The Ex Hex (Ex Hex #1)(66)

“Why are you still so close to Graves Glen?” Vivi asked as she turned around, the candle still freezing in her hand. “I would’ve thought you would’ve gotten as far from there as you could’ve.”

“That was the plan,” she said on a sigh, then nodded at the candle. “But do you wanna take that thing on a plane?”

“Fair point,” Rhys muttered, glancing around the obviously haunted room.

“I guess we can do you the favor of taking this off your hands,” Vivi said, making herself sound irritated and not relieved.

“At great personal cost to ourselves,” Rhys added, his voice solemn, expression so serious Vivi had to bite back a grin.

“Oh god, thank you,” Tamsyn said, her shoulders sagging. “And seriously, I’m sorry about tricking you into trapping the ghost for me. Really. You seem nice. And I liked your office.”

“Thanks?” Vivi replied, and then Rhys had his hand on her lower back, steering her toward the door.

“Christ, that was easy,” he muttered once they were out in the hall, and then he looked around at the heavy wooden doors. “You know, we have some extra time now. I expected this to take up much more of the day. So if you wanted . . .”

“No,” Vivi replied, poking him in the chest. “We’re not getting a room. We’re taking this thing straight to Aunt Elaine.”

Giving a heavy sigh, Rhys cupped her face with one hand, leaning in to brush a kiss against her mouth. “I both love and hate when you’re sensible, Vivienne.”



Okay, we probably should’ve gotten a room, Vivi thought several hours later as she sat shivering in the woods beyond Elaine’s cabin. They’d gotten back to Graves Glen before noon, but Elaine was insistent that this kind of magic needed to be done at night, under the moon, although now, as Vivi huddled a little closer to Rhys, she wondered if this was more of Aunt Elaine just leaning into aesthetics.

Across from her, Gwyn sat with her knees drawn up to her chest, watching Aunt Elaine pour a salt circle on the forest floor, the Eurydice Candle in the middle, still radiating cold. “This is extremely metal of us,” Gwyn observed, then glanced down at herself. “Probably would be more metal if I weren’t wearing my pumpkin jammies, but what can you do?”

Snorting, Rhys wrapped an arm around Vivi’s shoulders, tugging her closer. “Trust me, having seen this ghost in the . . . well, in the flesh isn’t appropriate, but having seen it . . . in person isn’t good either, is it? In any case,” he finally said, shrugging. “The ghost is metal enough for all of us.”

“And this ghost hates you, yes?” Aunt Elaine asked, the bells on her skirt jingling softly as she completed the circle.

“Seems to, yes.”

“Hmmm.” She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Then maybe move a little farther back.”

Rhys looked down at Vivi, and she nodded, remembering him flying through the air at the library, the anger in the ghost’s eyes when it had seen him. Elaine’s theory was that because Piper McBride had been a witch, she might be a little more receptive to talking to fellow witches, especially ones who were setting her free. Vivi had reminded Elaine that she had also been the one to capture Piper, but Elaine was hoping Piper wouldn’t remember that bit.

“Ghosts don’t always have a good sense of what’s going on,” she’d said. “Time doesn’t exactly have any meaning for them.”

Vivi hoped she was right.

Rhys had stood up and moved back into the darkness, leaning against a tree as Vivi and Gwyn both rose to their feet, standing on opposite sides of the salt circle.

“Vivi?” Aunt Elaine asked, handing her a cardboard tube of long matches. “Would you like to do the honors?”

And so, for the second time in her life, Vivi lit a Eurydice Candle.

It was different this time. There was no slow creeping feeling as a spirit was drawn in. Instead, the candle sparked, flamed, and suddenly Piper McBride was there, in all her floaty, seriously pissed off glory.

She was emitting enough light to cast them all in a blue-green glow, and across the circle, Gwyn’s eyes went huge in her face. “Oh, shit, a ghost,” she breathed, then fluttered her hands. “I mean, I knew we were gonna see one, but there’s knowing and then there’s actually seeing it.”

Piper floated around to face her, and even in the dim light, Vivi could see Gwyn swallow hard. “Um. Nice shirt, by the way. I like Nirvana, too.”

The ghost turned slowly, taking in Vivi and Elaine, and while her expression didn’t change all that much, Vivi didn’t get the sense she was as angry this time.

Maybe Elaine had been right.

“Are you a coven?” Piper asked, her voice sounding like it was coming from far away, an eerie effect given how close she was to them.

“Yes,” Vivi said, even though it wasn’t technically true, and the ghost turned back to her.

“You,” she said, upper lip curling slightly. “I’ve seen you.”

Her mouth suddenly dry, Vivi licked her lips. “Right. In the library.”

Piper was fully snarling now. “With a Penhallow.”

“Right. Which is what we want to talk to you about, actually. You knew Rhys, the Penhallow, was cursed. And you were right. I’m the one who cursed him, so—”