by K. F. Breene
The handle jiggled, Kieran at the door, and suddenly Zorn’s soul—souls—burst into action.
“Kieran, watch out!” I screeched, clutching Zorn’s soul in my fist. It didn’t stop him. I could feel him pushing through my hold.
Something slammed against the door. A blast of power rocked me backward. Intense pain and alarm poured through the soul link. More power pumped into the room beyond, bleeding into the storeroom.
“You gotta get in there,” Daisy said, joining me at the door. “Force your way in!”
I slammed my shoulder against the door again. A third time. It was too strong and I wasn’t heavy enough. I backed up and kicked. Nothing.
“Damn it.” I shook Zorn’s soul, battered it. A prong snapped. “What’s happening?”
Jack ducked back in, his face ashen. “Zorn stabbed Kieran in the neck with a knife. Take Zorn down.”
I relayed the info, needing a witness, needing courage, not wanting to do this.
“Wait. Wait.” Daisy put her hand on the wall as another blast of power pumped into the room, singeing my skin. “Kieran is a Demigod. Zorn doesn’t stand a chance.”
“Kieran has to maintain pressure on his neck. He can’t fight the way he needs to fight, and Zorn doesn’t give in to pain,” Jack said. “He’s withstood days of torture. Not to mention he’s not in control. It’s either Zorn or Kieran, Alexis, and if Kieran goes, think what’ll happen to everyone else. This whole territory. You have to step in. Drop Zorn.”
“There has to be a way around this,” Daisy said, not able to hear Jack. “That Possessor can’t win again.” She fisted her hand. “We gotta get in there. We have to get in there, Lexi.”
My heart ached as I held Zorn’s soul, as I felt Kieran’s energy fading.
I shrugged out of my skin without a second thought. I didn’t lie down. I didn’t go into a trance. There wasn’t time for fear. I pushed my body away like a coat in the summer.
It fell lifelessly to the ground. Daisy screamed and bent to me. I probably should’ve told her what I was doing.
The colors changed, intensified. Too bright. The Line pulsed, feeding me power. Ultraviolet color filled in the world around me, lining the cracks and pooling in the holes. Spirit held me in place, nearly floating but still grounded. Not a shadow.
In my peripheral vision, someone stood watching. I turned to look, but in a flash the shadowy being fled. Which was creepy.
Without another thought, I pushed through the wall, Jack at my side, warning me away from this, worried I’d go down with the ship.
It was possible, but damn it, if I couldn’t use my magic to save the people I loved, what the hell was the point? It was time to embrace the good aspects of my magic, since I had already embraced the bad.
On the other side of the wall, Kieran staggered, his hand to his neck and blood squeezing out between his fingers. Another knife was embedded in the middle of his back, where he couldn’t reach it to pull it out. That was probably a good thing. It would’ve let more blood escape.
Zorn threw another knife from the middle of the room, keeping his distance. Kieran moved, still fast, dodging out of the way. The knife stuck in the wall at his back.
“Didn’t see it coming,” Kieran said to me when I stopped next to him. “I knew there was a Possessor on the loose, and I didn’t watch my back. Stu…pid.” He dodged another knife that flew through me and hit the wall.
Blood oozed around his hand and down the center of his back. He was fast, but slowing. Soon Zorn’s Possessor would find the gun Zorn had brought with the other weapons. We needed more time! I needed Zorn to stop moving so I could get a good look at those melded souls.
Something Harding had said tickled the back of my brain. It was a stupid idea. Really dumb. But…
I reached into Kieran through the soul link, into the very middle of him. He gasped.
And I pulled.
His spirit followed the thick thread that connected us, glittering with our combined souls. It oozed out of his body and manifested right next to me.
He froze for a moment, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed.
“Did you just kill me?” he asked in a level voice. I had to hand it to him: even now, he seemed completely confident.
“I hope I just fooled this guy into thinking you’re dead.”
“Hey, sir,” Jack said, on my other side. “Not so good to have ya.”
