by Lyla Oweds
Damen muttered something to Kasai. Instead of responding, Kasai left Damen and perched on a box near me. I wasn’t certain why. The shikigami focused on me when he spoke next, his voice almost placating. “I also don’t sense any…” Kasai started, but his words trailed off. “Curious,” he continued, turning his beady eyes to Damen as he moved to stand beside me and Julian. “Master?”
“It’s like what you were talking about yesterday,” Damen mused.
“What’s that?” I glanced at him, daring him to lie to me again.
But Damen didn’t respond. Instead, he stepped forward, muttering under his breath. His gaze fixated at a point in the corner of the room, and he raised his hand in that direction. His eyes flared with focus, and something darker. The room grew hot and the air moved.
Yet, Damen remained watchful over that point in the corner.
Witnessing Damen’s display of power caused my heart to race and my palms to sweat. I’d assumed the most he could do was summon a spiritual companion. But this… I wasn’t even certain what this was.
The air changed, and so did our surroundings. Shadowy, dark. It felt as though we existed on a plane between our world and somewhere else.
A breath later, in that spot, a shadow moved and dispersed just as quickly. And when it cleared, Lily was there. The Lily that I’d gotten to know. Her wide eyes were trained on Damen, warily watchful as he lowered his hands.
“I couldn’t stop him.” Her voice was slightly panicked.
Damen’s demeanor was more serious than I’d heard from him before. “Is that why you hid from me? You knew who she was the whole time.”
I hadn’t expected this. Lily’s eyes flickered to me before she continued to address Damen. “I know the stories. I know how you feel. I’m so sorry, I know I failed and—”
“I’ve never expected any of my constituents to put their own welfare at risk,” Damen interrupted, frowning sharply. “I’ve wondered why you hid from Kasai, from Kiania? I wouldn’t have punished you for doing your best. I’ve been waiting for you to confront me yourself.”
Lily’s eyes filled with tears. “He only targeted her because of me. He marked her because of me.”
Alarm rushed through me as she began to cry. “Lily.” I pushed past Damen and dropped to my knees in front of her, taking her hands into my own. “Lily, what are you talking about?”
“It’s James,” she gasped, and the air took on an ominous turn. “He doesn’t want me to leave. I didn’t realize it was you the first day. And I didn’t know he’d react this way. I only wanted to be noticed. But when he saw me reach out, he got angry. He was afraid…”
“He was afraid Bianca would help you move on,” Damen finished when it became apparent that Lily wouldn’t continue. “He doesn’t want you to leave.”
“It started that way. He doesn’t realize,” Lily said. “He doesn’t know who she is.”
“If he got rid of the medium, things would return to the way they were,” Bryce supplied. “That’s what he hopes.”
“Why are you so weak?” Damen asked, and I shot him a look on her behalf. But he didn’t seem to notice, his focus still on the girl in my arms. “Where’s your shikigami?”
My hackles stilled. This was a genuine question, not something offensive. I’d allowed my anger at him to cloud my judgement. I felt ashamed.
Damen wasn’t like that at all.
Lily sniffled. “He’s been trailing Bianca around the house, but remains unseen. I didn’t want to scare her.” As she spoke, the cat from my memories pranced into the scene. It brushed against me briefly as it returned to Lily’s side. The sensation of its fur over my arm was familiar.
“Was your cat sleeping in my bed with me?” I asked.
She flushed. “I’m sorry. I tried to stop him. He likes snuggling and told me that being near you makes him stronger. I was so tired…”
“So that was him touching my hair? My leg? My chest?” I couldn’t believe it, all this time I’d thought it was a pervert ghost. And here it was, an innocent animal—
“Pardon?” Damen glowered at the cat, who shot him an alarmed look.
A moment of tense silence passed as Snowball and Damen locked eyes. But in the end, it ended with Damen’s heavy sigh. Closing his eyes, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “When this is over, you’re banned from making a new contract for a century.”
