by Elicia Hyder
Orion had murdered a child, but he had told me about it. Not that the latter outweighed the former by any stretch, but if I’d learned anything in my job, it’s that honesty goes a long way, even among the most ruthless of criminals. In fact, the ones who unashamedly stated their intentions outright were usually the most trustworthy—they never failed to be the bad guy.
“The problem is, I’ve never felt more inept in my life, and Orion might be the only person who can help me.”
Ransom bent to look me in the eye. “Nobody ever said you had to save the world, Nyx. God knows that’s not what Elias did with the gift, and you can bet your ass I never thought beyond a new business venture to clean up some old debts and buy a boat.”
“Business venture?”
He leaned to the side and pulled his wallet from his back pocket. “Had business cards made and everything.” He handed me a sleek gray card with the word “Specter” across it, with his name and phone number. “Specter means ghost.”
“I know what it means. What were you going to do?”
“Private-eye stuff. Like James Bond, but American.”
Sadness filled my heart. I slid the card back toward him and put my hand on his. “You have no idea how sorry I am, Ransom.”
He pulled away, the same way I do when I’m emotionally uncomfortable with others. Guess it runs in the family. “It’s not your fault. I honestly don’t know why I was so shocked. Our parents screwed up everything else for us. Why not this too?”
“What are you going to do about work?” I asked.
“I don’t know yet. Everything changed so fast. I’m sure Harlan will let me stay at the Drexler if I want to, but I’m not sure I want to.”
He stuffed the last massive bite into his mouth, wiped his crumb-covered lips with a napkin, then crumpled the napkin around the business card. With a perfectly arched shot, he tossed both into the kitchen garbage. “Maybe I’ll try out for the NBA.” He flashed me a million-dollar smile, but there was a lot of pain and worry behind it. “What do you need to know about the gift?”
I didn’t want to change the subject, but it was clear Ransom wasn’t ready to talk about whatever was going through that thick skull of his. “Everything.”
Worried, he looked at his watch. “Not sure if we have time to cover everything.” He lifted the backpack off his chair and thunked it down on the table.
“I know not to detach at night and that if I die in the Boundary, my body dies here.”
“You can’t walk through walls,” he offered.
“Or closed doors,” I added, the corner of my mouth tipping up into a smile. “I found that out the painful way.”
“What did you do?”
My shoulders slumped. “Bounced off my bedroom door like a rubber ball.”
“Hate I missed that.”
“It hurt. Is that because pain is in the mind?”
“Yep.”
I thought of Orion in the fetal position on my floor. After what he’d done since then, I smiled at the memory.
“You should be able to walk through clear glass,” Ransom said.
I nodded. “I can. I have to be able to see where I’m going.”
“You can also travel place to place the same way. You just have to see it here.” He tapped the center of his forehead.
“Using oneiryte?” I asked.
His head pulled back with surprise. “Where’d you hear about that?”
“I met a kid from the Boundary who showed me his. Orion said he’d teach me how to use it.”
Ransom pulled a wooden box from his backpack.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Some stuff Elias gave me.”
I almost jumped out of my chair. “Are you serious?”
He slid the box across the table.
If I was a squealer . . .
I slid off the lid. Inside, on a pillow of blue velvet, was a glass vial halfway full of the same shimmering white sand Flash and Orion had shown me. It was fixed to a long tarnished chain and had a cork stopper. “Oneiryte.”
“Yep.”
“How do I use it? Click my heels together three times?”
“Huh?”
My head tilted. “Dorothy? Ruby slippers?”
His eyes narrowed with confusion.
“The Wizard of Oz.”
“Oh, that munchkin movie you can watch in sync with Pink Floyd when you’re stoned?”
My eyes widened. “Brother, you and I have led different lives. Never mind. How do I use it to travel? The kid poured some on the ground.”
“Yeah. That’s part of it. You pour a line on the ground, picture where you want to go, and step over the line. It creates a portal.”
“That’s it?”
“So I hear.”
“Sounds too easy.”
“Yeah, especially for a girl who walks into doors.” I shot him the bird, and he laughed. We both did, and it felt so good. “Technically, you don’t even need the sand to travel, but it makes it a lot easier.”
“You don’t?”
“No. Elias didn’t have it most of the time while he was locked up, and he got around fine. It’s just a concentration aid. He said it was a gift from someone who lived in the spirit land.”
“Imera,” I said.
“Yeah, that’s it. Have you been there?”
“No. Apparently, I’m not allowed to go there.”
“Why?”
“Orion said they keep Earth and Imera separate.” I put the necklace back in the box.
“There’s more stuff in there,” Ransom said.
The blue velvet was a bag. I untied the strings holding it closed and poured its contents into my palm. There were eight stones, each a different color, most with eight sides. One stone was larger than the rest, a long icy-white crystal wrapped in silver wire. It was beautiful, and a little creepy. “What’s this?”
“Oh, this is very, very special.” Ransom took it, holding the stone up to the light.
I clasped my hands beneath my chin. “Well?” I asked, wide eyed with excitement.
