Roses & Haunts Read online

  “I wouldn’t do that, were I you,” Henry smiled, the emotion sharp.

  Pain lit up her nervous system as her fingers touched the wound, a scream of utter torment ripping free of her lips. Jesus God, he wasn’t just killing Jerrick, he was slicing his soul clean from his body. Severing his connection to the corporeal world inch by freaking inch, but allowing him to keep his conscious thought, the bits of him that made him a real person.

  He was creating the Headless Horseman.

  It was the same spell the Horseman had flung at her back in her time, the very same blue-white goo Iowin used in the tracking spell to bring them to this time and place.

  The Horseman hadn’t been trying to kill her. He’d been begging her to stop what was about to happen.

  She was on her feet in a heartbeat, slamming her fist into the protection spell as hard as she could. “WHY?” she screamed. “Why the fuck are you doing this? Let him go. It doesn’t have to be this way. You’ve killed enough people to fuel your spell. Twelve are dead. What more do you need?”

  “I’m going to kill you, too. But what I have in mind is much less painful and much more helpful.” the bastard rubbed his hands together. “I told you I had plans for you. I knew I could use you the moment I sampled your power. I need someone in the center of this circle, fueling the spell that hides this village.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes, but don’t feel bad about it. I’ve already given you company. Your husband, Iowin is his name? Yes, I think that’s what my sweet Linnet told me. He’ll stand as a statue here in the perfect garden for all time. He’ll be the anchor, the focal point for all the energies the Hessians—my Hessians—generate on the battlefield. Once I have their Captain under my control, the rest will follow.

  “You see, I do believe in love forever,” he continued. “You’ll just spend your forever here in service to me and to the village of Sleepy Hollow,” he held out his hand. “Come join me, Alynia Caprice. Come take her place. I promise to create for you a perfect dream. You’ll sleep forever in your paradise, and I’ll live forever in mine. I fail to see how this is a bad deal.”

  Pressure condensed around her limbs, the air itself locking her in place as it must have done to Iowin. Only this time it was pushing her forward, closer and closer to Henry’s outstretched fingers. If she crossed that circle, if he linked her power to that spell, they were all done for.

  “Nein!” Conrad burst out of the trees in a rush, slamming Alynia to the ground.

  More muskets fired. More daggers flew through the air, all bouncing harmlessly against the protection spell. Beside her on the ground, Jerrick writhed and kicked, tore at his throat in soundless wails of agony. The gash grew to the halfway point, his skin losing its healthy glow, pale corpse flesh growing its wake.

  An explosion of rose petals shoved itself into her face, severing her view. The moment the flower touched her skin, the pressure vanished. She gasped, grabbing the thing with both hands. Iowin was right. The rose was a link to the garden, a part of it before the magic froze the ground in time. If she could push enough power through it, there was a chance she could blast the spell in two. Like slipping dynamite into the crack of a boulder.

  It was worth everything to try.

  “Do it,” Conrad begged. “Save us!”

  He leapt off of her and threw himself at the barrier, dual swords sparking as they collided with the magic. Jonas joined his brother, the others following, screaming battle cries in their native language. More sparks flew, obscuring the contents of the circle from view, the fury of their attacks like nothing she’d ever seen. And nothing she allowed herself to watch. She scrambled to her feet, running with that fragile rose towards the frozen statue of her husband. Iowin’s other hand was clasped at his middle, fingers curled into a fist.

  Or was that curled to clutch a particular flower’s stem?

  “I love you, you magnificent bastard,” she whispered, planting a kiss on his lips, and shoving the rose and her power into his hand.

  Like uncorking a bottle of champagne, there was a muffled popping sound followed by a sonic boom that knocked everyone to the ground. Wind rushed in to fill the vacuum, sound screaming back into existence. Torches extinguished, the natural light of the moon and stars returning tortured shadows to their proper form. The garden, itself, shuddered and sighed with relief.

  She heard the most wonderful sound in all of existence.

  “I love you, too,” Iowin whispered, planting a kiss on her lips, and offering her a hand up. “Let’s go get this bastard.”

  “Fucking A.”