Snowball’s head jerked up in alarm, and he mewed in protest. But Damen cut him off. “Keep talking, and you’ll find yourself in seclusion for the entirety of that time.”
He seemed dejected, as much as a cat could. The tense atmosphere permeated the room. However, instead of watching Damen in disapproval for bullying a cat, everyone—including Lily—was frowning at the animal.
It seemed like I was missing something important. I wanted to learn more these contracts. Kasai had mentioned it before, but no one told me how it worked. Could a shikigami have more than one contract? Or could an onmyoji have more than one familiar?
“Damen?” I looked at him, willing him to explain.
“Later,” he responded, his mouth lifting slightly. The cute expression ruined the whole professional persona he had going on.
For a second, I didn’t know why he seemed happy. But then I remembered I was supposed to be angry at him. Darn it.
The moment was lost, and he turned his attention back to Lily. “You’re no longer obligated to fight.”
Hope glimmered in Lily’s eyes, although her voice shook. “But, sir, what about—” She shivered, and the temperature of the room dropped despite Damen’s strange magic.
Damen’s gaze met mine, then he glanced toward Bryce.
The other man crossed his arm, shaking his head. “Go ahead.”
Damen’s mouth thinned, and he turned back to me. There was a sound of protest elsewhere in the room. But that fell to the wayside as Damen searched my face for some kind of answer.
I didn’t know what the question was. All I knew was this: “I want to help her.”
I didn’t know what I could do, to be honest. Or why it felt like I had no choice. My breathing quickened, and my chest grew warm at the thought that there’d be a role for me.
“Damen,” Miles interjected. “We know she can use her abilities. She wants to help. Julian is here if she needs him. And there’s Bryce and Brayden too.”
“I don’t like it,” Titus snarled, being held back by Miles’s hand on his arm. “She’s not tested. What if something happens?”
“She’s never going to reach her potential with you holding her back,” Miles snapped, causing Titus’s attention to turn to him. “I’m confident in her ability to stop me. Trust my judgment and show a little faith. I can see from his face that Julian wants to—”
“I’m not happy about it,” Julian interrupted, stepping closer to me. “But we don’t have a choice now. Once Lily sends her shikigami away, she’ll be removing her only defense. James is corrupted, or close to it. He’s already straining at the leash to get to her. She’ll never make it long enough for us to do an exorcism. She needs to leave now, before we lose three souls. And…” Julian shot a look toward Bryce and Brayden. “Even these two cannot see a spirit away in this kind of situation.”
Damen sighed, waving his hand in the air. “Fine.”
Even though I hardly understood Julian’s reasoning, my heart fluttered. “I can help?” I clarified, looking at Damen. “You’ll show me how? What am I doing?”
Something about seeing Lily away…
“I won’t show you how.” Damen knelt beside me, touching his head with his index finger. He spoke low, so that only I could hear. “I can’t, anyway. You don’t even need to ask Bryce. Just focus on Lily, and the feeling of wanting to help her.”
His gaze shot to the girl next to me. “You may release your shikigami. You did well and will be rewarded.”
This was moving too fast. And I was unsure, because wasn’t there a phrase to use? Like he and Julian had done? That’s wha
t I had visualized when daydreaming about using my abilities for cool things. “What?”
I was pulled out of my confusion. Lily’s hands pulled from mine as she threw herself into my arms. Sobbing.
Instinctively, I stroked her shoulder. “Lily?”
“Thank you,” her small voice repeated over and over as she trembled against me. This was an uncomfortable situation, because I still had no idea what to do, and I rubbed her back. Silently cursing Damen, Bryce, Brayden… Basically everyone.
I looked like an idiot.
But then Lily glanced up. Her attention on Snowball, who watched his mistress in anticipation. A moment passed between them, so significant the air warmed. Then, without another word, Snowball blinked and lowered his head.
A second later, Snowball vanished in a burst of flame.
