Fire and Fantasy: A Limited Edition Collection of Urban and Epic Fantasy

by CK Dawn

I froze. Obedient, that's me. "I need to talk to Navi. She lives inside."

  "We know Navi." A woman near the front smiled grimly. "We work for Navi."

  That much I had assumed on my own, given how she'd led them into battle on the beach where I was attacked. Had I not been panicking about my situation, I would have spent more time marveling over the fact that all this time, we'd believed she was just a parole officer. Working with people, reforming criminals. Humans.

  It wasn't that at all.

  She'd lied to us. Flat out lied. Maybe if she hadn't, I would have been prepared. This wouldn't have happened.

  "I need to see her," I said, angrier than I'd intended.

  The weapons raised.

  "We can't let you past. Go back to your haunts." It was the man from the beach. The man who had told me to leave.

  "You—you helped me, remember? After I was attacked—"

  "You're in limbo now. We don't know what you could do—you're haunting Navi. Leave before we are forced to make you."

  "Haunting her? No—no. I'm not. I'm Navi's friend! Surely you recognize me, if you know her at all."

  They raised their weapons. "Leave."

  "Please! You have to let me through. I have to see her. It's a matter of—" Life and death. But something told me they wouldn't care. "Please."

  "I'm sorry." A woman, who seemed to be in charge of the rest, pushed her way through to the front. "We can't let you through. You aren't recognizable to us and souls in limbo are a danger to us all. Please leave."

  "I will die if you don't let me see her. Don't you understand?" I yelled, so much frustration, so much fear, in every word I literally drove them backward, like they'd been hit by a great wind.

  That was a bad move.

  Immediately, they attacked, coming at me with weapons raised. There were so many of them—too many for me to try to run through.

  I had to retreat. Again.

  But to where? Where would I be safe? Where could I find help? I was trapped in a darkness I didn't even understand and I didn't know how to get out. The one person who could have helped me seemed to be protected by an army of ghosts and I had no way to contact her.

  I didn't even know how to get home from here. Everything looked different and it seemed like the longer I was in this horrific form, the less familiar things seemed.

  Home.

  Alec.

  Alec. Alec would be able to get to Navi. I just had to make it home alive.

  Sixteen

  Bryson

  I faced a locked door and knocking on it didn't work. My hand went right through. I had no idea how to get Alec to let me in, but I was loathe to walk through. It was just too…I couldn't. So I stood there, haunting the hall and frozen by indecision while my body faded away alone on the beach.

  I compromised. Instead of walking through, I zipped from where I stood to the living room like I'd been doing on the street the whole way there. One second I was in the hall, one second I was standing next to the couch.

  Safe.

  Supposedly.

  Except I didn't feel safe. I'd never been so scared in my entire life. And growing up with my father, I'd faced fear a lot.

  There was no time, though. No time to feel safe, no time to feel fear. I had to get help. "Alec!" I yelled.

  It didn't come out as a yell. It came out as a weird, horrifying moan that echoed through the apartment. I tried again, but with the same result. I hadn't had any trouble talking to Navi's ghosts. But communicating with Alec was something else entirely.

  Shit.

  How was I even supposed to talk to him?

  I heard movement from his room and then muttered cursing. He didn't sleep much, and when he did waking him was…not wise.

  Usually, he woke himself, screaming Navi's name because nightmares tortured him every night.

  I tried to call to him again. Still the moan, but more like a word this time. Apparently, talking while a ghost took a hell of a lot more effort.

  Alec emerged from his room, staggering into the living room. He looked wildly in a circle, running a hand through his hair, before glaring ferociously at my door. If I'd been in there….well, let's just say I'd fear for my safety.

  He pounded on my door, nearly rattling the whole apartment. "Alec, I'm not in there!" I yelled.

  But got a moan, instead.

  He pushed the door open and stuck his head inside before he went back to his room like I'd somehow snuck in there, and then searched the apartment, and all I could do was watch while we wasted precious seconds because I couldn't. Freaking. Talk. To. Him.

