by Jamie Magee
“Willow Haywood.”
“The town you grew up in.”
“I’m not telling you that.”
“All right then.” He let his arms fall from around me, then stepped in front of me. “She doesn’t know you. Move on.” His words were aimed at the empty room. When he spoke them, the couch turned over and a brush of energy rushed passed me. I felt the icy hands on me, but before I could react, Phoenix pulled me to him again. “Tell me, Willow. Should I let him devour your energy, or manage this?”
“Who is ‘him’?”
“I’m not telling you that. You’re going to have to find a different way to tell me you know him. He can read your energy, your thoughts. He could be mocking anyone, and you, my dear, might as well be a five-course meal with wine.”
“What does he want?”
“Your energy.”
“I can replace that.”
“Poorly.” He glanced over me. “I believe you have a leak in this vessel.”
“What?” I pushed away from him in disgust, only to get a demeaning laugh from him.
“Good God, woman, are you deaf and blind? Lord knows you’re not mute. You’re leaking everywhere. You breathe, and the sky moves.”
“Not my fault.” I turned crimson with anger and embarrassment.
“Really? Well, let me be blunt.” He leaned forward to look me in the eye. “You own the energy. It’s your fault. I’ve seen drunks that have more control than you.”
“I have more energy than I can handle.”
“No, you don’t.”
He raised his hand as if he were telling someone to quiet himself. My eyes raced in every direction, looking for anything, anyone. I wanted Landen back now. How could he just leave me here?
“I told you that we are the same. Someone lit your fire only to leave you to burn out, and if it’s this chap, I have a good mind to let him starve. That’s borderline abuse—at the very least, reckless. People don’t have the means to pay for your temper tantrums, the butterflies in your little tummy.”
“You’re psychco.”
He looked at me like I was insane. “Woman, I guarantee that in the last half hour, you have caused not only emotional, but property damage to every being and house on this block. Can you not feel how terrified the people are right now? Hiding in broom closets, watching their magic boxes, looking for a reason as to why a night that was forecast to be clear is anything but.”
“It’s not my fault,” I uttered as I edged backwards. I was almost sure I could get out of this house, at least this room. The ice was gone, so the ghosts must be, too.
“Yes, it is,” he said, reaching his arm back and pulling me to him as if I were a lost child. “Who did this to you?”
“Did what?”
His fiery eyes sympathetically cascaded over me. “Opened your mind and left you. Is that why Skylynn called me to you? She expects me to train you?”
“For the last freaking time: I. Don’t. Know. Who. She is!”
“Right. So she just decided to take one of her last three ounces of my ashes and give them to you as a good deed? I doubt it.” He glanced to his right. “Is she your friend, chap?”
“Who are you talking to?”
“Not sure, can’t quite see him. Must be young. I make it a habit not to feed the young. If you do, they never leave. Like stray cats, they just keep coming back.”
“Young? Like just died?”
He puckered his lips, then spoke to the empty room. “You were raised. Who sent you to feed on her?”
“Quit saying it like that!” I said, hitting his chest. “Its just energy. I know people who were just raised. Who is it?”
He leaned forward so his face was inches from mine. “What. City. Did. You. Grow. Up. In?”
“Franklin. All right?!”
He glanced at the room. “First kiss. Name him.”
I turned crimson. “Dane.”
He raised one brow ever so slightly as his eyes drifted to my lips.
“All right then.”
He stepped back, casually extending his fingertips in my direction, then pulled them to him as if he were telling me to follow, but I couldn’t move. I was paralyzed in place. Then what looked like smoke eased from my skin, dancing across the air before twirling around his hands. He shaped what could only be energy into a sphere in his hand.
“I’m going to give this to him, and if you tell me he’s a foe or if I know him to be one, you and I are leaving.”
“I’m not leaving with you.”
“It wasn’t an invitation. You’re dangerous. Out of control. Every spirit in this town has their eyes on you.”
“What did I do to them?” I scoffed.
“Wasteful is the common complaint. That and you’re blind and deaf,” he said with a smirk as he continued to toy with my energy that was in his hand.
“I am not!”
“You are to what really matters,” he muttered as he began to focus his attention on my energy.
“You don’t know anything about me.”
“Do I not?” he said as the energy moved across the palms of his hands. “Scorpio born.” I swallowed when his eyes dared me to tell him that he was wrong. “You are pure darkness, but a light has claimed you as his.”
“I’m not dark.”
A ghost of a smile eased through his fiery eyes. “If you were not, you would feel every part of me. It’s the soul’s nature to be blind to who they are.” He circled me, still holding my energy as if it were a crystal ball. “Odd, really. For you to betray this light image, you must have been claimed at a young age. That’s fine and all. Only issue is you have never tasted who you are. The power inside you is fighting to get out. You do not have the mindset to balance what he gives you with who you are.” He stopped next to my side and leaned in, holding the sphere of energy where I could see it. “What do you see here?”
My nervous gaze found the energy in his hand. Most of it was glowing white, but up close I could see what looked like veins, the color of ash.
