by Marta Szemik
“Not exactly shifters,” Eric added. “They’re crafters.”
The twins were busy examining their new clothes. I smiled, recognizing their excitement over gifts. Though in their teens, they were still children; they always would be, to me.
Crystal held a black tank top against her bosom. “Nice. I like it.” She looked at the identical top Xela wore. It was too tight for my liking and made my fist-sized breasts look like they were going to pop out.
Xela’s apologetic eyes flew to me, as if she knew my reaction. “We didn’t have much time.”
The twins spun like Superman, so fast that their tanned skin blurred with the clothing, and when they stopped, they were in the new clothes.
My gaze flew to Eric. “Crafters?”
Eric pointed to Ayer. “Warlock, and a witch.” He wrapped his arm around Crystal. “Along with shifters, demonic powers, and human DNA. Hence the need for constant sleep. Their energy has been drained until now. These—” he pointed to their left wrists “—connect them to the keepers’ energy. They will no longer be drained.”
Everyone focused on the marks shimmering on the twins’ wrists. On the top, a blue sphere glowed with cold ice; on the underside of the wrist, a red sphere spat flares of fire; jagged lightning bolts connected both. The glow faded as the spheres cooled and became tattoos.
“What kind of mark is this?” Willow asked.
“The crafter’s mark.” Mrs. G stepped forward. She touched the children’s right hands. “Neither one is stronger, neither one weaker. Both depend on each other, able to understand all—warlocks, witches, demons, vampires, and humans.” Her eyes rolled back in their sockets again. “They are the only two to ever be crafted; they will bring peace and balance. As one breathes, so does the other. As one crafts, so does the other. As one dies, so does the other. They are two equals.”
“Dies?” I repeated in a whisper.
Mrs. G turned to me. “Everyone dies, Sarah. You have—twice—already. It’s a natural progression in life . . . For most.”
“For most?” I asked.
She smirked. “You think the supernatural hasn’t helped me sustain my beauty for one hundred and forty-eight years?”
I’d never paid attention to Mrs. G’s age, but she was right. She hadn’t changed a bit since the day I’d met her. But—
“What kind of life is it, to be the only ones of their kind?”
“They’re not. They’re crafters, but they identify with all three species. Whether they choose a future with a human, a vampire, or other warlocks, it doesn’t make a difference. Not to them.”
“Mama, don’t worry. You were different too.” Crystal came to my side.
I smiled at her. “Yes, I was, wasn’t I?”
“Amazing.” My father touched Ayer’s arm. “Like a rock.”
“More like a diamond.” Ayer flexed his arm. This time, I was certain he shared some of Xander’s characteristics.
“Hardest rock on Earth.” Atram touched the other side.
“Stop showing off. We’ve got a few hours to prepare. Where is Father?” Crystal asked, searching the room with her gaze.
I drew a deep breath to brace myself for what I had to do. “Sit down, sweetheart. I need to tell you something.” I motioned my daughter over to the staircase down to the basement. We sat on the top step together.
Ayer’s attention shifted from his biceps to us, and he joined us.
“There was an accident. We went to the underworld, like you said. I got my ghost back, but before then William—your father—fell into a crevice and—”
The wind blew a heavy gust outside, seeming to disagree.
Crystal placed her hand on my shoulder as if I were flesh. Her touch soothed my soul. “Things happen for a reason.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “He’s not gone, Mama. He needed to fool the seekers.”
“What?” I blurted.
“You haven’t seen him in the underworld?” Willow asked.
“No.” Ayer shook his head.
“Good. That’s a good sign. I would have felt it,” she repeated, letting the corners of her mouth curve upward.
It would be easier for me to gauge William’s whereabouts if I had a beating heart. My ghost confused me. “If he’s not gone, then where is he?” I asked.
Ayer took Crystal’s hand. The children’s marks began to glow, rippling their colors before twirling around their wrists as the two spheres switched their location; now the red sphere was on top and the blue one, underneath.
A new vortex opened in front of them, and William stepped out, without a single burn on him.
