Spirits

by Leslie Edens Copeland

  HEATHER DESPAIR

  Book Three

  SPIRITS

  by Leslie Edens Copeland

  Spectricity Books

  Bellingham, WA

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Spectricity Books

  Bellingham, Washington

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  Copyright © 2018 by Leslie Edens Copeland

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  First Edition

  To my dad

  Chapter One

  Sweethearts

  A dark form, falling out of the window. That's all I saw when I entered the Round Room that lazy afternoon. Someone was already there. And that someone was going out the open window.

  "Emmett!" I screamed. I recognized his coattails, black as Victorian coal, as they slipped rapidly over the sill. I lurched, gave myself a bit of float, and struck out with spectricity. The blue fire of spectral electricity flowed from my fingertips and latched on to his coat. I pulled, drawing the stream of energy back into my hand. Emmett fell back inside the Round Room, reeled in by his coattails, and sat bewildered on the cushioned floor.

  I quickly hid my hand behind my back. I busied myself in putting on a sweater to distract him. The temperature was pretty chilly in the Round Room. We kept sweaters and blankets here for that very reason, hanging on a hook beside the entrance.

  "Heather! What happened?" he said, his black eyes focused on mine. He scratched at the perfectly straight part that divided his dark curls, causing his hair to frizz up. In his stuffy Victorian suit with its high collar, he was the picture of befuddlement.

  I hoped he hadn't seen what I could do. It would only scare him.

  I crouched next to him on the cushions. Emmett slid his arm around my shoulders without hesitation and my face grew hot.

  Sweethearts. That's what he called us. And although his strict Victorian upbringing had so far prevented him from actually kissing me, he showered me with his chaste displays of affection. Hugs. Hand-holding. Gazing into my eyes. For three weeks, it had gone on like this. Emmett was incredibly cute and it was driving me crazy.

  I would have preferred a kiss. I did not grow up in the Victorian era and I, a normal, fifteen-year-old girl, wanted a normal boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. Even if my "sweetheart" was pretty recent to the mortal realm, having existed as a spirit until only a few weeks ago.

  Normal, however, may not be a word that applied to me so well either. My father had been a well-known spiritualist around town until his death from a spirit attack when I was eight. After that, I lived in a junkyard owned by my stepfather, Bruce Slade, and both me and my brother Sam experienced a lot of unsettling paranormal weirdness. For Sam, it was mainly visions, day and night, and voices that he heard and couldn't tune out. For me, the biggest problem was spectricity. I experienced uncontrollable energy in the form of blue electricity shooting through my body and out of my fingertips. I'd been desperate to figure out what was happening to me. Ironically, that was my name at the time: Heather Desperate Despair. And I had been desperate and in despair, too.

  At about that point, I started seeing ghosts. Emmett had been one of those ghosts. Meeting him changed everything, because he'd escorted me to the spirit world, where I received the Ring of Esperance and learned my true name: Heather Esperance d'Espers. Heir to the powerful spiritualist legacy of the d'Espers, passed down for many generations, and fated to become a medium between worlds.

  Emmett had been teaching me about all that. When I put on the Ring of Esperance, it kept my spectricity under control at last. Then I accidentally performed an incantation that unlocked something hidden within Emmett and he transformed—into the All, one of the four great spirit gods! He'd become locked in battle with the Bellum, an evil spirit god—although not so great, I'd say. The battle went badly. To avoid defeat and the destruction of the spirit world, Emmett had been forced to transform himself into a mortal. Now helpless, mortal Emmett had no place to go. So I'd brought him back with me to the mortal world. To the Vic, the very huge, very haunted Victorian house where I lived.

  Okay, I might have had ulterior motives when I brought him to live here. He was awfully cute, especially once he was alive. But the last time he'd been mortal, the year had been 1900! In some ways, Emmett was still stuck in stuffy Victorian manners.

