Page 3

Chapter 2

A SHADOW WITH TEETH

I t was a four-hour drive to Mistlethorpe, enough time to ponder my life choices. Things like, why had I moved so far away? And why I’d neglected to visit in the last six years. Nani called often, but I hadn’t always picked up, preferring to drop her a text in response to the missed call. I’d thought about Nani often, of course, planned to call her, and then…Maybe Matt was right. Maybe I was a flake. Had he called me a flake?

I couldn’t remember.

But what I did know is that I was a shitty granddaughter. Nani deserved better, and when I got home, I’d make sure to make it up to her. Heck, I’d even learn to cook the traditional dishes she’d offered to teach me for years.

Yep, everything would be better once I got home .

My eyelids got heavy around one in the morning, so I pulled over at a rest stop to take a nap.

I fell quickly into dreaming, a place where I seemed to have more control than in real life. Being a lucid dreamer meant I could usually control my dream, even pick what dream I wanted to have. Maybe one about Matt in a slasher movie so I could watch him get stalked and killed. I let my body take over and sank deeper.

Random unrelated things passed through my mind like projector slides—a picnic in the park, a Ferris wheel ride, eating cereal at the kitchen table. Seriously? And then I was running down a corridor with familiar paintings on the walls. Something was chasing me. Something terrifying.

No. I didn’t like this one. I tried to dip out of it, but it held me there. Forcing me to feel terror. I passed a mirror and caught a flash of myself. But the face wasn’t mine. It was older—a sweetheart shape with a graying bob.

Nani?

There was something behind her. Something dark and looming, and it was going to get her. Oh god. Run! I had to make her run.

She looked right at me in the mirror, her eyes filled with sorrow, and mouthed, Get out.

I bolted awake, pulse racing and heart pounding as if I’d finished a sprint. What was that? That nightmare …

Dread lingered in my belly.

“It was just a dream. A fucked-up dream.”

I glanced at the glowing numbers on the dash clock that said two twenty-two a.m. “Happy twenty-fifth birthday to me.”

I’d grown up in a house filled with love, superstition, and the air of magic. It had been cool when I’d been a child, but the older I’d gotten, the less ‘cool’ it became. It was hard making friends when everyone thought your grandmother was a witch and might hex them.

It didn’t matter that witches weren’t real. It didn’t matter that magic wasn’t real. Kids were simply cruel.

The fact that I smelled of Indian food and incense, and that my packed lunches consisted of vegetable curry toasties, didn’t help me fit in. There were a couple of other kids of Indian descent at the school, but they wore brand new clothes and paid for their lunches.

The word poor wasn’t explicitly said, but looking back now, I guess that’s what we were. I loved my home. Loved Nani, but over time I began to resent her insistence in clinging to culture. Why couldn’t we simply fit in? Why didn’t she stop making herbal concoctions and offering superstitious advice to the villagers? Why couldn’t she stop sneaking out for moonlight walks to collect herbs and mushrooms?

I’d ask her these things, and she’d smile, nod, then hug me and say, “You shouldn’t seek to change who you are, beti .” The Indian word for daughter always fell with such love from her lips that guilt would tangle my adolescent emotions into knots, because there was a part of me that agreed with her—problem was that a bigger part of me simply yearned to be like everyone else.

I’d ended up a loner, despite my wishes, and it suited me fine. It was better than being the center of attention or the butt of jokes. Being on the sidelines was safe; it meant I could observe the world without being observed in turn. At least that’s what I’d believed until the Darren Markham episode had proven me wrong. But I wasn’t going to think about that. All that mattered was that it had forced me to act. To move forward, which meant moving away.

Fat lot of good it had done me. The last six years might as well have been for nothing, and Matt…surely his betrayal should hurt more? But now I reflected on it, aside from feeling angry, there was little else inside of me for the loss. If I was honest, I was a little relieved. If I was honest then maybe it had been over between us for a long time. No fancy lingerie was going to fix our relationship. The revelation didn’t excuse his cheating, but it excused me having to care.

Breaking up was for the best .

Coming home was what I needed.

The rain let up by the time I rolled into the village, taking the dread from my nightmare with it. I drove up the narrow track to our cottage at the edge of the village.

