by Cady Vance
“Stop,” I said, the same way I’d done during the two banishments before. It ripped its head away from Kylie and hissed at me, a noise that pebbled my arms with goosebumps.
It spun around and grabbed at Kylie again. She screamed, and I dug my fingernails into my thighs, barely feeling the sting since I wasn’t fully inside myself. I wanted to run to her and help, but nothing I could do physically would stop the spirit from feeding. Stop that horrible slurping noise that meant it was eating more of her life. I could even see smoky tendrils escaping from Kylie and swirling into the big dark hole on the spirit’s face. She groaned and rolled over, her tongue lolling out of the side of her mouth. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head. A deathly rot clogged my nostrils.
“Leave her alone,” I cried out, fear clawing canyons in my stomach. Blood rushed to my head. More tendrils escaped from Kylie. The quivering of my hands turned to violent shakes.
“Holly,” Kylie croaked.
“Stop it,” I said it louder this time, trying to find my power through the panic and use it to back my words. I didn’t know what to do. I glanced around as if the hazy walls might hold the answer. All I could find was more dark shapes blurring the real world so much I felt like I was falling through a pit of shadows, darkness and fear.
I blinked my eyes, shook my head and forced myself to concentrate. And as the world shifted back into place before me, I saw Kylie’s pale face fading even more, like she was joining this place of gray. My eyes stung and my mouth filled with a bitter tang.
“Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it!” The sharpness of my voice tore at my ears.
Kylie went limp. The weak rising and falling of her chest stopped. The spirit leaned over her and opened its mouth like it was going to suck the last bit of life from her body.
“Get the hell away from her!” I yelled, jumping to my feet. My voice boomed, and power rumbled against the walls. I had to close my eyes and grit my teeth against the strength of my own words. Somehow, I’d bundled up all my power and sent it tumbling out of me in a force so strong I almost passed out.
When I caught my breath, I opened my eyes. The spirit was gone.
CHAPTER 4
Never make stupid mistakes. That was the second rule. And I’d blown it. I never should have let Kylie stay in the room with me while I banished the spirit. Now she was hurt, and no telling how much of her life she lost today.
And it was all my fault.
I took a few deep breaths, reaching out for the thread that bound me to Laura and to the real world. It was a sparkling white cord winding its way through the Borderland, its bright color a beacon in this place of shadows. Once I found it, I started the reverse chant. Quiet and slow, my voice soft in the silence. I felt Laura drawing me back. The Borderland shadows closed in, like this world didn’t want me to leave. Like I was swimming through a murky swamp, grassy stalks twisting around my ankles and wrists to stop my departure.
But Laura kept pulling, and I focused on home. I pictured Kylie’s bedroom with the rows of ballet flats and the cut-out magazine photos plastered on the wall.
When I felt the real world shudder back in around me, I opened my eyes and took a few breaths, energy completely drained. I snuffed out the candle and ran over to the bed where Kylie had passed out. I checked her pulse. Under my fingertips, I felt the steady thrumming of her heartbeat. I let out a sigh of relief and a whisper of prayer to whatever was out there watching over us. She might be in bad shape, but she was alive.
“Is it gone?” she whispered.
“Yeah, I just need to do a protection spell for your room, and you’ll be all set.”
“Thank you, Holly,” she said in a raspy voice.
I felt a twinge of guilt. I’d been ready to con her, and she was thanking me for almost getting her killed.
“Tell me how you feel,” I said, going into the doctor mode I’d perfected in the last year.
She let out a light sigh and squinted her eyes. “Super tired. Weak. A little freaked out, but I’m also really relieved.”
“Do you feel bad anywhere?” I asked. “Does anything hurt?”
“No,” Kylie said, frowning. “Can a ghost hurt me?”
I chose not to answer that. Sounded like she’d forgotten what I’d told her, and that was fine with me. I shouldn’t have even tried to explain. It had only scared her, and it was best she didn’t go blabbing that information around school. Word spreads fast in a small town.