  Focus, Bryson.

  It was my mother's voice. My mother, who I hadn't seen in years because my dad horrified her too much, and I didn't want to hurt her. I tried not to think about her, but there she was in my darkest moments.

  I closed my eyes, sucked in a breath, and tried again, putting all my effort into a single word. "Alec."

  Alec spun, glowering. "Dude, you're not funny. Where the hell are you?"

  I swallowed, hope nearly crushing me. "I'm right here, bro. I need your help."

  Words. A complete sentence even. I was making progress. I was getting the hang of it.

  He turned on his heel and stalked to his bedroom. I followed, watching as he checked his phone, and then spun in a circle, checked under the beds, and wandered through the apartment while I wafted after him. Wasting time. So much time.

  "This isn't funny, Bryson. I'm going back to bed. I have to work in two hours."

  No. I couldn't let him go back to sleep. It had taken so much effort just to wake him up. I snapped from the living room to his room just as he snapped off the light.

  And finally saw me.

  "Ghost?" he bellowed like a mad bull, stumbling back into his door. "Bryson, what the f—?"

  "I know!" I yelled, the words coming more easily now. "I know, Alec, but calm down. I need your help." I said like I had managed to calm myself at all since it had happened.

  "You're a freaking ghost, Bryson!"

  "I know."

  His head hung in defeat and his shoulders slumped. He was big, much bigger than me, and solid muscle but he looked like a little boy right then. Lost and scared. And I had no time for his fear. "Look, I need you to get Navi for me. She'll know what to do."

  He jerked his head up, staring at me—or through me—actually. "What do you mean, she'll know what to do? You're dead!"

  "No!" I yelled, too loudly. The picture of his brother shook and fell sideways in his windowsill. "I'm not dead." I held my hands up to him, trying not to see them myself. "I'm still alive. My body is on the beach, and if you'll get me to a hospital, Navi will know how to fix me. But there's not much time. Hurry, Alec!"

  He just stared. I understood that he was freaking out—I would be, too. But my life hung in the balance. I rushed toward him. "Alec!"

  "Dude!" He screeched like a girl, which I would have mocked if the situation wasn't so dire. "Back off!"

  Something inside me weakened. I hesitated, trying to figure out what that meant. My hands in front of me became more transparent, my strength faded and it hit me.

  I was dying.

  "Get your keys. We have to get my body. I feel it fading."

  I could see that he wasn't fully processing this, but he started moving. Alec was a man of action, never one to sit idly when there were things that had to be done. Usually, it drove me nuts, but now I was grateful for his weird inability to sit still. So grateful. Minutes later we were in his truck and I was trying to explain the situation as well as I could. "Okay, so Navi has been working a lot at night, right? And Konstanz was really worried. Navi kept saying work was really insane, that her parolees were losing these fights they were in and something big was coming. It…wasn't believable at all. She was really edgy. Really nervous." I paused for a breath. "She freaking dropped out of school, Alec."

  Alec stilled, his hands white-knuckled on the steering wheel. "What? Why? What kind of trouble is she in?" His
voice was barely above a whisper.

  "Something you can't even comprehend." How on earth was I supposed to tell him what Navi was really involved in? He'd think I was insane.

  Well, I was a ghost. That might help his understanding.

  "What do you mean?" he asked slowly.

  I paused, looking around us, trying to figure out where we were. The world looked different now, not as clear and what had once been so familiar seemed strange now. But I could see the Devil's Gate in the distance. "There. Turn up there."

  Alec clenched his teeth. "You can't even get to the beach from there, dude."

  It was true. They'd made it as hard to get to Devil's Gate as possible. Now I understood why. "There's a rock formation. My body is at the base."

  As soon as he stopped the truck, I jumped, racing down the beach as fast as I could go. It was still dark but the monsters and the ghosts both were gone, and my body lay still in the sand. "They protected me."

  The sand slowed Alec, as it had me when I actually had to touch the ground. He already had his phone in his hand, dialing 911, and he dropped to his knees next to me, feeling for a pulse. "What happened, Bryson?" he asked hoarsely.