“Mesmerizing, isn’t it? This right here is not even a breath of what power is in the soul. This is the brush off, a vague mist that is easily given without thought.” He turned the energy in his hands. “Yet, right here you can see the essence of who you are. Darkness threaded with light...I can see how you could think you were on the opposing team, but the truth is, without him your energy would be as dark as night.”
“I don’t believe you. I’m not dark. I fight darkness with him.”
“Do you believe you are the first to fight against your own kind?” he bit out audaciously.
“I’m not dark.”
He smirked. “You act as if I am telling you that you and your mate are wrong for each other.”
“That is what you are saying. Quit trying to play games with my mind. For all I know, you’re altering that energy.”
“I would think the same in your place. I really don’t care to argue with you. I have nothing to gain from it.”
His gaze moved to the ball of energy in his hands, and his brow furrowed as if he saw something he didn’t believe. His fiery gaze moved to my chest, and with one hand he reached for the chain around my neck, pulling my medallion out of my shirt.
“I’ll be damned,” he said to himself as what I thought was relief flashed across his image. He quickly hid that and returned his expression to his sarcastic, Mr. Know-It-All persona. “Honestly, I was complimenting you. This is balance. Two as one. Light and dark. All of creation. An example to follow for all of its perfections and imperfections alike.”
My thoughts ran rampant. Was I the one that was infecting Landen? Was it too much for him because I helped Drake, too? What have I done...?
“Are you saying opposites attract? They make one?” I asked as my thoughts raced.
“Believe what you will. It is the most powerful combination. A joining like this births powers from both cores...” He turned the energy in his hands and quietly said, “Someone very dear to
me has sought a connection like this for some time.”
“Light is more powerful than darkness,” I uttered, trying to convince myself that he was wrong.
“A lie.”
“You are just saying that because you’re dark.”
“I’m dark. I’m real,” he whispered, leaning entirely too close to my neck.
On my other side, a brush of cold air caused chills to rise on my skin. Phoenix nodded, and the chill backed away. A second later, I heard a crashing sound against the wall on the other side of the room. His gaze found mine again.
“What is the defining point that separates light and dark, beyond the obvious shade?”
He was acting like we were at a picnic or something; forget the fact that he was holding my energy in his hand and purposely teasing spirits I couldn’t see.
“One is evil, condemning...one is not.”
“Really? Once again, you need a new teacher.”
“Newsflash: I’m self-taught. This energy, insights—whatever—appear on its own. It’s a curse.”
“Right, then. Let me give your teacher a few Cliff Notes. Darkness is reality. They live in emotions that manifest in circumstance. Light does not tread with emotions. They are universal, plain, and they do not care to toy with emotions beyond a numbing bliss. Everyone has both. Some have their scales tipped a bit to one side. And others like you, me, are more than both. We are not only aware of the other, but we draw power from it.”
“You and I? Try again. I’m not you. And I’m not dark.” Sarcasm was the only response I could come up with. I was intrigued by his theory, but admitting to that could not be a good thing.
“Ah,” he hissed, “have I struck a nerve? What about this reality check has you bothered? Do you feel your beloved will disown you if it’s true?”
“No. Never.”
He smirked. “What is your issue?”
“I’m not going to believe that I’m darkness for, as you put it, ‘kicks and giggles.’ I’m fighting a really dense evil, and I don’t have time to think that I’m part of that.”
“We are talking about darkness, not evil. There is a difference.” He leered. “Tell me you know there is a difference?”
The utter confusion I was feeling was apparent in my lost expression.
“Good God, woman.” He looked down at his hands and nodded for me to follow his stare. “Evil devours. Do you see either of these shades devouring the other?”
“No.”
“Right, then. Here is another newsflash: light can be evil, too.”
“Sure it can.” I breathed figuring this guy was off his rocker.
“There are some that have light energy that intend to devour. You are not that. Whoever this is within your energy is not that. You are balanced...well, sort of.” He furrowed his brow. “You were intended to be balanced. I’m sure that was on your life plan.” His gaze found mine again. “People like you stand in the center. You call the darkness to the light and the light to the darkness. Everyone needs both, and no one needs more of the other, at least not for an extended period of time.”
“Why would someone need to be dark?” I countered.
“If you are on this rock, there are lessons to be learned. If you live in the light of bliss, you may not grasp it. If you live in darkness, you will not grasp it either. You must find bliss. You must find reason to change, and darkness and light together give you that.”
“I’m not buying that.”
“I don’t really care if you do or not. It’s the truth. Show me one insanely blissful person full of light, and I will show you their darkest hour. They will have more than one. We are all tested. Show me the most evil person you can find, and I will show you compassion of course, they may see it as a weakness, but nevertheless, it’s there.”
“And you stand on the side of darkness. If I pull your energy, what would I see?”
He smirked. “Not this. Not anymore.”
There was sadness in his voice, he looked all to human at that moment.
“Look, I don’t who has you under their power, but it’s not me. I didn’t call you. Leave.”
He scowled. “I am not under Skylynn’s power. She’s a thief,” he said so sharply that a chill eased down my spine.
