Ethereal Entanglements

by Lee French

  She leaped over a stream and turned north to race alongside it. Justin stayed low, his worries melted away in favor of enjoying the ride. They reached a rural road and she pushed herself to her top speed, nearly one hundred miles per hour. Thanks to their bond, Justin felt only a light breeze and he had no concerns about swallowing bugs.

  Soon they reached the roads frequented by tourists visiting Mount St. Helens. Tariel dove into the wilderness again. She had to slow to dodge boulders and creeks. They skirted the edges of fenced properties.

  On the bank of a shaded stream, Tariel slowed to a walk. Her sides heaved and a sheen of sweat covered her skin. Justin patted her neck and climbed down when she stopped. Both paused to take a drink. He stretched and felt like his thoughts had settled enough to talk things through with Tariel.

  “I think—”

  Something plowed into him from behind, knocking him to the ground. By reflex, Justin rolled to get a grip on his attacker. His assailant turned out to be a medium-sized, brown dog trying desperately to untangle itself and get away. Justin wrestled it down and pinned it in place as a man on a chestnut horse stormed out of the trees.

  “No, please let me go,” the dog whined.

  “Good catch!” The Native American Knight, dressed in jeans and a navy fleece vest over a blue plaid flannel shirt, held a spear ready. “Long time no see, Justin.” He slid off the back of his horse, ready to run the dog through.

  “Hi Charlie. Good to see you.” Justin kept the dog on the ground. He understood its pleading, which made it an ur-phasm. At some point, a corrupted Phasm had created a spirit made of his will and used it to possess a dog. The process destroyed the dog’s mind and turned it into a minion. The presence of one meant a corrupted Phasm in the area, since Justin had never heard of one surviving the death of its Phasm. Then again, Drew still seemed to be possessed, so he couldn’t be sure of anything anymore.

  “Likewise. We can catch up in a minute, though.” Charlie squatted beside the dog and patted its head too hard to be affectionate. “Who do you work for, spirit?”

  “I don’t know,” the ur-phasm wailed. It slumped and stopped struggling.

  “You don’t know?” Justin frowned and wrenched the ur-phasm up so he could sit with it in his lap. “What do you mean?” Though it could be lying, his gut said it told the truth.

  “You mean you don’t want to say,” Charlie prompted.

  “No,” the ur-phasm whined. “I don’t know. There’s no Phasm. I feel something, but I don’t know what it is and I can’t find it!”

  Justin and Charlie shared a confused glance. “That’s impossible,” Charlie said.

  “That’s what I thought too,” Justin said. “What’s your name?”

  “Kay.”

  Justin blinked. As far as he knew, ur-phasms usually identified as the first letter of the Phasm’s name. Odds were, this dog had belonged to Kurt. Since kurt was destroyed at dawn this morning, Justin had no idea what to think. Maybe Drew’s possessing spirit had something to do with this.

  “Charlie, I need to talk to you. As crazy as it sounds, I think I need to take this ur-phasm with me.”

  Chapter 10

  Claire

  “You’ll need to find a strong ley line,” Iulia said. She draped her arm around Claire’s shoulders and turned her back on the post. “There’s always at least one in any given region. Magic can’t help but gather in pools and streams, just like water. At the minimum, it should appear twice as wide as your waist. The bigger you can find, the better.”

  “Where should I look?” Claire glanced back to see Enion and Leeloo trailing them like giant obedient puppies.

  “I’m uncertain. In my day, I’d recommend venturing near places known to produce strange creatures. Many, such as dragons, come from an interaction between a normal animal and a ley line. The more monstrous and destructive, the more powerful the ley line that produced it. Subsequent generations tend to lair near a ley line, but not necessarily a strong one. Check where you found Enion, but don’t have high hopes. Dragons are much too pleasant.”

  “I need a place known for producing weird?” The entire city of Portland fit that description, so it probably had a strong ley line someplace. “Anything more specific?”

  “Concentrations of stories about the strange, bizarre, and otherworldly. Under the influence of a strong ley line, people often hallucinate to a minor degree. They may believe they’ve had deja vu or seen a ghost. There may be a cluster of deaths or major injuries around one. Anything statistically abnormal with no other explanation than luck or fate.”