The small two-story building with its pretty hanging baskets and neat porch waited for me, dark and sleepy.

Nani’s face from my nightmare teased my mind, and I quickly parked and hurried to the door. I knocked three times and waited, but she didn’t answer. It was late, so she was probably deeply asleep. She’d always kept a key under the pot at the side of the cottage. Was it still there? I hurried to check and found it in its usual spot.

I let myself into the dark cottage that smelled of incense and an echo of whatever fragrant Indian meal Nani had made recently. My stomach grumbled, and my heart lifted. It had been too long since I’d had Indian food. About six years, in fact. Matt hadn’t been a fan of it.

I peeked into the moonlit living room, where neatly fluffed cushions sat on a brown leather sofa, parked on a bright patterned rug. It looked dull and gray now, but I knew it to be awash with reds and oranges. I’d spent countless hours lying on that rug bathed in sunlight, reading a book or in the armchair, feet curled under me, rainbow throw over my lap while rain tapped at the windowpanes like a nosy neighbor .

Books had been my escape. Portals to other worlds where I could be anyone else but Leela.

A soft creak above had me nervously reaching for my amulet, only to find it absent. A gift from Nani on my sixteenth birthday, I’d never taken it off, but I’d lost it a few weeks ago. The clasp must have broken. Nani would be upset about that. It was a family heirloom, one she asked after every time she called or texted. I’d been putting off telling her, but there’d be no avoiding the topic now. The woman had eagle eyes, and she’d notice it was missing for certain.

I rubbed the spot between my collarbones feeling the absence of it now. “Nani?” I climbed the stairs, wanting to give her enough warning that I was in the house.

Photographs of me lined the wall going upstairs. My age ranged from toddler to preteen in these. I wore a huge smile in each one. I had no memory of my parents. Both had died in a car crash when I was a toddler. There were photos, of course. But the people that looked out at me from them were strangers. The only family that mattered was behind the camera that had taken all these snaps.

My heart squeezed with nostalgia as I stepped onto the landing. I’d stayed away so long that everything seemed to have shrunk. Even the hallway seemed narrower.

Unless it was me. Was my ass bigger? “Nani? It’s me, Leela. ”

I passed my old room and reached for the door to Nani’s. “Hello?” I knocked lightly before cracking it open and peeking inside.

The room was empty. The bed made. Her slippers placed neatly by the side, pink, fluffy, and so worn they looked like they’d fall apart any moment.

“Are these for me?”

“Yes, Nani, so your feet stay warm in winter.”

She’d always complained of the chill, and I’d used my first paycheck from my weekend job to get her these. She still had them, after all these years…

Guilt twisted in my gut. I should have come to visit.

“Nani, where are you?”

The slam of the door had me hurrying to the top of the stairs in time to see Nani peering up them, a small basket clasped in her hands. “Leela?” She beamed at me, and all the shit of today seemed to fall away.

I rushed downstairs and into her arms, filling my nose with the scent of cinnamon and lemon soap and her. My beautiful loving grandmother. “I missed you so much.” And I had. I’d missed her every day, and all those days came crashing in on me at once, bringing tears of guilt and remorse. I should never have left her. “I’m sorry I didn’t call. I don’t know why, I?—“

She pulled away and cupped my face, her dark, shrewd gaze boring into me. “Oh sweet child, it doesn’t matter. You’re here now.” She pressed a kiss to my cheek. “What happened, beti? What’s wrong?”

I didn’t want to go into it. It didn’t matter. Matt, the fight, the end of it all, none of it mattered now that I was home. I pulled away, shaking my head. “It’s nothing. I’m just glad to be here. Glad that you’re okay. I had an awful nightmare on the way down.”

Her eyes flinched. “You did? Tell me what you saw.”

“It doesn’t matter now.”

She gripped my shoulders tightly. “Tell me.”

My scalp pricked. “Um…I saw you, and…you were frightened and running from something. It was a dark shadowy…thing. You told me to run.” I put a hand on my belly as an echo of the dread from the dream bloomed there. “When I couldn’t find you here, I got worried. What were you doing out at three in the morning?”

