A Grave Problem

45. Accidental Confession

Seeing that the head was no longer in existence filled Mia with relief. Suddenly, all the stress and terror of the night washed over her, and she sank into a pile, scooting herself as far away from the ashes as she could without having to actually get up. She watched as the two wolves sitting on the far side of the stream turned back into Zev and Conner. The grayish one was still standing in the stream, and she was incredibly happy to see he was alone. When the head melted, the rest of the demon must have gone along with it. The wolf turned towards Mia, climbing out on her side of the stream. Mia couldn't help but notice he was limping as he crawled over to her.

"Are you ok?" Mia asked as Luke started his transformation to human form. He nodded, and once he was completely back to being the boy in her English class, he looked at her and grinned.

"I'm ok." he told her. "But that horse kicked me right in the arm."

Even in the darkness, Mia could see that most of his forearm was already starting to bruise.

"I'm sorry." she told him.

"Don't be. It was my decision to jump in front of it."

"Well, thank you for that." Mia said sincerely. She knew it was definitely a big part of why the Dullahan hadn't caught up to her.

"Don't mention it." he said straightening. Then, handing her his good arm, Luke pulled Mia to her feet. "Let's just never do that again, ok?"

Mia didn't say anything – she just shook her head vehemently.

"Are you guys ok?" Carmine shouted out across the stream. She was standing with Anna, Zev, and Conner. Mia was relieved to see that everyone looked relatively unscathed.

"We're fine." Luke called back.

"Why don't you come back over here so we can get out of this place?" Zev asked.

"Yeah – and bring that head with you. Or whatever's left of it." Carmine added.

Mia was about to tell them that there were a lot of ashes, and she wasn't going to be carrying all of those in her hands. But before she could even complain, there was a heavy thud as a bag weighted with a rock landed just a few feet from where she and Luke were standing. Luke knelt down and began awkwardly scooping the ashes into Carmine's bag.

"Here. You hold the bag, I'll scoop." Mia said. She didn't want to have to be the one to tell him, but she was pretty sure his arm was broken. She just hoped werewolves healed faster than humans did.

When they were finally finished, Luke walked towards the stream. Mia hesitated. It was a lot wider than it looked when she was running for her life, and she really wasn't sure she had the energy to make another jump like that.

"Let's see if there's a more narrow part we can cross." Mia told Luke.

"Sure. Actually, the stream starts about twenty feet up that hill." he said, pointing. "If we go up there, we won't have to cross it at all."

"Perfect."

As they walked up the hill, Mia heard Carmine digging around in the leaves. Finally, she heard her friend call out, "I found the coin!" Mia realized that must have been what had hit the Dullahan as it tried to cross the stream after her.

Mia and Luke met up with the rest of the group about five minutes later. When they got there, Mia saw that a hole about a foot deep had already been dug.

"Just pour the ashes in there." Carmine said.

They buried the head, keeping the gold coin safely in the middle of the ashes. Someone asked Anna if she wanted it back, but she just shook her head.