DRAKE

When she reached the Hub Pub, Tonya double-timed down the stairs almost colliding with Drake who was walking up, carrying a box full of cables and equipment.

“Am I glad to see you!” Tonya let him pass.

“Me too. You want to tag along? One more run and I’m finished.” He hefted the box.

Tonya joined him at the top of the stairs. “That’s what I want to talk to you about. The cemetery is too dangerous.”

“We already talked about that. Priya’s concept is to scare people.” Drake walked to his car at the curb. He arranged the box in the trunk and shut it.

“Wait! Let me explain.”

“Okay.” Drake smiled at her like she was a piece of chocolate cake.

“Professor Rudolph is dead,”

“What?” His smile vanished. “Wasn’t he your favorite prof? Are you okay?” Drake took Tonya’s hand and led her to sit on the bumper of his car.

“What happened?”

“Bad magic made him sick, in the woods by the cemetery.”

“What do you mean magic? They took him away to the hospital.” Drake sat on the bumper beside her.

“He checked himself out and went back to the cemetery and lay down at the foot of the Three-Century Ash to die.”

“Did they figure out what was wrong with him?”

“He was eating all the way. Donna, at reception, said he swiped the cookies off her desk.”

“That’s terrible.” Drake knit his brows. “So, heart attack?”

“That tree is supposed to protect the town. It has for hundreds of years, but now I don’t know. Somebody is using its power to do terrible things.”

“Tree power?” Drake quirked an eyebrow at her.

Tonya shifted her feet. “I know it’s hard to believe, but my family knows things.” Uncomfortable under his stare, she shoved her hands into her coat pockets until her right hand encountered the jar and she snatched it back as if burned.

Drake pulled out his phone. “Did you call someone to deal with the Professor’s body?”

“Yeah. I wish I could show it to you before they collect it.”

“No thanks.”

“I know it sounds crazy but Priya’s installation is wrong. The cemetery is a sacred place and the Ash Tree—”

“Has spiritual value, and your professor’s dead, and Priya built a nasty monster on it.”

Tears welled up in her eyes. “He won’t be the only one to die if I can’t stop her show.”

“You still believe that?” He stood, and the bumper lifted beneath her as she stood too.

“Sounds crazy, until you believe in magic.”

“Priya told me about the thing you did with the tree branch. She called it sleight of hand and swore you wouldn’t be able to do it in daylight.”

“Why won’t she just believe me!”

“Show me?” He held his hands out, not quite touching her.

“No. Until you’ve witnessed magic, the Old Families aren’t allowed to use their powers against you.”

“That’s lame. You might as well say if I tell you, I’ll have to kill you.”

“I won’t have to. Somebody wants to do it for me.” Tonya sighed. At least Drake wasn’t laughing. She watched his expression change as he tried to process the idea of real magic.

Finally, he held out his arms and Tonya crumpled into them. Everything was wrong, except for his warmth. She leaned her head on his firm chest and some of her tension drained away.

“I’ll talk to Priya,” he said gravely. “She’ll be disappointed, but we’ll clean up your aunt’s tree.”

Tonya backed away. “That’s not it.”

“The spot where Professor Rudolph died deserves a memorial. We’ll put a picture and flowers there so his students can pay their respects.”

“People should stay out of the cemetery.”

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“You’re against a memorial?”

“His corpse could be contagious,” she remembered the shoots growing into his eyes. “Something evil is growing in the cemetery and it’s making people sick.”

“Who?”

“The diving team were competing to eat the most bowls of porridge and stacks of pizzas. Marta couldn’t stop eating. She choked on a piece of pizza until her face turned blue. If I hadn’t been there to give her CPR, she would have died.”

“That’s disgusting but an accident isn’t a disease.”

“My roommate Lynette has been eating so compulsively, she tied her own hands together.” Lynette’s concern for Roberto was all-consuming and that might have distracted her for a while, but the compulsion to eat must mean she was infected. How long until she went frosty-eyed and brainless?

“The thing they all have in common is the cemetery. The diving team runs through there to train. Lynette and Roberto go to the graveyard for picnics. I’m afraid if you set up your cameras in the cemetery, you’ll end up like Professor Rudolph.”

“That’s all coincidental.”

“Don’t ignore me and get sick, I’ll never forgive myself.”

“Stop worrying, nothing’s gonna happen.” Drake stepped close and brushed the hair out of her face. He was so close she could see right into his bright blue eyes.

She sighed. “If you go into those woods you’ll die like Professor Rudolph.”

“He was old. He was grieving for his wife. Maybe he was sleepwalking or had a mental breakdown.” The angular planes of Drake’s face were like porcelain, subtly strong but not unbreakable.

“This thing could become an epidemic.”

“Sit here.” Drake offered her the driver’s seat, but she remained standing.

“You saved Marta from choking to death. You said she looked like she was dead when you started CPR. You’re still in shock, that’s all . . .”

“Promise me you’ll help me cancel the installation, and the bonfire too.”

