Page 22 of Bewitched By the Headless Horseman (The Bewitching Hour #1)

Something, no, someone , was pressed against Stevie’s arm.

The coolness of Kit’s ghostly form, an alluring airy feel, didn’t make her shiver—it only made her want to snuggle closer into him.

At least she hadn’t draped her arm around his stomach and wiggled into the crook of his arm like a needy little creature.

But really, she wouldn’t have minded it at all.

She was tempted to trail her fingers along the planes of his face again, yet she kept her hands to herself, plastered to her sides.

“You don’t sleep, so why are your eyes shut?” Stevie asked, smiling.

The coolness of Kit dissipated, like a flip of a switch, there one second and gone the next. She opened her eyes to sunlight spilling through the slit of her curtains.

“Sometimes I lay with my eyes shut, pretending as if my thoughts are dreams,” Kit said. “It keeps me from becoming as deranged as most consider me to be. Over two hundred years of searching for one’s head will easily snap their sanity. If I didn’t have Inferno, I might not have continued looking.”

Stevie’s heart lodged in her throat when an awful thought slipped into her mind. “Since he’s your sidekick, that means he’ll go to the Hollow too?”

“It does,” he growled. “Because of that bastard Levi.”

Stevie should’ve realized that—after the living passed, the familiar would go wherever their seer partner went, whether stay a ghost here, go to Heaven, or the Hollow. “We’ll get some answers.” She checked the missed messages on her phone, finding one from Ginger.

I’ll be back a little later than anticipated, but I’ll text you when I’m closer to home.

The hourglass was losing more and more sand every second that passed. Soon the new moon would be there and the second Eye would open.

“Looks like we have some time before going to Ginger’s. You know what that means?” Stevie said, keeping her voice light even though she was freaking out on the inside.

“Your tone speaks of trickery.” Kit rolled to face her, his tall frame taking up most of the bed. And she was also tempted to tell him to close his eyes so she could undo the top button of his collar.

“No trickery here.” She grinned while sitting up. “You’ll be required to do some research while the Sleepy Hollow movie is playing. I’m going to get the apothecary deliveries ready, check in with Gideon, and stop by the council.”

Stevie handed him the tablet from her nightstand, showing him how to type in letters to look things up. He caught on quicker than she’d expected, more so than a lot of the living.

After taking a quick rinse, Stevie delivered the packages around town.

At each stop she became a Chatty Cathy and asked the residents if they had ever heard rumors about where the Horseman’s head could be hidden.

She said that it was for a council project to maybe get some valuable information to slip from them.

One guessed on the other side of the world, another deep in the ocean, the third mused that it had to be the cemetery, and the fourth told her the Horseman never existed.

Stevie then swung by the comic book shop to bring her brother lunch. “I’m annoyed with you for spreading gossip.” She poked his arm and set the paper sack and his drink on the counter.

“Dude, it’s our parents,” Gideon said, taking a long swig of his soda. “It’s better for Mom to know in her condition over finding out when it’s least expected and making it worse.”

“Mom’s fine, but maybe you’re right. If she found out the truth on a day when her heart was weakening…” she trailed off. “Anyway, you better not have told another living or dead soul what’s going on.”

“I’m a normie, so how could I have told a dead soul?” Gideon smirked, and when she narrowed her eyes, he went on, “I promise I haven’t and won’t tell anyone else. On your life.”

Stevie tilted her head and shoved his arm. “Why not on yours?”

“Because I love you the most, baby sister.” He handed her some of his fries, his way of making a peace offering.

“I need to swing by the council, but I’m going to say hi to your resident ghost before I leave,” she said as she popped a fry into her mouth.

“Tell Erik to put the comic books back where they belong next time.”

Stevie rolled her eyes because most of the time it was Gideon who put them out of place and his workers had to sort them.

Erik glanced up from his comic as she approached him. “No fox today?” He smiled, warm and welcoming.

“No, she’s at home with a … friend.” She knelt beside him and peered at the front of the comic. “You must’ve liked Sabrina if you’re reading more of her comics.”

“They’re decent.”

“Oh, those pumpkins on the cover reminded me of something! Do you ever go to the fall pumpkin sacrifice? It’s coming up soon.” She never once missed it, but with everything going on, she hadn’t really thought about it.