Kylie’s eyes fell shut, and I hated to bother her. “Kylie.”
“Hmm?” she asked, eyes still closed.
“I’m going to cast a protection spell.” I grabbed a soft blanket from the end of her bed and draped it over her. “And then I’m going to make you some tea that will…make you feel better.”
“Hmm,” she said, snuggling under the blanket.
I could tell trying to carry on a conversation with Kylie would be pointless.
Protection spells were the very first shaman magic my mom had taught me. They were the easiest to cast. And the weirdest, at least to me. Leaving Kylie, I scooped my supplies into my backpack and grabbed a ziplock bag of small chicken bones. I unzipped the bag, pulled out four bones, and then put the rest back into my backpack.
I glanced over at Kylie, who was now sound asleep, her chest rising and falling, a peaceful expression softening her features. She looked like an overgrown kid. Innocent and worry-free with no problems at all. And for a moment, I was jealous of her. But then I remembered every lifestyle had problems outsiders can’t even imagine. All her fluffy pillows, the private beach and the sporty car came with a price. Just because I didn’t see it right away didn’t mean it wasn’t there.
One of those prices, apparently, was being targeted for a spirit attack. I’d been wracking my brain for an explanation. Maybe some had shaman decided to target Kylie in hope of getting ransom money to make it go away, even though she’d mentioned nothing about a note or a threat. After I finished in her room, I needed to take a look around to make sure no other bedrooms had a rune carved into the floor.
I turned my attention back to the bones and looked down at the dried blood on my fingers. I was starting to realize why my mom used to carry around a vial of her own blood—as gross as that sounded—at all times. Pricking myself for the third time in one day almost sounded less enjoyable than banishing that spirit.
Almost.
Once I’d drawn more blood, I let each bone get a drop from my skin. Then, I began my low mumbling song, fingers curled around a necklace of deep blue beads Mom had picked up in Alaska. This spell was the only one that didn’t need a rune, a candle or any other supplies. Mom said bone magic was the strongest kind and created something so powerful it didn’t need any rituals. It only needed bones, blood and the ability to ignore how disgustingly creepy it was.
As I sang my shaman song, I held the bones together in one hand and shook them like they were a maraca. I slowly stepped up to each corner, grabbed a bone with my other hand and threw it into the corner where it fell with a light clink.
After I’d done four corners, I grabbed the tea packets from my bag and found my way back down the stairs, rolling my shoulders and taking several deep breaths. I hadn’t used my magic so much since…well, ever. My body begged for sleep, muscles tight, heart thumping. I’d bound myself to another shaman, banished a super powerful spirit and cast a protection spell all in an hour’s time. Luckily, that was all the magic I needed to do. The tea I was going to make for Kylie required no special incantations or magic. It had healing power all on its own. It might not bring back all the days the spirit took, but it would help her get back some of what she’d lost.
When I found the kitchen, my stomach grumbled at the mere sight of shiny pots and pans hanging over a marble-topped island. This kitchen looked a lot different than our own, with its grungy laminated floors and 70’s-style cabinets. I snatched a cookie from a silver tray and boiled some water in a fancy kettle. Then, I took the steaming cup of sag
e tea upstairs where Kylie slept.
Through our binding, I could feel Laura moving around the house, shaking bones and casting her own protection spell. The spirit had only been summoned into Kylie’s room as far as I could tell, but it was still a good plan. It never hurt to take extra precautions. I wasn’t sure Kylie would be able to survive another attack like the one today.
I coaxed Kylie into drinking the tea, packed up the rest of my supplies and looked around her room. I was tempted to go through her stuff to search for a note or some sign of why she’d been targeted. She was down for the count, but I didn’t think she’d be happy if she woke up to catch me snooping.
So, instead, I just took a cursory glance. When nothing jumped out at me, I moved down the hallway. I paused at several doors, peeked inside at the fancy furniture and oversized rooms and kept moving. Finally, I found the door I was looking for—her parents’ room.