I screamed and jerked away, taking the other girl with me, staring at the spot where the cat incinerated. But as my heart calmed, I realized I hadn’t felt the heat of a flame. Nor were there any marks on the ground beside me. “What the heck?”
Bryce cleared this throat. “That was… interesting.”
“Anticlimactic.” Brayden seemed bored. “We’ve never seen one before. I expected something grander for a contract release.”
Damen rolled his eyes and was about to respond, when I gasped, falling onto Lily.
We were wrapped in each other’s arms, and my heart beat furiously. There were other voices in the room, and the temperature dropped quickly. But that was all secondary.
Lily was fading at an alarming rate. A darkness pressed against us, against this space, from the outside. Trying to stake a claim on her. And the knowledge that I could not let this happen caused me to hold her more tightly.
I felt relief. Fear. But trust too, in me. Though how she’d trust me, I had no idea.
She needed something, needed something only I could give her. The boys were worse than useless. I forgot everything else as I began to stroke her hair. I didn’t know how to offer comfort to others, but this was one memory I’d always held on to.
I only hoped it would help.
“It’s okay.” My apprehension faded as I focused only on Lily. My insecurities didn’t matter. If she needed a hug, or anything, I couldn’t refuse. Not after what she’d been through. Not after she tried so hard for me. I didn’t understand the significance of what she’d done, but I’d do my best anyway.
“It’s okay,” I repeated again, trying to calm me. Inside, I was panicking. Every second, she felt further away. No matter how hard I held on to her, she was slipping through my fingers.
Her shivering. My helplessness. It welled into an emotion I didn’t understand. I wanted to protect her. But I had no idea what to do.
Or did I?
A sense of calm ebbed into my consciousness. There was no need to worry. Of course I could help her. Whatever was keeping her here, it was nothing to me.
This was my domain.
“Go home now.” The words felt right. “I’m granting you passage.”
She was no longer fading, and Lily froze as she gazed up into my eyes. A breath later, her gaze flickered away. She was worried about the growing storm outside of the two of us.
I didn’t know if they’d gotten stronger, or if it was easier for me to feel them. But the two shadows moved outside of our small world. Reaching, trying to stop Lily.
But they didn’t matter. “Go,” I told her again.
She clung to me then, and time ceased to exist. A forever passed before she simply vanished from my arms.
But I wasn’t worried. She’d moved on to whatever happened next. Damen had the answers to that, and that was fine. All I knew was that she was finally safe.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Bianca
Haze
“Well,” I heard Bryce say dryly. “Now they’re pissed off. What are you going to do?”
I dropped my arms, still sitting on the ground, as my attention drifted to him. But he wasn’t talking to me, but rather, to Damen.
Damen stood over me. Julian had moved to the floor behind me, and he looked around the room with a severe expression. “The plan is the same. We’re going to exorcise them. It’d been easier with an item that ties the spirits to this realm, but the house itself might do.”
“If it doesn’t work as a binding item, the exorcism will fail,” Bryce warned.
I watched Damen, my mind fuzzy. Even with Julian near, I felt strange. As if I’d entered some surreal space—everything felt like a dream. His words struck something in me, though I was having trouble pinpointing why.
“It will be fine. Besides, we’ve got no other choice at this point.” Damen reached down, his hand out to me. “They’re a danger now.”
A warning prickled my awareness. Something I’d never considered before. “What happens if an exorcism fails?”
Damen paused, meeting my eyes. “It won’t fail.”
“If an exorcism fails, the onmyoji will get hurt in the backlash,” Bryce supplied helpfully.
I narrowed my gaze at Damen. “You’d die?”
He grimaced, guilt settling into his expression. “No, I wouldn’t die.”
“It would be really painful,” Bryce added. “A lower ranking onmyoji might die though.”
“Would you shut up?” Damen’s glare turned to the other man. “Stop scaring her.”
I wanted to be annoyed at Damen for not caring about his health, but a pounding began to ache at the base of my skull. The edges of my vision darkened, and I realized it’d be hypocritical for me to yell at Damen when I’d ignored their warnings about my own health.
