And as she looked all around them, she noticed that the ashen figures had stopped to stare up at them. Just like her dream in the woods, when she could feel the eyes of the trees on her … she had broken the silence, and something primordial and ancient had acknowledged her presence.
The spirits seemed confused and shy. The bolder ones flickered onto the roof with them, but only for brief seconds before flitting away again. She caught glimpses of one or two drifting by or above to see what was happening. Scraps of voices, mostly gibberish, caught in her brain. But by and large, the spirits avoided them, simply watching. A few even fled, disappearing from sight altogether.
Edie turned her gaze back to the skyline. Far in the distance, a few Coveters lingered; one had tipped its head as if to listen. Her heart jumped into her throat, and from between clenched teeth, a prayer leaked: "Come on, Elle, please..."
The sound of energy ratcheting up caught her attention, and she glanced toward the sky. A streak of bright blue mist had appeared above their heads and was darting between them intelligently, checking each one of them out. Another spirit, but ... brighter than the others.
"Elle?" she called, turning.
The blue mist paused before dropping to the ground and quickly coalescing into a figure. The figure was blurry at first; she was only able to make out their big boots, their T-shirt, and a mohawk. Finally, the image sharpened.
Edie’s jaw dropped. She tried to say something to Adam, but there were no words.
The other hellerune must have sensed a change, though. Abruptly, his melody died in the air, and he turned to face the ghost.
It wasn't Elle, but they—both of them—recognized his face. Standing before them, completely lifelike save for desaturated coloring, was Mikey Mausoleum.
Chapter Twenty
Edie looked between the two men standing in front of her. Adam's face had turned almost as gray as the specter's.
It was probably safe to say none of them had seen this coming. For a moment, Edie wondered if it was some sort of mistake.
But no, this ghost looked exactly like Death Benefits' late drummer. Same mohawk—usually candy-apple red but only a tinted gray here—same disheveled appearance, unlaced boots. His youthful, almost feminine face was worn and tired, framed with stubble. But his large brown eyes were alert, much more so than the other spirits here, and when he looked at Adam, they lit up with recognition.
Adam was the first to blurt out, his voice cracking, "Mikey?"
The spirit responded with an easy smile and a laid-back "Oh, hey, man," like they had just bumped into each other casually, not after a decade and in a plane of lost souls.
If nothing else, Mikey's reaction was disarming. Even Adam, who seemed constantly on the edge of a meltdown, relaxed when his old friend spoke, straightening up. He slung the Genesis over his shoulder again, awed and numb. "Mikey ... is that seriously you?"
"Yeah, it's me!" The spirit looked down at himself, fingering his oversized T-shirt. "I think it's me. Everything looks like it's in the right place..."
Even dead, he sounded stoned out of his mind. Edie took a step forward, glancing over at Satara. She had turned toward the others, too, watching cautiously.
"Mikey." Adam couldn't seem to find any other words. In one swift motion, he stepped forward and drew the shorter man into a tight hug.
To Edie's surprise, he was perfectly capable. Despite Mikey's ghostly appearance, he was corporeal, standing still in Adam's arms for a moment. Then he returned the hug, squeezing him and patting him on the back. "Wow, you look different." The drummer's voice was muffled by Adam's shoulder. "Like, all old ’n’ shit."
Adam pulled back, looking down at him with a huffed laugh. But his calmness couldn't last forever, and soon, his brow furrowed, eyes shining. The implications of Mikey's presence here were starting to overtake the shock of seeing him. "What the hell are you doing here, man?"
"I dunno," Mikey replied pleasantly, gazing around the Wending like one might gaze around a Target. "I heard you playing our song, so I came to see. Where am I again?"
"You're in the Wending," Satara said as she approached. "It's where the souls of the dead go when they get lost."
His big eyes got bigger. "Whoa. That's fucked up."
She hesitated before asking carefully, "You ... you know what happened to you, don't you?"
"Yeah!"
When he said nothing else, Adam prompted, "What happened? How did you get here?"
