Page 9

Chapter Eight

Buck

I was digging the bi-product of blushing Harry had going on. He was so flickery after my last comment that I didn’t even have to see his face to know he was red with embarrassment. I couldn’t wait to see how much of his body that blush covered once I got him horizontal, but first the damn tree.

I’d never admit it to anyone, but I’d been giddy about sleuthing since Stevie and Scotty helped me understand why this was my mystery to solve. Like, Chance and Elyse got to do all the cool stuff normally. Yeah, I could see and talk to spirits, too, obviously, but I hadn’t been able to until I was one. How lame was that?

They had these cool mythical powers that let them do things that no one else could. I’d always wanted that. As a little boy, I’d dreamed of growing up to be a superhero. But alas, I’d been a normal dude. To get the opportunity to do something special now, something that would hopefully calm and reassure everyone else? It was awesome.

Sure, Harry was coming with me, and Stevie could’ve, too, but they hadn’t formed the relationships that I had with the other ghosts out at the pond. It wasn’t that they were mean to outsiders, but Stevie hadn’t spent as much time out there as I had because he was usually with his brother. And Harry, well, my grumpy man, was a bit of a snob.

But first, I was going to take advantage of romancing Harry a little while we—

“There’s Skylar. I’d wondered where he’d gotten to?” Harry said, pointing farther out into the yard where Skylar sat on a bench.

“Why’s he here?” I asked, trying to keep the whine out of my voice. Seriously! Couldn’t I just have this?

“Kingston must still be out at the pond. Come on.”

Before I could convince him to stick with our original plan, Harry zipped lightning-fast across the lawn to the other man’s side. Doing what I always did, I followed.

“Kingston hasn’t come back at all yet?” Harry asked.

Skyler looked up at us, worry lines creasing his face. “No, and I’m freaking out a little. He needs sleep.”

Harry huffed. “Come with us. We’re headed out there now to investigate what’s going on with the oak. Maybe that will reassure him enough that you can convince him to head home.”

Oh yay. My romantic stroll through the garden had turned into a family field trip. Again, Harry rushed off with Skylar by his side, leaving me to follow along. I understood Skylar’s concern when we found Kingston circling the inside of the fire pit area over and over. That didn’t look healthy.

“Sir, it’s late. You should go home,” Harry said sternly.

Kingston glanced in our direction with bloodshot eyes and shook his head. “I can’t. You don’t understand. All I see when I close my eyes is this spot. It’s like I’m supposed to do something, but I don’t know what.”

Skylar lifted his arms helplessly while watching him. “We have to do something,” he murmured.

Glancing at the three of them, Harry, my love, and then these other two men who’d become the family of my heart, seeing their concern and feeling the full weight of fixing this for them and not just the novelty of the situation, I headed for the oak tree.

Harry gasped. “What are you doing?”

“I need to take a better look.”

“I thought you were going to ask some of your friends?”

Stopping, I held my arms out at my sides and gestured around us. “No one’s come out to say hi. That’s suspicious in itself. I’ll be right back, I promise.”

As I got to the branch with the sludge, he called out, “Buck, be careful.”

The purple and navy sludge glowed even brighter in the darkness than it had in the light of day. Angling my body so Harry wouldn’t see, I poked a finger at it. My finger instantly depressed into the top of the sticky goo. Yuck .

Kingston came up alongside me. “Does it still look like fungus?” I asked him.

“It does. What do you think this means?” he asked.

“I have no idea, but it’s not giving me any answers.” Moving from there, I hesitated. The tree trunk was where Harry and I had felt the creepy void, the thing that had us the most concerned, but I had to check it out. How else would I get answers? After taking a deep breath, I stepped close, reaching out both hands to trail along the bark.

“Buck, don’t!” Harry yelled.

Harry

As Buck’s hands came in contact with the trunk of the oak, his image immediately began to fade. Without thought, I blinked myself onto his back, merging our essence in his disintegrating form.

“What the fuck?” Buck murmured.

Detaching myself from him, I pulled my vest down, embarrassed at my overreaction. “I’m sorry, I was worried the void was going to suck you somewhere, and I panicked and grabbed for you.”

“Harry, are you not seeing what I’m seeing?”

His words made me stop, and I finally took notice of our surroundings. We were no longer standing by the pond with Skylar and Kingston with us but in a small, dark space. “Oh no.”

Buck wrapped his arms around my shoulders and tucked me into his side. “Don’t panic. Listen.”

Opening my senses, I heard the distant voices of Skylar and Kingston screaming our names.

“Wherever we are, we’re not far from our friends,” Buck continued.

Our friends? Sure they were Bucks, but had they become mine, as well? What about Chance and Jetty? Scotty and Stevie or Elyse and her mister? Did they all slot into my life more than I’d believed? A soft pang in my heart region suggested that they might be. Had these humans, these alive mortals, become something that I hadn’t really had in my own life? Wonderstruck, I smiled at Buck.

He blinked. “Um, I’m glad we can hear them, too, but I expected you to be a little more freaked out than this.”

I cuddled into his side. “Oh, I am. But—” My cheeks warmed, and I wondered if he could see the blush on my cheeks or my flickering in the dimness.