  I was fairly positive I'd explained this in the truck, but I started again. "Well, I followed her to see who she was seeing—"

  He jerked his hand up to stop me, talking rapid-fire into his phone, telling dispatch how to find my body.

  Please hurry. Please hurry.

  He lowered his phone. "They're on their way. Talk fast."

  I didn't feel like talking fast. I was weak and exhausted. It felt like just staying upright was too much effort. "I followed her," I said flatly. "She's not what you think she is, Alec."

  Alec ran a hand through his hair and checked my head for injuries. "So—so what? You caught her with some guy and he attacked you?"

  Which is what had broken them up the first time. And the second. I could tell this was killing him. Except that he'd been wrong both times and never gave her a chance to explain. Or if he had, she hadn't tried. "No." I shook my head. "No. She fights sea monsters, Alec. With a bunch of ghosts. Ghosts like me." My voice broke. This would kill my mother. "She fights sea monsters and a sea monster came out of the water and attacked me and she didn't see me but she chased it away with an army of ghosts. She fights sea monsters."

  Alec fell backward like I'd pushed him, but that wasn't even possible. Not now. "What?"

  "I tried to go to her house. To get her to help me. But her ghosts won't let me through. They said I was in limbo and that I was haunting her and they wouldn't let me through. You have to help me, Alec. You have to tell Navi to fix this."

  In the distance, I could hear the sirens.

  Hurry. Hurry.

  "Why can't you just, like, hop back in your body and wake up? That's how it works on TV."

  I assumed the reason Alec was being an idiot was because of stress. Or maybe he was still half-asleep but I didn't have time for this. "This isn't TV, Alec! My girlfriend's roommate is a sea monster fighter with an army of ghosts and I'm almost dead!" I screamed. The air around me shook, shattering away from me in waves, but I barely noticed. "Navi is the only one who can help me."

  He blinked at me, fear flickering across his face and I realized what I had done. But there wasn't time to apologize as the ambulance roared up next to us.

  The next eternity was a blur of flashing lights and Alec attempting—and failing—to answer a million questions. By six in the morning, I'd had enough and broke down. My father said crying was weak and a man should never do it, but I couldn't be strong anymore. "Please, Alec. Navi is the only one who can help me."

  He ran a hand through his hair again. I knew how much he wanted to stay away from Navi. How much it would hurt him to have to talk to her. He was still angry—so angry, but he couldn't hate her. He tried.

  But he failed.

  "Okay. I'll go talk to her. Just—just don't die, okay?"

  "I'm coming with you."

  Seventeen

  Konstanz

  I woke up, gasping. Navi had just stumbled in and I wanted to attribute the sudden ache in my chest to her appearance.

  But it wasn't her. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

  I checked my phone but there were no missed calls, no waiting text messages. I rubbed my eyes and sat up. "Navi?"

  "It's okay, Konstanz. Nothing a shower won't fix," she whispered.

  She was covered in blood.

  Groaning, trying to shove the foreboding in my chest away, I sat up. "I'll get the bandages."

  She shook her head. "It's fine. Just gonna jump in the shower."

  "You're in big trouble," I muttered. "Reese is just going to kill you. We looked everywhere for you. Bryson even—"

  As Bryson's name fell from my lips, I felt that horrible foreboding again and my words stumbled. "—even was late to work because he was looking for you."

  And then I hadn't heard from him again. I'd sent probably a hundred texts. No wonder I felt like imminent doom waited impatiently. Bryson always texted me right back. He lived on his phone. Sometimes, he answered in his sleep.

  I fell back against the pillows and stared at the ceiling, sending another text without even really looking at it. Not wanting to see the others he hadn't responded to. I'd have to get up for class soon, but Navi's shoulder looked like it might need my help.

  I should have told him yesterday that I loved him. But I was scared. It was such a big step and it seemed like it would open my soul to so much hurt. Better to be safe and wait.

  Except he'd said it to me. I wasn't sure he actually knew he'd said it, though. So there was that.

