Eternally Devoted (Frostbite #4)

by Stacey Kennedy

  “Magic.” Sammy lowered his legs to cross-legged. “It’s why he keeps my bones in the trunk. He needs them close for the spell.”

  I tried to imagine that type of magic, but failed miserably. “You’ve seen him do this spell?”

  “Yeah,” Sammy agreed with a nod. “He does an aura repair spell every morning…or at least, that’s what it’s called on the piece of paper.” His look became incredulous. “If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’d never believe any of it. But after Jacob does the spell, I always notice an odd shift in his energy.”

  That explained that well enough, and hearing all this explained something else, too. It gave huge motivation for why Alexander had lost his life, and why Wayde had done his best to keep me out of White Castle. “Jacob’s past was why the group was so important to him, wasn’t it?”

  Again, Sammy nodded. “I suspect—and from what I saw—he felt like he had a real family. He finally found people who understood him, who were like him, and accepted him in ways that I couldn’t.”

  For all the reasons I suspected Wayde was behind this, and why he killed Alexander, this wasn’t at all what I could’ve imagined. Now, my part in it all became as clear as day. “Exactly why he wanted to kill me. He knew I’d find you and you could ruin him.”

  Sammy gasped with huge eyes. “He wanted to kill you?”

  “No. No.” I waved my hand dismissingly. “Don’t worry about that.”

  The last thing we needed was to talk about things that Sammy probably wouldn’t understand, because as all ghosts did—except for Kipp, as well as Alexander who had magical assistance—they only knew what they needed to, to cross over. His past with Jacob caused his death. That was the only reason he knew of it now.

  I rubbed my temple to ease the throb, and then I shook my head, mystified at how it all came together neatly. Wayde had killed Alexander because of his interest in me. He didn’t want me showing up at the house, since he must’ve sensed Sammy around him. He tried to keep his secret in the dark.

  However, even knowing all this, a big problem to this theory developed that I couldn’t push away. “From what I know of Wayde, he has the power to force a ghost into the Netherworld. I’ve seen him try to do it.” With Alexander, in fact. “So, why didn’t he do it with you?”

  Sammy gave a dry laugh. “He’s tried, many times over the years. So many spells I lost count after the fortieth time. But it never worked.” He paused, and then shrugged. “I don’t know why.”

  I wondered if it had something to do with the fact that Wayde had killed him. Was Sammy bound to Wayde in a way because of that murder and it was something that Wayde couldn’t break?

  Something to ask Gretchen later—if we all made it out of this, of course—but I knew I couldn’t waste more time with these questions, especially considering a sudden flicker of light surrounded Sammy’s head.

  A light that only meant one thing—Sammy had cleansed his soul. “Do you know where Wayde is now?”

  He shook his head, glancing around the basement in a quick sweep, and finally looked to me with wide eyes. “What’s happening?”

  I cursed when the white light around him intensified and his body shimmered. Clearly, all Sammy needed to do to settle his soul was tell his story. Let someone know what happened to him, who Wayde really was, and get the truth told.

  Now, his soul became free of the pain holding him back, and soon, he’d be gone.

  Normally, it pleased me when a ghost crossed over, but I needed Sammy. He was the only other one conscious. I needed him to search this house and find out if Wayde was hidden somewhere.

  I was too frightened to move, considering magic engulfed this house. If I left the basement, would I kill everyone here? Would the spell kill me? With no answers and only guesses, it wasn’t a chance I could take.

  “Sammy,” I screamed. “Do you know where Wayde is now?”

  His lips parted and he shouted something at me, and once again, I was surrounded by a dead silence. The light around his body flickered and he faded fast. First his hands, then his legs…but I focused on his mouth and tried to make out his words.

  “Dammit.” I pushed off the cement floor and jumped to my feet. “I can’t hear you.”

  A sudden blast of wind rushed into the basement and with a bright flash of white light, Sammy had vanished. All that remained was the musky scent of the basement and that horrible putrid aroma that I now suspected belonged to Sammy’s bones and the dried blood.