I gasped, then shrieked, “You’re alive!” and ran to embrace my husband but fell through him.
“And I see you got your ghostly form back,” he said as he watched me turn back to him.
“I saw you fall.” I didn’t mean for my voice to accuse my husband.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to hurt you. My faked death was necessary. One day I’ll explain. Just be glad I’m here.” He kissed my forehead, and I imagined the warmth of his lips. I saw him exchange a meaningful look with the twins, like they’d planned for his fall to happen.
“Now that we’re all here, we have a few minutes to finalize the binding.” Eric nodded to the children, and I felt left out. It was as if they spoke to one another to each other on a different wavelength from what I could hear.
“Already? What if Aseret hurts you? What if Miranda tricks you?” I heard the quaver in my voice and wished I had my body to feel the chills up my spine; trembling would at least relieve some tension.
“No worries, Mama. We’ll be fine. We can handle Miranda. With Mrs. G and Xela at our side, Miranda is the least of our worries.” Crystal touched my shoulder again. Her invisible warmth soothed my tension.
“If you say so. When do we go? I need to help you.”
“And who’s going to help you?” Eric crossed his arms, nodding to the twins. I couldn’t hear what they said telepathically, but I recognized Eric’s expression as another exchange took place. His left cheek twitched the same way it did when he spoke to me, and no one else heard.
“I wish I could hug you.” I tried to embrace my children. Somehow, the hug felt more real than I thought it would. Before they disappeared into a yellowish mist, I blew them a kiss. They left behind their scent of lemon and honey. At least I can still smell.
Soon you’ll be able feel, touch, and walk. Eric wiggled his fingers the way he did when preparing to bend.
“Good. What do I do?” I asked.
“You stay with us, my friend.” Mira put her hand around my shoulder, except it fell through. She flushed. “Guess I’m too used to seeing you as a ghost.”
Xander stepped up on my other side.
Eric moved out in front. “Let’s get your body back.” He twirled his finger, and the vortex to the edge of the hereafter opened.
The orange glow of the sun faded, the room spun, and I found myself on the brink of the hereafter.
Chapter 14
What I’m about to show you, few have seen. Eric pressed against my side until his body blended into my ghost. This is the hereafter.
We stepped out of the vortex, and the spinning ceased. Closing my eyes, I waited until the swirling lights stopped. When I opened them, the circling of the vortex hadn’t finished, and my gaze focused on a new source of twirls. The air in front of me rippled like waves radiating from a gallon-sized drop of water that had plunged into a giant glass. No, a mirror—larger than three football fields and reflecting back the images of Eric, Mira, and Xander. My ghost appeared as an empty space between my evil-bender and the siblings.
We stood in a cave as imposing as Aseret’s grand hall. The dust disturbed by the vortex floated as motes in the moonlight shining through an oval hole in the apex of the ceiling; it reminded me of the vent hole at a volcano’s peak.
The dust settled and covered footsteps of a circular perimeter marked with a knee-high stone wall. Within, where we
stood, there were no visible prints.
“You need to remain between us, otherwise your ghost will be sucked into the hereafter,” Eric warned.
“Great, and if that happens?” I asked. Eric and the siblings wordlessly looked at me; it was the only answer I needed. “Stay between you. Got it.”
To our right, Mrs. G, Xela, and William stepped out of another vortex. My husband carried a body—Miranda’s! He laid the limp corpse on the ground and shifted to his vampire form. Usually, he only shifted when he expected to use his strength. Fear ran through me as my ghost vibrated. William shouldn’t have come, and I wished he’d remained with our parents at the cabin. It would only take Aseret one strike to kill, and I’d only gotten my husband back, after thinking he was dead. I couldn’t lose him again.
William released a growl from the back of his throat as his incisors lengthened. He stood in front of the witches, knees bent, ready to spring.
What are you sensing that I cannot see? I scanned the room.
Mrs. G and Xela joined hands. Their eyes blackened as the witches began chanting. I listened to the words but didn’t understand the ancient language. Only a few syllables resonated, reminding me of the spell I’d recited to free my mother’s wrists.