  I tilted my face toward him, hoping he'd finally be tempted. Our lips were inches apart. I waited . . . and he turned to gaze out the window at the green Hebrides sea. He kept staring, wrapped up in his thoughts, until I cleared my throat a few times. "Emmett!" I said. He glanced at me with sad eyes.

  "What were you thinking about just now?" I asked.

  He shivered against me. "Nothing, really. A daydream. I was a dead soul floating under the sea. Can you imagine how beautiful it must be under there?" He turned to the window again, to the dark, brooding skies, the thrashing waves of the alien and otherworldly sea. The Round Room was not exactly on Earth and it was not exactly in the spirit world, either. From here, we saw in between—a halfway space, suspended between both worlds. Emmett had been spending more and more time up here—like he instinctively wanted to get closer to the spirit world.

  "Something's bothering you," I said. I suspected I knew what. I laid my head on his shoulder since he wouldn't kiss me.

  His voice came out hollow and distant. "I feel . . . there is something important I'm meant to do. I'm so distracted and I have the weirdest dreams. When I can sleep at all."

  He released a huge sigh, which disheartened me further. When he had been a spirit, Emmett had always reprimanded me for sighing. He claimed it was unsanitary and broadcast all my emotions and desires to anyone in the spirit world who cared to listen. But as a mortal, Emmett sighed all the time. After just three weeks, he'd lost all memory of his former spirit manifestation.

  I said, "Maybe I was wrong to keep you here. What if I said there is something important you're supposed to do?"

  He said, "I would believe you in a heartbeat. But what is it, I wonder?"

  I hesitated. Dare I tell him about Dead Town?

  ***

  "In my opinion, Bellum's playing Emmett for a fool," Lily had said to me a week earlier. She'd crossed her arms and stared at me over her glasses, daring me to challenge her.

  The Paranormals—Lily, Oskar, Trenton, and of course, me—had gathered in the Vic's sunny kitchen around the long table in the cheerful, yellow room. Some days, I loved exploring the enormous, decrepit Victorian house I inherited from my father. I liked to wander its many creepy passages and haunted hallways or hang out in the paranormal bookstore we ran on the first floor.

  But on this sunny day—the first day of summer vacation—the Vic felt kind of gloomy for four very alive teenagers. So, me and my mortal friends, the three who'd helped me discover the spirit world, sat enjoying our first free afternoon in the brightest, most alive room in the
house—the servant's kitchen. This cheery room was formerly populated by cooks, maids, and butlers who long ago would have prepared and served meals for the master of the house. Despite this, it was a seldom-haunted room—maybe because of all the sun, I don't know. Lately, when we just felt like being ourselves, we gathered here.

  Trenton and Oskar played spectral spades, a spiritualist's game that involved guessing the real cards versus those that would go up in smoke. Guess wrong three times and the cards "buried" themselves by sinking into the table.

  I guess they learned the game up in Dead Town. After I became Emmett's protégée, the spirits held a party in our honor. Lily, Trenton, and Oskar had attended. Apparently, they'd brought home a few new tricks, as well as new dance moves.

  "Boo!" shouted Oskar. Trenton squealed as three of his cards evaporated into smoke.

  Lily dug through her overstuffed binder, flipping her black hair streaked with pink. She'd started compiling her paranormal notes the second school got out. I could already tell she'd obsess over her spiritualist historian project all summer.

  "This is for the official record," she said, raising an expectant eyebrow at me. She straightened her argyle sweater. "Please explain the rivalry of the spirit gods."

  I groaned. Another round of questions from Lily. I was tense enough from constantly watching over Emmett and from waiting for my brother Sam's missives from the spirit world. Sam's messages came regularly, but never the news I'd hoped for—that he'd found our dad.

  Lily tapped her fingers impatiently on her notebook. "Come on, Heather. I'm the official spiritualist historian of Portales Espirituales. Uncle Arturo said so. He was the previous historian and he's teaching me. I'm his protégée."