  I glanced around at the sleeping bodies around me—bodies who presently didn’t wake the hell up—and I breathed deep…once…twice…three times…

  “Fuck,” I exhaled, feeling utterly defeated. “Now what?

  Chapter Eleven

  Time had passed. How much time, I had no idea. There weren’t any windows in the basement, and the only light came from Zach’s flashlight hanging from the ceiling. I had the sense I’d been down there for a while, or a few hours, at least. I thought of running to get help for what seemed like an hour, yet fear glued me to the spot on the cold cement floor.

  How stupid was that?

  There I sat, awaiting a possible death, and not doing anything about it.

  However, without knowing the consequences from the magic, I couldn’t chance leaving the basement. So, I waited, and hoped everyone would soon wake up. I was almost afraid to breathe, in fear that any movement on my part would make something happen.

  What that something was exactly, I had no idea, which is why I didn’t move, not when the people I loved deeply were under the spell. And definitely not when I couldn’t anticipate what would happen if I acted.

  I’d spent at least another hour yelling at Gretchen and Dane, trying to wake them up. They would be able to understand the magic I could sure-as-shit feel in the room, which was almost like a flutter of electricity. Whatever had been used before to hide the magic hadn’t been masked now. The charge pulsating in the musky air made the hair on my arms stand up.

  After my effort to wake up Dane and Gretchen failed, I had gathered the bravery to crawl over to shake them both, but everyone remained fast asleep. Part of me now believed that Nettie’s involvement woke me up, because why was I the only one awake and for so long? If Wayde had wanted to kill any of us, he could’ve done it hours ago.

  My headache still throbbed in the back and front of my skull. My eyeballs continued to ache like they were going to pop out of my head, and even my neck muscles were strained. Now, though, I suspected the increase in pain was all panic related, as my current mental state wasn’t what I’d call up to par.

  On a deep swallow to fight off my anxiety, I glanced around at the others—my family—who looked so peaceful in sleep. The bodies lay spread out, breathing heavily with soft snores filling the basement.

  I had to get them out of this, but how?

  In addition to that, I needed to get out of this house so I could call Brandon to find out about Kipp. Of course, I had no way of doing that, either. Hence, the non-stop battle in mind that I’d been fighting for hours.

  All the things I needed to do or should do, I couldn’t do. So many worries flooded my mind that my body was thrown into the flight response with the race of my heartbeat and sweaty palms to prove it.

  I shut my eyes, exhaling long and deep, when a sudden creak broke through the dead silence. I snapped my eyes open and my breath caught in my throat. I jerked my head toward the bottom of the staircase where Zach lay.

  Again, another creak shook me to my very bones, but now it sounded above my head. I glanced up as dust flew down from the ceiling. I cocked my head and listened hard, trying to ascertain if I’d been hearing someone walking above me, or if the old house was settling.

  I could’ve sworn I’d heard footsteps a while ago, but no one came down, and I figured my mind played tricks on me. Now I held my breath, tilted my head further toward the basement stairs when the creak sounded even louder now.

  “Oh, hell no, you are not imaging that.” Pa
nic so intense overtook me and my stomach turned. I drew up my legs and wrapped my arms around them. Oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god.

  The door to the basement slowly creaked open, and when two shoes hit the first step my whole body quaked. I could do nothing but freeze in fear. Wayde…oh, god, help me….

  My bravery had been forged by the men around me—men who could protect me with guns and muscles. Gun…

  I glimpsed at Zach, noticing his gun resting at his side. Quickly, I looked at Max, who was closer to me. His gun must’ve been under his stomach because I couldn’t see it.

  Another creak had me glancing at the staircase and one of Wayde’s feet hit the second step. Then I pounced, and as I made it to Zach’s gun, Wayde ran down the rest of the stairs.

  I didn’t look at him. I focused on the gun. The moment my hands slid around the cool metal, I gripped it tight in my fingers and aimed at the staircase. “I’ll shoot,” I screamed.

  “No. You won’t.”