As soon as I thought about my mother, her ghost appeared in front of me along with Aunt Helen’s. “Mom, Aunt Helen. What are you doing here?”
Mom’s embrace soothed my trembling. Aunt Helen smoothed my hair behind my ear. “Our bodies have been found,” my mother said.
“They have?”
“Yes. Eric has gone through a great deal to ensure we can pass to the hereafter. We must join our hosts now, before Eric begins bending. I will not be able to see you after you have your body.”
I shook my head. “No. I just found you. Please don’t leave me. Don’t you want to see Crystal and Ayer grow up? And Dad needs you too. I saw your connection. You can still be with him as a ghost. Please, Mama.” I leaned my ghost’s frame against her, partly stepping out of my friend’s hold. Even if I didn’t have a physical heart, I knew it would quiver with sadness.
My mother held me, and Aunt Helen squeezed my hand saying, “It’s better this way, for you and for us. We’ll always watch over you. You must remember who you are for this to work.” She looked at Xela in my body who was lost in a trance. “Trust in the love of your family.”
“I do. I always will.” Everything I’d done was for my family and for the welfare of others. I’d sacrifice everything for them to be happy.
“They cannot flourish without you,” my mom added. “Love yourself as much as you love us, and everything will work out.”
“I will. I promise.”
My mother and aunt stepped back, then flew into a side tunnel, their essences following them like another set of glowing ghosts that wrapped their silhouettes.
Eric wiggled his fingers, and blue light appeared underneath everyone’s feet. “Once the portal to the doorway is opened, it will get nasty,” he explained when I raised my eyebrows.
“But how will you fight?”
“Fighting isn’t always physical. Leave that to us.” Xander stood with his feet apart, taller than I remembered. His hands were thrust in front of him, palms out. Mira held the same stance.
“They’ll be here soon,” Eric whispered.
“What’s that?” I pointed to the gleaming light at the bottom of the mirror.
“The point in between the now and the hereafter,” Eric answered. “That’s where Aseret needs to be locked up.”
I grimaced. “That doesn’t tell me much.”
“A portal to another dimension. A one-way ticket,” Mira supplied.
The light glowed brighter, holding greater meaning. “So, how exactly do we do this?”
“You worry about staying with us. You’re doing your job by luring the warlock here. My sources say he’s furious with you,” Eric said. “Aseret can only be killed beside the portal, so his spirit can be pushed in. Otherwise, he’ll escape and roam as a ghost until he finds a suitable host.”
“Sounds like you know what you’re doing.”
“I’ve done it once. I can do it again.” He winked. “Except this time, his culprit witch will be locked away with him.”
“Right.”
The wind whistled through the tunnels before it gusted into the cave. The current increased, carrying with it the stench of rotten eggs and dirty socks. Seekers spilled into the cave like a disturbed colony of ants. Once in, they moved to hug the walls, holding onto rocks and tree roots. Their cloaks fluttered uncontrollably in the wind. It looked like we were in the eye of a tornado and the seekers on its edge.
Behind them, Aseret floated in, his cloak trailing on the dirt floor. His gaze drifted for a moment toward my husband, and Aseret paused mid-step before resuming his drift. Miranda’s ghost hovered at his side. Both held their heads high, but the witch visibly struggled not to look at the body in front of William. Her focus fell on Xela’s and Mrs. G’s joined hands, and her spirit vibrated. Twenty feet in, the witch and the warlock stopped. Movers and freezers crossed in front of them, creating a pyramid formation, protecting their lord. Aseret did not to step over the threshold in a stone wall that would put him in the same area of the hereafter as us.
The blue light under my family’s feet disappeared, but they didn’t move an inch. The hall was silent, except for the electric buzzing of the ripples in the mirror.
“Silly, silly creaturesss,” Aseret drawled in his monotone. “What worked once, evil-bender, will not work again.”
“We’re not here to bind you,” Eric lied. “Why don’t you leave and let us do our job?”
