“Letting our emotions cloud our judgment, are we?” Muses asked, his voice strained against the weight of TS.
“My emotions cloud nothing,” TS replied. His voice was so low that I could barely hear him. “My duty has always been and will continue to be to eliminate any threat to her and her life. Make sure you don’t become one—for your sake. I’ll be all too happy to deal with you if you do.”
“Choose your words and actions carefully, TS. There may soon come a day when you will require my help. It would be such a shame if I was disinclined to provide it…”
TS released Muses and took a step back. The others in the room were poised for a fight, uncertainty surrounding them. Apparently they weren’t sure who would be fighting whom. Jenkins stood fast behind me, his energy on edge.
“That’s better,” Muses said, straightening his tight leather jacket. “Now, if we’re quite finished with the theatrics, can we do what needs to be done?”
TS looked back over his shoulder at me. “It’s your call to make, Phira.”
I took a deep breath, picturing the dead girl and the anger in her eyes, and Reah entombed in concrete. They wanted vengeance. I knew what that was like. Who was I to stand in their way?
“Do it. But do it fast. And I swear on all that’s holy, if you fuck with me even a little, you’ll wish it was TS that was dealing with you, because you’ll be getting Nyx instead, and I assure you, you won’t like her particular brand of punishment.”
My threat only made him smile more. “We’ll see about that.”
He walked toward me, arms reaching out in front of him as he neared. Jenkins released his hold on me, and I braced myself for the contact, knowing that the second Muses’ flesh met mine, I’d be at his mercy. And since he didn’t have any, I knew I was fucked.
His touch was cold, his fingertips like ice as he cupped my face. I closed my eyes, not wanting to watch as he enjoyed his control over the situation. Instead, I tried to do his job for him and focus on the girl.
“What do you see?” he asked first, his voice a gentle press on my mind.
“She’s standing in the cage.” I sounded far away. Disconnected. Not myself.
“Describe her.”
I told him what I saw—the details of her person—but I could feel his discontent with my answers. He wanted something more from me; something I couldn’t seem to give him.
His hands clamped down harder on my face.
“Make me see her,” he said. His tone was harsh and cold and demanding, and I tried to do what he asked, my memory of her serving itself up to him for the taking. But he couldn’t reach it. “Show her to me!” His grip on me was almost violent now, and I could feel Nyx rising up within me, ready to force him away.
“You have to push her back,” he said, his voice strained. “She is keeping me out. You have to trust me, Sapphira. You have to let me in. There is no other way.”
I heard TS saying something, but he sounded so far away. So distant. The only things clear to me were the pain in my head and Nyx’s growing rage. The more she fought, the harder Muses pressed, leaving me trapped between them.
“We have no choice,” I whispered aloud, wincing from the stabbing sensation in my head.
You will regret this…
“Let him in.”
It took every ounce of energy I had left to say those words. My body went limp in Muses’ hands as he pushed forward into my mind to see the ghost. Just when I thought he would release me, having gotten what he wanted, an image of Reah popped into my mind. Muses released me like I’d burned him, and seconds later, I was a lump on the floor. TS and the others hovered over me, concern tainting their expressions.
“I’m fine,” I said, trying to sit up. Then a rush of vertigo swept through me, and I was flat on my back again. “Maybe not so fine.”
“I’ll take you home,” TS said, scooping his arms underneath me.
“I did not mean for that to happen,” Muses said from somewhere in the background. “Her mind…it’s different now. So protected. Nyx was blocking any attempt to reach her memories.”
“Kinda hard to blame her,” I replied, climbing down from TS’ hold. “Seems your mind powers work differently than Meiren’s or Dennis’.” I steadied myself before letting go of TS. I took a step toward Muses. “Did you see her?”
“The ghost? Yes.” His expression soured. “And I know who she is.”
“Who?” Ferris asked.
“Sasha—the unsolved murder of that young witch from a year ago, not far from here. Her body was found in her apartment. There were no witnesses. No leads. Nothing we could trace.” There was a note of anger in Muses’ voice as he spoke that was mirrored in his expression.
“She’s going after whoever killed her,” Cy said.
“Yes,” I said, “but I don’t understand how she’s doing it. How can a ghost orchestrate the murders of those that killed her, because that has to be what she’s doing, right? I mean, she was there for two fights now, and she was probably at the first, even though I wasn’t there to see her. Somehow she is picking off the people involved in her death, and I have no clue how.”
“She was a very powerful witch in life,” Ferris said, looking down at the hand that held Reah’s necklace. “They both were if they wore stones like that.”
“Powerful enough to kill when dead?” I asked, praying the answer was no. If it wasn’t, my mind would surely break.
“Those particular witches dealt in death magic,” Muses said. “Their abilities extended to necromancy. I fear it might be possible that her power could work on the living from the other side. If the ghost possesses the stone, it is possible she could avenge her own death.”
Holy. Shit.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” I muttered under my breath.
“Where is Sasha’s body?” Nico asked.