"Oh." Mikey nodded along, looking between him and Satara. "Well, the last time I went to sleep, I think I took too many pills. Usually it's okay if I make a mistake and take too many ... I just sleep a long time." He shrugged helplessly. "Then I woke up and wanted to go to the bodega to get some candy and booze? But I couldn't find the right way."
"Did you ride a train?" Edie asked.
"Yeah ... I tried to go somewhere else, but I couldn't find my stop." He pulled a face at Adam. "Man, the MTA really needs to put more money into cleaning the subway or something. It was totally grody."
The air around Edie shimmered, and Basile mumbled, "I want whatever this guy's having."
The heartbreak in Adam's face was obvious. "Mikey ... do you know you're...?"
"Dead?" the spirit finished forlornly. "Yeah, I kinda guessed after seeing all the spooky shit around here..." He perked up, tilting his head. "How'd you know?"
Adam's brows raised, drawn tightly together. "Mikey, I was there. I ... watched you die. Do you— do you even know how long it's been?"
Mikey shook his head. "Nope! Time feels all weird here. And no one has a watch or a cell phone or anything.”
"It's been a while," Adam said, voice thick. "A little over ten years."
"Oh." The spirit considered that before smiling widely. “I guess that explains why you look like my dad.” Then, for the first time, he seemed to fully register Edie, looking between her and Satara. "Who are the cute chicks?"
"Um, this is Edie, and this is Satara." Adam gestured to them in turn. "Satara, this is my … former drummer. You're not, you know, concerned about having been in a plane of lost souls for over a decade?"
Mikey shrugged. "Can't go back and fix it now. Plus, I was all dead and stuff, so it's not like I missed anything. Except the fact that you're dead now, too, I guess." To his credit, pain crossed his face at that thought. "How’d it happen?"
"I'm not dead." Adam sighed heavily. "It's a long story. Basically, Ellie got stuck here on accident. We need to find her so we can bring her back."
"You can do that?" Mikey blinked, grinning crookedly. "Gnarly."
"Hopefully."
Edie nodded toward Adam. "He was playing that song hoping she'd recognize it and come."
"Yeah! But I came instead!" After a second, his grin died. "Uh, sorry. Do we need to play it again?"
"We might not need to," Satara said. "Have you seen Elle here? Could you take us to her?"
"Elle's here?"
Adam ran a hand down his face and sighed. "I just told you that, dude."
"Oh, right." Mikey smiled again, looking around lackadaisically, like he might spot Elle nearby. When he didn't, his smile turned to frustration instead. "I dunno where she is … I haven't seen her. Buuuut you were playing that thing pretty loud, so she probably heard it. Maybe she's busy?"
"Or trapped somewhere," Edie suggested, rubbing her upper arms.
"Ohhh, yeah!" The spectral drummer nodded, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "I've seen those big skeleton dudes take people away. They put ’em in these big cages, I think. I followed one and saw it one time, but then ... I can't remember what happened."
"Soul cages," came Basile's voice, along with the telltale shimmer from Edie's circlet. "I've seen them, too. No idea why they cage some souls and eat others, but ... if you find Elle in one and get her, we can figure things out from there."
Mikey boggled at Edie. "Your hat is talking!"
"Where are they, Basile?" she asked.
"Beats me. This
place looks nothing like I remember it. They used to be at the— Well, who knows what else has changed? Ask Space Case."
Edie turned to the space case in question, eyeing him up and down apprehensively. "Do you remember where you saw the cages?"
He frowned thoughtfully, swaying until he had considered the skyline in each direction. Finally, he shrugged, pointing behind Adam and Satara. "I guess we could follow that guy."
Edie spun, barely choking back a scream. Much closer than any of them had realized, a Coveter peered around a decaying skyscraper, neck craning searchingly. How the hell did it get so close so quietly? Edie's brain screamed, sending jolts of panic through her limbs.
The white light in the Coveter’s skull pulsed, and a mournful whine rent the air.
"Hide," Adam hissed, and darted to slide behind the brick around the roof access door. Edie followed suit, and Satara split from them, concealing herself behind the central pipe of a rusted water tower. Mikey watched them go before turning into the same ball of light he'd arrived as, zooming over the edge of the roof and out of sight.