He laughed and gave it back. “I have no fucking clue.” He picked up one of the smaller stones. “I don’t know what any of these are.”
I put the stones into the box and examined the bag. “I think this is ergane.” I laid it on top of the stones.
In the box’s corner was a man’s silver ring with a diamond-shaped purple stone. “He was right,” I muttered, taking the ring from the box.
“Who was right?” Ransom asked.
“Orion said Elias had a ring with a purple stone that would prevent detaching.”
I slipped the ring on my right index finger and admired the colors sparkling in the light. Its sides were engraved with symbols I didn’t recognize.
Ransom sat back and crossed his arms. “You want to prevent detaching?”
I caught the offense in his voice. “Not all the time.” I put the ring back into the box.
“It would help if you didn’t despise all this so much. I’ll probably get my ass kicked for no longer having the power you keep reminding me you hate.”
“Ass kicked by who?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Ransom, are you in some kind of trouble?”
The way he carefully studied my face was answer enough: yes, my brother was deep into something.
“It’s not trouble exactly.”
“Then what is it?”
His eyes fell, and he scratched at something invisible on my tabletop. “Remember when I was in Vegas?”
“Yes.” How could I forget? Those awful days weren’t long before my accident. Even though I’d been in the Army, Gran had called me every night worried sick.
“I got in pretty deep at the Nebula. Had a few markers I couldn’t pay back after I lost my fighting contract. I was facing more jail time, and I would have lost Milly.”
I rested my forehead in my hand. “What did you do?”
“I made a deal.”
>
“With who?”
He looked away. “Mal.”
“You did what?” The question was so loud it even startled me.
“Mal had just gotten out of prison. She paid my debt in exchange for my help after Elias died.”
“What kind of help?”
“She promised it wouldn’t be anything illegal.”
“Says the woman who spent a few decades in prison. How much do you owe her?”
He paused. “I don’t wanna tell you.”
“How much?”
“A hundred and twenty thousand dollars.”
I almost fell out of my chair. “Holy shit. Are you serious?”
“See?” He threw a hand toward me. “That’s why I didn’t want to tell you. Maybe I should start a swear jar and make some of that money off you.”
I buried my face in my hands. “Damn it, Ransom.”
“Would you rather me be in prison and lose custody of Milly?”
“Of course not. It’s just that . . .” I wasn’t even sure how to process this information. I sat back and looked at the ceiling. “Where did Mal even get that kinda money?”
“Where do you think?”
“The money she and Elias stole.”
“That would be my guess. She heard about my arrest from Gran and came to the rescue.”
“Smart way to get you in her pocket.”
“And now she’s screwed.”
“Serves her right.”
“She’s going to make my life hell, Nyx.”
“Probably, but at least we shouldn’t have to worry about her putting a hit out on you over it.” I sipped my coffee.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
I didn’t like the way his eyes were avoiding mine. “Why?”
“Mal made some connections during her time away. The guy with her at Gran’s funeral could easily be a mob boss.”
I remembered him. Stocky build, expensive suit, more tattoos than Ransom and me combined. “What did she say his name was?”
“Beats me.”
I hadn’t paid much—or any—attention either.
“What does she want you to do?” I asked.
“I don’t know the details, but it has something to do with making Renzo pay for what he did to her. She’s had plenty of time to contemplate retribution.”
“But now you can’t help her.”
“So I’ll get to be the object of her retribution.”
“She’ll have to go through me,” I reminded him.
He rolled his eyes. “Exactly what I’ve always wanted. My baby sister as my protector.”
Another thought struck me. My simply possessing the power of Nyx was leverage over Mal. Leverage I’d lose if Orion was right about the Water of Lethe. I’d have a harder time protecting Ransom without it.
“Have you heard of the Water of Lethe?” I asked.
He shook his head. “What is it?”
“Something Orion mentioned. Not important.” I knew it would only rub salt in a very open wound. “What else is here?” I lifted a key ring from the box. On it were four keys. Three were normal-sized; one was long and ornate, like it might fit a jewelry box or a really old lockbox.
Ransom took the key ring and singled that key out. “I don’t know what this goes to. Maybe Orion or one of your other friends from . . . wherever it is, can tell you.”
“Imera,” I said.
“Yeah.” Ransom pointed at me. “Don’t go getting stuck there.”
“Is that possible?”
“Oh yeah. The body can’t survive without the spirit for longer than twenty-four hours.”
“Twenty-four hours.” I made a note in my journal.
“It shouldn’t be a problem if you’re only detached during daylight. Nightwalkers are the biggest danger.”
“Orion told me, and they’re about the only thing I can remember Elias saying about the Boundary.”
“Scary shit if it’s true.”
“I heard them last night. They sounded real enough, and I’m ninety-nine percent certain it’s what killed Elias in his cell.”
“This should help protect you.” He reached into the box I’d emptied. Pulling it to him, he searched all four corners and even turned it over to look at the bottom.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“The knife. It’s missing.”
“Knife?”
“Yeah. This fancy thing, like a long skinny—”
“Like this?” I pulled the dagger from my calf.
