“Come on in, the party is alive and kicking in here,” I said. “No one else has asked for permission before coming into the room, so you may as well join us!” Kate summoned one of the pillows from the head of the bed using her magic, then threw it back at me.
Greta floated through the bedroom door and looked at me for a few seconds with concern. “It’s been a crazy week!” she finally smiled. “I’m glad you’re okay, I couldn’t help you on Green Holt and I knew things were getting spicy because Ryder kept talking about you. I mean, talking about you more than he usually does, which is a lot.”
Greta was sulking now. Before she had died, she’d had an enormous crush on Ryder, clearly her feelings were persisting despite the fact that Ryder had expressed feelings for me on a few occasions.
“Are you just following Ryder around now?” Kate asked. “Dude get a life! Ha, I made a joke!”
“Oh sure, let’s all pick on the dead chick,” Greta grinned. “Listen, I need to talk to you about the incident with the water.”
“Shoot,” I said, plumping the pillows behind me and getting comfortable for what I assumed would be a long story.
“Effie said she got a photo of the dead guy in the arms of someone underwater, right?” Greta began. “That was Natalie!”
“I got that on my own, but go on,” I nodded.
“When Robert didn’t show up to leave the island with her, she went searching. She looked everywhere but he had obviously already been killed and hidden by then. She thought he’d just abandoned her, changed his mind about the whole thing and fled. Her grief led her to the water and, well let’s just say that some of the rumors about Green Holt are true.”
“The water took her back?” I guessed.
“Yep! Natalie was a witch, a powerful one at that. She took to the ocean and lived there as a spirit, grieving for her lost love and hoping that one day she would have the answers. She is the one that gave you that peridot stone, she was guiding you to the truth. Once Robert’s death was uncovered, their spirits were reunited and she had the answers, but only one way to communicate them; through the gem on your finger.”
“How do you know all this?” I asked.
“Natalie was kinda making the whole ocean around Green Holt a ‘no-float-zone’ for ghosts, but now she is happy again, so we can travel around. Her rage was strong enough that it was keeping us away, but it turns out she’s actually super chatty, so we hung out last night after you threw the ring back to her,” Greta explained. “She was trying to speak with you, but she couldn’t find her voice. That’s why she was just staring at you a whole bunch. She said sorry about that, by the way.”
I thought about the figure watching me from the trees by the lagoon, the thing that had jumped out of our boat and into the water just before I got the peridot.
“Did she leave me a note?” I asked.
“Note?” Greta said. “I don’t think so, that must have been someone else. Her magic caused Tony’s fire to become dark flame, that’s why the colors were so strange. I’m guessing you haven’t seen a lot of dark fire before. Effie told me about it.”
“Yeah… I don’t like that I don’t know who left a note on my pillow,” I grimaced. “This whole place is freaky, I figured the only thing I needed to worry about round here was water snakes, or sharks, or both. Now the sea is haunted? Give me a break,” I sighed.
“Cool though, right? Very Shakespearean I think,” Kate swooned. “Throwing yourself into the sea because you lost the man you love? It’s almost as romantic as throwing yourself out of a cliff-side cave for the witch you love… like Miller did!”
“Yeah, I could see where you were going with that one, thanks!” I teased.
I pulled the sheets off my legs and climbed out of bed. Kate repeated several more times how hot it was that Miller had risked plummeting to his death for me, and I listened with a smile. I agreed with her, obviously, but the Ryder dream had thrown me through a loop.
Greta helped me choose a suitable outfit for the day while Kate continued rambling about nothing in particular, and soon I was heading downstairs to join in the festivities.
“Are you going to this golf thing next week?” Kate asked. I was pouring fruity pebbles into a bowl and checking the expiry date on the milk, but still gave her a look of concern.
“Golf thing? What golf thing? It’s not really my bag, too much standing around,” I complained.
“Oh, I mean, you’re the peacekeeper so your attendance is mandatory, but I thought you might have made additional plans that’s all,” Kate grinned.
“Mandatory? I need to get myself a manager or something,” I laughed. A knock on the door caused Kate to leap off her chair, throw the golf tournament flyer in my direction and run into the hallway.
“Miller, Miller, Miller,” she cawed from the front door. “Get in here you. Sadie is looking like a total ten today, so treat her accordingly.”
“I don’t doubt it,” he mumbled just loud enough for me to here. Swoon.
“Well, I’ll leave you too it,” Kate shouted. “Greta, come with me! We can go see if there are any strays wandering around the Shell’s Day parade route looking for a bombshell like me to kiss under the moonlight later.”
“Strays?” I heard Miller whisper.
“Unaccompanied men,” Greta clarified as she floated past the kitchen in Kate’s direction. “Bye guys!”
Just like that we were alone. Miller was standing in the kitchen doorway, looking down at his shoes and clenching his fists. It was hard to read what he was thinking. Not that I was a mind reader like Kate, but just that I usually had a better
