by T. G. Ayer
The hope in his eyes nearly killed me. Samuel was begging me for release from this existence which meant he didn’t want to be here, didn’t want to be stuck in the fake mansion living a life that wasn’t real.
But I couldn’t kill Samuel.
I’d just murdered a man in cold blood. Something that happened because I’d lost control of my anger. With Samuel, there was no anger, just my grief to channel. And grief wasn’t enough to make me lose control enough to kill someone I loved beyond measure.
I took another step back, desperate to leave because I knew I didn’t have it in me to kill him, even if it meant ending his misery.
As I moved Samuel shifted in his seat to look at me. “Please Mel. You are the only one who can help me. Please release me or I will never get any peace. I could be forced to stay her for an eternity.”
I swallowed hard. “Why is she doing this?”
He tilted his head and smiled sadly. “She is using me to get to you. To hurt you. Some of it makes little sense.” He paused and then sighed. “Sometimes I think she’s not right in the head. Things she says. Things she does,” he said more to himself than to me.
“How can you ask this of me,” I whispered, my voice shivering.
Samuel looked up at me, and in that moment his eyes cleared and focused on my face and when he spoke his voice was strong and clear. “You must do this. Send me to the Graylands if you have to, Maybe I could help you from there. I don’t know. But what I do know is the longer I’m here the more my essence fades away. This existence, this plane, there is something eating away at my soul and soon I will be nothing. You are my only hope.”
“Where is she?” I growled through my tears.
Samuel shook his head. “She isn’t here now, but who knows? She may return at any moment. Which means you have to do this quickly. Please, Mel.”
I’d stopped in my tracks as he spoke, as his words washed over me, his determination shoring up my resolve. Somewhere while he’d been pleading with me, I’d begun to understand what he meant. The longer he remained here in the plane, the less chance he had of finding the light and passing through to the afterlife.
He could be stuck here forever, or he could fade into nothing, just evaporate without ever reaching peace. And I had to be the one to give him that peace Ari was keeping him here deliberately and she didn’t care what that would do to his soul.
But I cared.
I cared because I loved him, because I wanted him to have peace and to help him reach his afterlife.
I took a breath and felt the goosebumps ripple along my skin again. A part of me was screaming that this was so wrong, that there must be another way. But logic said he was right. And I owed it to him.
But it was murder.
Then I looked at Samuel, and met his eyes. Saw the please for peace, saw the suffering there, the desperation for release from this prison. And I knew then that I had no choice. That I couldn't let him rot away to nothing here.
I nodded slowly and Samnuel smiled so brightly that tears filled my eyes. He was joyful at the prospect of his own death and it hurt more than anything else had ever hurt before.
I moved closer and he took my hand and drew me to sit beside him on the piano stool. “Do you know how?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”
He nodded slowly and I felt awful, knowing that I’d come to him not even an hour after having killed someone else, obliterated someone out of existence.
He squeezed my fingers and said, “It won’t be difficult. Focus on my lifethreads and slowly draw them apart to free them from this plane. You’ll know what I mean when you see it.”
I took a breath, biting my lip as I hesitated. “I’m not--”
“Please, Mel. There is no other option. Either you save me now or I’m destined for a life of eternal pain stuck here in this fake house.”
I swallowed. “Okay. As long as this is what you want.”
All he did was give a single nod. I blinked away my tears and leaned to him, wrapping him in my arms for the last time. All the embrace did was to make me want to cry because I couldn't recall when was the last time Samuel had hugged me in person.
I blinked through my tears and stepped away from Samuel. “Okay. This is it.” I smiled at him, my grief already filling my heart.
“Thank you,” he said before pressing a kiss to my forehead.
I nodded and shifted to the ether to study his lifethreads. He’d been right about his essence fading in the last months. The tangle of colors that represented his spirit was a dull ebb now rather than a glowing shimmer.
I went in closer and studied the web of threads, finding where they entered the plane that Ari had created as Samuel’s prison. Though still unsure of what I needed to do, I followed Samuel’s instructions and reached for one of the threads, then slowly drew it out. It slipped free, a pretty pale blue shimmering thread then twisted around like a worm just pulled from the soil. I let go of it and repeated the process with the remaining bundle.
It was over before I knew it and I shifted away from the lifthread which now floated freely in the ether beside me. Was it really over.
I moved to reenter the plane when a presence pushed against me, startling me so much that I swung around, hands outstretched and ready to send out a ball of magic.
But all I saw was Samuel’s ethereal form as he hovered there and smiled at me. “You did it. Thank you.”
I wanted to cry, to scream at him that this was all so unfair. But all I said was, “Will you be okay now?”
He nodded. “I’ll wait in the Graylands in case you need my help. But at least there is one positive thing that came out of this.”
I arched an eyebrow although all I wanted to do was burst into tears. “What possible good can come out of this?”
Samuel chuckled and shook his head before saying, “At least now she has nothing to threaten you with.”
