Carve My Pumpkin (The Night Realm: Halloween Marked #3)

Chapter 6

SIX

COLETTE

“I just can’t wait to see the reaction.”

I looked away from the fifteen-foot-tall pumpkin float with a bonfire raging inside to face Ria. “Oh, I don’t think he’s gonna like it.”

Ria smirked. She threw her black hair over her shoulder as she glanced left and right. “Is that why we did this?”

“Nope.” I grinned and made a circle motion over my head with my finger. “This is a genuine attempt to get my job done . . . Is it also going to provide some humor for me? Sure, but that’s just a bonus.”

“Ya know, I knew we were gonna get along.” Ria winked one dark eye at me. “It’s the boldness in the ad for me.”

“ Okay, Ria. Headless Horseman has arrived. Send in the Torren,” Carter said through the walkie-talkie.

I covered my mouth with my hand to hide my laugh.

“ THE Torren?” Ria chuckled next to me. “She’s gonna love that. Roger that, Carter. THE Torren is on the way.”

“ Just be ready, Ria. ”

Ria glanced over her shoulder to where Torren was lined up behind the Vauntero family for the parade. “For THE Torren. I know. We put her at the end for a reason. All of the Vaunteros are accounted for and conscious,” she said into the walkie-talkie.

I snort-laughed. It wasn’t funny what happened to Mateo last December, but the dark humor was just hard to resist. I glanced behind me and found the entire Vauntero family cackling. They’d heard Carter. No one thought the Mateo coma jokes were funnier than his own flesh and blood , especially his twin.

The Headless Horseman was a hell of an upgrade for the parade. I’d been here for the start of the parade and got an up-close view of the addition, and with the smoke and fog and real fire on the Horseman’s torch, it actually seemed real. I’d lived here my whole life. I’d watched the Halloween parade for twenty-eight of my thirty years, and I had to give it to these two mages for the little touches they brought this year. I wasn’t surprised the Vaunteros hired them after Christmas. They’d done that good of a job. But every time I heard anything about Carter Quinn, I tried to wrap my head around her being soulmates with Mr. Prescott. I hadn’t met Carter in person yet, but I’d talked to her and Ria on video call to set up for my plan today. Carter seemed so full of life and energy. She was bursting with creative ideas and excitement. Mr. Prescott was none of those things, at least not on the outside.

But they were soulmates, so clearly they were good together.

Ria was already a new favorite person of mine, which said a lot, because I didn’t make friends my own age very easily. I tended to not have anything in common with them, like all the girls in the office. Yet there was something about Carter and Ria’s drive and passion for their careers that just . . . clicked.

“Shouldn’t you be working?”

I gasped and spun around only to find Mateo standing right behind me. My pulse fluttered faster than the butterflies in my stomach. I took a deep breath. “Excuse me?”

He took a step forward, closing the distance between us. Those sapphire eyes burned hot lasers on my face even while the lenses of his glasses reflected the sparkling lights from the parade. “ I said, shouldn’t you be working, Ms. Rothchild?”

“On a Saturday night at the annual Island-wide Halloween parade?” I arched one eyebrow and scoffed as I put my hands on my hips. “No, I shouldn’t be working.”

“Then why are you here?” He glanced around us. “You’re not in the parade or running it?—”

“Which is it, Mr. Vauntero? I should be working or not working? You’ll need to decide.”

“ Ms. Rothchild ?—”

“I am working, Mr. Vauntero, as a matter of fact.” I smiled innocently when his face turned red, then I glanced over to Ria. “It’s almost time, correct?”

Ria snickered and pointed to the next float in the lineup. “Correct. After the zombies.”

Mateo’s face paled. He eyed the float in question, then turned back to me with a frown. “Should I be concerned?”

“That I’m doing my job, as you requested?” I shrugged. “Hardly. I’m just considering all the creative solutions.”

People dressed as zombies walked by us, following the path of the pumpkin. They pretended to go up to the crowd to look for brains to eat, which made the little kids scream and giggle. But the next float was the one I was here to see. I’d specifically chosen this one with Carter and Ria because it was going to get a lot of attention, and exposure was what we really needed. I turned to watch the float that looked like a massive cauldron turn onto Main Street from where the set-up area was. This one had a few mages standing on top throwing potion bottles inside the cauldron to make it splash with light and color.