“Don’t insssult me,” the warlock hissed, turning his head aside to hide a grimace, as if he’d lost the ability to control his emotions. He looked forward again. “Hmm, and you’d leave the twins by themselves? Silly to leave your family without protection.”
Eric didn’t say anything, just stared at Aseret.
“Ahh well, I shall sssend sssomeone to keep them company at the cabin.”
Three seekers and a handful of freezers and movers left through the door behind Aseret.
My family! I said to Eric.
Don’t worry. They’re safe. Try not to talk. It makes my job a bit more difficult.
Spikes of flesh extended on Eric’s neck; they’d also thickened. Calmness swept through my body, the same as when Crystal touched me. I scanned the room but couldn’t see her. I almost tasted the twins’ lemon-honey aroma on my tongue, though.
“Let’s get this over with.” Aseret lifted his arms, and his cuffs slid down to his elbows as his translucent hands prepared to beam fire, his strongest choice of magic, from his twig-like fingers.
“Let’s.” Eric lowered his head and reached right through me to take Xander’s hand.
“You’d better hold on.” Xander looked at their gripped hands inside my ghost, then squeezed Mira’s hand on his other side.
Their energy flew through me. The waves of Eric’s bending made my ghost flicker like a broken lamp.
“You have no way of taking me down. My essence is a hundredfold greater,” Aseret said, gathering his first blow in his palms. Red fire circled his wrists before enveloping his hands. “You will all end up there, looking at me from beyond as I rule your species.” He threw his hands forward and streams of light zipped through the cave, changing into flame, crackling like fire. One flew toward us, the other toward William, Mrs. G, and Xela.
Staying between Eric and the siblings as they’d asked, I closed my eyes before impact.
It should have reached us by now. I opened my eyes.
It never did. Instead, both streams of light slowed their blast and bounced off invisible shields similar to the one I’d created with William in the underworld when we faced off against Aseret.
The warlock pressed the attack, this time with fire, trying to break the invisible hold.
On the side of his neck nearest me, Eric’s fleshy spike
ripped open. Blood streaked down his neck and body.
You’re hurt.
It’s all right, he answered without moving. Let me concentrate. The spikes vibrated again, and I smelled honey and lemon.
A yellowish mist wafted down from the ceiling like flower pollen. Before it touched the ground, the pollen concentrated in two spots and materialized into my children. Crystal and Ayer stepped out of the golden powder, beaming their aura.
“Impossible!” The warlock slid the hood off his head.
“Love your decorative scars, Aseret.” Xander sneered at the warlock’s orange glowing marks on the face and neck.
“You afraid to come closer?” Eric taunted. “You’ve been waiting for this. They’re here. Come and get them.”
What are you doing?
It’s all right, Mama. Stay still, Crystal whispered.
“Tempting, but I’m not stupid, bender.” Aseret’s gaze flew from my children to Eric as he licked his lips.
“We’ll see.” Eric smirked.
Seekers crawled around the wall and attacked Mrs. G and Xela. William protected them, clearly stronger than any other time I’d seen him, even in Aseret’s hall.
Her ghostly face a mask of determination, Miranda sped toward my children. Charging like a raging bull, she flew right through the twins. The witch stopped and whirled around to try again but bumped into an invisible wall before reaching Crystal and Ayer. She circled to the side and found an unseen barrier there, as well. Miranda zoomed upward like a rocket, then crashed down to the floor.
All the time, Mrs. G and Xela continued their chanting. Each time Miranda hit an invisible wall, Mrs. G’s and Xela’s arms bruised. Miranda halted, changed direction, and flew straight at the witches, only to hit another wall. She was enclosed in an invisible box, her soul captured.
“Ssstupid witch,” Aseret hissed, wiggling his flat nose.
“You will help me, warlock. We’re bound by blood.” she called, excess saliva slurring her words.
“You’re getting old, witch. It’s the second time you’ve been tricked today.” Aseret looked at me, unphased by her threat. “Fend for yourself.”