For the life of her, Britt would never really understand just how exactly Lyri had heard of this. After all, who the hell auctioned off unmarked graves? But, she had to admit, she was curious. 

It was a little disappointing when she realized that the oldest graves being auctioned were still under a century, but she understood most couldn’t raise something that old without a bigger sacrifice. It was, after all, frowned upon to encourage human sacrifice. 

Still, there were only a couple that had signed up for the oldest part of this particular cemetery. It wasn’t a lot of competition, but she would be damned if she was going to miss out to the oldest grave being auctioned off.

She was there early, dressed in faded jeans and an old leather jacket she had stolen from her mom during her teenage punk phase. She looked the most average there, but still, people shied away from her. Even with a tight leash on her abilities, she was a force to be reckoned with. 

Of course, it could have also been the fact that the spirits lingering there had already caught on to the fact that she could see them. That never helped. 

Britt smirked, eyes rolling as one of the spirits started pointing out different things about different people. The dead gossiped worse than the living, but she understood why. They didn’t really get the chance to talk to people much. Plus, it was giving her a bit of an edge. Only two of the others seemed to notice the spirits and neither one of them seemed all that willing to speak to them.

No one saw her as financial competition though and that had been what she was going for.

Unlike others that seemed intent to raise what they won today, she planned on waiting. To her, it was a private affair. What she and the dead spoke of was not the business of an audience. 

It was a pretty tame ordeal, overall, until it got to the older graves. She didn’t make a single bid until the last one. A grave from the late 1940′s, well kept despite the lack of marker. It was a curiosity, to say the least. It was the only really heated bid of the day and no one, not even the auctioneer, seemed to think she had the money to pay up. 

It was sort of satisfying to see the looks of contempt she received from the older looking people she had outbid when she paid up, but they didn’t matter. Once it was settled, she drew her sigils. It would keep anyone else from interfering with the grave at least.

She waited almost a week to go back. It was enough time for the curiosity to die down enough to keep her from having an audience. 

Raising the body was easy enough, but when she saw the woman’s face, Britt was a little surprised. She knew her face, had seen the photographs in her mother’s albums. 

“Lilianna?”

It took a moment for the woman to focus, her memories coming back slowly and pale compared to when she was alive.

“Have we met before?” Everything was foggy enough that she couldn’t be sure.

“No. My mother has some photos of you with my uncle,” she replied softly, trying to be as respectful as possible. She could have found a way to acquire her soul, but she didn’t want to risk pissing her aunts off. “I’m Brittia. Av– Acacia’s daughter.”

“You know my Moros? Do tell me he has not spent the time mourning?” She knew she was dead. The first memory that had surfaced was seeing her own body in a wrecked car. 

“I think he still misses you, but he’s made peace. I could arrange for you to see him, if you’d like?”

She was thoughtful for a moment before slowly shaking her head. “I do believe it would only upset him. Did he remarry or have other children?”

Britt smiled sweetly. “He never remarried, but he does have kids. Here, I have pictures,” she replied, digging her phone out and pulling up a picture from one of Cayden’s online social accounts. “That’s Cayden, he’s the eldest. And the twins are Mavros and Thea,” she said, pointing them out. “And then they all have kids of their own too. It’s a tangled mess.”

A dry laugh left Lili’s lips as she stared at the weird box with the photo. “I am glad he found peace. But, if it is not too much to ask, I would like to return to my own. You have given me a great gift, little one and I am thankful for that,” she said softly, touching the girl’s cheek.

“I can do that and I can keep my sigils in place to keep anyone from disrupting your grave,” she offered, never one to keep the dead awake for longer than they wished. 

“Thank you.”

Silently, she eased Lilianna back to rest before sitting down and putting her sigils back in place. She would tell her mom, but she thought it might not be best to tell her uncle. She didn’t want to risk upsetting him.