Page 19 of Bewitched By the Headless Horseman (The Bewitching Hour #1)

Stevie slowed the car as she approached the cemetery, the fog curling around the old headstones, but she didn’t pull into the parking lot.

A tour was taking place at the moment, which she hadn’t thought about.

They weren’t tourists, but instead three buses of junior high kids.

No visitors would be allowed to sneak a peek until after a couple more groups of private tours.

“So I guess we’ll come back tonight when the tour sessions are closed?” She watched a teacher snap his fingers in front of a small group of kids, telling them to pay attention.

“That’s fine.” Kit sat rigid in his seat, his neck partially turned as he stared out the window.

Even with three buses of school kids, more dead than living roamed around the cemetery.

It normally wasn’t this much of a hot spot for ghosts, but they must’ve already started to gather early, anxious for when the second Eye opened so they could chat with the living when they showed up.

Stevie studied Kit, who hadn’t moved from his position.

“Are you reminiscing? You said this was where you were buried.” It had been rumored the Headless Horseman was buried out there, but no one knew which grave really belonged to him.

Someone else had to have known if they’d unburied his bones though.

“No.” He sighed. “Someone I know lingers there is all.”

Stevie reached out to tug Kit to face her, but of course her hand slipped through him. “You mentioned a fortune-telling witch helped you but passed on. So who else do you know out there?”

“No one,” he grumbled.

Stevie cocked her head. “Hey. We’re partners here, right? So that means you can tell me who’s out there and I won’t shout their name.” She pretended to sew buttons across her mouth.

“Clara.” And for the first time, his voice sounded melancholic. “I’ve seen her when riding through the cemetery. Most ghosts will scatter as I pass through, believing they’re my next victim, yet she never does.”

The witch he’d been in love with… A hollowness filled Stevie’s stomach. “Have you … stopped to talk to her? She is a witch after all.”

“I attempted once, but she’s like some of the others trapped in their own minds, repeating the same words over and over. Hers is about needing to find her true love.” Kit paused. “I’m not that man, and she never returned my affections. I was a fool.”

Oh … “Do you still have feelings for her?” she asked gently.

“No. My heart withered long ago in its grave.”

“That sounded very poetic. But I’ve seen you around Roxy—the ghost of your heart is still there.”

Kit scoffed, and Stevie bit her lip, continuing, “You know with the Eye opened, a lot of the ghosts have snapped out of their prior states. Would it be all right if I tried to talk to her tonight? Maybe I could pass a spell of hers on to Lucia or something.”

“If you wish to.”

“I can’t believe you haven’t asked more people questions over the years.” If Stevie had been in Kit’s position she would’ve approached every single ghost in town.

“After the fortune-telling witch took the head of another ghost and placed it on mine, fear spread like wildfire. No one knew me as Kit, only the Headless Horseman. The fortune teller had told me my horse and I were the only ghost seers. And even then, because of my sight being gone, Inferno couldn’t see into the living world either, not until the Eye opened. ”

“Tonight my goal for us is to at least find a semi-answer that can get us closer.”

Stevie jabbed the butcher knife into the head, the squishing sound echoing. “I hate you.”

“Have you never carved a pumpkin before?” Kit chuckled beside her on the porch steps.

The dark had already blanketed the town an hour ago even though it would’ve normally still been a bit away. It had been doing that the past couple of days too, she realized. Earlier and earlier...

To pass the time, she’d bought a pumpkin from a kid going door to door, dragging a wagon filled with them.

“I have , but I’m not very good.” The last time she’d done this was with her mom and brother when they were younger. And it was usually her mom doing it since Gideon complained and Stevie preferred to watch.

“Let me show you.” Kit’s hand pressed to the knife where hers was, and he lifted the blade, dipping it up and down alongside hers. She blinked, unable to feel his coolness but wishing she could. He stilled their movements. “You have to work with me, Pumpkin. Otherwise, I’m carrying all the weight.”

“You did say ‘let me show you,’” Stevie pointed out.

“Come on, move with me,” he said, his deep hypnotic voice wrapping around her like a cozy hug.

As he started again, she mirrored each slice, each dip and curve. Pulling the blade out and pressing it back in. Together they didn’t carve a face but a … Headless Horseman .

She arched a brow at him and a smile spread her cheeks. “I didn’t realize you were so vain.”