I took a moment to get closer, digging into Zorn’s body with my hands, physically feeling with spirit, trying to focus on the colors holding the souls together. Each of the colors signified a different type of spirit. I could see them as clearly as I would with Bria’s incense smoke.
I studied the combined souls as Zorn closed in on Kieran—as he bent, knife out, for the kill strike.
“Hurry, Lexi,” Jack said through his teeth. “Now or never.”
“Let her work,” Kieran said, amazingly not struggling to get back into his body to fight back.
I sure hoped that was a good idea.
Zorn reached out his blade tentatively.
The souls didn’t fit perfectly over each other. I’d been mistaken.
Steel kissed Kieran’s neck.
One didn’t even have prongs—it had merely fused itself to the edges of what I knew was Zorn’s soul. It was like a suction cup. All I had to do was stick a fingernail between them and…
Pop.
It didn’t make that sound, but in my head it did. I flung the soul away.
Zorn stopped right before he ripped the blade across Kieran’s neck.
A middle-aged man with a comb-over and wide, watery eyes sprang from Zorn’s body, skittering across the floor. I shoved Kieran, not thinking. He slammed back into his body, gasping for air. Zorn flinched as though burned.
I was already running.
31
Alexis
“Running isn’t going to help you!” I hollered at the retreating spirit.
I punched my way through the wall, seeing the spirit around me sucking at the guy. It was pulling him back to his body, and I could see the path.
Bria, Red, and the guys were running up the street, hurrying for all they were worth.
“He’s this way!” I yelled as I zipped past them.
Only Bria slowed, her body twisting, probably catching the strength of my soul. I turned as I mostly flew, pushing myself toward the spirit that was pulling itself toward its body. It was so easy when I just went with it. Like a trip on ’shrooms. Thank you, Mick, for talking me into a bad idea that one time at the bar.
Bria slowed further, then stopped altogether. Boman stopped with her, keeping an eye on her as she started moving in the opposite direction, walking first, then running.
Maybe she didn’t know it was me and thought it was the Possessor. Either way, great instincts.
The spirit I was following soaked into a body in a plain brown car. The body jerked as if waking up from sleep. I stopped beside the driver’s-side window as Bria caught up, sprinting now.
He looked through the windshield, and I half wondered if he could feel souls like Bria could and knew I was beside him.
Either way, he must’ve seen Bria, because he suddenly burst into action, reaching for the ignition, popping his seat up to normal.
I dug into his chest, knowing my body was really close, that my soul mate was right beside it. If I needed an escape hatch, I had it. I could use all the energy I needed. Probably.
I gripped his soul and tried to straight-up rip it out.
He sucked in a breath and clutched at his chest. My energy dimmed significantly. No soul popped out.
He reached for the keys again, and I went to work on his prongs. Something showed up in the corner of my vision. I glanced over, hoping it was Bria. A black shape skittered away. That was getting annoying.
The first prong broke, easier than it had been earlier that day when I’d tried this with Daisy’s kidnapper. The second broke, too, but not as easily. The third I strugg
led with, bending it, then twisting it, pulling. Each movement elicited a grunt. Each time he paused.
Loud footsteps preceded Bria slamming her hands down on the side of the car door.
“Alexis? That has got to be you. You’re like a damn strobe light right now.” She straightened up and stepped closer to the driver’s-side window opened a crack in the warm day. “Well hello, what have we here?”
The man reached again for his keys. He shrugged, then shrugged again, as though it wasn’t intentional. “I’m just on my way home from work.”
Bria’s eyes flicked across his face, then to a collection of items he’d laid out on his passenger seat.
“Nope. You’re—”
His spirit hopped, right in front of me. It jumped from his person to hers.
Immediately I was on it—digging into her chest, finding his suction-cupped soul, and popping it off. He slammed back into his body, and she fell against the car, breathing deeply.
“What are you?” he asked, his voice quavering.