“I don’t get it,” Mateo snapped. “How is this fitting your job description?”

I grinned. “Wait for it . . .”

“ What am I waiting for ?—”

“ If only there was a way for you to find out on your own?” I gestured to the giant cauldron passing in front of us. “I’m a problem solver, Mr. Vauntero. You pointed out a problem, so I started my attempts to solve it.”

“With a cauldron—” He gasped, his voice cutting off with a sharp, high-pitched squeal. He tried to get words out, but nothing was coming out.

There, hanging on the back of the giant cauldron, was a big white sign about five feet wide and ten feet tall. The borders of the sign had little red lights that flashed to make the sign stand out among the shadows and light of the parade.

I heard gasps echo all around me.

A grin spread wide across my face. The sign was pretty simple. There was a single image painted on this white canvas in red and black ink. The image was of a moth with crescent moons and half-circles to enhance the design. This image was a giant replica of the soulmate mark on Mateo’s arm. Written beneath the image in simple black font were the words: Have you seen this image? If so, call this number.

“WHAT IS THIS? ” Mateo yelled, his hands in fists at his sides and his face flushed.

Behind him, every member of his family was laughing hard enough to force tears. The Queen was crouched in a squat with her face in her hands just cracking up. Ernald, Hemming, Kallahan, and Pippin were hysterically laughing and giving me a standing ovation. Thomas and Jonathan high-fived. Henry snapped pictures with his phone. Nash was cackling so hard he stumbled down the sidewalk until he bumped into Orson, who had braced his hands on his knees as he laughed.

I giggled.

Mateo just stared at the sign with his soulmate mark in horror. “What have you done?”

“You’re welcome.” I scoffed. “That sign is brilliant. Only the people who know you have a soulmate will recognize what this sign means. Everyone else will be confused for a second, then carry on with their lives because they’ve never seen the image.”

“ Whose phone number is that? ”

“It’s mine.” I rolled my eyes. “Because my only job is to find your soulmate, so it’s my number they need to call.”

“This is . . . this is . . . this is?—”

“Brilliant? Creative?” I smiled up at his scowl. “I know. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go enjoy my Saturday night since it’s not a work night.”

I didn’t wait for a response, I winked to Ria, then spun on my toes and walked away from the parade. Mateo was still gawking at the sign. He needed to calm down. It wasn’t like I wrote what the image was or meant. It was a classic if you know, you know scenario. And that was my phone number, not his. It was a sneaky method to lure his soulmate out because she had to be here somewhere. It made no sense for her to not be here. The only thing I didn’t understand was why she would be hiding from him.

The rest of his family was still laughing, but now they’d started to turn on him, roasting him with jokes. Nash was beside himself. I loved how twisted twin relationships were. They were each other’s number one supporter but also their most vicious roaster. I smiled and held my head high as I walked toward where I left my hoverboard. Constantine stepped out from behind a pole with a rare grin on his face. He didn’t say anything, that wasn’t his style. He just held his hand up and gave me a high-five as I walked by.

When I stepped onto my hoverboard, I was on cloud nine. Not only was my idea brilliant but it also felt like I’d put Mateo in his place a little. I mean, Mr. Vauntero. I rolled my eyes. I had no problem respecting my boss, God knew I never crossed the line with Mr. Prescott, but I deserved respect back. He’d been a real prick to me in the office yesterday. It’d been my first real day at work. I hadn’t been prepared for my entire job position to be reduced to finding his soulmate. I’d never been asked to hunt down a person before, I was a little out of my element. Plus, I didn’t know a whole lot about soulmate marks and all that came with it. I needed a moment to find my footing. It would’ve been nice if my boss had been willing to brainstorm with me, to talk to me . . . to tell me what they’d tried before so I didn’t waste our time now. I hadn’t even known they’d been looking.

Let it go, Colette. That’s enough for tonight. I took a deep breath and steered my way down Main Street. My hoverboard was one of my favorite gadgets because riding it made me feel like I was flying. I pushed my wings out and let the breeze sweep over them. If I just didn’t look down, I could pretend I actually was flying. That giddy feeling chased away all my frustrations over Mr. Vauntero’s difficult task. I was heading up to the end of Main Street where Carter stood overseeing things on that end. I’d talked to her so much on the phone, I needed to meet her in person, especially after Ria and I had just clicked so well.

