by Brea Essex
“But we need to be realistic, too.”
“Zac, nothing about our situation is ‘realistic.’ I’m a necromancer. For all intents and purposes, you’re a ghost. My sister has been kidnapped, and married to, and impregnated by some sort of evil demon hunter dude. All of this is surreal. One way or another, we’re going to succeed. We’re going to win, and we’re going to be together.”
He sighed heavily and sat down on a bench. I was no longer in his line of sight, so he stared out at the bay once more. Then he smiled softly. “When did you become stronger than me? I mean, you’ve always been strong, but now I’m the one acting like the unbeliever, and you’re the one who’s pushing me along.”
“I guess that’s why we work well together. We push each other when we need it. We haven’t even been together that long, and we already have a good give and take going.”
He nodded and fell silent. This time I allowed it. I sat next to him and joined him in staring out at the flat, glassy water. I wished that we could touch once more. I would have given just about anything to feel his arm around my shoulders, warding against the chill of the air out on the water. It would happen soon enough.
A jolt rocked the ferry. I grabbed for the railing, but as I reached for it, the ferry shifted again. My fingers slid off the railing. A wave pitched the boat, and I tumbled over the edge into the ocean.
Water closed over my head. My lungs screamed for air. I didn’t know which way was up. I kicked in the direction that I thought was the surface, but the current confused me. Finally, spying the glint of light in the water, I pulled myself through the water until I at last broke the surface. I sucked air desperately, while simultaneously trying to cough the liquid out of my lungs.
Zac screamed my name from up above on the ferry, but of course, no one could hear his distress. I prayed that someone had seen me go overboard. Zac couldn’t do anything to save me, and I wasn’t a strong enough swimmer to keep pace with the ferry.
Another wave broke over my head, driving me below the surface once more. I hadn’t even caught my breath yet, and the wave had come too quickly for me to suck in some air. Some bubbles pushed through my lips of their own volition, leaking precious oxygen into the water around me.
As I tried to struggle to the surface once more, a rush of water pushed me to the side. It was then that I remembered the invisibility spell I had on me. I panicked. No one would have seen me fall. No one would save me. I was going to drown.
I saw a flash of color and then felt something wrap around my waist. Someone was rescuing me! How was this possible?
My savior drove us toward the surface with strong, powerful strokes of their free arm. We broke through the water, and I gasped for air once more.
“Don’t worry,” a masculine voice said. “You’re fine now.”
I turned toward the man who had saved me. His blond hair glinted in the late afternoon sun. A red glow surrounded his head.
“Thanks,” I gasped. “But why are you glowing bright red?”
He laughed heartily. “I think you’re seeing things.”
I continued to stare at him as a white and red striped lifesaver dropped over the side of the ferry. The guy pulled it over our heads, and we clung to it as some uniformed men on board pulled us to safety.
Once we reached the deck, I collapsed on the boards. I breathed heavily as I tried to hack up the water in my lungs. Zac crouched down next to me, a frown on his face and worry in his eyes. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. I couldn’t respond to him audibly while so many other people were hovering; I would have looked completely crazy. He looked relieved.
The guy who had rescued me sat down on the deck next to me. “So, are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I said simply.
“What were you doing in the water?”
“Fell overboard.” Would this guy ever go away?
He stared at me to the point where I began to get uncomfortable. “Sooo… hope you don’t mind my asking, but do you have a boyfriend?”
Now I looked up at him. He still had a red glow surrounding his head. In fact, the glow was now outlining his entire body. Why would he be asking this, especially right after he had pulled me from the water?
“You could say that. I’m engaged, actually.”
“Oh.” He looked disappointed. Zac crouched behind him, looking furious. “Are you just saying that?”
“No, I’m most definitely engaged.”
“I don’t see a ring,” he said after glancing at my left hand.
“It’s—uh—at the store, getting sized,” I lied.
The guy looked disappointed, but dropped the subject. He continued to hover over me the rest of the trip.
At last, we pulled into port at Victoria. I exited as quickly as I could, Zac trailing behind me in the crowd. I waited until he joined me.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he murmured in my ear.
“What’s that?”
“The town.”
I looked around. The town was indeed beautiful. I pointed at an old looking building. “What is that?”
“The Parliament building. You should see it at night. They light it up with a ton of tiny white Christmas lights.”
“It sounds gorgeous.”
“Not as gorgeous as you,” he said quietly. “Come on, I want to show you the rest of the city.”
“I thought we were on a time crunch.”
He pursed his lips in annoyance. “Yeah, you’re right.”
He looked so dejected. I had to reassure him. “We’ll come back here one day. Maybe for our honeymoon?”
That perked him up a bit. “Great idea.”
“So, how far away is this Zayin facility that we have to find?”
“I think it’s a little over two hours by car.”
I nodded. “We need to rent a car, then.”
“I guess we do.”
It took us a while to locate the car rental facility. A sign in the window indicated that you needed to be twenty-one to rent a car. That was a problem, considering the fact that I was only eighteen. I finally came up with the idea to alter my birth date on my driver’s license with a spell. I felt incredibly guilty about it—I hated lying. But we needed the car to get to the town called Bowser, where the facility Zac had told me about was located. Getting a car was our only option. Taking a bus would take far too much time. Besides that, I wouldn’t be able to talk to Zac the entire ride. To do so would make me look crazy.