She laughed and wiped her brow. “Part of the spirit police, asshole. And guess what? I play the bad guy.” She curled her fingers through the opening and ripped backward, shattering the window. The next moment she slammed her fist into his face, pulled back, and did it again. She ripped the door open and grabbed his shirt front, ready to batter him a third time. His head lolled and a bruise was already forming. She had this well under control.
Thinking of the others, I turned back toward my body, only then realizing how exhausted I felt. My eyes drooped and my limbs felt like lead. My energy was nearly depleted, had to be.
Moving by sheer force of will, I pushed through the space, something that was harder now that I wasn’t reeling myself in, like I was trudging through waist-high snow.
“Uh-oh.” A strong arm wound around my waist, supporting me. “I think we overdid it a little, huh?” Harding winked at me, his side touching mine. “Sorry I’m late. What’d I miss?”
“Something isn’t right with you,” I said, trying to stand on my own and finding it difficult. “Why do you always disappear for our battles?”
“A lot isn’t right with me, and because I can’t get too involved or I’ll be noticed. Trust me, when you have a magic like mine, like yours, the big dogs take notice. As you can attest, or have you been asleep for the last few months? I’d prefer those big dogs to not notice I’m around again. With that watch you have, it’ll be two Spirit Walkers for the price of one, know what I mean?”
We drifted through increasingly shadowy fog, our path unclear, my comfort with him at an all-time high. I was happy to be shepherded this one time. To take a break.
“You handled all that well,” he said, and midway through the sentence his voice broke off, replaced by the thought-speak of the spirit realm. “Some things were…extreme, but you mixed your limited training with your logical brain and acted accordingly. You saved the day. I’m proud of you.”
I did the equivalent of huffing out a laugh. Deep, soothing spirit wrapped around us now. Except I didn’t know how Kieran was, if they’d stopped the bleeding. And I needed to make sure Bria brought that guy in.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Harding covered my hand with his. “Calm. We’re working our way back there. Your people are handling things, don’t worry. But you need to rejuvenate. Your Demigod does it by swimming in the ocean, and you and I can do it by walking through deep spirit. It’s cleansing. Refreshing. Tell me if I’m lying.”
He wasn’t. I could tell from the way I was soaking in our surroundings.
“It seems like Hades has the most dangerous, sneaky types of magics,” I said, thinking back. “How could a normal person handle a Possessor?”
“How could a normal person handle a bolt of lightning dropping out of the clear blue sky, straight for their head? Magic is messy. It’s brutal. You always have to be prepared, and to do that, you have to amass people around you that can handle the different facets of the various gods. It’s the only way to stay on top, because each of the gods, mighty and not so much, have some sneaky, cunning magics. To combat them, you need something in your arsenal that speaks the same language, that can see through the ruse, as you can do with most Hades magics. Your Demigod expanded his protection base when he met you and then brought on the exceptional Necromancer. But if he hopes to make it in the magical world, he must find more people like you—those who can expose the secrets of other magics.”
It sounded as though he thought that would be a simple thing to do. As though people that important in their magical discipline were hanging around on street corners, waiting to get picked up. As I was seeing firsthand, people like me were collected. Stolen, sometimes.
My mood soured. “We won’t be kidnapping anyone, if that’s what you had in mind.”
He chuckled. “I figured. Your Demigod walks a fine line of morality, thanks to dear old dad, right? I doubt he’d want to tempt his dark side. Luckily, he probably won’t need to. He’s got…a way about him. People seem to like him. Want to hang around him. That Kraken is still working for him, for example. Most Demigod staffers, like the woman your kid killed, escape in death like they were afraid to escape in life. But not that Kraken. He’s just hanging around, hoping to be useful. It’s pretty…strange.”
“Jack is a good guy,” I said, sadness trickling through me. I’d been so focused on finding Daisy that I hadn’t gotten a chance to grieve. “He was dealt a bad hand.”