  He didn't respond, and my unease grew.

  I should have told him I loved him.

  Sleep was obviously out of the question so I got up and got dressed, stealing Reese's shower since Navi was in ours. Reese hated it when we went in her bathroom. She used the expensive shampoo and my hair loved it.

  That was why she hated it when we went into her bathroom.

  I checked my phone twice and once more when I got out, smelling like expensive shampoo, but Bryson still hadn't answered me. I tried again, thinking maybe there was a glitch or something. Phones did that a lot, right? Ate texts? "Hello?"

  Still nothing.

  Gnawing on my lip and sometimes my fingernail when I got desperate, I finished getting ready and was just putting my shoes on when Navi got out of the shower, wrapped in a towel so I could see the full extent of her injury. Her shoulder was a giant mass of bruising and blood.

  Someone knocked on the door before I could say anything. Shaking my head at her, I breezed past to answer, hoping it was Bryson.

  Praying it was Bryson.

  It wasn't Bryson.

  "Alec." I was surprised first and then annoyed. I had told him he couldn't come back here. He couldn't see Navi. I'd lied to her to make sure that never happened. And now here he big fat was. "What are you doing?"

  Behind me, Navi froze. I could just see her when I turned my head, dark eyes wide and warring with pain and hope. All this time and she was still crazy stupid in love with him.

  All this time and all those horrible things he'd said.

  "I need to see Navi."

  Of course he did. Because he hadn't put her through enough crap already. I crossed my arms. "I told you no, Alec."

  "Konstanz—" and I just now heard the desperation in his voice. More desperate than just needing to see Navi because his broken heart demanded it. "—this isn't the time, and it's not personal. I need to talk to her now, and if you don't get out of my way, I'll move you. You have no idea what kind of freaky crap I've seen tonight."

  I considered telling him it was morning and the sun would rise soon.

  Navi left her spot in the hall and came toward us. "What's wrong?"

  Alec's eyes widened, no doubt due to the fact that Navi was wearing a towel that left very little to the imagination. He wasn't allowed to have this kind of re
action to her. He'd promised. "She doesn't want to talk to you, Alec."

  "I don't care, Konstanz. This isn't about Navi. Or you." Except he barely seemed to notice I was there. His eyes never left Navi's face.

  "It's okay, Konstanz." Navi smiled reassuringly.

  Glaring, I backed out of the way, cursing the fact that he towered over me. I needed to borrow Navi's stilettos.

  He edged through the door and I left. I didn't want to see this. I didn't want to see Navi slide backward after keeping him at arm's length for so long. Except she followed me a minute later to get dressed.

  In Bryson's sweatshirt. Over her bleeding shoulder.

  I grabbed my kit and my newly bought supplies off the dresser. "Wait. At least let me wrap it. You'll get Bryson's clothes all bloody and you know how he hates that."

  "I haven't technically gotten his clothes bloody before. Just dirty." She bit her lip and peeked at me.

  I raised an eyebrow.

  She gave up. "Okay, just…let me get dressed. I can't — Alec is out there—they might—" She seemed to be having a hard time finishing her sentences.

  I followed her back out the living room, where she demanded Alec sit and I started work. Alec dropped his head in his hands and I could see that this was killing him—being with Navi—but there was something else, too. Something was wrong.

  Very wrong.

  "Can you tell them to let him in?" he mumbled through his fingers.

  "What? What do you mean?" Navi asked, sucking in a breath as I tried to tie off the wrap.

  "Bryson. Your friends won't let him in."

  I froze, my hands falling forgotten to my sides. "Have you lost your mind by any chance? Of course we'll let Bryson in. He's always here."

  "Not you." Alec jerked his head toward the doorway like there was someone standing there blocking the way.

  "Alec," Navi said slowly, trying so hard to swallow I could hear it. "What do you mean they won't let Bryson in?"

  Suddenly, I couldn't swallow, either.

  "Bryson was in an accident down by Devil's Gate. He's in a coma with unexplainable injuries."