It was twice the size of Kylie’s room and—unlike the rest of the house—a disaster zone. The sparkling clean kitchen tile painted a completely different picture than the clothing and trash-littered floor of this room. I saw an open door leading into a bathroom in the far corner, but I didn’t know if I’d be able to get over there with the obstacle course in my way.
I turned around and glanced at the other end of the hallway where Kylie was. Is this how her parents lived? It seemed weird to me, but I wasn’t going to pry. It was none of my business. I would get what I came here for—what was my business, spirit business—and leave.
I crouched, opting to stay where I was. My eyes scanned the floor, looking for any sign of a deep carving, and I saw something a couple inches away from the window.
I crept over to the far wall and peered down. It was a carving alright, but it wasn’t complete. It looked like someone had started drawing the summoning symbol and stopped halfway through. I glanced around the rest of the room but didn’t see another one like it, and I wasn’t about to go moving piles of clothing around.
I wasn’t sure what it meant. Maybe the shaman had been interrupted. Maybe he’d decided it wasn’t worth the trouble. Maybe the funny smell had driven him away.
Then, I noticed something behind the open bathroom door. I tiptoed my way through the mess and pulled the door away from the wall. A classic black safe. An open safe. I squatted and eyed the black hole, reached inside and felt around. My fingers grazed the cool walls of the safe but nothing else. Everything was gone. My arm hair curled around chill bumps. Summoning runes, a trashed bedroom and an open, empty safe. This spelled bad news no matter which way I looked at it.
Through the binding, I felt Laura tug at me, wanting me to come outside. I was pretty much done here, although I felt like I had some sort of obligation to help Kylie even more. But there was nothing else I could do. I’d banished the spirit from the house and cancelled out the rune. Whoever had done this was probably long gone with whatever had been in the safe, and I certainly didn’t need to go head-to-head with a shaman who was, without a doubt, tons more powerful than I was.
Something felt off as I stepped outside, but I decided to ignore it. For now.
CHAPTER 5
That was freaking scary.” Laura stood from where she’d been waiting for me on the front steps.
“At least it wasn’t the Green Goblin,” I said, ignoring the fact that my hands shook a little. They’d been steady as I’d given Kylie the healing tea, but now that my adrenaline was wearing off, I didn’t feel so great.
“Well, I have to say, I’m pretty impressed. I think your mom would be, too.”
“No,” I said. “She would have been pissed at me. She didn’t want me doing stuff like this. At least not until I was older…” I trailed off, realizing I was talking about my mom in the past tense.
“She’d get over it.”
We walked down the long drive, and I realized I needed to get home soon to make dinner. The sun was still out, but fingers of pink were beginning to creep up the horizon.
“So, this wasn’t a regular spirit attack,” I said, kicking a pebble with my toe.
“You don’t say?” Laura snorted. “What was the deal, anyway?”
Even though we were bound, we weren’t able to sense everything the other was experiencing. I’d known what Laura was doing outside, felt her emotions, but I wasn’t able to see through her eyes or know what she was thinking. So, while Laura knew some crazy stuff had gone down in Kylie’s room, she didn’t know the details.
“Another shaman.” I glanced over to watch her face. She swallowed hard. “There was a summoning rune carved into Kylie’s floor.”
“Shit,” she whispered as we turned out of the driveway. She glanced around, eyeing the few cars parked along the street. “I don’t even know what to think about that.”
I heard the cranking of an engine coming to life, and I glanced behind me. It was just a neighbor’s SUV. Laughing at myself, I shook my head. This whole experience had left me seriously edgy.
“Me either.” I pulled my tangled hair away from my face and into a ponytail. “I feel like it’s none of my business, but the whole thing makes me really uncomfortable. I mean, a shaman summoned a really powerful spirit into a girl’s room, and she could have easily died.”
“Died?” Laura asked. “What are you talking about?”
I’d forgotten she hadn’t seen how close to death Kylie had gotten.
