Maven nodded, unperturbed. “At any rate, after her death, Nellie’s spirit did not move on to the next plane. Her remnants are still right where I left them. But although she and I are both old and strong enough to see each other, we are not exactly on speaking terms. So Lex,” she said, nodding at me, “will go to see Nellie tonight, and question her about Tobias Leine’s story.”
Quinn was already nodding obediently in the chair beside me, but I hesitated. “One problem,” I said. “I can’t actually see ghosts.” Maven’s eyebrows shot up. “I figured I was just sort of missing that part of the boundary witch thing,” I added lamely.
“That’s not how it works,” she informed me, looking puzzled. “I have been dead long enough to make out the strongest remnants, but as a boundary witch you should be able to see them each night, wherever they are. Besides,” she added, “you saw the gjenganger.”
“True, but assuming those aren’t the only ghosts in all of Boulder, they seem to be the exception,” I admitted. “I haven’t seen a ghost, before or since.”
“Hmm.” Maven stared at me some more, making me squirm in my seat. I was really starting to wish she’d fidget like everyone else. “Then you will go to Clan Pellar tonight,” she declared. “Find out if Hazel can help repair or restore that part of your magic. As soon as you are able to see remnants, go visit Nellie.”
“Pardon me,” Quinn interjected, “I thought remnants were only bits and pieces of a person’s memory. Like playing a little bit of a home movie over and over. Will Lex even be able to communicate with the spirit?”
Maven gave him an indulgent smile. “There are as many kinds of remnants as there are kinds of witches, Quinn. Their degree of coherency depends a lot on how they died, under what conditions, and whether or not they had any access to magic while alive.”
“The remnants of witches are more sentient?” I said in confusion.
Maven’s sudden smile was the most human expression I’d seen from her: sly and a little wicked. “Indeed. In fact, this remnant should be particularly sentient. In life, Nellie was a boundary witch.”
Chapter 13
There was silence as my head spun with the new information. A boundary witch left a functioning and aware ghost. If I died, that could happen to me. I really didn’t want to become like those things at the cemetery.
Then my brain caught up to the meaning behind her words. Boundary witches could die. I could die. For some reason, this came as a great relief.
Maven must have read my thoughts on my face, because she nodded. “Yes, boundary witches can be killed. It’s easy for your magic to close wounds or briefly ignore internal damage to keep your body from crossing the line. But there are things you can’t come back from.”
“Like what?” I said in a small voice, aware that I was talking to a woman who had killed one of my kind. “How did Nellie die?”
Maven’s eyes seemed to puncture me, leaving me empty and cold. “I cut off her head.”
There wasn’t a lot to say after “I cut off her head.” Maven told me to check in with her at Magic Beans the next afternoon at sunset, and waved a hand to dismiss me. Still a little unnerved, I got out of there as fast as I could.
My car was parked at the Randolph Center, and parking at CU is a bitch, so I began walking toward the CU campus, where I was pretty sure Simon would still be working. I had every intention of obeying Maven’s order to talk to Clan Pellar. But why take the problem straight to Hazel when her children were much more welcoming? Besides, Maven had told me to check in with Simon about the pellet-leaving creature. I was really just killing two birds.
I called Simon on the way, and he confessed that he hadn’t eaten since breakfast. We arranged to meet at a calzone shop just off campus. I texted Lily to join us too, both because I wanted her opinion on this remnant business, and because I wanted another pair of eyes on Simon. I didn’t mean to fuss over him, but I had been a little worried about him before he’d spent an entire day working without food.
The calzone shop was located in a tiny building on Broadway, part of a row of fast-food and delivery places that catered to the students. It was a nice enough location, decorated in bold shades of red and black, but it was obvious that their main business was delivery. The four employees behind the counter were bustling back and forth, calling out to each other, but aside from Simon, there was only one occupied table in the whole place: two college girls with textbooks spread under their calzone boxes. I ordered a veggie calzone at the counter and went to sit by Simon, who was so entranced by something on his laptop that he hadn’t even seen me coming. He looked genuinely surprised when I sat down.
“Oh, hey,” he said, closing his laptop and setting it on the bench seat next to him, where his cane was propped. I winced as I got a good look at his sunken features and pale skin. He looked worse than he had early that morning . . . Good God, had it been just this morning that we’d seen the gastric pellet?
“Hey. Did you order something to eat too?” I asked, pointing at the fountain soda near his elbow. “Otherwise I can go up for you.”
“No, I ordered. They’re just a little slow tonight.” He took off his wire-framed glasses to rub his face. “You want an update on the pellet for Maven.” It wasn’t really a question.
“Yes, but first I need to talk about another problem.” Before I could continue, Lily came breezing through the front door. She grabbed the chair next to me and flipped it around so she could straddle it backward. She was wearing black leather pants and a buttoned jean jacket that should have looked ridiculous together, but somehow it worked perfectly.