  Claire considered what she knew of the city. A cop could probably point her a few places to look, but she didn’t want to talk to the only cop she knew. The idea of asking Avery for help after he’d done horrible things to her while tainted felt awkward and complicated. She knew Normal Avery didn’t deserve to be held accountable for everything Evil Avery had done, but that didn’t make chatting with him more comfortable.

  She set that aside and remembered some of the crazy things classmates had done over the years, going on weird tours of the city. “How about places considered haunted?”

  “Yes, try that first. When you find it, you’ll need three things. One, the essence of near death. Two, sharp protection of the spirit. Three, blood of a ghost.”

  For a long few beats, Claire stared at Iulia, unamused. “None of those things make any sense.”

  Iulia laughed. “Of course not. It’s standard quest pap. Get dirt from the grave of your ancestor. Any ancestor will do. You’ll need enough to cover both hands. The second is a large, clear crystal, at least this big.” She made a circle with her finger and thumb. “And the last is blood from a possessed creature. Any creature is fine. Your sprite will do if that’s your only option, but you’ll need twice as much blood from him. If you can find a possessed creature, you need only enough blood to coat the crystal.

  “Go to the ley line, cover your hands in the dirt, coat the crystal in the blood, and use both hands to touch crystal to the ley line. Hold it in until it’s gone. That should fill the locket construct with enough power to last you a hundred years. When you kill Caius and destroy the Palace, the locket will switch to using its own reservoir.”

  Claire followed along, making mental notes, until the last part. “Whoa. Wait. Back up. Kill Caius? Are you nuts? He can beat me with both hands tied behind his back and his eyes closed.”

  “Did you think you could somehow destroy the Palace without getting rid of him? He guards the original seal that you’ll have to break. It’s the keystone of his demesne. He won’t let you reach it. The only way to access it will be through him.”

  Everything Iulia said made sense to Claire—impossible and unpleasant, but logical. “You know, I thought you loved him. He made a mural with you as the central figure, and in the memory I saw…you looked like two people in love.”

  Iulia raised a brow and crossed her arms. “That self-righteous, egotistical bastard took me from my home and family, used my power, perverted my creations, consigned my children and their descendants to a hellish existence of hunting their own ancestors, and imprisoned me in torment for what was supposed to be eternity because I had the gall to point out he was wrong. He may have fantasized about an adoring wife who hung on his every word, but he never had one.”

  For a moment, Claire blinked, then she smirked. “When you put it that way, anything sounds bad.”

  Iulia chuckled. “Yes, it does.”

  Claire mulled over the instructions and thought it sounded too simple. Not easy, of course. She suspected breaking and entering might be required for the ley line, and dipping the crystal would probably make some major metaphysical crap happen, then killing Caius would take a miracle. But everything was straightforward: get this, take it here, do that.

  Before doing any of it, she wanted to talk to someone outside the whole thing. Anne, Marie’s sister, would be a good choice, but only for the part about her locket. As a witch, she
should be able to understand all the magic stuff. The moment she figured out Claire intended to destroy the Palace, though, she’d raise the corruption alarm and Justin would get involved. He’d probably lock her in a room and go hunting for the corrupted Phasm he’d never find because Iulia wasn’t a ghost.

  That left Marie and her parents, none of whom knew anything about this stuff. And Drew. If anyone understood the difference between magically tainted and not, she thought it would be Drew. Besides, she needed his blood anyway, and he’d want to know why. His ghost might even have some ideas for cheating against Caius.

  “I guess I’m ready to get out of here and go home. Any ideas how we do that?”

  They’d reached the archway entrance to the awful room. Iulia laid a hand on the stone. “I expect it’s the flush of victorious triumph and pride at completing your quest that gets you out of here.”

  After everything Caius had put her through down here, Claire’s lip curled. “What a stupid test.”

  “Agreed. I would never accuse Caius of being thoughtful or clever, though. I recommend leaving the Palace as soon as possible to avoid letting him catch on to anything. He’s also not completely stupid.”