“How is she a thief?”
“She stole my ashes, my way back.”
“Then she doesn’t want you back. That tells me I shouldn’t trust you.”
“No. She doesn’t want me, and I don’t want her, but that is not why she took them. She wants my help.”
“With?”
“Apparently she knows where to find my brother, or she thinks you will lead me to him,” he said as his gaze melted over me.
“That’s a change in perspective.” I said narrowing my stare. Before he had no idea what Skylynn wanted.
He glanced to my medallion. “It’s a hope I refuse to grasp until I see it with my own eyes.” He looked human again. Sad about some past, some long lost brother. What I had to do with that was lost on me.
“All right then, Mate,” he said walking away from me, still holding my energy in the palm of his hands. “Take it in slowly. It’s powerful.”
I started to edge backwards to the door. Two steps back, I found myself paralyzed once again.
“Stay put,” Phoenix threw over his shoulder like I was some untrained puppy or something. That infuriated me, which caused a crack of thunder to erupt above the house. He shook his head as he heard it.
Frozen in place, I watched as the ball of energy in his palms began to swarm and then snake around the thin air in front of Phoenix, outlining an image of a man.
Seconds later, I saw who had been haunting me and I gasped with a mixture of pain and relief all at once.
Chapter Four
There was a burning smell that filled the room. It was nauseating because within that aroma I could smell blood and flesh. A painful groan made my heart sink. I struggled against my hold.
“DANE!” I screamed as his image became clearer, more solid.
Phoenix circled him slowly, obviously holding him in place with his energy, too.
“Well, well, well...long time, mate.”
“What are you talking about? Let me go! Let him go!” I bellowed.
“Not so fast,” Phoenix said coolly. “Dane...is that what you called him?”
“Yes! Let him go! He’s not a ghost. He’s a Witness now. He’s my best friend.”
The pain in Dane’s eyes made me sick to my stomach. I didn’t understand. I assumed he would be like Silas, some angelic being. I didn’t understand why he looked like death raised or why he smelled like it.
“Oh God, Dane, what happened to you?”
Phoenix raised his fingertips, beckoning more of my energy to him. Even if I wanted to, there was nothing I could do about it. A stream of my energy flowed from my body and danced across the air. Phoenix nodded his head, as if to guide it to Dane. As soon as it reached him, Dane screamed in agony, and the burning smell intensified.
Phoenix leaned in and inhaled deeply as Dane’s image became sharper, more real, less terrifying.
“Old friend. What path have you chosen this time around?”
Dane glared at him.
“Ah, not up for a chat,” Phoenix mocked. “That’s not your girl. Never has been, has she? What do you want right now? Be very honest. I don’t take kindly to liars.”
As Phoenix passed behind him, Dane winked at me. I knew that look. It was the one he always gave me in school just before he made a winning goal in the countless sports he played. Every part of me tensed and waited for his play. It was clear that whatever energy I’d given him was making him stronger by the minute.
As Phoenix crossed in front of him, Dane broke out of whatever lock he was under and charged forward. He didn’t make it far, though. I couldn’t see it, but there had to be a barrier between them. Dane couldn’t touch Phoenix, but he was no longer forced to stay in one place as I was.
Phoenix let out a
laugh. “That was quick. I thought you had at least another minute or two. I asked you a question. What do you want?”
“You need to leave. We don’t need you,” Dane seethed through a locked jaw.
“I keep hearing that. But I was called here. Wasn’t sure why until now. She’s not yours.”
“I’m very aware of that,” Dane said, keeping his pace with the circle Phoenix was making.
“We are just going to wait for those firecrackers in your soul’s mind to finish going off. Then we’ll know what side you’re on this time around, mate.”
“This time around.” Dane smirked.
“Right. Last time I saw you, I laid you six feet under. Of course, the popular poll at the time was that you were possessed. Not really sure I agreed with that.”
“He was!” I yelled.
Phoenix’s gaze moved to me, even though his stance was completely focused on Dane.
“You were there. You agreed then, too.”
“I was where?”
“Listen here, I’m not really sure how Skylynn pieced all of us together. Clever, I agree, but, I would assume she wanted one of two things: for me to put him back in his grave, or for me to take you to where you belong.”
“I belong right here. Let us go!” I screamed.
The rage in me was strong enough to cause the wind to blow out the window behind the desk and let me step forward, breaking free from the hold of his energy.
“Run!” Dane yelled, telling me to leave him, but I couldn’t. I charged toward him, wanting to pull him free, but my feet left the floor, and before I knew it I was on the ceiling pinned in place, watching Dane and Phoenix throw each other across the room. No matter what I did, what I thought, I had no control. I would have thought all of my insights were impaired if it wasn’t for the raging storm outside. The wind charging in from the broken window caused papers from the desk to swirl. Before long, I couldn’t even see them fighting anymore.
Then out of nowhere, a numbing calm spread across my body and a sigh escaped my lips as the weather ceased its assault on the atmosphere. As the papers fell, my heart leaped. Landen was back.
He was standing at the threshold, peering into the room at both Phoenix and Dane.