The room was thick with anger, the spirits of James and Rosanne. The light flickered, threatening to throw the room into darkness. But those things didn’t affect me like they normally would. Pain grew at an alarming rate, and nausea tickled at the back of my throat.
But I didn’t want to show them my weakness.
“Come on, baby girl.” He waited for me to grab his hand. “We’ll finish this downstairs.”
“Is it dangerous?” I asked.
I was too tired to move, to do more than meet his gaze. And his hand dropped as he studied me behind the frames of his glasses. Something in my expression must have called to him. His mouth dipped, but he responded regardless. “It’s dangerous enough,” he replied. “But it can’t be helped. There’s nothing more you can do tonight.”
“It’s worth the risk,” Julian added, touching my back. “Now they are angry, uncontained. And we know he’s after you. You’ve already been marked.”
A shiver ran down my spine at the recollection. It certainly sounded bad. Lily had said it allowed him to follow me anywhere. That I was targeted. But now, something felt off with the situation.
Were they evil, or was it my own worries that made it seem that way? Were they irredeemable?
He’s just curious.
Rosanne Cole’s words that day. Now that I thought about it, she’d not only sounded angry, but panicked as well.
Almost as if she was protecting her son. She’d been forceful, demanding. Scary. But the James Cole I’d seen in Lily’s memories wasn’t a hateful person, not like his father. What if it was a matter of interpretation?
What else had happened? What if there was something else wrong?
Lily’s last moments flashed through my mind. It was true that James was there. But if he was sadistic and violent, why hadn’t he done anything other than watch?
James might have helped his father murder women before. Perhaps he had countless other victims to answer for. But this didn’t feel right.
Why, even with Lily gone, was guilt still heavy in the air? If James was evil, he wouldn’t feel guilty. As far as I understood, killers didn’t feel remorse.
“Just pick her up,” Bryce told Julian. “Let’s just get this over with, downstairs. Where we have some measure of control. We’re wasting our time.”
Julian wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and the touch caused
my mind to clear.
“Wait.” I stumbled to my knees, physical sickness temporarily forgotten. And the movement caused my thoughts to snap back to the present.
Bryce and Brayden were looking around the room nervously, and no wonder why. We were back in the attic; Damen’s strange magic had faded. And frost had completely covered the room. Anger seemed to twist in the air; you could almost taste it. Miles and Titus stood to the side, watching me. Probably wondering about my outburst. Damen looked at me curiously too, and Julian’s hand was light on my back.
“Bianca,” Julian said. “What’s wrong?”
“I need to talk to Rosanne Cole.” The pounding pain in my head returned, but I gritted through it. I had no choice but to follow the instinctual feeling telling me what to do. It was the only thing driving me forward.
Bryce reached for me, but was stopped by Damen’s glower. But it didn’t pause his argument. “Don’t call her here, we can’t control her. She’ll leave before we get halfway through the ritual.”
I ignored him. I didn’t need to control her. I needed to talk to her. “Rosanne!”
This time, it actually felt as though something in my head exploded, the pain was so intense. But I bit my lip, forcing my focus as a tall, dark-haired woman appeared in front of me.
I recognized her instantly.
Her appearance, the manner in which she carried herself, and even the way her eyes ignited into a fury as she gazed at me. And it wasn’t because I’d seen her before. No, this was the woman I’d dreamt about—the necromancer.
“You’re going to hurt him,” she accused, her intense look unwavering.
I couldn’t deny it, because she was right. I doubted that being exorcised wasn’t a painful experience. “He’s hurting people. He has hurt them.”
She narrowed her gaze further, the animosity in the air thick. “I—”
“How many people has he killed?” I interrupted, needing to know.
She flinched, but regained her composure quickly. Her eyes turned from a furious brown to a purple-red. When she opened her mouth to speak, I expected shrieking or vehement anger.
But her response threw me off.