“Yeah,” I said, trying to block out the image of Kylie’s life fading before my eyes. “The spirit was acting like it was…a crazed animal or something. It almost killed her.”
“Oh my god,” Laura said in a low whisper. “I didn’t think they could kill someone that fast. I thought it took like months or something.”
“Me either, and even though she’s protected by our bone magic, I guess I feel weird about leaving her alone in that house,” I said. “And why do I feel like we’re being watched?”
Laura kept her face forward, but I could tell she’d been thinking the same thing by the way she twirled her nose ring. “Don’t look back. It’s the SUV.”
I focused hard on not showing any reaction even though I had the sudden urge to run. But I forced myself to keep walking, no change in my pace, no tensing my shoulders. “What makes you think that?”
“No one walked up to the car to get in before it started. I wasn’t watching them, but I didn’t hear anyone, and I certainly didn’t hear any car doors open or close,” she said, keeping her voice low. “They’d been sitting there. When they saw us, that’s when they started the car. Now it’s slowly following us. And I swear I can feel their eyes on my back.”
“Good ears.” I felt like I should have put two and two together myself. I’d been too focused on the stupid carving in the floor that I hadn’t been paying attention to my surroundings.
I blinked. Carving. Strange people watching us. What if the person in the SUV was the shaman who had summoned the spirit?
“What should we do?” Laura hissed.
The car sprung to life, tires crunching on gravel as it peeled away from the curb.
My feet moved. Fast. No real thought behind it. Just the instinct to run. Laura was right beside me, our legs moving in sync.
The car screeched to a halt, and I heard car doors fly open.
“Stop!” a guy yelled, and I twisted my head to look over my shoulder.
As soon as I saw him, I felt the familiar tugging in my forehead just over my eyes. He was a shaman.
Young, tan, wearing some weird construction uniform and standing there with a huge ass gun trained on me and Laura. On the driver’s side of the car, another guy stood in the exact same pose.
That only made my legs move faster. Anyone who points a gun at me is someone I need to get the hell away from ASAP.
I grabbed Laura’s arm and pulled her into the bushes lining the edge of the street. We darted into Kylie’s next door neighbor’s yard.
Car doors slammed. A second later, I heard the pounding of feet on pavement.
; We had some distance between us, but they’d be right behind us soon. And from the look of their muscles, they could probably run a hell of a lot faster than we could. Not to mention the whole gun thing.
I didn’t want to die today.
Suddenly, all the shaman magic that had sent tingles through my body felt zapped away from the intensity of my fear. It was like a crash, my head full of wasps and my body stiff and sore.
I swore under my breath and paused a beat to kick off the flip flops seriously slowing me down.
Laura grabbed me and propelled me forward. We flew through mulch, kicking flowers as our legs sliced through the air. My eyes watered, the wind rolling off the ocean stinging them. I had no idea where we were going. To Laura’s house? I was pretty sure letting these guys know where she lived wasn’t such a good idea.
We careened into the backyard. My chest blazed with my pounding heart. The salty taste of ocean air burned my lungs. I told my legs to move faster. I heard something crash behind us, but I didn’t turn around. All I could do was run.
We needed to lose them.
Why hadn’t they shot at us yet?
“Boat keys?” I huffed, glancing sideways at Laura. Her face was beet red, strands of her long hair plastered to her forehead.
“Not with me,” she said, fists pounding the air.
“Nathan,” I puffed back. “Go. To. Harbor.”
We raced into the next yard through a line of perfectly trimmed hedges. Sharp branches slashed my skin, but I barely felt them with the pounding in my head.
My back and neck seemed to burn in random spots. I could almost feel the bullets piercing my skin before a shot was even fired. I cringed at the slightest sound, expecting each time to be the one that meant a trigger had been pulled.
I shoved the branches out of my way and bee-lined for a house’s back porch. The platform came up to my waist, and I ducked under the wood, following Laura. My feet scraped dead leaves. The crumpling sounded like fireworks in the sudden quiet. Both of us stopped, standing frozen, breathing heavy.