  Henry glowered at them as they joined the fray, red fire wreathing both of Iowin’s hands, dancing in flames across his eyes. Her Hessian allies made room, renewing the fury of their blows. It was enough that Henry stepped backwards, his feet tangling in the train of his daughter’s gown. He fell hard on his ass. “It doesn’t matter. He still dies.”

  “Father?” Linnet whispered, pushing herself to a sitting position. White ash fell against the side of her face, the remnants of the rose her beloved had given her. She brushed at it in confusion, blinking bleary eyes into focus like someone waking from a long sleep. “Father, what’s going on? Why am I in the garde—Oh, no. NO! JERRICK!”

  She threw herself towards her beloved.

  “NO! Linnet, don’t break the circle!”

  She ignored him, pushed free of his grasping hands, and ran towards the only thing in the world that mattered. Her true love.

  Her foot crossed the circle, and for the second time that night a sonic boom filled the air. Only this time a group of pissed-off warriors were ready for it; not a single one of them lost their footing. To his credit, Henry threw every spell in his limited repertoire at them, each one swallowed by bolts of flame from Iowin’s hands, or pushed away by that same crimson fire. Without his daughter as a focus, though, he was just another Caprice Warlock suffering under the family curse of limiting his innate power to near uselessness. He wasn’t a match for a full warlock like Iowin. He scrambled and whimpered, throwing his hands out to shield himself.

  Until he was surrounded by black-clad agents of Death itself.

  Alynia lined up the shot with his left eye once more. “Undo what you’ve done to Jerrick right the fuck now, or you can kiss whatever’s left of your scrawny little ass goodbye.”

  “It’s too late for him,” Henry gasped, eyes filled with the certainty of his own demise. “I can’t call it back. I don’t know how.”

  “Jerrick,” Linnet sobbed, holding him to her chest. “Please, God, someone help us!”

  Chapter 13

  Iowin flipped through the ancient spell book with alacrity, searching through runes and spells as quickly as he could decipher them. Alynia grabbed as much wood as she could find, Conrad and Jonas snapping branches and ripping out plants by the roots. Just anything and everything they could lay hands on to rebuild that circle. Henry Caprice knelt miserably between the other two Hessian soldiers, his hands bound behind his back and to his ankles. A gag made of strips of his own coat shoved between his teeth.

  Alynia dared to glance into the center of the circle. Linnet held her beloved’s head in her lap, her arms wrapped around him. Bent nearly double over him as she sobbed in her misery.

  “It was just a protection spell,” she wailed. “Oh, Jerrick, I didn’t know he used me to curse you. Please, my beloved, please believe me. Oh, god. Oh, god, oh, god, please. Please don’t leave me.”

  Alynia didn’t bother to stop the tears, her eyes reaching towards Iowin’s. His met hers and then looked away. He didn’t need to say he was out of options, that nothing in that book told him how to stop the curse. Jerrick would die. There was nothing they could do to stop it, and he’d rise as a ghost forever and ever.

  Iowin knelt down next to Linnet, placing a hand gently on her shoulder. “Linnet, I… You need to take a breath and tell him it’s okay. Tell him you love him, dearheart. He doesn’t have much time left.”

 
Jerrick lay in her arms, his skin cold and clammy. Breath barely moved in his chest, white light encircling his throat like a slave’s collar, dark magic enslaving his soul. All activity ceased, the circle of power forgotten. And all came to bear witness to the passing of their Captain, their friend.

  Their brother.

  Linnet swung her head back and forth in denial. “No, no, there’s got to be another way. I love him, Iowin. Can’t you see that? I love him. Love conquers all. It has to, or else what is the point of living? What is the point of forever if there is no love!” Her arms tightened around him. “Let me die with him. Let me die, too. I’ll bear the curse for him. I live with the Caprice curse every day of my life. What’s one more if it means I get to be with him forever. Curse me, too! Do it! DO IT!”

  “Linnet,” Alynia tried, kneeling on her other side and wrapping her arms around her cousin’s shoulders. “He wouldn’t want that for you. He’d want you to live. He’d want you to have a good life, not follow him into undeath. He loves you, cousin. He always will. But you need to tell him how you feel before it’s too late.”