Her gaze dropped to the open V of my shirt. “Leela, where is your amulet?” There was a wary tone to her voice, one that warned that there would be consequences to my response.

Crap. “I’m sorry, Nani, I meant to tell you. I lost it and?—”

She made a soft keening sound that had the hair at my nape quivering. “You promised. You vowed to never take it off.”

“I didn’t take it off. The clasp must have broken and?—”

She pressed her hand to her mouth, eyes wide with a foreboding that I didn’t understand.

“I’m sorry, I know it was?—"

“Hurry.” She grabbed my hand and dragged me down the hallway toward the kitchen.

“Nani, what is it? What’s going on?”

“Tonight, of all nights…” she muttered, chewing on her cheeks. “Samhain of all nights. It is no coincidence, and the dream…”

I yanked free of her grasp. “You’re scaring me.”

“And you should be scared. You have no idea what…” She trailed off with a shuddering breath and closed her eyes for a beat. When she opened them, there was a steely determination in them that I’d never seen before. “We don’t have much time. The Tulla plant died last winter, so I can’t brew the shield to protect you.”

“Protect me from what?”

“Whatever they’ve sent to find you.”

She started pulling jars of herbs off shelves and crushing stuff with her pestle and mortar.

“Who are you taking about? Who are they ?”

She ignored me, her focus on whatever concoction she was blending.

Despite her eccentricities, Nani had always been shrewd and sharp, but it crossed my mind now that maybe she’d succumbed to an age-related mental illness. What swayed me otherwise was the fear beating off her. It was sharp and real and infectious, sending my pulse into overdrive and waking a primal part of me that recognized it as true and valid.

“Nani, what are you making? ”

She glanced up briefly. “A reveal spell. It’s the only way for them to find you.”

“For who to find me? Nani, seriously what the fuck is going on?”

She paused long enough to throw me a stern look. “No swearing in my house.”

“What? Seriously? You’re acting insane.”

She ground the pestle into the mortar with renewed vigor. “I wish there was time to tell you everything. No. I wish there was no need to.”

“Tell me what?”

“Your bloodline is special, beti, and you are hunted. The amulet, the herbs, they were both protection to hide you so you could lead a normal life.” She scooped some stuff from the mortar and held it out to me. “Eat it.”

I caught a whiff of something sharp and musty. “What? No, it smells gross.”

“Eat it now!”

I opened my mouth obediently, and she shoved the herbal concoction in. It was bitter and nasty, and I was tempted to spit it out, but she glared at me until I swallowed, just as she’d done with the herbal tea that she’d had me drink every night till I turned sixteen…until… Until she’d given me the amulet.

Some kind of instinctual understanding crept up on me. But before I could grasp it and tease it to the forefront of my mind, fiery teeth chomped on my inner thigh .

“Argh!” I rubbed at the spot, lifting my skirt, intent on examining the area, when the howl of an angry wind filled the room.

Nani grabbed my hand and yanked me toward the back door. “They’re coming for you. Get to the treehouse. You’ll be safe there and?—”

The sound of splintering wood was like the crack of thunder, and Nani released me and grabbed another jar off the shelf. “Go!” she ordered. “Now!”

But my feet were rooted to the spot because something huge and dark was spilling down the corridor toward us. A shadow with teeth and claws and eyes like blood.

The thing from my nightmare.

It was here.

“Nani!” I made a grab for her but missed as she rushed toward the creature, screaming words I didn’t understand, then smashed the jar in the kitchen doorway.

Red smoke billowed, and the creature roared in pain. Whatever the smoke was, it was holding the thing…the monster…at bay. And this was real. This was happening.

Oh god. We had to get out of here.

“Nani, come on!” I yanked open the door, reaching for her as she ran toward me, her hand outstretched to grab mine, but no, what was that look in her eyes? Not determination but…resignation?

The red smoke dissipated, and the shadow monster lunged. The world seemed to slow as thick tendrils of inky shadow whipped out to wrap around my grandmother. A scream bubbled up my throat.

“Run!” She flicked her wrist, and I was blasted away.

“NO!”

The shadow swallowed her with a crunch and a crimson spray.

Blood.

Her blood.

The world shattered, taking me with it.