Make Me No Grave: A Weird West Novel by Hayley Stone

Author:Hayley Stone [Stone, Hayley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2018-11-20T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

I rushed outside, expecting to catch sight of Almena’s back as she thundered away on her horse. It was dark out. The moon, trapped behind a drifting prison of clouds, couldn’t be relied upon for seeing any great distance, nor were the stars much use, too small a congregation, as though most of them had blown away with the storm.

“Going somewhere?”

I snapped to attention, turning back, although my forward momentum took me a few steps farther than I meant to go.

There was no porch behind the Cortez’s house, so Almena sat on the ground just outside the warm glow of the kitchen window, legs drawn up against her chest, back to the wall. She looked awful small. Grass filled the space around her thighs and back, almost like she’d been here so long, nature had grown in around her.

She didn’t smile, but remarked, “Shoot, Marshal. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Don’t believe in ghosts,” I answered reflexively, though that was perhaps no longer true.

“Oh, you don’t, do you?”

“Almena, what’re you doing out here?” I asked, a little more harshly than I meant to. My heart still hammered against my chest, punishing me for the mistake of having let the Grizzly Queen out of my sight. Good Lord only knows what trouble she could’ve gotten up to, and me being responsible for her. Me being responsible for all of this.

“Not running, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

She was aggressively crushing cornbread in her hands, leaving a mess of crumbs on her lap. Either she didn’t notice or didn’t care. I thought the latter more likely. A faraway look in her eyes made me think Almena was visiting the past. Or trapped in it.

“You could’ve said something,” I told her. “Rather than just disappearing like a… a thief in the night.”

“Wasn’t aware I needed your permission to come outside and relieve myself.”

“That what you were doing?”

“No, but I could’ve been. I don’t see how it’s any of your business what I’m doing out here. It can’t be less important than that.”

“In case you haven’t caught on yet, you’re my business, Miss Guillory.”

“I wish you’d stop that.”

“Stop what?”

“Calling me Miss Guillory like I’m some lady whose delicate sensibilities you need to protect. I’m afraid that horse was let out of the barn a long time ago.” She dusted the crumbs off her hands and started attacking the grass, ripping the blades out by the roots. “You don’t need to coddle me.”

“You sure have a funny idea of what it means to be coddled,” I replied drily. “If I’m not to call you Miss Guillory, then you could try using my name, too. I think we’re past titles. In that, you may have a point.”

“Apostle.” She shook her head. “I know that’s not your real name.”

“It’s what I go by.”

“Out here, where you could be anything, anyone, you still let others name you. Why is that?”

I scratched my ear. Never really thought about it like that. “I think you’re placing a little too much importance on a name.

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