by A. J. Locke
My relationship with Tielle would likely never recover from this, and I didn’t want to think about how that would affect both my and her relationship with Micah, but it was what it was. She was a good ally to have and not someone I relished being enemies with, but there hadn’t been much choice left to me. Above all, I wanted to help Kyo, and I did what I had to do. Tielle wanted the dead witches’ secrets kept safe and she’d done what she had to do too.
I checked the time on my phone. Thirty minutes had passed. Twenty more to go. I was sure Tielle was as keenly aware of the time as I was. She’d started moving a little faster. My anxiety grew as I continued to search. I wanted to find Kyo’s body before the time was up. I didn’t want Ethan to have to spill the beans to Jian. At the end of the day, turning his world upside down and messing up his relationship with his mother wasn’t what I was after.
As I’d been searching, I’d noted that many of the names were not in English, which made sense because the dead warlocks had fallen all over the world. It had woven a nervous thread into me that grew when I came across a section of coffins where the names were written in Japanese. My heart battled between soaring and sinking. Kyo had been captured while in Japan, and I was sure his body would be in one of these boxes. The only problem was that I had no idea how Kyo’s name was written in Japanese. My hindsight was kicking me straight up the ass for not ever asking Kyo that, but it had never crossed my mind that I’d need to know that in order to find his body.
That didn’t mean the end of the road of course. It just meant I now had to go about this the not-fun way. Open each coffin until I found Kyo. I steeled myself and stepped up to the first box.
It revealed a skeleton lying in the remains of what looked like a kimono. Within the skeleton’s rib cage I saw a dull rune. It was probably the rune that had been used to connect the warlock’s magic to the witch that had been siphoning it. I felt a pang of sadness go through me but had to quickly swallow it down and move to the next box. I didn’t have time to dwell on the unfair fate that had befallen these men. I had to hurry up and find the body of the one warlock I could still help.
Ten more coffins revealed either bones or bodies in various state of decay, which was an unwelcome assault on my nose and almost had me throwing my guts up several times. I managed to keep the nausea internal as I continued to look, moving through the next fifteen coffins and finally coming across a body. It wasn’t Kyo’s though. The rune lying on the middle-aged man’s chest was glowing. This warlock’s ghost was still in the In Between, and some dead witch was making the most of his magic. My determination to put a stop to this grew. I closed the coffin and kept looking, finding more bones, decay, and intact bodies until…
Kyo. I couldn’t help the ripple of shock and excitement that went through me when I finally opened the coffin that contained Kyo’s body. He looked exactly like his ghost did, and wore exactly what his ghost wore, but this body was tangible without needing energy runes. He didn’t look like a corpse; he looked like he was asleep. My excitement grew. I looked up and around. I had been keeping track of my location among the rows of bodies so I would know exactly where Kyo was. I was about fifty rows deep and his was the fourth coffin in this line. I exhaled a huge sigh of relief and couldn’t help but smile. I had done it. I had found Kyo’s body.
Now to find some way to get it out of here and reunite it with the ghost that belonged in it. That would be the tricky part and would no doubt involve Tielle’s further co-operation.
Speaking of Tielle…I looked around again and frowned. I had gotten so engrossed in looking for Kyo, especially when I got to the Japanese coffins, that I had lapsed on keeping my eye on her. Not good. I did not see her in my immediate surroundings.
“This place isn’t only where we keep the warlocks, we keep a lot of things here.”
I quickly turned around and saw Tielle. She was emerging from the shadows of an area that branched off from where I was in an L-shape. She held up her hand and pressed a button on what looked like a small remote control, and I heard something in the darkness behind her move. Like a door, or several doors, were sliding open. Then I heard something that made my heart feel as though it had momentarily stopped.
