Excerpt: Dancing in the Moonlight

Chapter Three: In Which Unexpected Information is Given

Betsy sat back on her heels as she looked over the clearing. She had caught a ride with her photographer, who had introduced himself with a casual, “Yo. Sam. You Betsy?” At her nod, he had nodded back and jerked a thumb toward the car. He hadn’t said a word since. Betsy glanced over at him. He was carefully shooting the scene, his focus entirely on what he could see through his camera lens. Betsy took a deep breath, and opened her Sight.

Slowly the real world slipped away and the Otherworld faded in. Betsy had never been able to explain to Abby how the Otherworld was both another place, separate from their own, and another layer of their world, all at the same time. She’d talked herself in circles the first time, and after that any time she got started on it, Abby cut her off and told her that she’d prefer to pretend that the Otherworld was just another place, thanks so very much.

Betsy took a deep breath as her Sight settled fully down. How long had it been since she used it? she idly wondered, looking around. Everything had gotten an ever-so-slight green tint, so slight that she hadn’t seen it until she had come back from her time in the Otherworld and wondered why everything looked so pale. She pushed the thought aside and focused on studying the area in front of her.

There was nothing there. Betsy frowned and checked again. Nothing. “This can’t be right,” she said, half under her breath.

“What can’t be?” Sam looked over at her, and Betsy cleared her face. She hadn’t meant to speak loud enough to be heard.

“Sorry,” she said. “Just thinking out loud.” She returned to her study of the area. The quick glance had assured her that Sam was fully human, so she must have spoken louder than she meant to.

“Ah,” Sam picked his camera back up again. “My turn to apologize, I think. Mom always said that I had the ears of bat.”

Betsy sent him another look, but he wasn’t paying any more attention to her, and Betsy returned her attention to the scene in front of her. It still wasn’t right. There wasn’t anything there. And if Betsy had learned one thing during her time in the Otherworld, it was that violent death left a mark. Great, she thought, this time making sure not to say it out loud. We’re dealing with magic then.

She pushed the thought aside and began looking around for any other kind of clue that normal detectives would have missed. Off to one side, she saw what appeared to be a hole in the air. She stood up and walked over to it, leaning down to study it. It wasn’t natural, she could tell, but if she hadn’t had experience in looking at the holes in the wall of the Otherworld, she might have thought that it was natural.

Betsy stood up straight, feeling her back muscles burn from her earlier crouch, and turned to see Sam watching her, an unreadable expression on his face. Betsy tilted her head and went into what Abby, after watching her do it for the first time, called her Innocent Mode. “We ready to go?” she asked. Sam nodded, slinging his bag with his camera over his shoulder. They walked back over to the car and Sam started it up. Betsy buckled her seatbelt without thinking, and after a moment Sam did the same. The ride back to campus was made in silence.