  “No, I can’t,” she swung her head back and forth, eyes shifting wildly between her and Iowin. “I can’t let him go. Would you? Would you let Iowin go?” Her fingers latched onto Jerrick’s shoulders, white and trembling with the effort. “If it came down to being without each other forever, could you do it?”

  Alynia’s eyes met Iowin’s, and she knew her answer. She’d follow him into the pits of hell with a grin on her face if needs be. Shoot the devil between the eyes and laugh as she burned in the fires of damnation for all time. It’d be a freaking party compared to the pain of his loss. The same answer shone in his eyes, and he yanked that thrice-damned book open with a vengeance.

  Speaking of vengeance…

  Alynia whirled, storming towards Henry.

  “Rounds,” she growled, feeling actual .9mm steel jacketed lead filling the clip of the Glock. “Move.”

  Both warriors let go of their charge, taking three steps away to either side. Alynia swept the gun in a two-handed grip, aimed at the first bony kneecap and pulled down on the goddamn trigger. The shot rang through the night, turning all heads in her direction. Henry screamed behind the gag, that was, until she yanked it free.

  “God, oh, god,” Henry shrieked. “The pain! Oh, god!”

  She pointed the gun at his other kneecap, grabbing handfuls of that thin hair and yanking his face up to hers. “That was a love-tap compared to what I’m going to do to you if you don’t make with satisfactory answers,” she hissed.

  “I swear on my Samantha’s grave, I don’t know how to reverse the spell!”

  “Not looking for that, now, asshole. I’m sure you would’ve answered before I pumped hot lead into your bony body. What I want to know is how you did it. How did a coward like you find the juice to curse someone for eternity? That’s beyond your level, beyond what you could trick Linnet into helping you with. How. Did. You. Do. It?”

  He closed his teeth around his tongue, a hint of defiance sparking in those eyes. Alynia shook her head, amazed. Even now, facing the most painful death she could imagine, his hate for the Hessian Captain absolute. The thought that his only daughter loved that man was anathema to him.

  It was like a bad dream. Maybe he needed another wakeup call.

  She squeezed down on the trigger, blowing a hole in his other knee.

  “If you think I’m running out of places to shoot you, try again. You see, I’ve just tapped into the mercenary side of my personality. I’ve got all goddamn night to show you what I’ve learned. Start talking!”

  “I used the Caprice curse,” he gibbered. “I found a spell in that book that let me ride the curse as a power base!”

  “You used a curse to power a curse?” Iowin gaped. “Are you out of your mind?”

  “Already covered that, dear,” Alynia supplied. “I really don’t care about his mental state right now so long as he continues to answer. And you’re going to answer us, aren’t you, Henry?” She ran the hot muzzle of the gun across his cheek, taking his squeal as consent. Her eyes returned to her husband. “What did that buy us?”

  Iowin closed the book, lips compressed in a thin line. “Nothing. You said it yourself. You can’t use a curse to do anything positive. You can’t transform it, or share it. The only known remedy for this kind of thing is for someone to take his pla—”

  They both whirled in unison, knowing they were going to be too late. Linnet’s chocolate eyes blazed with her power and she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. They ran. They screamed. They prayed. And they were never going to reach Linnet in time to stop her from touching that blue-white gash in Jerrick’s throat. The ruby at her throat flashed as she bent forward, intending to kiss her beloved one last time, and the Caprice Family crest within it touched that cursed light.

  And swallowed it whole.

  Alynia screamed, stumbling to her knees and digging for the amulet around her throat. White-hot flame burned through the black linen of her shirt, a perfect hole searing through the fabric. Iowin stopped, yanking the chain free and hurling it away. Across the way, Linnet screamed as well, reaching for her own pendant and yanking it from her throat. The pendant soared through the air, colliding with the ruby, and the world was washed in scarlet light. Howling winds swept through the garden, like a beast hungering for more, starving for a meal of power.

  A curse slamming into a curse, spinning an infinite loop of dark power, a vortex sucking plant and animal and air into oblivion.

