Façade [Book 2] (Glamour Series)

31 | Last Fate

I sit on the bench, letting the sun soak it's heat waves into my earnest skin. The flowers around me are gentle, giving and leaving me filled with more hope than I endured the night before.

"Good morning, madam."

I close my notebook and raise my bloodshot eyes to his joyful appraisal.

"What's got you in such a pickle?" His words are kind and make me glad such a man exists.

"I'm a mess."

"I got that deary, but why?" His old lips pick up a goofy but concerned grin.

"Uh." I trace the spine of my leathered notebook, "I'm changing."

"Your tainted." He agrees.

"You knew?" I ask surprised that the old man, whom loves this very garden I sit in, could spot such a thing.

"Of course I did! All ghosts can see when one is tainted."

He's...dead? "You're dead?"

He laughs: "Well I ain't alive now am I?"

I'm stumped for words, "I didn't even notice."

He shakes his head, the white hair atop his balding scalp was now covered with a long straw cowboy hat, unusual appearance for the Man of the Garden. "Yes, well, I know where you can get help."

"You do?" I try to stay calm, but after last night and the events of my bloodlust I would go for any cure.

"I do." He stated calmly.

"What is it, if I may ask."

"I only know," his old eyes reach mine softly: as if I were a child being told some dark fairy tale, "that a Necromancer can only heal another Necromancer."

I let his words sink in, playing them over and over into my head like a little girl plays with a Barbie Doll's hair.

"I have to find my father."

*

I was against it before, but now I was ready to confront them. I step up to the two men, and state it out: "I'm going with you."

Laurence and Oliver are shocked at my bold approach. After Oliver and I stopped sobbing the night before I had made it very clear how much I didn't want to go with them on the trip to see my father. I knew seeing him would probably tip me the wrong direction, Laurence didn't like the approach but Oliver convinced him to let me be.

"And to think we just found a replacement for you." Laurence's shoulders shrug nonchalantly.

Olive elbows him in the diaphragm: "He's only kidding."

"So you're in?" Laurence smirks, hiding the wince behind his pain.

"I'm in." I state.

But not for the reasons you want me there.

"We leave in the next week then. Nice to have you on board, Miss Meyer." Laurence turns to walk away.

I glance at Oliver, the bandages at his neck, and guilt eludes me. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." He responds right away, leaning down and kissing my cheek. "Now I know what a badass you are in battle. Tough cookie."

I blush, "You're not so bad yourself, Oli." I peck his lips and walk away.

You're going to need it if I can't hold on until I reach my fathers aid.

To be continued... In Book 3