Page 107 of (Mostly) Human Resources

Her throat tightened. “We’re not saying goodbye yet, boss. I’ve cried enough.”

“Then get out of my office.” Kristin threw a balled-up tissue at her and grinned. “Go tell Natalie she better start laughing at my jokes as much as you do, or we’re going to have a problem.”

Alexys Keane.Warden.

It didn’t feel real. It didn’t. And yet, it was. Everything Alexys swore she’d never become, everything she’d always feared, and her mom always feared, was happening.

Alexys was going to be out in the field. Chasing monsters.

She’d spent the rest of the morning moving files and sending emails. She mourned the loss of her desk, with all its Post-it notes, the jar full of every colored pen, and the bowl of chocolates. The stupid, coffee-cup-shaped pillow on the chair that saidHR is a latte worknext to the tray of mugs and sugar packets. Even the house plant Kristin had gifted her, despite its withered state. The most heartbreaking thing, though, was the container of freshly delivered cookies. Elliot’s grandmother wouldn’t have known when she sent them that they’d be the last. The reminder of it seized her heart in a grief-vice

Looking away and at the rest of the room, Alexys already felt estranged from the space. She herself felt estranged from the person she was in that officebeforeshe went to West Virginia. Now, she felt stained. Like the darkness on her hands was transferrable, like it would bleed into this once happy space. Her hands began to itch with the feeling of dried blood caked onto her skin.

She flexed her hands, and the feelings vanished.

It didn’t matter if she tainted the office, Alexys realized. It wouldn’t even be hers come Monday. The warm, colorful space she’d created would go to someone else. They’d change it, reshape it, make it their own.

Alexys flexed her fingers again, spread them wide before her, and stared at her palms. She had a sinking suspicion that her hands wouldn’t stay clean for long in her new job.

Turning her attention to a stack of folders, she made to move them into a drawer when a small flash of white dropped onto the floor.

She paused.

It was a business card, one of hers. She knelt down to pick it up, turning it over in her hands.

Her blood turned to ice.

Scrawled on the back in elegant script was a message.

See you soon, Miss Keane.

She knew who had written it. There was only one person.

Silas.

It was a promise. And a threat. An unavoidable one, given her new job. She’d be returning to those mountains whether she liked it or not.

But how did he know?

Alexys threw the card in the trash, her hands shaking. Had he somehow orchestrated this whole thing? But if he had, why? What did he want from her? He’d gotten his part of the deal already, all those lives in exchange for Nic. Had everyone else just been a pawn in order for him to get to her? Elliot, Opal, the people in the mine … nearly Nic.

A sickening, twisting combination of rage and grief roiled in her stomach.

She’d never know what Entity had said to Elliot’s family, but she knew it wouldn’t have been anything close to the truth. She also knew that Opal’s name would never even be mentioned in any of the formal reports—especially if a Reaper was involved. The company would offer its condolences for any inconveniences to the local community, for roping off sections of road and mountain. They’d send out mandatory employee safety training videos, suggest grief counseling to those affected, and then move on to the next.

Entity thought moving her to Elliot’s Quadrant was an easy fix. She’d been out there,seenhorrible, terrible things and survived. It made perfect sense. It required the least amount of effort on their part, and Alexys would be another replaceable cog in the machine if she couldn’t hack it.

Can’t never could.

But she’d have to. She’d already stepped into her father’s shoes, a pair that felt overwhelmingly impossible to fill, and somehow here she was, still standing. Alexys didn’t have to be the perfect Warden.She just had to be good enough, last long enough, to do right by Elliot. To do right by her father’s legacy.

She could be good enough at being a Warden to give herself the time and resources she needed to go after Opal herself.

She’d already killed eight witches, directly or not. What was one more?

CHAPTER 57

“Can’t Never Could.”