  Claire smirked. “Only partly stupid.”

  “Indeed.”

  “Home?” Enion slid his head under her hand and lifted it, eyes wide with hope.

  “Yep. Let’s get out of here. Think about how awesome it is that we just beat this stupid Ordeal.” Claire took a deep breath and followed her own instructions. The stone walls and darkness crumbled and the ground rocked. She stumbled forward and found herself in the Thoroughfare again with tiny Enion looped around her neck.

  Only one Knight remained sitting on the floor, his back against the wall—the dark-skinned, man who’d been stationed outside her door yesterday. He must’ve done something to annoy Elder Yun or Djembe to keep getting stuck with guarding places against Claire. When he looked up, he nodded to her and said something in a foreign language.

  This time, Claire wanted to understand him. She willed it to happen. “What?”

  He grinned. “Congratulations on completing an Ordeal, Knight.”

  Surprised by his politeness, she blinked and stared at him. “Thank you. Is everyone going to stop harassing me now?”

  He raised his brow and smiled at her as he stood. “Probably not. Djembe is convinced you’ll be the end of the Palace. At a guess, he’s having trouble separating you from Iulia, and I get the feeling an Italian or Greek woman was cruel to him in his past.”

  “Perfect.” Claire sighed and rubbed her forehead. “This place is just like high school.”

  The Knight laughed. “In some ways, I’m sure it is. I’m Khalil.”

  They shook hands. Claire noticed her eyelids drooping and her limbs felt like lead weights. “Nice to meet you. Do you know how long I was in there?”

  “Several hours. At least five or six. Justin came and went. You should talk to him about why. He asked me to stay and make sure you reached your room safely.”

  “Oh. Cool. Thanks.” Finally, she’d met another non-jerk Knight. For a while, it had seemed she’d only ever have Justin and Rondy on her side.

  She let him drape an arm across her shoulders and leaned against him. Together, they plodded up the stairs to the fourth floor. They passed other men. One gave them both a dirty look. The rest nodded to Khalil and ignored her, like normal.

  At her door, he smiled at her and let go. “I recommend food and sleep before anything else. In either order.”

  Being treated this well made her match his smile. “I accept your recommendation. Thanks.”

  “Good luck with your day, Claire.” He bowed his head and left.

  Inside her room, she thought about lying on the floor for a while. But if she didn’t go home right away, she’d miss Thanksgiving completel. That would probably upset Marie, the one person in the whole world who didn’t deserve it. With another sigh, she walked to the blank, stone wall and pushed through it until she stepped out of a worn, old couch.

  Dark and quiet, the cottage where she lived with Justin and his family smelled of potatoes and sage. They’d all gone to the farmhouse for dinner already.

  Enion stretched and hung limp around her neck. “Nap?”

  Claire wanted to say yes and sleep until tomorrow. “Nope. We better go see Grandma and Grandpa. They’ll have mashed potatoes and cooked carrots. You know how you like cooked carrots. And you need to try cranberry sauce.”

  She shuffled to the door and had no idea what she’d say when she saw Justin. He’d checked up on her, which meant he had some clue how to move forward from here, but she couldn’t imagine how to start the conversation about what happened yesterday and this morning. With luck, he’d be entertaining the girls or watching football so she could avoid him until she got some sleep.

  Chapter 11

  Claire

  Outside, the chill in the air wrapped around Claire and reminded her she hadn’t changed out of her armor. Everyone would understand, but she still felt stupid and weird about sitting down to dinner with the family while armed and armored. She hesitated on the tidy gravel path, torn between going back to throw some extra clothes on and plowing forward to dump some food in her belly.

  “Hungry,” Enion chirped.

  His decision suited her well enough. She tromped past the old stump where Justin often chopped firewood and up the path to the farmhouse. Ten feet away, the door opened and Drew stepped out, shrugging a coat on.

  He saw her and smiled with surprise, but it fell quickly into concern. “Is that blood?”

  Happier to see him than she’d expected, Claire closed the distance and wrapped her arms around him. “No. I’m fine. You?”