“You deserve this for threatening my son,” Tielle said. “I am going to make sure he’s safe. Then maybe I will come back for you.” Tielle ran off to the elevator, and being that I was no fool, I started to run in that direction too. Only I was met by an obstacle. Coming at me full speed with gnashing teeth and hungry snarls, were about half a dozen Savages.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The first thing I did was look for Micah. He wasn’t among them. The second thing I did was reach into my bag while I back peddled away and pull out the last vial of immobilizing rune powder I had. I cursed myself for not bringing more, knowing there was an ongoing Savage threat. I opened the vial and flung out the contents just as two Savages leaped for me. As soon as the powder touched them, they dropped to the ground. They continued to snarl and hiss at me though. Dropping those two was only the tiniest of victories, because there were still four of them on my ass. The coffins were making it hard to run fast since I had to remain on a path and take care not to trip, so I quickly maneuvered my way out from the coffins. I tried to run for the elevator, but a Savage launched itself on me and dragged me to the ground. He did not hesitate to try and snap my neck, however another Savage seemed upset that she wasn’t the one to get the prize and flung him off me before trying her own luck with killing me. I rolled out of the way and was back on my feet before she could tear me apart.
But I didn’t get far. Four against one just weren’t odds that were going to work in my favor. Two of them grabbed me, one each arm, and I soon found myself being mercilessly pulled in opposite directions. I was certain I was only moments away from having both arms ripped off.
One of the Savages finally yanked me away from the other, but the momentum caused me to slam into her and we both went crashing down.
My dead magic was reacting. This close to this many Savages, it was like a savage thing itself. I didn’t have time to think this through, to relive what happened with Brian and how it had made me feel, to go to war with the ethics of it and what kind of person it made me. I would not win against half a dozen Savages with punches and kicks. There was only one thing I could do.
I rolled off the Savage woman and yanked off the rune bracelet, having no time to take it off properly. Then I dropped the shields that held the dead magic back. It flew out of my body and slammed into the Savages, even the immobile ones. The ones on their feet got knocked down. With my dead magic deep inside into their bodies, the Savages were jerking around as the dead magic attached to the darkness that was inside them.
I was hesitant, but I was backed into a corner and this was the only way I made it out of this. I took a deep breath, and pulled my dead magic out.
Bursts of dark energy exploded out of their bodies, and immediately the Savages stopped moving. My dead magic came rushing back into me and that dark energy flowed into me as well, tearing a long, wordless scream from my throat as my back arched and I closed my eyes against the feeling that there was fire running through my veins. I was cocooned in darkness. It was suffocating, and more intense than it had felt with Brian. That had been dark energy from one person; this was from six.
The black vortex dissipated, but it was as though I was seeing things through a gray haze. Slowly, very slowly, it went away and I stood there heaving and panting. My thoughts started making sense again, and my body felt like my own. After a few minutes I was still breathing hard, but the world was once again in focus. My body was overheated and I felt as though I was filled with an electrical charge. All that dark energy was stuffed inside me and I almost choked on it. It was hard to maintain my footing; my body swayed under the thrall of all this fiery power filling me up. I didn’t want this; I didn’t want the strength I felt surging through me, the feeling that I could do absolutely anything to anyone. It was too da
ngerous to contain this, to let it fuel all my anger and rage. But there hadn’t been anything else I could do. I stood there for a long time and forced all that power to be still, tried to shove it as far down as I could while trying not to freak out about what I had just done. Or the fact that I had six corpses lying around me. I knew that Revath was the one who had stolen their souls, but I still felt responsible for their deaths. I had now killed seven people. Eight, counting Renton. Oh God. My knees almost gave out but I managed to remain standing. I turned around and looked over to where Kyo’s body lay, the coffin still open.
First things first, get Kyo and Ethan here and out of Tielle’s warpath. I’d deal with the emotional scars from all the death I had caused later. I picked up my broken rune bracelet and did a sloppy fix to get it back around my wrist. I felt infinitely better once it was back on, though I’d need to take it to Magda and get it properly fixed. I then headed to the elevator and called it down, taking my phone out as I rode up and keeping my eyes glued on it for the moment I had even the smallest bar of service. Then I quickly called Ethan.