It only took a minute to fly up Main Street, even with the thick crowd huddled on the sidewalk to watch the parade. The Island was in full Halloween swing already, even more than what I’d already seen, like they’d intentionally busted out more tricks just for the parade. The festival was up and running up ahead, though it looked mostly empty as almost everyone was here . Everywhere I looked there were jack-o’-lanterns with flickering flames, and the trees were gorgeous shades of red, orange, and yellow. Even at night their colors were breathtaking. Fake spiderwebs hung from the trees and decorated the doorways of the shops along Main Street. Candles magically hovered in the air along with bespelled brooms that flew through the night. The air was crisp and fresh, perfectly cool but not cold.

Then I spotted my target standing beneath a tree full of red leaves holding a walkie-talkie and a clipboard. Her black hair was tied back, and her silver eyes looked like literal stars with how they twinkled. I threw my hand up and yelled, “Hey, Carter!”

She looked up from her clipboard with a frown, but then she spotted me and smiled. “Colette!”

I sped over to her on my hoverboard, then jumped off. Before I could stop myself, I tackled her in a hug. There was a moment of terror in my chest, thinking I’d just really screwed up and made this weird, but Carter hugged me back without hesitation and with a giggle in my ear.

“Sorry,” I said with a chuckle and tugged my oversized sweater back down into place. “I got excited to meet you in person.”

“That was a better reaction than my own soulmate!” She cackled, then glanced over my shoulder and held the walkie-talkie up to her mouth. “Mardi Gras has entered the chat.”

I followed her stare and looked behind me as a few floats in a row came crawling towards us with bright lights flashing. People stood on the double-decker floats throwing light-up bead necklaces and candy down to the crowd.

I sighed. “I wanna go to the real Mardi Gras.”

“You and me both.” Carter gasped. “Hey, wait, I’ll make Lex take me. Wanna join?”

“YES. Sign me up.” I nodded. “Actually, sign me up for any traveling.”

Carter’s grin widened. “Right, Lex told me traveling was your big dream.”

Heat filled my face. “Oh . . . he did? Uh . . . wow.”

“Yes, I've discovered—to my own pleasant surprise—that my soulmate is quite the gossip in private.” Carter giggled.

My eyes widened. “Mr. Prescott? A gossip?”

“Yeah, he’s basically a stray black cat that I snatched off the street and am slowly forcing into domestication . . . ” she leaned in and whispered, “ and he’s struggling to keep up the facade that he hates it. ”

I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Men.”

She shrugged. “ Men. ”

A float went by that was just a cornfield on wheels—a scarecrow jumped out and I screamed so loud my throat hurt. Carter and I laughed so hard I missed quite a few floats going by because my eyes were watering too much.

“That was fantastic.” Carter wiped tears from her eyes. “Your face. Priceless.”

“Happy to be of service.”

“Speaking of service . . .” her laughter faded into an inquisitive stare, “how’s the new position? Is executive assistant to Mateo everything you dreamed it would be? That interaction with him yesterday was . . . something else.”

I grimaced and forced myself not to look back in his direction down the street. “My only task right now is to locate his soulmate because he won’t be traveling until she’s found. And if I don’t find her within the two-week trial period, there goes any prayer I had for my dream job.”

Carter pursed her lips. “Don’t be afraid to push back. Lex wasn’t happy to hear Mateo is using the company and his employee for such personal matters. I promise you that much. And Lex likes you. I think you remind him of himself back in the day.”

I frowned. “What exactly are you saying?”

She glanced around us, then stepped close to whisper, “ I’m saying don’t go down without a fight. Swing back with everything you’ve got. ” Then she stepped back and nodded once.

A slow smile pulled at my lips. “Okay. Thanks.”

“Anytime, my friend.”

My friend. My smile grew wider. This new job position may not have been unfolding the way I expected, but making some new friends as a result was not a bad thing at all.

“ Okay, The Torren has entered the game,” Ria said through the walkie-talkie. “ Stand by for emergency backup. ”

Carter and I both turned toward the parade.

Carter held the walkie-talkie up to her mouth. “Be prepared for anything, Ria.”

I grinned. “I know this is a lot of work for you and you don’t want it to go wrong . . . but I can’t help but hope Torren loses it.”

Carter gasped. “Colette! You’re terrible! I love it.”