Edie pressed herself to the brick, trying to regulate her breathing. She could hear the creak of the Coveter's bones moving, the faint hum of the energy working inside of it. She had never been hunted like this—even in her dream, when the wolf chased her, she knew she could fight back. But against this thing, as tall as a building? Never.
The ground shook, the gravel at her feet jumping and trembling as the Coveter finally moved. Its shadow fell over them, and her body burned, a primal numbness overtaking her. She had to stay still. For all she was worth, she had to stay still. She had to get back home to Mercy. To Cal.
The shadow grew deeper. The tenements shook, raining fine dust, their steel beams protesting dully. The Coveter's form emerged from around the corner, and Edie cast her eyes down. It was so close. Its malformed hip bone alone, which was just level with the roof, was so massive it made her head spin.
And so she didn't look at it. She looked at the gravel, and watched it jump, and prayed.
It was hard to say how long it was before the gravel stopped jumping. The adrenaline and the Wending's strange air made it impossible to tell if it had been a few minutes or an hour. But when Edie finally looked up, the Coveter was gone, disappeared between the skyscrapers.
"How the hell did it sneak up on us?" Adam asked breathlessly beside her.
Mikey's ball of light rolled onto the roof and formed into a person again. He looked them over, then saw Satara round the corner and grinned. "Hey, he didn't see any of you!"
“Well, good,” came Basile’s voice. “Great exercise, team.”
Edie finally allowed herself to relax, exhaling slowly.
“Captain Burnout could’ve made more of an effort not to get you all killed,” the priest continued, “but his idea isn’t bad. Try to follow that thing at a distance and see where it goes. Let’s just … not linger.”
“Are we even fast enough to follow it?” Satara wondered aloud. “We aren’t spirits like you, Mikey.”
Edie’s circlet glittered again, and Basile chuckled. “But you’ve got wings, remember? And, hell, the hellerunan can shadow jump. Easy peasy. Get moving!”
Edie balked. “What the hell is shadow jumping?”
The shieldmaiden glanced over critically, but Adam apparently knew what he had to do, his toes already at the edge of the roof. In a second, he had leapt off, Mikey trailing after him with a whoop.
Edie’s chest clenched as she watched him fall, and she rushed forward like she thought she might be able to catch him. But in the blink of an eye, he was gone. It took her a moment to spot him at the base of the building across the narrow street, a form of solid black with shadows coiling around it.
He had hit the ground running, the shadow magic melting away from his body as he turned to look back up at them. He couldn’t seem to find words, but his eyes were wide.
“It’s like he’s eager to get himself killed,” Satara mumbled.
Edie wasn’t sure that was entirely inaccurate. She simply shook her head and peered over the edge again. Every instinct screamed for her to turn around and take the stairs instead … but by now, she was starting to get used to ignoring her body when it told her to stop. She took a breath and called, “Okay, how do I do this thing?”
“I can feel the shadows,” he called back. “Just … look for the right one and send yourself to it, meld with it.”
Ugh. Usually, she would have bristled at such vague instructions, but somehow, almost begrudgingly, she knew what he meant. It had taken her months to learn how to harness death magic, let alone shadow, which she had barely touched, but perhaps the energy of this plane unlocked something in her. In any case, she could feel the shadows. She could reach out and touch them with her mind.
With a sigh, she sat on the edge of the roof, took another deep breath, and slipped off.
Her heart and stomach rebelled at the feeling of dropping. Even though she had seen Adam jump and knew very well that she could, too, she couldn’t help the thought that ran through her mind once she was free-falling: Well, that was a mistake.
In fact, she was almost surprised when, as she fumbled for the shadows across the street, the world shifted abruptly, darkness curling in her vision. Her momentum disappeared completely, and the shadow magic washed over her skin like cool, soothing water. The next thing she knew, she stood on the pavement under a broken awning, both femurs still in one piece.