“Burned,” Muses said. It was impossible to miss the sourness in his tone.
“What about Reah?” Nico pressed. “I need to touch her so we can see exactly how it all went down.”
“I’m afraid that will be impossible,” TS said, shutting him down. “By the time I arrived, the structure had already begun to collapse. Most of the columns had disintegrated. I had to rebuild it and clean up any sign of what had happened there. The body was destroyed.”
Nico looked angry but resigned. “Fine. Then Phira will need to use her Ouija board to talk to her.” Nico walked over to me, his frustration leading the way. “You need to find out everything you can about that stone and how it works. If Reah hasn’t gone against Alejandro, then we need to know why. Maybe she knows the other witch. Maybe she can tell us how she’s doing what she’s doing.”
“She doesn’t,” I said, having already asked Reah about the other witch. “But what about Alejandro?” I searched the faces in the room. “Do we have enough to go after him now?”
“Possibly,” Ferris started, only to be cut off by Cy.
“But without something more concrete, we may just ratchet up the tension brewing between the wolves and us. Not something I want to have happen if we can avoid it.”
“So we just let him roam around to kill a few more witches in the meantime?” I asked, my voice rising.
“No,” Cy replied, eyeing me tightly.
“If you can get something more helpful from your ghost, I can pay the alpha a visit,” Muses said. Not surprisingly, he seemed excited by the idea.
I wanted to argue, but Cy’s and Jenkins’ words echoed through my mind. The Northside pack wasn’t one to be trifled with. Starting a war with them could have drastic consequences. And though I was confident in Nyx’s ability to take them down, I worried that if she wasn’t around to ensure their safety, bad things could happen to my uncles. My brothers. Countless others. I wasn’t willing to jump the gun on Alejandro and have that reality come to pass.
“Okay. I need to go home, then. She won’t come to me here, with all of you around. She’s skittish.”
“I’ll t
ake you,” TS said, heading for the door.
With no arguments from the room, I followed him out, giving Jenkins a quick nod of thanks as I passed. I stopped at his Jeep to grab my Ouija board, then walked in silence down the alley, TS at my side. Suddenly he stopped and turned to face me, his expression eclipsed in shadow.
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“Everything happened so fast, and you’ve been gone so much. I didn’t really think about it.”
He stared at me for a moment before continuing toward the main street.
“I’m glad Jenkins could be there to help you.”
He sounded anything but happy about that.
“Do you have to go back to my dad once you drop me off?” I asked, fluffing right over his comment.
“I do, but not for long.”
I hesitated for a second as I followed him toward the car.
“Is he calling you away just for work? Or is there another reason?”
He stopped again but didn’t turn to face me.
“Such as?”
I took a deep breath. “Keeping you away from me?”
His body was so still as he stood there, silently contemplating my words.
“He has no reason to do that, Sapphira. Our world is filled with enough drama to keep us all busy for an eternity.”
After a moment, he started walking again. I, however, just stood there, wondering if I’d just made a mistake. Unfortunately, I didn’t have long to ponder my judgment.
I had to go home and summon a ghost.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I ran up to the roof and locked the door behind me. I didn’t want the guys to interrupt me when they got home. Reah had tolerated Jenkins’ presence (barely), but she seemed to bolt when anyone else came near, and we didn’t have time for that shit. I needed answers—so many answers. And I needed them fast.
With the Ouija board set up in front of where I sat, I called upon her. She appeared in a flash, looking nervous and fidgety. She also appeared less translucent than before. Maybe it was the dark night, with less moonlight to spill through her, but she definitely seemed more solid than she had before.
“What does this do?” I asked, foregoing a greeting. Instead, I held out the stone toward her. Her movements stopped when she saw it, like it soothed her somehow. She reached for it, her fingers floating over it as if she could grab it. For a second, I wondered if she could. Then I wondered if that would be a good thing or not. I really didn’t know much about the witch before me, other than the little I’d gleaned from Muses and Ferris at the bar, but something about ‘necromancy‘ and ‘death magic‘ made my hackles rise. Sure, Alejandro was an asshole for killing her—and the other ghost, Sasha—but that didn’t make her a saint. My mind was temporarily derailed by what sins she might have indulged in in life.
When her eyes finally met mine, they were full of determination.
M-A-G-I-C
“I gathered that much,” I said with a sigh. “Death magic?”
NO
“Can it do death magic?”
She hesitated.
YES
“Are there others like you? Others with stones like this?”
YES
“I saw a girl—younger than you. She’s a ghost as well. She had one of these around her neck. She’s hunting down and killing those that killed her. Do you know how she’s able to do this from the other side?”
Her brow furrowed.
NO
“She’s after Alejandro as well. She wants him dead. I need to figure out what connects you three.”
Reah’s eyes fell to the stone, then back to me.
“The stone? It has to do with the stone?”
YES
While I tried to puzzle out how, I heard the door open behind me—the one I’d locked. I turned to see TS approaching. Panicked, I whipped around to find Reah still there, looking TS over with curiosity. Then that curious look fell to me.