“Ethan, are you still with Jian?”
“Yes, what do I do? There are only a couple minutes left on the deadline you gave.”
“Tell him everything,” I said. The fight with the Savages had occurred within ten minutes, which wasn’t enough time for Tielle to get from midtown to Washington Square Park. Especially without her car. “But keep the rune. Then you and Kyo meet me at the back of the Paranormal Library as soon as possible.”
* * *
When Ethan and Kyo arrived, Ethan called me and I instructed them to come through the narrow door and down the hallway. I had remained standing at the elevator, keeping the door open, because I didn’t know the code Tielle had used to open it. I was half afraid a horde of dead witches would show up, but Tielle seemed to be too distracted by making sure her son was okay to send anyone after me. Plus, she probably thought the Savages would have had gotten the best of me anyway. I was even angrier at her, but I would tackle the issue of Tielle later. For now I would focus on the one bright spot that had emerged from all this.
I spotted Kyo and Ethan, and when they saw me, they started moving faster. Once they reached the elevator and saw my less than stellar appearance, they looked worried.
“Selene, what happened?” Ethan asked. “What’s going on here?”
“Come with me,” I said. I saw a hopeful gleam in Kyo’s eye, but he didn’t ask any questions as he got on the elevator and I pressed the button to send us down. Ethan started to become fidgety when he realized how long the trip took.
“Something tells me we aren’t going to the library’s basement,” he muttered.
“Not the one the rest of the world knows about,” I replied. When we got to the bottom and the doors slid open, I gestured for Kyo to exit first. He tentatively walked into the cavernous room, followed by Ethan.
“Oh my God.” Kyo looked stunned as he looked out over the hundreds of coffins that lay in neat rows in the vast underground room.
“My comrades,” Kyo whispered. “So many of us…all here…”
Ethan was gaping, then he looked over and saw the dead bodies and yelped. Kyo seemed to see them for the first time now.
“Who are they?” Ethan asked.
“Savages,” I said sadly. “Well, former Savages.”
Kyo frowned and looked at me. “Selene, what happened here?”
“Tielle brought me here, for obvious reasons, but then she unleashed the Savages that were being imprisoned down here and left me here at their mercy. I’d say she did not appreciate having her son threatened.”
“I’m so sorry I ever put that thought in your head,” Kyo said.
“I’m not proud of using an innocent person like that, but Tielle forced my hand when she had me beaten up. Besides…it got us what we were after.”
“And the Savages,” Ethan said. “Are they…”
“Dead,” I said, shaking my head and trying not to let the truth of my role in their demise overwhelm me. “I used my dead magic to pull the dark energy from them. But something good did come from all of this.” I started walking and beckoned for Kyo and Ethan to follow. I led them to the row where an open coffin lay, then stepped aside and indicated that Kyo should go ahead. He walked as though in a daze, and stopped when he got to the box that bore his name and his body. He stood there for a moment then dropped to his knees and bowed his head, laying his ghostly hand on his physical hand, which was folded across his chest. He knelt there staring at his body for a long time. Ethan and I hung back and gave him space. I could not imagine what it must feel like for him to finally be reunited with his body after being without it for three hundred years. Overwhelming, to say the least.
Kyo looked up at me and rose to his feet, and Ethan and I went to meet him. He threw his arms around me and hugged me fiercely.
“I did not let myself truly believe this would happen,” he said when he drew back. “And I can’t thank you enough for everything you risked just to help me.”
“It was worth it,” I said, and I meant it. I wished I could do it for all the dead warlocks who still had a body they could come back to.
Kyo stared down at his body again. “I can’t wait to remember what it’s like to be alive again,” he said. “To truly see, feel, and experience things. Then I will give you the hug you really deserve for doing this.”
I flashed a smile. “I can’t wait for that either.”