Soon we were on the road. We drove for over two and a half hours. The facility was actually on the other side of the town of Bowser, out in the middle of nowhere.
Once again, I parked in a copse of trees, feeling thankful for their camouflaging branches and leaves. “So, what’s the plan?” I asked Zac after I turned off the engine. “Same as last time?”
“Yeah, basically. Wait until dark, and then try to get in.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to just go now? Then we can get in and out, hopefully, and then we’ll be on our way.”
“No. You know as well as I that we need the dark to cover our presence. We can’t risk anyone seeing us this time. I don’t know anyone who works at this facility, and even Xander was acting weird. Something’s going on here. We need to find out what, but we don’t have time for that just now.”
“You’re right: we can investigate later. Right now, we find your body, get you back into it, and get the hell out of here. We’ll figure out the ‘why’ of everything later.”
“Agreed.”
It seemed like forever before darkness fell. When it finally did, we snuck out of the car and approached the facility under the cover of the trees. This one was better guarded than the building complex in Northern California. I could see the shadowy forms of guards up on the roofs, the outlines of their silhouettes barely visible against the backdrop of the night sky.
Crouching low to the ground, we ran clumsily toward the building. When we reached it, we stood up and plastered our backs
against the outside wall. I looked up to see if the guards had noticed us. They didn’t seem to have moved, so I assumed we remained undetected.
We were met with the same sort of security panel on the side door. Searching my memory, I quickly punched in the exact code that Zac had given me at the previous building. A low buzzing noise came from the box, kind of like the buzzer on a game show when someone gets the wrong answer.
“Why didn’t it work?” I whispered.
“Did you really think it would have the same access code as a different facility in another country?” Zac asked incredulously.
I shrugged. “I thought it was worth a try. So, do you know the code?”
He shook his head. “No. But we were taught an algorithm in academy that would enable us to figure out the access combination at any Zayin facility anywhere. That’s how I was able to figure out the code at the other facility.”
“Really? Well, hurry up and figure it out!”
“Give me a minute.” He looked up as if he was trying to concentrate on something. I guessed that he was trying to work out calculations in his head. “Try five-two-nine-zero-eight-four.”
I pressed the numbers he had given me. We were met with the same negative sounding buzzing. “Nope. No luck.”
He was quiet for a moment longer. “Oops, sorry, I know where I went wrong. Try five-two-nine-zero-eight-three.”
I punched in the new combination. This time, we were met with a happy sounding beep, and a green light lit on the panel. I tried the handle and it swung open easily.
“We’re in,” I whispered to him.
“Yeah, I see that.”
We crept down the hall, bypassing the front rooms. I assumed they were storage rooms, as Zac had told me at the previous complex. Finally, we reached a hall that intersected the one we were currently walking down.
“Which way do we go?” I asked.
Zac paused. “Let’s try that way,” he said, pointing down the corridor leading to the right.
“Okay.”
We turned and headed in the direction that Zac had indicated. These halls were lit slightly better than at the last facility. I wasn’t sure whether this would work in our favor or not. While it was easier for us to see, it would also be easier to be seen if someone happened upon us. We ignored several other doors.
“Aren’t we going to check those?” I asked.
“No. I have a feeling I know where it is—or rather, where I am.”
“You do?” I asked, a little breathlessly. “You can sense it?”
“Not really. I can’t quite describe it, but I feel like I know where I’m going.”
I fell back slightly and trailed a few steps behind him as we continued down the hall. We finally stopped in front of an unmarked door that looked exactly the same as the others we passed.”
“Here,” Zac murmured softly, almost reverently.
“Really? Here? Are you sure?”
He nodded. “Yes, I’m sure.” He stepped aside, indicating that I should open the door.
We were in luck. This security panel was a similar design as the one located on the outside door. I felt immensely relieved that it didn’t have fingerprint recognition like the one at the facility in California.
Zac whispered a code to me, shorter than the one we had used to open the exterior door. When I typed in the numbers, the door clicked open quietly.
There, in the center of the room, lit with a single dull light, was Zac’s body. It rested atop a simple table, floating in a shallow tank of water. A breathing apparatus was fitted over his nose and mouth. His chest rose and fell, but his eyes were closed.
I turned to stare at him. His mouth hung open slightly, and his eyes were bugging out. A forlorn, almost hungry expression was etched all over his face. “It’s really here. I can’t believe I finally found it.”
I wanted to weep with relief. “We did it. Now, let’s get you back in your body, and get out of here.”
He was quiet for a moment. “I need your help. I think I’ve been out of my body too long. Ordinarily, I’d be drawn right back into it.”
“I don’t know if I can do this, Zac,” I said nervously.
“Please, Rhiannon.” He turned his bleak eyes toward me. “I can’t do this without you. End my suffering, I beg you. It’s so painful being disconnected to my body. It’s agonizing to stand here and look at my lifeless body breathe with the help of machinery. And it’s even more excruciating to not be able to touch you. Please, do this for me. Do it for us. I know you can. I believe in you.”