“Is she here?” he asked, coming to stand beside where I sat.
“She is.”
“What have you learned?”
“That she doesn’t know how the other ghost is killing those men from the other side—or making it so they can be killed, I guess. She said the stone is for magic, not just death magic. She also said the stone is how Alejandro is tied to all of this, but I don’t understand how.”
He sat down next to me, staring at the Ouija board as though he were willing it to tell him what we needed to know. I kept silent, hoping he could.
“Ask her if she did something for him with the stone,” he finally said.
I opened my mouth to ask, but the pointer had already started moving.
YES
“Did he kill you because of your stone?” I asked. She seemed to ponder the question. It seemed to be less than a cut-and-dried yes or no.
NO
The way she stared at me, desperation in her eyes, I knew we were close to asking the right thing. She looked like she was going to explode if we didn’t ask it soon.
“Did he kill you because of a different stone?” TS asked.
Relief flooded her expression.
YES
Holy. Shit.
“He has one of these things?” I asked, apprehension heavy in my tone. “He has a death magic rock?”
“Did you charm it for him?” TS asked, cutting my rant short.
NO
Realization slapped me hard.
“Wait…you wouldn’t do it, would you? That’s why he killed you.”
YES
“The other ghost, then. Maybe she’s the one that did it,” I said under my breath, working hard to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
“So Alejandro has a stone like this somewhere?” TS asked. “What does it do?”
P-O-W-E-R
And suddenly it all started to make sense. Alejandro usurping the previous alpha. His pack’s growth in both numbers and strength, undoubtedly fueling the animosity between the packs—as well as between the pack and the PC. Alejandro had been magically juiced up.
And the dead ghost was most likely the one who had done it.
“We need to ask Muses more about that case,” I said, jumping up to run downstairs. TS stopped me short.
“You stay here. Get more details about the stone if you can. I’ll talk to Muses. You have had enough of him for tonight.”
It was hard to miss the sympathy in his warm hazel eyes.
“Thanks.”
Once he left, I asked Reah every question I could think of regarding Alejandro’s stone, but she couldn’t offer me much. What I did learn was that he did not have to have it on him for it to work, which made sense given that I hadn’t seen anything on him during his fight at the church, but it couldn’t be too far away. The connection would break with enough distance, and though he wouldn’t feel any change until that happened, it meant that, should it be taken from him, there wouldn’t be a ton of time to get it away before he knew it was gone.
I gleaned that the stone itself could not harm someone; it had to be wielded by the owner or called upon in some way. Good to know. Most importantly, though, I learned that magical stones like Reah’s called to one another—recognized each other—and could be used to track another down. That was the tool we could use to drive the nail into Alejandro’s coffin. If we could find his stone, we could demonstrate that he had claimed the pack by shady means. Then Muses would have grounds above reproach to go in and search the alpha’s brain for whatever other crimes he’d committed.
Alejandro was going down.
“I’ll make him pay for what he did,” I told her, folding up the Ouija board. When I moved to walk away, she jumped in front of me, blocking my way.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
Her hand reached out to mine—the one that held the stone—then pointed to my neck, as if telling me to wear it as she once had. I did as I thought she wanted me to. The second it fell upon my chest, she exhaled visibly.
&n
bsp; Then she disappeared.
TS stepped out onto the roof seconds later.
“It was a year ago when they found the witch’s body. Muses said she’d died not long before that. Ferris confirmed that Alejandro claimed the pack not long after.”
“We need to talk to the others,” I said, storming toward the exit. “I have a plan.”
“What is it?” he asked, falling in step behind me.
“One that you’re not going to love, but one that’ll work.” I started down the stairs, picking up speed as I descended. “The Northside alpha basically insisted I attend a party he’s having on Friday. I’m going to use that opportunity to find this stone of his.”
“Phira,” TS said, grabbing my shoulder to stop me. He stepped in front of me, blocking the door to the living area. “You cannot steal it. The Fates and Muses confirmed how tenuous their relationship with the packs is. I know you think the PC is all-powerful—that you are—but there are too few of you to fight as the PC once did. They have to weigh situations more carefully now—use brain first instead of brawn. Stealing that stone will start a war in this city that it cannot handle.” He looked away from me, his expression tight with something I couldn’t read. “One I will not be able to cover up as I did Little Church.”
“We can’t let him get away with what he’s done, TS,” I argued. “Besides, Reah said he can’t sense the stone. At some point, once it’s far enough away, it will just stop working on him. We’ve just got to get it out of there before he realizes it.”
“Confirming he has the stone would be enough for the PC to intervene. Stealing it, however, would be twisted by the pack into an abuse of power by the PC. It’s a very fine line we are walking.”
“We can’t leave it with him, TS. It’s too dangerous. Power is the last thing that guy needs more of.”
TS’ brow furrowed as he stared at me intently.
“You cannot go in alone.”
“And the PC can’t exactly waltz in with me.”
Dead Zone (Blue-Eyed Bomb Book 3) Page 16