He paused for a moment, letting silence cradle us as we walked. I closed my eyes, taking in the comfort of the spirit around us. I’d much rather do that than let my brain focus on the fact that there was zero visibility, the colors were disco-style crazy, and I had no idea how to get back to reality. All I had right now was my potentially stupid trust in this guy.
“What I am saying is, if he hopes to guard you and keep his territory, he will need to expand. He probably already sees this, but if he doesn’t, you’ll need to prod him toward it. Maybe amass your own people, and the two of you can lead them together.”
“Why are you telling me this? Why not tell him?”
“Because I am of Hades, and he doesn’t trust me. I’m not sure if the former caused the latter, or if the two are unrelated, but there we are.” He paused again, and I felt a little hesitation in the air between us, a little resistance, as if he was debating how much to say.
“Out with it. No more clues. I always realize what they mean too late.”
“I don’t know about that, but you certainly do read clues where there weren’t any. Pulling your Demigod out of his body was an extremely risky thing to do, given your experience level. I’m not even sure the situation called for it.”
“You were watching and you didn’t help?”
“Yup. I’m a trainer, not your real-life training wheels.”
I nearly pushed him away in frustration, but fear kept me from doing it. I didn’t want to get stuck here—wherever this was—if I wasn’t touching him in some way. So I settled for a scowl he hopefully sensed.
“Well,” he said, and the feeling of his voice lowered to a whisper, “you didn’t hear this from me, because I really shouldn’t get involved unless I want to be dragged into this with you, but your Demigod will wish to react to this treachery, and he absolutely must not. He’ll know this, but if he needs guidance, you must give it. His strength is in the long game. His survival is in the long game. And your survival is with him. Unless you are a Demigod, you are exposed. Sad but true. And you are exposed most of all. You must seek shelter with him. Aid him, so that he might aid you. Protect him so that he might protect you. You are his armor. He is your future.”
I blew out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding. “I was hoping for some light chatter and maybe a massage.”
“I can give you a massage. Which area were you thinking?”
I felt myself leaning on Harding less. Worry crept in. I needed to make sure everything worked out all right with Kieran, that his soul was soundly in hi
s body and his body was mending. I needed to make sure Zorn didn’t have any damage, Daisy was seen to, and that Bria had that guy subdued.
Without realizing it, I was drifting, feeling my body now and letting its natural suction guide me. The feeling was faint, almost nonexistent compared to the soul link, which I didn’t want to tug for fear it might harm Kieran. Then I noticed the little silver string connected to my soul, strobing light. Hadn’t Bria told me that I reminded her of a strobe light?
I tugged on it and felt the anchor on the other end. My spirit drifted faster. This little string was the way home.
“Amazing.” Harding drifted with me, letting me lead. “You’re such a natural. I wonder…what is helping you through all this chaos?”
“My upbringing. Nothing has ever been normal. All you can do is adapt.”
32
Kieran
Kieran sat beside Alexis’s still body, laid out on the couch. The bleeding from her head had stopped, and if she’d had a concussion from falling, it was likely healed by now thanks to the blood connection.
“Still feel her?” Bria asked, sitting on the couch arm with the Possessor knocked out on the floor at her feet. She didn’t feel he deserved to be comfortable, and Kieran couldn’t agree more. If it weren’t for the information Kieran wanted, the man would be dead already.
“Yes,” Kieran said as Boman finished stitching up his neck. “She never fully disappeared this time. Nearly—she was a wisp for a while—but I could still feel her. It wasn’t like the other times.” He couldn’t know for sure, and likely Alexis wouldn’t either, but he had a feeling he’d developed a keener sensitivity to spirit after being fully immersed in it.
“She needs to go to the hospital.” Zorn stood next to Daisy, who was sitting on the floor against the couch, her eyes so heavily lidded that Kieran didn’t know how she hadn’t fallen asleep by now. Boman had fashioned a sling for her arm, but her wrist was broken, there was no doubt about it. She needed to have it professionally seen to.