She shivered, adjusting her jacket as she went to stand next to Adam. Satara wasn’t far behind, using her outstretched wings to glide to the ground. She landed with a wince and a light rain of feathers, and horror spiked in Edie’s chest.
If nothing else, they had to expedite this so Satara could get the help she needed. Edie closed her eyes and turned, beckoning the others behind her.
When she opened her eyes again, it was as though a switch had flipped. The shadows crawling up the walls and across the broken asphalt had changed, no longer ghostly, transparent shapes. They were a deep black edged with purple flames, pulsing with life and exuding a deep, clean, soothing cold. Edie exhaled slowly from her mouth and eyed the closest one. She began to lift her hand, as if to reach for it—
—and she was there. Magic washed over her skin again, darkness closing in briefly before coiling away. Though to her eyes she stood in a void, she didn't fall. She glanced back at the others, thirty feet behind her now, then focused forward.
She felt rather than heard Adam materialize behind her, his magic colliding with hers with a hiss, and she reached for the next shadow. With a bit of effort, she was able to pull herself into the dark, living mass.
Soon, they were jumping ahead every few seconds, the sound of wings beating the air close behind. The streets twisted and turned, never consistent, never leading where they seemed like they should. It was Mikey's brightly glowing spirit alone that seemed able to parse direction—maybe because he was attuned to this place. Or maybe his perpetually stoned nature gave him some backwards insight.
As they wove through the warrens of the Wending's sagging tenements, slowly, the ground beneath them began to tremble, and Edie knew they must be gaining on the Coveter.
As the shadows cleared from her vision, she looked up and spotted it striding between two skyscrapers. That metallic whine rent the air again, fainter due to its distance, and the Coveter craned its neck to peer into one of the windows.
"These creepy fucking things are ... unnatural," Edie breathed as Satara touched down beside her, following her gaze. "Look at how it moves."
"No," the shieldmaiden murmured. "They are natural, in the purest sense of the word. Innate to this plane, as old as the universe itself.”
Edie shivered. Satara was right, but she didn't want to think about it. She jumped again, following Adam, and caught his arm, pointing to a shorter building the Coveter had just passed. It was in the shadow of a skyscraper, and a purple-ringed void climbed the side and spread onto the
roof. "Let's get a better vantage point."
He nodded and was gone in the next blink. Edie signaled to Mikey and Satara, and within a few seconds, they had all flown to the top of the building.
Adam was already standing at the edge, still with awe. As they approached, he half-turned and pointed at the horizon. "What the hell is that?"
Mikey coalesced beside him, expression brightening. "Oh, yeah, now I remember!"
Before them, the Wending rambled on, a flat land of the same dark, rotting buildings they had been blazing past. Skyscrapers rose up here and there, though most of them had lost their full heights to decay, but one far in the distance—a structure Edie wasn't even sure could be called a building—dominated them all.
Instinctively, she knew that was the center of the labyrinth, the place Mikey had seen. The end of their journey.
It was a huge black tower, so large and stark against the gray sky that she wondered how she hadn't noticed it in the distance before. It was so tall that it seemed to have shattered the "ceiling" of the Wending itself, and shattered its upper floors, too, in the process. Chunks of debris floated within whorling streams of blue and purple power that circled this catastrophic union, and what looked like lightning lit up the clouds around it, bright but completely soundless. Flat black figures, stretched and malformed, floated stilly against the sky.
"That's where they go," Mikey said, and even he had sobered. "I remember now."
"What the hell is it?" Adam repeated.
"Ah. That," Basile said with a shimmer, "is called the Seat of the Master. I guess some things never change."
"Do I even want to know what 'the Master' is?"
"Probably not," the priest said. "But if you figure it out, tell me."
Satara stared at the circlet. "You realize how concerning it is that a god of secrets and magic doesn't know the answer to that question, right?"
"Maybe he knows and he's not telling me, I don't know. In any case, you all should spend less time asking questions that make me look like an idiot and more time saving the girl." There was a pause. "Souls don't last forever in those cages."
Unholy Spirit (The Necromancer's Daughter Book 3) Page 21