“Sorry.” He looked at his phone. “I’m late. I promised Priya I’d get the last cameras to her half an hour ago.”

“A few more minutes won’t kill you. C’mon.” Tonya led him back into the pub and downstairs to the Ninjas’ meeting room. She had been going about this all wrong. Drake was rational, and he wasn’t going to see a supernatural cause for anything, no matter how much evidence she could tell him about. He wasn’t going to believe until he saw for himself.

He sat down at the table. Tonya pushed her chair far away from him and, breathing softly into her turtleneck, began to explain. “Lynette and I went looking for Roberto this morning.” Tonya described the Herbal Healing Shop after it got hit with the unexplained fire, the shattered jars, and the unnatural burn marks. “My aunt and Roberto went missing from the hospital. The strange eating compulsion must be related. I think they wandered out of there, unconscious, just like Professor Rudolph.”

“I’m sorry about your aunt.” Drake reached for her hand and, although she probably shouldn’t have, she let him take it. His hand was warm and calloused, and holding it made her feel calmer.

“You have to believe me. Something bad is happening. Help me convince Priya to move the installation. I can’t fight magic and Priya all by myself.”

“Forget Priya. Tonight, we should remember Professor Rudolph. The bonfire will be his wake.”

“Not in the cemetery.”

“Why?”

“It’s contagious, like a mummy’s curse.”

“There’s no such thing.”

“Isn’t there? Rudolph was eating himself to death, just like Marta, and then a magical force drew him to the Ash Tree. Remember, we couldn’t stop him, no matter how hard we tried? Look, I know it sounds nuts, but this was no natural disease.” Could the gravedigger fungus have infected her? Could she be shedding infection onto Drake right now?

“You really do believe in magic.”

“For hundreds of years, the Old Families have used magic in Loon Lake.”

“I live here. Why haven’t I seen magic?”

“We don’t practice in front of Mundanes. The mayor and his councilors are Trads who enforce steep consequences on anyone who breaks the rules.”

“By telling me, aren’t you breaking their rules?”

“If they find out you believe, you could get your memory wiped.”

“Gee thanks.”

“It’s better than dying like the professor.”

“I want to believe you, mostly because I don’t want you to be crazy, but I don’t believe in horoscopes, or bad luck on Friday the thirteenth, or unicorns.”

Tonya wiped her hands on her jeans and took a deep breath.

“Of course you don’t.” She phoned the hospital and asked for Reception. When Donna answered, she set it to speakerphone, so Drake could hear everything.

“Hello, this is Tonya. Remember Professor Rudolph? We found his body lying under the Three-Century Ash in the Loon Lake Cemetery.”

Donna sounded excited to hear this. She listened as Tonya described the hair-like roots growing out of the ground and into all orifices of his head. “How terrible,” she said. “Evil forces are at work in Loon Lake for sure.”

“What’s with the sarcasm?”

“No sarcasm. Tell me how I can help, hon.”

Finally, somebody who believed her! She arched an eyebrow at Drake and smiled. To Donna she said, “Do you think you could get word out to the other Old Families? I need help right now.”

“I’ll see what I can do. Tonya, take care of yourself.”

“About that. I must go into the cemetery tonight, but first I need to take some precautions. Could you loan me some equipment, off the record?”

“Sure.”

Tonya was surprised she agreed so quickly but she thanked Donna and hung up.

“Well, that makes one person who believes you,” said Drake.

“You still don’t? Donna is from an Old Family that has been practicing magic for hundreds of years. Anyone from an Old Family knows about magic, they just hide it from outsiders like you. I wish my Mom were here, or Aunt Helen. They could tell you.”

“I admit, Professor Rudolph’s sleepwalking, and his eyes, didn’t seem natural.”

“Finally.” Tonya took a deep breath and sighed. Drake knew, which meant with him, she didn’t have to hide who she was anymore. It would have been a perfect moment, if they weren’t all doomed.

“So, magic is real, and it can kill you.” Drake stared at his hands, as if the town’s secrets lay there.

“Can I borrow your car? I need to pick up a box of equipment from the hospital.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“Sorry. Somebody might figure out that you know.”

“So, they’ll make me forget it. Big deal.”

“A mind wipe is serious. It erases months of your life, not just the thing they want you to forget.”

“But you need help.”

“Just stop the party tonight—without telling anybody else what’s really going on. Can you do it?”

“I’ll try, but it’s Halloween. The students are expecting a keg party, Man vs. Nature, and a bonfire.” You’d need armed guards to keep them out of the cemetery tonight

Tonya held out her hand. “Give me the keys.”

If Drake couldn’t stop the students she needed a plan B, and for that she had to visit Donna at the hospital.

He surrendered the keys. “Stay safe.”

“See you soon.” Maybe, unless Rudolph’s condition spread unchecked and this was their last moment together. On impulse, Tonya kissed him on the cheek.

He smiled, eyebrows raised. “Hurry back.”