37
I was still standing in my office in a daze, feeling like I’d been punched in the gut, when my phone buzzed with a message from Natasha. Having just returned from the plane in which Ari had kept Samuel prisione, having just killed the man who was my mentor and my friend, havingh also recently committed murder, I wasn’t ready for the kind of message my white witch friend had just sent.
The wand is an ancient sacrificial relic, almost a century old. Used to bludgeon to death human sacrifices to the dark gods in exchange for power over death. It’s known to be used by necromancers and mages, but is most commonly used as a conduit to allow someone to bypass protective wards and shields. You need to get it out of the house as soon as possible.
My head was throbbing as I stood frozen to the spot. My peripherals worked well enough and even before I turned to check if the box containing the staff was still on my desk, I knew it was gone.
Even so I rushed to the desk dropped my phone to the side and rifled through the papers and files. I didn’t care about the mess I was making as I frantically tossed paperwork and notes to the floor in a vain attempt to find the damned box.
Where the hell was it?
I didn’t imagine Saleem would take it considering he had no clue what it was or where it had come from. I hadn’t gotten the opportunity to tell him about it yet.
I paced the floor, debating my options. It could only be Steph who had taken it. Maybe she wanted to do research on it or something.
Grabbing my mobile I stabbed the screen, impatient when the keypad didn’t seem to register my cold fingertips fast enough. To be fair, nothing would be fast enough right now, not while I was trying to save her damned life.
I’d killed too many people today to end up having to lose a third.
That is not even funny.
I listened to the dial tone with the mobile tucked between my cheek and my shoulder, swearing and praying she’d answer. But she was angry with me. Her last words had been more the stay-away-from-me type than the I’ll-be-back-when-I-cool-down variety. And when she was angr
y she tended to not see things too clearly.
“Steph,” I muttered,” Answer the damned phone.” The words were pleading, spoken with emotions that were an invocation to goddesses and ancients and every other deity in existence.
“Yes,” came Steph’s voice at last. She’d answered, even though she’d known the call was from me. I honestly hadn’t expected her to answer which was why I paused for a precious moment. Maybe there was still hope that I’d not lost her trust.
“Steph, listen to me. Where are you? And where is the baton-staff thing?
“I have it with me. Why?” Her words and voice were icy.
I struggled to breath. “That thing is dangerous. Where the hell are you? You have to get away from it.”
She sighed and then groaned. “Look, you don’t have to track my movements, Mel. Anyway, if you have to know, I’m just at the library, in special collections, doing research on the staff and then I’m coming back home to pack and I’m leaving. I’m not putting up with this shit anymore, okay? I can’t work with you if you keep lying to me. I’m not a kid and I’m not a pawn. I trusted you but you shut me out, Mel. I’m so done with this shit.” Her voice vibrated with anger and hurt.
“Steph? Look, you have every right to be furious with me, and you can yell all you like when we talk. But for now please do me a favour and get the fuck away from that staff.”
Steph groaned and then sighed. “Look I’m not going to fall for your bullshit anymore. Not that I know the mumbo jumbo isn’t real but you don’t need to lie to me to get me to do something. Mel, it’s not hard. Ever heard of ask and thy shall receive—”
“Steph, there is no time. Get out of there now and don’t touch that thing again. Leave it there and get away from it.”
I was wasting time talking to her, which she confirmed when she laughed into the phone. “I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to control me again and I’m sick and tired of it. And you know? Vanessa was right about you wanting to be the boss of everything. For once, I’m going to make a difference under my own steam. So, sorry. I’m holding onto this staff, whatever it is. It must be valuable but for now, I think I’ll keep it with me. I’ll do come of my own investigation into what it is and where it’s from. When I’m done, I’ll let you know.”
I screamed her name down the phone, knowing she was about to cut the call, “Steph, get out of there. That thing is dangerous.”
A strange sound echoed down the line to me, like glass shattering but also like the cracking of bones—hollow and high and sharp and painful.
Painful like Steph screams that were now echoing in my ears and in my mind. Again I screamed her name down the line, my voice filled with pain and fear. And then I heard it. “Mel,” she whispered, her voice ragged and pained. “Help me…it hurts….”
And the line went dead.
I didn’t hesitate, just jumped straight to to Steph, not even caring if someone spotted me materialising in the middle of the library. I followed Steph’s lifethread, fronwong as I noticed something wonky with them, as though they were blurred at the edges. I shook my head and focused harder, and went straight to her. Thankfully she was in a more private section of the library, and was the only occupant of the large office room.
I materialised in the doorway in the hopes that I wouldn't accidentally end up landing on top of Steph and crushing her to death, more because the jump to her had been so weird. Maybe that blurriness around her lifethread had something to do with the faulty jump?
Despite my hopes, only one of my heels hit solid ground—the other twisted on the side of Steph’s boot-heel—for which I was so grateful that I let out a sob of relief for having not broken her ankle.
She was lying face down, sprawwsl with her arms out flung toward the centre of the room. Heels toward the door meant to me that she’d been near the exit, perhaps rushing into the room when she’d been struck. But how? From behind?
