Too Wyrd by Buhrman Sarah

Author:Buhrman, Sarah
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Published: 2016-09-14T00:00:00+00:00

. . .

I plopped down in the cracked maroon vinyl seat of the booth and rasped out a request for coffee and water to the server. It wasn't the same lady who had waited on us just a few days ago. After we had seen Keith's little performance.

I dropped my head on my arms.

Keith. He was dead.

A few days ago, we were watching him with suspicion, trying to figure out his game. And now he was dead. He'd given us the sigils. He'd entered into a devil's bargain. For Ella, our daughter.

The server set down the drinks and gave me a funny look. I blinked and felt the tears fall down my cheeks. I sat up and wiped them off.

I shot a weary half-smile at the woman. “Bad day,” I offered.

She nodded, sympathetically, and walked away.

I began pouring creamer and sugar into my coffee. I stirred it after each addition until it was the right color and a lick of the spoon told me that the sugar had overcome the bitterness of cheap, stale grounds.

I thought back to when I'd met Keith, seven years earlier. I'd been crazy about his Irish good looks, but too timid back then to make the first move. We'd met through a mutual friend at a Pagan open ritual. I'd never been to a ritual open to the public before, and I'd had no idea who to talk to. So I'd stayed near Graham and Keith the whole time.

At the end of the event, Graham had decided to take off with another friend from out of town. Since I'd ridden with him, I was stranded. Keith had given me a ride home. Then he tried to kiss me.

Months later, we'd become an unofficial item. We'd attend groups and rituals together, and he'd spend the night once in a while. Soon people just assumed we were together. Only he and I had known that we'd never talked about a relationship, or where we were going with it. We’d just let it become what it would become.

I had been on birth control, but nothing was guaranteed, and I had gotten a little plus sign on a pregnancy test. I'd informed him of the news. He had said he wasn't ready to be a father. I took off for my mother’s the next day.

Keith had never shown interest in Ella, in knowing her at all. Joseph had told me that he and some other mutual friends had taken it upon themselves to keep Keith updated whether he wanted it or not. I wondered now if he’d been trying to protect himself, emotionally.

I played Keith’s final words over and over in my mind, trying to decode them. Maybe he had wanted fatherhood after all. Maybe I hadn’t let him in.

“Nicola! Thank the All-father!”

I looked up at the sound of my name. Mercy stood a few feet from the table, looking like she'd been in a fight.

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