“I will this year. I’m meeting a girl I haven’t seen in a while.”

“Maybe that’ll get you out of this store more.” She elbowed him through his arm.

“That’s my wish.” He closed his comic and leaned forward, waggling his brows. “Did you know that when the town first started the sacrifice, the villagers would toss in fingers of the dead too?”

“Lucia told me about that. Not sure what the Headless Horseman would do with all those dead fingers.” She grinned. “Speaking of, you wouldn’t happen to have heard anything about the Horseman’s actual head, would you?”

He furrowed his brow. “A few rumors circulated that if his head was reattached the Hollow would release its demons. Maybe that’s why it’s hidden? But who really knows.”

“Hmm. Something to consider.” Stevie pursed her lips, recalling how the fortune teller had told Kit if he didn’t find his head that the world would darken…

“By the way, I still haven’t seen him come down the street yet.”

She shrugged, knowing Kit was safe and sound at her home up until the next Eye. Needing to discuss the rumor with Lucia, Stevie let Erik return to his comic and headed into the apothecary.

“Hey,” Lucia said as Stevie strode up to the counter. “I’ve got good news, my tracking number for the letter to Adelia tells me that it just got delivered, so we’ll see what she says.”

“Hopefully soon.” Stevie bit her lip. “The resident ghost at Gideon’s told me a rumor he’d heard. Supposedly by reattaching Kit’s head, the Hollow would release its demons. What do you think? The fortune teller told Kit something different.”

“Hmm,” Lucia said. “To me it sounds like someone started it because they believed he’s a demon. Kit isn’t an actual demon who escaped from the Hollow, so it would be like saying, if I removed your seer head and reattached it, then demons would flood out from the Hollow. It doesn’t make sense.”

“I would just become a reanimated corpse is all.” Stevie grinned, relieved.

“We’ll mention it to Adelia when she responds, but I honestly wouldn’t think too much about it. I’ve heard too many ridiculous stories about the Horseman.” Lucia waved her hand in the air.

“Not this one…” Stevie drawled. “How about you come with me by the council, and I’ll tell you about the Horseman’s groupies that used to hang out at the cemetery.”

Stevie and Lucia walked toward the old stone building of the council.

A banshee stood outside it, screaming to be listened to as she held up a protest sign in one hand and groomed her hair with a comb in the other.

For that sort of ghost, who would unquestionably stalk her for life, Stevie pretended as if she didn’t see the woman.

The red-headed secretary waved them on to the meeting room after Lucia asked to speak to the council. If Lucia hadn’t been with Stevie, it wouldn’t have been so simple.

Two of the three council members sat behind their desks. Both wore dresses with shoulder pads and lacy hats atop their gray curls. Neither Lottie nor Edith hid their wrinkles and sunspots with potions or brews.

“Lucia.” Edith smiled and motioned them both to sit at the two chairs in front of her desk. “How may I help you?”

Lucia let Stevie inform them of what she’d come across the past few weeks, of how the Horseman wasn’t a demon at all, how a warlock had done something with his head and no one knew if Levi was still around.

Edith set her pen down and folded her hands on the table.

“The town’s been looking for the Horseman’s head for as long as that tale has been around.

You say that supposedly a fortune teller told the Horseman the world would darken if he remained headless, then you have another rumor that if he receives his head demons will flood the earth, yet we’ve never heard either of those theories, nor have any of our fortune tellers mentioned this.

As for this revenge story from the warlock?

It sounds like something the Horseman must work out with him.

There’s nothing we can really do since we don’t believe it’s affecting Sleepy Hollow.

And by the sounds of it, it might calm the ghosts down if the Horseman isn’t hunting them. Demon or not.”

“If you want to continue searching,” Lottie added, “then do so, but we have more important matters to handle. Like making sure the tourists continue to turn away from our town so we don’t wind up all over the media.”

“That was a waste of time,” Stevie muttered as she and Lucia walked back out into the fog, the darkness already surrounding them.

“Told you we need a new council.” Lucia shrugged.

“I think they really don’t know what’s going on with this fog and darkness either.

Just another way for them to attempt to keep the town calm.

To me, it’s looking more and more like the fortune teller’s theory is right about the darkness.

I’m going to send another letter to Adelia today, this one more urgent. ”