“Well, they are,” Dave snarled.
No snarling; she doesn’t respond well to it.As if she could read my mind, Liz elbowed him in the ribs, making him grunt.
Eloise gazed at the wall like she was trying to make sense of the information. “Just remnants, or something else?” she finally asked.
Aha, so she was responsible for the zombies. I am one hundred percent positive zombies weren’t the technical name, but until I knew better, it was the best I had.
“What else is there? We already have a town of terrified residents,” Hudson asked.
“How terrified?”
I blinked. What did she mean, how terrified? They were being harassed by ghosts—they were scared shitless. Wait, no.
“What did you do?” I asked. They weren’t half as scared as I would expect. White Castle might be good with weird, but mass poltergeist activity should have caused a riot. People should be trying to burn down the town, not holding town meetings.
My grandmother smiled like she was super proud of herself. “You think of my previous attempts as failures, Granddaughter.But every single step I’ve made has played out perfectly. My ruling will be so much easier with the populace muted while I restore order. If I’d completely removed their fear, they wouldn’t seek a solution. But I also wanted to avoid bloodshed, at least where I could.”
“How?”
She shook her head and stood. “Thank you for dinner.”
Nobody moved to escort her out of the door. She scowled before turning on her heel and striding out into the night. The door clicked shut behind her, and the wards let me know when she’d left my premises.
Harry blinked out of existence.
“Where did the ghost go?” Dave snapped.
My lips twitched. “Oh, Dave, you have much to learn. Harry just attached himself to my grandmother. He’s haunting her, and now we have an insight into what the bitch is doing.”
“Diabolical,” Lucifer said with a grin.
My father stared at me and voiced the words he’d spoken in my head. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Daughter.”
Cora Roberts—mistress of optimism and master of deception.
Harry sped back into the room and slammed against the wall. The clock wobbled and fell onto the floor, making us all jump.
Well, that didn’t go according to plan.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Stolen moments should be treasured.
Ishould have known my grandmother would ward herself against ghosts, given she was dabbling in the afterlife and manipulating the second souls left on Earth. I felt so very, very stupid for thinking otherwise.
My father stretched out his legs and cradled his steaming mug of hot chocolate with all the trimmings as we sat around the fire in the parlor.
“I’m sorry, Miss Roberts,” Harry said for the umpteenth time.
Abaddon lasered him with a look. “Stop apologizing for something you have no control over.”
Harry froze. My father never spoke to him, so his words had more of an impact.
Hudson wrapped his arm around my shoulders and drew me close to his side. “What do you think she’s done?” he asked.
I shrugged, trying to piece together all the moves my grandmother had made into a bigger picture. She wasn’t known for embellishing the facts. She’d indicated everything she haddone had led us to this moment, so it would be prudent to unpick the reasons.
“I don’t know, but I can’t overlook the fact that White Castle’s residents became more incensed when the school board lowered the age at which they introduced sex education in schools than about their ghost problem.”