“Love, did you just realize that they’re actually your friends? That you’re more than a butler to all of us?”

“I guess I did. It’s been a day of revelations for me.”

He squeezed me tight. “It has, which means we should celebrate.” His head swiveled around. “As soon as I figure out how to get us out of here.”

A neon mist emitted from our left, and we whirled together in the tight confinement of the space to face it. I’d thought I’d be scared to face this new unknown, but I wasn’t. With Buck by my side, I’d take on anything. Willowhope Manor had been my home for such a long time, and I’d fought tooth and nail to keep the sanctuary I’d always felt so at ease in. But I had more reason to fight now than ever. I had people. Flesh and blood humans and spirits alike who considered me…special—worthy.

I wanted to share all my thoughts and feelings with Buck—because I had that now, someone who cared what about hearing them—but the mist took on a humanoid shape. There was no face or distinct features, just the swirling of an essence, but definitely a being of some kind.

Buck pushed me behind him. “Who are you?”

Like the rustling of the wind through the leaves, voices that were neither male nor female said in unison, “I am the Hallowed Tree. The giver of life to these lands. Also the destroyer.”

Holding onto Buck’s hips, I peeked around him. “What does that mean? Why have you brought us here?”

“I have brought you because of the man who keeps visiting the sacred space, crying out for answers.”

They had to mean Kingston. “So why didn’t you show yourself to him? That’s what you did with that blank space, right? Revealed yourself to us,” Buck said.

“We did. It is not for a human to pass into these borders, and we’ve watched and seen. You, the one who fishes, have befriended him. And you, guardian of this home, have grown fond of these mortals who walk my lands.”

Buck and I side-eyed each other. “This is true, but I’m not the guardian. Chance is—”

“A human. Flesh and blood. He’s the master of this space, and this property responds to him, but you’ve guarded it well for over a century.”

How in the world did a tree spirit know all that? I’d rarely left the manor itself in all the years since I’d been dead, bound to protect people from the evil within the walls.

Buck cleared his throat. “Can we get back to the whole Hallowed Tree thing?”

“I am one of many trees of life scattered across this world. We watch and wait, determining the fate.”

“The fate of…” Buck trailed off.

“Mankind,” the voices said, deep and ominous. “Our spirits know whether the planet is being treated well or abused. In ancient times, the people of this Earth came to us, giving thanks and praise. They cared for the plants and wildlife. Participated in the circle of life. But those days are over. They are no more, and we have begun the change.”

“The change?” I squeaked.

“To let our essence consume. Return all things to dust. Humanity has become lost and adrift, and we grow tired with their pettiness. The death and destruction. We will consume the planet before you kill it.”

Buck shook his head. “But how do you even know these things?”

“There are many of us.” The cacophony of voices from the mist was disconcerting, bordering on scary. “We see far and wide. Our roots meet in the depths of the oceans and seas, in the deserts and plains. We hear, and we see all and understand.”

“I’m not sure you do,” Buck muttered. He cleared his throat. “You said you were drawn to reveal yourself to us because our friend keeps showing up. Explain that.”

“The spot he paces is where the ancestors used to come and commune with us. There are many such places around the world just like it that now sit desolate and empty. These generations have forgotten our importance, to pray and give thanks for all that has been given. Yet, the one comes, and we all want to know why.”

“Because he dreams of that spot,” I said. “Every night, his dreams are of the space within the firepit.”

The mist stilled, the grains of purples and navys hanging in the air. “The human dreams. We thought none dreamed anymore.”

Buck raised his brows at me in question, and I shrugged. I had no idea what that meant. “I’m pretty sure everyone dreams, even if they don’t know it,” he said. “I can tell you, before I died, I used to have some doozies. Nothing quite as wild as this, though.”

The mist swirled again, moving in a frenzied motion. “He walks where he dreams. He walks where he dreams,” they chanted.

“What’s happening?” I whispered in Buck’s ear.

He shrugged, as baffled as me. Gathering my courage, I stepped up next to Buck’s side, and he entwined our fingers as I said, “Listen, if you know as much about me as it seems like you do, you know that my existence has been lonely.”

Buck squeezed our joined hands in sympathy. I smiled up at him. “But it’s so much better now, and it’s not just because of the other ghosts like Buck and Stevie. But it’s the ones with heartbeats—Scotty, Jetty, Chance, and his parents. They’ve given me joy that I never had before. Given me a reason to live my afterlife better than what I had when I walked this plane as a mortal.

“I understand that traditions have been lost through time and that it may be disappointing to you. Made you and your kind feel like humanity is beyond saving. But that’s not true. There’s still so much good in this world.”

“Hallowed Tree, please, tell us what we can do,” Buck begged. “Tell us what we can pass on to those we know. There has to be a reason that Kingston’s been drawn to this place. Give our friends a chance to help make it right.”

“You ask us to let a few be the salvation of many?”

“Why not?” Buck asked earnestly. “It only takes an ember to start a fire, right? Let us spark the beginning of something new.”

The mist stilled again, motionless. “I will confer with the others. I make no promises.”

“Thank you—” I cut off as I found myself on my butt outside of the tree, with Buck next to me, and all of the inhabitants—our friends—standing over with us with their mouths agape.