“Kind of.” He took it from me. “The one Elias had was smaller. Where’d you get this?”
“Orion.”
Ransom gave me the dagger back and looked in the box again. “It’s gone.”
“Where’d it go?”
“I don’t know, Nyx. Let me just grab my crystal ball and ask.”
I held up my middle finger.
“Maybe it’s in my safe. I’ll look when I get home. What else do you need to know?”
I looked at the journal again. “Mirrors. I know they’re a problem, but I can’t remember why. And they freak me the hell out because I don’t have a reflection.”
“No, but you can see the reflection of the space surrounding you. If you pass through one, you’re in danger of getting trapped in a loop between what is real and what is reflected.”
“Damn,” I said, taking notes.
“Yeah, don’t mess around with mirrors. Oh, and don’t get fucked up and try to detach. Elias told me that a lot, though now I wonder if it wasn’t a ploy to try to keep me sober.”
I hesitated. “How are you doing with all that?”
“I’m fine.” He took a deep gulp of coffee.
“You sure? I’ve been worried about you with all—”
“Nyx, I said I’m fine.”
It wasn’t an angry, defensive snap, like we’d seen a lot when we he was clearly not fine, so I changed the subject. “How did Elias animate bodies?”
“Through touch. I assume you’ve been able to return to your body when you’re detached.”
I nodded.
“It’s supposed to work the same way, but it’s a lot more difficult because bodies are not meant to house more than one spirit. It took Elias years of practice. He said it’s easier to invade the minds of people who are unconscious.”
“I don’t plan on trying that at all. God, I hated it when he did that to me.”
The light flickered in the kitchen. We both turned to look. “We’re not alone,” I announced.
“We’re not?” Ransom asked, a little worried.
I looked around the room. “Orion?”
The light flickered again.
Ransom’s eyes doubled. “He’s here right now?”
“Yeah.” I raised my voice, but not enough to wake Bess down the hall. “And he has a hell of a lot of explaining to do.”
Ransom stood. “On that note, I’m out. I need to get home anyway. I’d like to get some sleep before Milly gets out of school. I promised to take her to Fun Zone today.”
“Oh, I wish I could come.”
“She would love that. You’re welcome to if you’re not busy.”
“I’m afraid I am.”
The lights flickered again.
“Oh,” Ransom said, understanding.
I followed him to the kitchen. “Next time though.”
“Of course.” He stopped and pointed to my dented refrigerator. “What happened?”
“Orion. The night I thought he attacked me, I punched him in the balls.”
Ransom chuckled. “I guess that hurts in any dimension.”
“I guess. Listen, I really appreciate your help.”
“And you appreciate your greasy biscuit and coffee,” he added, taking my trash and tossing it in the can.
“And that.”
He turned toward the door, and I took his arm. “I love you, Ransom.”
He put his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. “I love you too.”
> We walked to the front door, and when I pulled it open, Essex was standing on the other side, his fist poised to knock.
I blinked. “Oh, hello.”
Essex, still in uniform, slowly lowered his hand as he looked at Ransom. “Hey. Sorry, you’re busy.”
“Not at all. Essex, you remember my brother, Ransom.”
The two men shook hands. “Of course. Good to see you again.”
“It’s good to see you too, Sergeant,” Ransom said, flashing a wink in my direction.
I wanted to kill him. “Ransom was just leaving.” Grabbing his sleeve, I pushed him out the door as he laughed.
“I hope we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other.” Ransom slapped the back of Essex’s shoulder as he passed him, pausing behind his back to make kissy faces.
My jaw clenched. “Goodbye, Ransom.”
“Bye, sis.” He chuckled as he plodded down the stairs.
“Sorry about that. What’s up?” I asked Essex, trying—and failing—to casually lean against the door. It slammed backward into the wall, and I stumbled trying to catch myself.
Essex stepped inside as I ungracefully recovered, pushing my hair out of my face. When I looked at him, I expected him to be laughing, or at least trying not to.
He wasn’t.
For the first time since I’d known him, he looked like he might run back outside.
“Sarge?” I straightened my shirt, wondering if maybe I should snap my fingers in front of his bewildered eyes. “Are you—”
With one step, he cupped my face and pressed his mouth hard and steady against mine. When my stunned arms relaxed, and my hands settled on his biceps, his lips softened, then parted. His fingers trailed down the sides of my neck. Then he wrapped one strong arm around my waist, pulling my hips against him until the spare magazines on his belt dug into the sensitive flesh beneath my belly button.
I threaded my fingers into his hair as he kissed me, slow and deep. The kind of kiss that made me forget all the complications.
Forget he was boss.
Forget the massive secrets I was hiding.
Forget an invisible man was watching us inside my condo.
I froze.
He didn’t. His hand gripped my chin, and he teased my mouth with his tongue, licking and prodding in ways that spun my mind toward dangerous thoughts of him repeating those moves elsewhere.
“Tyler.” I panted, pulling back.
His eyes closed, and he leaned his forehead against mine, slowly rocking his head side to side. “Don’t tell me to stop.”