  My breath left me in a loud whoosh of shock as I took in who stood in front of me. Keeping the gun aimed at the staircase, I glanced around the room in a fast sweep, suddenly realizing something was very wrong.

  I turned to the person standing in front of me, totally confused. “Amelia?” I lowered the gun, but kept it in my hand, since something I couldn’t quite pinpoint rubbed me wrong. “What happened?”

  “Don’t aim the gun at me again.” She approached me and a dark look registered along her face. “You will listen to what I have to say.”

  Fear and awareness blasted into my body. I scooted back onto my butt until my back hit the trunk. “You did this?”

  Holy shit, I hadn’t realized she hadn’t been with us or with Sammy, nor had I realized it in the time I was alone in the basement. How had I missed something that important?

  Clearly, my mental state was far worse than I suspected, because how had I not noticed she wasn’t there?

  In fact, after a second of thought, I realized I would have noticed. I could only assume she had placed some type of magic on me to warp my memory. Truth was, I hadn’t thought of her once until this very moment, and that was odd.

  Amelia’s stare was hard as she settled in front of me. “My father told me of the spell on the Lux, in case it ever got into the wrong hands. The magic would force those in its presence asleep, which would give us time to locate the book, if it ever went missing.”

  My head spun so fast I had trouble focusing on a single issue, not even knowing where to start questioning her. I did not understand this…at all. “But you’re not sleeping.”

  She inclined her head, looking at me incredulous. “Of course, I’m not. I’m the one who cast the spell.”

  I gawked at her, in total disbelief. I tried desperately to catch up, pressing my back against the trunk as my heart hammered. No, this made no sense. Wayde was behind Alexander’s murder. With Sammy’s explanation, I had all the answers for why. Amelia had no part in this.

  “Why did you do this?” I waved my hand around the room to the people sound asleep. “To everyone here, including your husband?”

  “To talk to you,” she implored. “To get you to solve my father’s murder. You only magically promised Wayde you’d help, and you’ve done that. With the Lux in your hands, you would’ve left, because what you came here to get, you found. I need to know what happened to my father. You have the means to do it. Your focus needs to be that.”

  I gestured toward the others asleep in the basement. “This is how you went about talking to me?”

  She glimpsed at Dane for only a moment. “I placed the diary in the barn for you to find, not Wayde.” Drawing in a long breath through her nose, and clearly changing the subject, she added, “I thought once you found the diary that would be the end of it. You would read what you needed to discover about your abilities and you’d stop searching for answers. You’d get back to solving my father’s murder.”

  I shook my head in total bewilderment, but knew she was partly right. Clearly, she hadn’t read the diary, either, and obviously, she thought it held more weight than it actually had.

  “That’s good and all,” I muttered. “But what are you going to say to everyone once they wake up? How are you going to explain what you did to them?”

  She hesitated, eyebrows drawn together, and then she finally shrugged. “Dane and Gretchen will come to their own assumption about the spell. But I need you to help my father. I know he’s trapped, and Dane told me he senses my father’s despair.”

  Sadness filled her features for a split second before her expression firmed and shoulders squared. “You’re only thinking of yourself and Kipp. I can’t allow you to do that anymore. Now I have a way to ensure you save my father before you do Kipp.”

  My crushing headache showed itself again with a deep throb to the front of my skull. I had already solved her father’s murder, and if the damn woman hadn’t done what she’d done, she probably would’ve known that.

  For now, I kept that little information to myself, since her haughty half-grin concerned me. “Which is?”

  Her chin lifted. “I’ve taken your ghost out of the Netherworld and have him trapped at another location.”

  I blinked at her. Of all the things I expected her to say, no matter this was all entirely confusing and frustrating, what she told me now wasn’t anything I could’ve dreamed up. “Say what?”

  “Your ghost, Kipp,” she repeated, and her expression twisted. “How do you think he suddenly returned to you the other night? Who do you think is responsible for bringing him back?”

  A slow slide of worry washed over me like a nasty heat wave. Even if I knew what she proposed was impossible, since I’d seen Kipp leave the Netherworld. For the oddest reason I couldn’t pinpoint, her admission scared me stiff.