  "All right, all right." I blew out a careful breath—not a sigh—and explained what I knew. "There's an ancient rivalry between Bellum and the All. Bellum is the Lord of Chaos and he wants to rule the spirit world, but to do so, he needs to vanquish the All and bring about the Coming End. As long as the All can avoid fighting Bellum, Bellum can never win, so the spirit world is protected."

  Lily scribbled some notes, muttering, "Demon dogs, evil birds . . . destruction of the Four . . ." She raised her eyes to mine. "Destruction of the Four. Tell me everything we know about that."

  I groaned. "Again?"

  "For the record, Heather," said Lily in a sharp voice.

  "Okay, but this is the last time I'm telling you. Twenty years ago, four spiritualists led the mortal community in Portales Espirituales. They were called the Coterie Four. My father, Able d'Espers. Your uncle, Arturo Benavidez. Their close friend, Valente de los Santos. And a fourth man, Maximilian Pollander." I bit my lip as my voice wobbled. "The Bellum destroyed all four spiritualists."

  "Killed them, you mean," said Lily, her voice somber.

  "Yes, killed, destroyed, scattered them to the wind. When he couldn't kill them himself, he sent his mortal followers, the Turned Against, to do it. No one knows exactly why," I said. "I assume the Coterie Four was getting too powerful." I swallowed a lump in my throat. I wished Lily would stop bringing this up—my father had died, for All's sake!

  "And no spirits protected them. I wonder why, in all I've studied, the Bellum never previously attacked mortals," said Lily.

  I pushed Trenton's spectral cards away before they went up in smoke in my face. I didn't like where Lily was going with this. "Maybe mortals had never been that powerful before. I have a theory that Bellum believed one of the mortals would take him out. Why else would he specifically search out the Coterie Four and target them?"

  "According to what I've gleaned . . ." Lily pushed her glasses up her nose with a superior sniff. "The All was subdivided into a mid-level spirit at that time and had given up his godly power."

  "Emmett? Yes, he became a mid-level spirit after his last death, in 1900. With no memory of being a god," I said. I fidgeted. It kind of sounded like she was blaming Emmett for the deaths of the Four!

  "So, these more aggressive actions on Bellum's part—probably the result of the All giving up," said Lily, scratching notes.

  "Wait! No! Emmett's not responsible!" I said.

  "I think we've established that much," said Lily in a dry voice, her lips pursed.

  She was blaming Emmett! My heart stabbed with pain—the way she made it sound, my father's death was the fault of my would-be boyfriend!

  "You can't blame Emmett for their deaths!" I said. "How could he know what the Bellum would do? Besides, if Emmett becomes the All and fights Bellum, you don't realize how dangerous that is. The All could lose. Then the Bellum would take over, destroying the worlds as we know them!" I lowered my head. "I never would have incanted Emmett into the All if I'd known what could happen."

  "I know you didn't mean to cause an epic battle between the gods, Heather," said Lily in her sharpest voice. "But you really should be more careful. Next time, do your research and find out what these incantations do before you use them."

  I said nothing. I kinda deserved that. If it hadn't been for my impromptu incantation, Emmett never would have transformed into the All, revealing his god-ness. And the whole epic battle, with my friends trapped by Bellum in the Lexiverse, none of it would have happened.

  "I did get us out again," I finally said.

  "I suppose that's true. After we got caught in the middle of Clash of the Titans," said Lily, her lips still pursed in disapproval.

  Trenton yelped loudly and Lily jumped, then she fanned away smoke from Trenton's exploded cards. Trenton dug his fingers into his springy blond hair as his cards wafted away into the air.

  "Why do you always beat me, Oz?" he said.

  Oskar flashed a handsome smile and swept back his auburn hair. He slid his hand over Trenton's and their eyes met. Oskar kissed Trenton gently on the cheek.

  "I could let you win," said Oskar in his smooth, woodwind voice.

  "No, it's okay," said Trenton in an awed voice, staring at Oskar. "As long as you love me, I can bear any defeat."