But that didn’t make sense considering the box that had contained the staff was now sitting beside one of the old computers on the other side of the room. Nobody had considered the small phallic object to be anything other than a mystery to be solved after all the other things we had going on, a mystery related to some secret admirer perhaps?
But something else had been going on too, something perhaps I’d chosen to deliberately ignore. And ignoring that possibility had endangered Steph’s life.
I rushed to her side, turning her over, fingers snapping to her neck to feel for a pulse. I found it, slow and thready but there, and I almost wept with relief.
But I had to find the staff. Fast.
I settled Steph’s head carefully back down onto the floor, and scanned the desks in the small library on the off-chance that she’d perhaps left it somewhere else while skimming through a book.
It wasn’t anywhere.
Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy. Who the hell had I been kidding?
My head throbbed, and so did my chest from the blasting Aeriec had given me, and now the heart that lay beneath that injury ached for Steph who was out for the count.
I got onto my hands and knees to search the floor, scanning the spaces beneath the desks and then every inch of the carpet as well as the line of bookshelves along the far wall.
And I spotted it beside a large bookcase near the window. But it was no longer phallic in shape, no longer resembling a baton or a staff. The carved form of of skeletal creature crouched near the sill, empty sockets glowing with an ebbing orange fire.
I gasped and froze with my hand outstretched, fingers no more than five inches from the…thing. I snatched my hand away, keeping my gaze on the creature who was now skulking forward, close enough to the light for me to see the gleaming edges of the deadly sharp fingernails on his fingers. More like claws covered in a slick glossy liquid.
My heart tightened at the sight and he growled as his skull reached the light, the sound pained or angry, I wasn’t entirely sure which. The next thing I knew, he was springing high, fingers curved as he reached up for the long fluorescent light panel. He grabbed and yanked, falling with it to the floor before rolling away smoothly, safely out of range as the light came crashing to the ground, and the room went dark.
Despite the lack of light, something about him resonated. Perhaps I was picking up on his energies or lifethreads, if such a creature had a lifethread, but I could see the vague outline of him, a sort of glow in the dark that told me where he was.
He hunched over and glared at me from the shadows, having now retreated until he was almost completely shrouded in darkness. One eye on the creature, I reached across the carpet for Steph, scanning her with quick glances for any possible injury.
Which I found soon enough—the side of her shirt was ripped to shreds, a long narrow trail of four bloody lines could be seen beneath the ragged remains of her shirt.
I stood there frozen for a moment, unsure what to do first, take Steph to safety or catch the skeleton man from hell before it wreaked more havoc. Steph was unconscious but she didn’t appear to be bleeding out, the gouge marks mainly surface injuries due to the diminutive size of the creature.
Another growl emanated from within the shadows, the sound deeper and louder and more filled with fury. I snapped my gaze to the darkness near the bookshelves and let out a sound somewhere between a groan and a gasp, shock and disbelief filling me at the sight of the skeleton whose form now appeared to fill the space, his fleshless toe-bones peeking out from the darkness to be lit by a thin strip of moonlight coming in from the enormous library windows.
My gut twisted at the horror of it all—Steph being hurt, this mystery gift turning into a killer skeleton. Everything was just...enough.
As if on cue, as thought the creature could hear my fears, a desk shook and then split apart as though a buzz-saw had just run it through. The skeleton let out a frustrated growl and another desk shook before splitting in half.
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.
Now what?
I
had to get the creature out of the library and away from Steph and anyone else who could get caught in the crossfire, but where should I take it? Where would it be safe. And more especially, where could I take it that could contain it?
I made the decision within an instant, flinging myself toward the skeleton and grabbing onto the first of his bones that I could reach.
Then I jumped him straight into the magical circle we’d drawn on the floor of Storm’s old apartment. I’d taken a chance, hoping that the circle was still there, not even thinking that it was possible someone could have cleaned the place up and maybe let it out.
My boots hit the ground and I spun on my toes, swinging the heavy skeleton around and into the protection of the circle.
I’d materialised with the creature outside of the ward and had to act fast as the moment the thing solidified beside me it began to keen and scream and growl, the sounds enough to rip apart my eardrums.
Thankfully, the moment the skeleton thing entered the magic circle its screams were enveloped by a barrier that kept it at a low roar, making the noise sound like someone screaming underwater. I let out a sigh of relief, checked that the wards were still holding and then jumped back to the library.
The ward was designed to eliminate magic and though it would not disintegrate the creature itself, it would stall the progression of the magic that was giving the thing power.
For now, it was safe but I didn’t intend to leave it there for too long.
But first, I had to check on Steph.
I materialised at her side sinking to my knees to study the wounds. Her pale flesh oozed blood in ragged lines confirming what I’d thought, the skeleton had likely been too small to do much damage when it had first attacked Steph.
But, from the raw skin at the edges of her wounds I confirmed the other suspicion I’d had. The creatures claws had been coated in some sort of toxin or sedative because Steph was dead to the world.
I got to my feet, preparing to jump Steph home when the air beside me shimmered and a woman appeared, the hood of her long black cloak hiding much of her face.