  I shook my head to stop the slow spin creating a horrible hard feeling in my stomach. “You were the one who pulled him out of the Netherworld?”

  She nodded.

  Of all the possible scenarios that had gone through my mind when Kipp suddenly arrived at the end of bed at the Animus headquarters, this truth wasn’t anything I could’ve possibly imagined. Amelia had been welcoming to me, and was the only person at the Animus I didn’t mind, besides Gretchen and now Dane, too.

  Sure, Amelia seemed pushy and urgent to solve her father’s murder, but I understood that well enough, who wouldn’t be? What I couldn’t believe was that she’d gone to these extremes to ensure I helped her. I expected this from Wayde, not from Amelia.

  I could only gape at her, as she added, “I hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but I forced Kipp’s return so you could witness the power I hold. So, you’d believe me now when I told you this.” Her stare on me became ice cold. “And to show you what I can take away.”

  “Well, you’re right.” I rubbed at my temples as the pain in my head became intense. “It did prove the power you hold. But you’re also wrong—Kipp isn’t trapped anywhere except back in his body, which is in a Memphis hospital.”

  “Impossible.” Her eyes widened in surprise. “After the spell put you all to sleep, I did a spell to call him to me and placed him in another location.”

  Again, I could only gawk at her as the flashlight lit up the left side of her face, while the other side remained in the shadows.

  Could that be true?

  I pondered the possibility of her statement. However, I couldn’t see that in the exact second Kipp had made the decision in the Netherworld to join his body, Amelia had done a spell that sucked him out.

  Kipp had always said he didn’t believe in coincidences, and this one seemed so far out there, but a scary truth rose. I still didn’t know if Kipp had been saved, and I wasn’t confident it had worked.

  Amelia’s spell to pull him out of the Netherworld actually seemed a much more likely scenario to my logical mind than that his soul returned to his body. “How do you know you’ve trapped him?”

  “Because I did the spell.” She snorted, flicking her hai
r over her shoulder. “It’s why I had to leave you down here. I had to do the spell outside, and it’s complicated so it held me up. Plus, I had to wait for the spell to wear off you, too.” She waved out to the others. “I put another spell on them before I left to keep them asleep.”

  Was that proof enough?

  She could’ve done the spell, but it didn’t mean it had worked. Unless she saw Kipp—which she couldn’t—then there was no way she could know for sure.

  I pressed harder against my temple, watching her shift uneasily on her feet. Christ, I had reached my limit of going through this emotional roller coaster of could be’s, what if’s, and maybe’s.

  Besides, now, she had me worrying. As far as I’d seen, and from what Nettie had thought, Kipp had returned to his body, but perhaps that hadn’t happened at all. Maybe the time he vanished was also the same time Amelia trapped him.

  Had the biggest of all coincidences happened?

  With all that hanging over my head, and the sudden realization I had no clue what was true, I felt more exhausted than I ever had in my entire life. I had allowed hope to creep up and my heart couldn’t possible bear the thought that Nettie had been wrong.

  I lowered my hand from my temple into my lap and even I heard the misery in my voice. “What do you want, Amelia?”

  “Solve my father’s murder.” Her eyes suddenly warmed—perhaps at my sadness—which indicated to me her act was fueled by desperation. “That’s the end of it. No more looking for a way to help Kipp. Once you find a way to help my father, I, as well as Dane, will do what we can to help you. But you made a promise you would help me…and you haven’t.”

  “Oh. My. God,” I sighed, exasperated, dropping my head into my hands. I instantly regretted it, too, since my head hurt far worse than it had a moment ago. “Are you fucking serious?” I grumbled into my palms. “What do you think I have been doing?”

  “You’ve been trying to fix Kipp,” she exclaimed, which snapped my head up and her eyes blazed. “I’ve been watching you. Every step you take it’s not to solve my father’s death it’s for personal reasons.” Tears formed in her eyes, but she controlled them. “Even tonight, you said it yourself, you were looking for the spell for Kipp, not searching for a way to help my father.”