  "Are you sure?" Oskar lowered his eyelids in a smoldering come-hither stare.

  "Positive!" Trenton flew at Oskar, nearly knocking him off the chair, and embraced him. They were kissing passionately when I tapped Lily's shoulder and nodded at the door. We quietly got up and tiptoed out. We stood outside the kitchen door, talking quietly in the narrow hall.

  "They need alone time," I said.

  "Definitely. Doesn't help when Trenton's parents won't accept it," grumbled Lily.

  "He still hasn't told them Oskar's his boyfriend?" I said. I envied their kissing. They were so natural together, so easy—not awkward and shy like me and Emmett. But their relationship had to be kept secret from Trenton's parents and I did not envy that. "How can his parents not realize by now?"

  "His dad is really anti-gay. Trenton overheard his parents talking once and his dad said he'd never tolerate a gay son." A deep scowl creased Lily's forehead.

  I gulped. "That's awful. His dad probably does suspect, if he's making threats like that."

  "Yeah, I think so, too. Luckily, Oskar's parents are supportive. They were thrilled to meet Trenton," said Lily. "Trenton told me they completely welcomed him in."

  "I'm glad to hear that. And now that Oskar graduated, he's a free bird," I said. "They could always run off together."

  "No, Oz said he's going to hang around for a while, work at The Haunted with Trenton," said Lily. "He's taking his ghost parents' advice to stick with us. They said if he did, he'd have a very interesting future."

  I nodded. I remembered when they'd given him that advice—after all, it was my séance that called them up. But— "What about college?" I asked. "Oskar must want to go."

  "Trenton told me that Oskar's taking a year off. He's been through a lot with the death of his parents, then encountering the spirit world, and his first boyfriend—it's a lot to handle," said Lily.

  "I think it's sweet. He's waiting for Trenton to graduate," I said.

  "You're probably right. Oskar's be
en so good for Trenton." Then Lily frowned at me. "But what about Sam? Trenton and I went to watch the graduation ceremony and I kept waiting for Sam to show. They even called his name—but he wasn't there."

  I let out my breath, long and slow, so I wouldn't sigh. It worried me so much, the whereabouts of my wayward brother, Samhain the Seer. His chaotic life, as he rambled through mortal and spirit worlds. I never knew where he'd be or when he'd pop up next. In the process of searching the spirit world for our father, Sam had missed his own graduation.

  "He graduated," I said. "He was a pretty good student, believe it or not. But he did miss the ceremony and all the parties and celebrations. I guess it's the price of being a spiritualist."

  "Yeah, it messes with ordinary life, doesn't it? How about you, Heather? Are you going back to school next year? Now that you know about . . . your destiny." Lily made air quotes, smirking.

  "I don't know. I'm taking it one day at a time. Nothing's decided until my dad gets back," I said.

  "That's sensible," said Lily. "There's an awful lot we don't know yet."

  "Right." I nodded. At last, Lily understood me.

  "Like, what are the consequences if the All avoids fighting Bellum by chickening out and hiding as a mortal?" Lily eyed me over her glasses.

  "Hey! Emmett had no choice but to go mortal! He had to protect the worlds," I said, glaring at Lily. She just went back to her notes.

  "How long can that last? The All will have to fight Bellum eventually," she said in that know-it-all voice.

  I was sure I had her now. In my own know-it-all voice, I said, "No, he won't! We trapped Bellum in the Lexiverse. He can't escape. Emmett won't have to fight him for a long time. Maybe never."

  Inside the kitchen, I heard the refrigerator door slam loudly and a cheerful voice said, "Ow!" Then the fridge door creaked open.

  I pushed aside the kitchen door. Lily and I peered in. Oskar and Trenton had vacated and Emmett stood before the open fridge in his shirt sleeves, hungrily munching on a huge block of cheese. He smiled at us. "What are you girls up to?" he asked.