“How can I not be? Look at the perfectly missing head, the smoothness of the top of my neck, not a single bump or uneven line.” Kit leaned toward her, letting her get a better view of his neck. He wasn’t wrong…

“So your sense of humor has crawled out of its cave twice today.” Stevie laughed and watched Kit finish a couple of minor details on the pumpkin.

As she stared at his gloved hands, she wondered what it would feel like if one were on hers again, only this time his bare skin.

Would it be just as cool? Cooler? And how would it feel if he trailed those long fingers of his up her arm, down her neck, between…

“Do you always wear the gloves?” Stevie asked when her curiosity built to a crescendo.

Kit drew the blade out of the pumpkin. “Would you rather me take them off?”

“Yes!” she answered too quickly. “I mean, not for me , but for the cemetery. You already have the cape, sword, and horse put away, so might as well do those too. It’ll help you blend in a bit more with the other headless victims.”

Kit peeled his gloves off, and his hands were both masculine and pretty at the same time. An Adonis face to match his Adonis hands. Why couldn’t he have looked like a gremlin? But maybe that wouldn’t have even mattered since she’d been admiring his body before even seeing his face.

She glanced down at her phone, realizing it was later than when they’d planned to leave. “Oh, we need to get going!”

The fog rolled around the grass, crawling up the trees as she drove them toward the cemetery.

It was the perfectly eerie October sight, but this only meant that the second Eye opening was growing closer.

And that thought now made her chest tighten for Kit.

She turned up the instrumental movie score she’d downloaded for him, needing to remain focused and not dwell on the new moon being less than two weeks away.

In the distance, white specks of light dotted the cemetery, appearing like a starry sky across the foggy darkness.

The gravel parking lot was empty when she drove into it.

Turning on her flashlight, Stevie stepped out of the car and approached the cemetery entrance.

A chain hung from one bar of the iron fence to the other.

To her right, a placard held the history of Sleepy Hollow along with a no visitors after dusk sign.

Stevie shrugged and simply stepped over the metal chain and crossed onto what the council deemed hallowed grounds, the blood-red Eye in the sky watching her.

“Just so you know”—she glanced over her shoulder at Kit—“I’m risking a troop of ghosts following me home.

Remember what happened after I entered the abandoned house? I got stuck with you.”

He chuckled. “I do believe you like having me around.”

Her cheeks heated, and she was grateful for the dark.

The stars above had dimmed further, a few seeming to have blinked out of existence completely.

She and Kit passed down a row of crooked headstones, most deteriorated and broken.

A middle-aged woman with a long braid sat atop one that held crumbling angels on either side of her.

Her gaze shifted toward Stevie, and the woman muttered, “Oh wonderful, another living hussy making a spectacle of the cemetery. Go home.”

“I heard that,” Stevie sang, unable to help herself.

The woman froze, her ankles uncrossing. “You heard me?” She looked up toward the night sky. “The second Eye hasn’t opened yet. That means you’re a—”

“Seer,” Stevie finished for her. “Yes. I’m with a friend, and—” she trailed off when Kit was no longer behind her. But she found him a second later hovering near a headstone and studying it.

The woman cocked her head, her skirt swishing. “So, why are you here?”

Stevie stepped toward the ghost. “I’m helping a friend.

But while you and I are getting acquainted, what do you know about the Headless Horseman?

Do you have any clue where his head could be?

Have you heard of a warlock named Levi…?

” She didn’t even know what his last name was, so she left it at that.

The ghost ticked a finger at Stevie. “Why are you asking about that demon? Are you one of those lovesick girls? Fascinated by him? Lusting over his body? There used to be four of them here who would stand at the fence each night, hoping to catch a glimpse of him as he rode down the streets, gossiping about him all throughout the day. When their ghosts passed on, I was more thankful than you could ever imagine.”

Stevie arched a brow. Kit once had ghost groupies? She guessed it wasn’t different than the tourists who flocked to Sleepy Hollow because of him.

“She’s not one of those,” Kit ground out as he inched closer to the woman from behind. “She’s asking for me .”

The ghost’s eyes widened and she hopped from the headstone, stumbling backward.

“I told you to stop creeping up on people!” Stevie hissed.

“You said to you and Lucia. Besides, I was already here,” Kit said.

“Headless Horseman!” the woman screeched. “He’s here to collect a head! Run for your lives!”