  Alynia struggled to her feet, wind buffeting her from every direction at once. “We have to stop it. It’ll tear this whole village apart!”

  “NO!” Iowin screamed, shielding his eyes from the wind. “Don’t touch it. We don’t know what will happen. It could kill you! I won’t lose you!”

  “We’ll die anyway if we don’t stop it!”

  “I hate when you’re right!” He struggled to his feet. “We do it together, then!”

  “Forever!”

  Fingers twined together, they stared into one another’s eyes one last time, and dove towards the spinning charms—

  A black-clad figure slammed into them, sending all three careening into the far side. “Nein,” Conrad hollered. “Not you. Not you.”

  Alynia shoved herself free, pushing to hands and knees in time to witness Jonas’s hand close over the two family crests. Time froze again, long enough for her to pick out a warm smile on his lips. “A willing sacrifice,” he whispered. “To save all I love.”

  He disappeared in a flash of blue-white light, taking the wind and the howling madness with him.

  The amulet and the ruby clattered to the dirt, searing dark grooves where they lay sizzling.

  “What,” Alynia gasped, hand hovering over the fresh brand over her heart. The Caprice crest picked out against her flesh in crystal clear detail. “What the hell was that?”

  Across the way, Jerrick groaned, pushing himself up on his elbows. Linnet, hand pressed to the brand over her own heart, gasped and sobbed anew, throwing an arm around her beloved.

  Iowin pulled his wife in close, pressing a kiss to her hair. “I’d say that was true love, and a bit of Caprice stubbornness, telling at least one of the curses to fuck right off.”

  Chapter 14

  Alynia stood next to her husband as the last shovel-full of earth was patted down in place. Thirteen freshly filled graves lined the little cemetery by the winding river just outside of the village of Sleepy Hollow, New York. She wore a gown of all black this time, roses clasped in her hands. Beside her, Herr von Knyphausen and his new bride, the lady Linnet Caprice von Knyphausen, mirrored their pose. They’d come together to mourn, lingering at the gravesites long after the rest of the village had returned to their daily lives.

  Twelve graves bore temporary wooden crosses until appropriate headstones could be cut. The thirteenth, however, needed no decoration of stone. Alynia and Linnet stepped forward as one, hands linked toge
ther, and raised their right hands. Soft power flowed through them, the trickle amplified by the amulet each woman wore. Glossed lips whispered words of the spell in practiced unison, their husbands placing the roses upon the soft earth. At their urging, new roots grew from the blossoms, digging deep into the earth. Bushes sprouted over the grave, a mound of perfectly blooming roses to mark the passing of the man that had saved them all.

  Herr Jonas Kraus. Man of honor. Warrior of the heart. Brother.

  His body was never recovered, and Alynia suspected they never would. Curses were funny that way, but a curse someone willingly accepted to save the life of another? That was new ground, even for Iowin. The question remained, was it really a curse if it was taken with pure intentions, if it was suffered for the betterment of others? No one could give them any answers, at least not in the past. The grave they honored sat empty save for the meager possessions he’d brought with him from Germany. He’d had no family, no wife waiting for him, no children.

  He had his brotherhood of warriors, and now he had his Caprice family, and his Tintreach family, and his von Knyphausen family, to remember him by. In that way, he was immortal beyond words.

  In that way, he’d expressed the truest, purest form of love.

  Alynia chose to remember him as he had been on that desperate ride towards the old mausoleum. Curling hair flying in the wind, his smile bright, storm-colored eyes flashing with the sheer joy of the hunt. If ever there was a male version of a Valkyrie, she was certain Jonas Kraus rode with them.

  Those roses would bloom as long as there was a soul alive that remembered and loved him.

  They stayed in 1789 two more weeks, helping Linnet arrange her father’s holdings into some semblance of order. The spell that shielded Sleepy Hollow from the world was gone, and news that the war was over reached them with the dawning of the new day. The crown had capitulated. America was born, bright and free, and the first thing President Washington had done was offer amnesty to mercenary groups like the Hessians—-if they agreed to become citizens and spend time training the newly established American Army. The brotherhood all agreed without hesitation.