle instinctively lifts her arms and ends up poking her hands right through Matthias’s middle. He shoves her to the ground and locks his hands around her neck, just above her scarf. Unlike on his own body, his fingers don’t sink through his wife’s flesh.
I leap forward to tackle him, but just as I’m about to make contact, a strong set of hands grips me by the shoulder.
“Don’t be an idiot.” Adrien’s fingers dig harder than necessary into my clavicle. “Don’t touch him.”
Right. Shit.I rub the back of my neck, awakening the wound beneath the giant plaster.
Gaëlle thrashes about in the snow, gasping for air, trying to truss up her husband with the rope. Unfortunately, the coarse cord goes right through his body.
Cadence throws what looks like a copper spoon full of holes at Matthias, hitting him square in the back of the head. He fizzes and pops like a broken electrical wire before disappearing. Gaëlle lets out a whimper of relief.
I shrug off Adrien’s grip. “What the hell was that thing?”
“An electromagnetic shield. Sharp thinking, Cadence,” Adrien says.
Pink tinges her cheeks. “It was Papa’s idea.”
I study the thing now sitting in the snow beside Gaëlle’s leg. “An electromagnetic shield? It looks like a tea strainer.”
“Itisa tea strainer,” Cadence says. “But that’s not why it works. It’s the material from which it’s made. Copper blocks radio frequencies and electromagnetic radiation.”