  “I’m okay.” Holding her tight, he sighed. “You were gone a really long time.”

  “Stuff happened. We’re starving. There’s something I need to talk to you about, but I’ve got to sleep and eat first.”

  Drew pulled away and offered her a biscuit from the pocket of his coat. He opened his mouth to say something, but the clomp of hooves on damp earth made both turn to see Justin riding Tariel. For some reason, he carried a squirming brown dog.

  “That’s my master!” the dog shouted with joy. When Justin let the dog go, it ran for Drew and knocked him over, tail wagging madly. Drew’s glasses went flying.

  Claire snatched the biscuit out of the air as he fell and drew her dagger to defend Drew from what had to be an ur-phasm.

  “Wait!” Justin rushed to their side and grabbed Claire’s arm.

  Unable to break free, Claire glared up at Justin. “What for?”

  The dog licked Drew’s face. “Master.”

  “Ugh.” Drew shoved the dog off his chest and wriggled to get away. “Sure. Good dog.” He patted the dog on the head, then he paused and squinted in confusion. “Wait. This dog can talk.”

  “It was Kurt’s ur-phasm.” Justin kept his grip on Claire’s arm. “It’s Drew’s now.”

  “What? That doesn’t even make sense. He’s not a Phasm. How can he have an ur-phasm?” Claire poked the dog’s side and it looked up at her with soft, brown eyes. “You said we have to kill ur-phasms.” She yanked her arm away from Justin and didn’t care how whiny she sounded. At this point, she’d been awake for a long, crappy day and a half.

  Justin shrugged. “I reserve the right to sometimes be wrong. If Drew is controlling it, I don’t see the harm of letting it live.”

  “And I’m supposed to take your word for that? Really? Yours? Just accept whatever you say?” She glared at Justin and had no idea why she said that or why she scowled at him. The words just spilled out because she needed someone to yell at for all the hurt Caius had inflicted on her today, for what Djembe said and did, for Rondy dying to help her, for everything. Khalil had been too nice for that. Justin acted like himself and did something weird, which made her uncomfortable enough to spew venom all over him.

  Realizing that, and seeing the distress on Justin�
�s face, she stormed into the trees behind the house. Exhaustion had caught up with her and made her a brat.

  “Claire, wait,” Justin said.

  “Way to go,” Drew snapped. “She just got back. She hasn’t slept yet, and you stopped her before she could eat.”

  Their voices faded into the background, covered by the snapping and cracking of deadfall as she ran away from them and deeper into the woods. Drew standing up for her made everything worse for no reason. She stopped when she couldn’t see or hear them anymore and sat on a gnarled root, covering her face. Enion crawled onto her shoulder and jumped to the ground. With a bright flash of white light, he expanded into his horse-sized self.

  “Fly?”

  “Not now.” She rubbed her face and felt a hollow emptiness pushing the anger away.

  “Do you want to talk?”

  Startled, Claire jumped to her feet and drew her dagger. She hadn’t heard Drew approach. Adrenaline fired her up for another bout with anyone who’d followed him, but only the dog had come, and it sat obediently at his feet. She stared.

  Drew, his glasses now back in place, held up both hands in surrender. “Or I could just go. Sorry.”

  Sheathing her dagger again, she took a deep breath and shook her head. “No. Stay. I just…didn’t hear you coming.”

  “Oh. Yeah. The mist. Kay and I practiced this morning some. It’s getting easy already. He says I’m kind of a natural. Not sure how to feel about that coming from the spirit possessing me.” He looked at the dog. “And now I have a talking pet, I guess. Just like you guys all do.”

  Claire dropped onto the root again to wait for her arms and legs to stop shaking. “It’s an ur-phasm.”

  “Yeah. I’m not really sure what to do with it, actually.”

  “I’ll do anything for you, master,” the dog gushed.

  Claire gave the dog a sidelong glance, unnerved by the idea of sharing space with something she’d been told ought to be interrogated and killed whenever possible. The cute face accompanying its heartfelt expression of devotion didn’t help.