“Um…how are you going to get back into it?” Ethan asked. We both turned to look at him and he took a step back under our sudden stares. Then Kyo and I turned back to each other and my elation from just seconds ago deflated.
“I’d been so focused on helping you find your body that I didn’t even stop to think about how you were going to get back into it,” I said. “But it’s the same as I’d been thinking regarding Micah and the Savages. I can pull the dark energy out of them, but without their souls to put back in, their bodies just die. And the only way to put a ghost back into their own body is with the evolved reanimation power I gained by being bound to Ethan’s ghost. Which I no longer have.”
“So we’ve found my body,” Kyo said, looking devastated. “But there is no way to put me back into it.”
“We’ll find a way,” I said, hoping I sounded determined. I had no idea how we would find a way, but I didn’t want to say something hopeless. There was enough of that to spare.
“Let’s focus on getting your body out of here, then we can try to figure this out. I don’t want to wait and see if Tielle comes back. Let’s go. The coffin won’t fit in my car so you two will have to haul the body.”
Kyo and Ethan moved without saying anything more, but their expressions were somber as they lifted Kyo’s body up and followed me to the elevator. The rune that had been on his chest clattered to the ground and I picked it up and put it in my purse. My heart felt like a fist was squeezing it. I badly wanted to bring that overjoyed look Kyo had when he saw his body back to his face. I just had no idea how.
Once we had ridden back up and gotten to the back door, I had Kyo and Ethan wait while I went to bring my car around. Then, when as few people were in the area as possible, they quickly carried Kyo’s body to the car and lay him on the backseat. Ethan rode in the front, and I took Kyo’s energy rune so he could hover-sit above his body’s legs. That way if anyone looked inside the car, unless they were a necromancer or dead witch, all they would see was what looked like a man sleeping in the backseat. I drove home as quickly as possible and there was little conversation in the car. The mood had plummeted. We had overcome a major hurdle but had come up against another one.
Once home, the men carried Kyo’s body inside, and Ethan generously offered to put him on his bed. We did so, and stood there staring at him for a while, none of us knowing what to say. I could bind myself to a ghost, sure, but then I would gain the Rot again and have the power to anchor ghosts. I did not want to go down that road again, but I had
nothing else I could offer Kyo.
So I left the boys and went to take a shower. It had been an exhausting, emotionally charged day. After I got dressed, I sat on my bed with Luna on my lap, intending to sit only for a few moments to get my bearings since my head felt heavy with thoughts of Savage Micah, Kyo’s dilemma, and my soul sliding further and further into darkness. Somehow sitting went to lying down, which I again told myself was momentary, but then my eyes closed and sleep called, and I was too wiped out not to answer.
CHAPTER TWENTY
I woke up to the smell of food and followed my growling belly out to the kitchen where Ethan was fixing a plate. He gave a small smile when he saw me.
“Good timing,” he said as I took a seat at the counter. “I figured you would be up soon. Mainly because I knew the smell of food would wake you.”
“How long was I out?” I asked around a yawn.
“About five hours. It’s after seven now.” Ethan came and placed a plate of baked macaroni and cheese, homemade sweet potato wedges, and sautéed corn in front of me, followed by a glass of wine. I raised my eyebrow.
“Figured you could use something stronger than water right now,” he said.
“You figured oh so correctly,” I said, taking a big sip before tucking into my food. “So good,” I said, which earned another small smile. After I had shoveled a few bites into my stomach, I looked around. “Where’s Kyo? In your room with his body?”
“No, he left a couple hours ago, said he wanted some time alone.”
“Oh.” I felt sad, helpless, and frustrated. We had gotten this far and I couldn’t do anything more for him.
“What are you going to do about revealing the dead witches’ secrets?” Ethan asked. “Jian was pretty blown away, but I could see that part of him wanted to believe it. He told me that something never felt right between him and Tielle, but he could never understand what. And he’s always lived his life with a sense of being incomplete. I showed him the rune and told him that feeling was because he did not have his dead magic.”