I nodded forcefully. “All right. I’ll do it. At least, I hope I can do it. Tell me what needs to happen. Is there a specific spell or what?”
“I don’t know if there’s a specific spell. I’ve never heard of this happening before. You’re just going to have to wing it.”
I gulped, sucking in a deep breath. I hadn’t counted on this. I should have studied more. Maybe I should have thought to ask Hecate when I had the chance. I’d check the notebook she had given me, but there wasn’t time. I couldn’t risk turning on a light, or conjuring up one. “Okay, here goes.”
“Now, concentrate. Think about pushing me back into my body. Slowly, so it doesn’t jolt me.”
I couldn’t help but be nervous. What if I hurt him? What if I couldn’t get him back into his body and he was stuck as a spirit forever?
Offering up a prayer to whoever happened to be listening, I concentrated as hard as I could. I didn’t dare try to close my eyes to help aid my focus. I wanted to see the moment that Zac’s soul entered his body again.
Nothing happened. Zac’s spirit still stood in front of the tank, staring at his motionless body. Time to redouble my efforts. Lifting my arms in front of me, I thought about physically pushing Zac into his body. The movement probably wouldn’t do me any good, since I wasn’t actually touching him, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt either.
The lights flashed. The light bulbs went out with audible pops, and the entire room was plunged into blackness. Glass crashed loudly and a wave of water cascaded over my feet. The tank must have broken. I ducked in reflex, hoping no glass shards would puncture me. Zac yelled as if he was in pain. I couldn’t tell if he was still standing next to me, or if I’d succeeded in getting him back into his body. I reached for him before remembering that I couldn’t touch him while he was still in his spirit form. Stumbling in the dark, I made my way over to the table that his body lay on. The edge of the table caught me at the waist. I hit it hard and folded over, my upper torso falling onto Zac’s still prone body.
Zac groaned. This time, I knew where the noise was coming from. I placed my hands on the table and pushed myself off of him. Glass dug into my palms, but I didn’t care. I stared hard at his body, trying to make out his face in the dim light that remained. His eyes were squinted, his lips pulled up in a grimace. Success! He had to be in there.
“Zac?” I called softly.
“Get off of me, would ya?” he croaked.
I wanted to cry with relief. Time enough for that later. As for now, the first priority was to get him and I out of here. I was sure that getting out would be a lot harder than getting in had been.
“Sorry.” I pushed myself the rest of the way up, until I was standing once more. I tugged at his hand. “Come on. We have to get out of here.”
He yanked his hand out of my grasp and tried to push himself up. He groaned again. “What the hell happened? Where am I and how long have I been here?” Even in the dark, I could see him pass a hand across his face. “Why do I feel so weak?”
Oh no. Had he forgotten everything when he’d gone back into his body? “Zac, you can ask questions later. We gotta get out of here,” I repeated. “Now, can you stand? Do you need help?”
He grabbed my arm and pulled me closer. His eyes narrowed as he tried to make out my face. “Do I know you?”
Tears rose in my eyes. Had he forgotten me too? “It’s me, Rhiannon.”
His head cocked to one side
. “I think I’d remember meeting someone as pretty as you.”
The tears spilled over now, coursing their way down my cheeks. “We’ll discuss this later,” I told him. “Will you let me help you?”
He shrugged. “Guess so.”
Grabbing him under his arms, I pulled as hard as I could until he was sitting up. Then I threaded an arm behind his waist and helped him stand. His knees buckled as soon as his feet hit the ground. I yanked him upright once more. Once he was steady on his feet, I dragged him toward the door. It was tough going, with my arm still supporting him at the waist. I felt almost as though we were running some three-legged race—only more awkward.
When we reached the door, I was surprised to find it closed. Hadn’t we left it open? As I stretched my hand out to twist the knob, I could feel heat emanating from the metal. I snatched my hand back before it met the knob. Why was it hot? Had someone set a fire?
“Why are we stopping?” Zac asked. “Weren’t you just telling me that we had to get out of here?”
“The doorknob is hot.” I pointed at it. “I think there might be a fire.”
Zac pondered that for a moment. “Pull your shirt up over your nose and mouth.”
I shrugged and followed his directions. Even though he didn’t seem to remember me, I still trusted him. He probably knew what he was doing better than I did.
He pulled away from my steadying arm and faced the door at an angle, his right foot behind him. “When the door opens, get down toward the ground,” he instructed.
I barely managed a “Huh?” before his foot flew out and connected solidly with the door. It sprung open so fast that it rebounded against the wall outside. “Good thing it opened out,” Zac said.
A wall of heat assaulted us. I didn’t see any flames, but dark grey smoke began to billow into the room.
“Drop,” Zac reminded me.
I complied, and we began to crawl down the corridor. Zac brushed off my offer of help. “I feel better now,” he insisted. “I can move fine by myself.”
Well, it was certainly easier to move without trying to help him. Despite all the months he hadn’t been in his body, it seemed as though his strength had already surpassed mine.