by Angie Fox
I turned just in time to dodge the remaining medieval slayer’s sword.
“We’re on the same side!” I yelled. “You don’t have to do this!”
She drew back, jaw tight. “I don’t have a choice,” she gritted out. “And neither will you if you don’t end him.” Her features wavered for a moment, like something else was pushing against the inside of her body. Her hands shot forward, and a wave of power slammed into me, knocking me onto my back.
Lizzie! I felt my father’s agitation, his growing fear, but there was nothing I could do to reassure him. The impact knocked the air out of me, and before I could recover, she was there, one leather-sandaled foot stomping hard on my right hand. She raised the broken spear up high, but before she could bring it down, her whole body blurred. She was frozen in place, the master spirit locked in combat against the slayer’s own will.
I thrust up with my left hand, trusting the bronze necklace to come through for me. It did, and a moment later my sword formed just in time to slide through my attacker’s chest. She dropped her spear and began to slump.
“Tell me your name,” I demanded. “I’ll say it.”
A victorious smile crossed her lips. “You’ll find it.” She vanished before she hit the ground.
The master spirit’s anger suffused the room like an electrical storm, crackling and driving his captives to even greater efforts.
Scarlet plugged a Moorish warrior with a Giggle spell then reached behind her for a handful of scrolls. “Clarence Barton, Imidi Rhoos, Saanvi Patel!”
The spirit reeled.
“Yu Yan Zhao, Sasha Ivanov, Kelly Fletcher!” Battina hollered from the other side of the room.
Souls burst free.
The spirit’s attack crumbled as one by one, the warriors burst into light and energy—free.
“It’s working!” The biker witches and me; dead or alive, we made a hell of a team.
Serefina grinned at me. Then I watched her face fall as a cold hand gripped my arm, and suddenly everything went dark.
20
We stood alone in a void, the spirit and me. It appeared to be the ocean at night, but I knew better. The water lapped up to my ankles, the cold of it seeping up my legs. Water as far as the eye could see.
“Impressive,” the master spirit said, his face flushed. “I underestimated your creativity, Elizabeth, and the emotional investment of your coven. You cost me a great deal, but at least I have you.”
He held a scroll in his hands. Mine, I was sure of it.
I reached for it, and it disappeared into nothingness.
“You can’t say your own name.” The corner of his mouth tugged up. “And there is no one here who will say it for you.”
He’d taken me away from my friends, from the witches, from anyone who could help me.
He took a step closer. “You will help me rebuild my collection.” He reached for me. “Now the time has truly come. Don’t be afraid. You’ll like being mine.”
I glared at him, defiant even though I knew there was no point. Inside, I felt the tether to Xavier struggle and tug. I was surprised he’d held on this long. I didn’t want him to feel bad when he lost our connection. There was nothing else he could have done. Nothing I could do anymore.
“Yours will be the first children I have,” the spirit gushed. He closed in on me. “I will name them, and then there is no way they will ever be able to escape me. They and their power will know nothing but me. Soon, even you will forget that you ever had a life outside of my mind.” He raised his hands, and the spirits alongside him tensed. Slowly, keenly, I felt him touch the edge of my soul.
“No,” I whispered. But I knew there was no way left to fight him.
The tug in my head became a full-on ache, and with a sudden burst of pain, the void filled with a light brighter than anything I’d ever seen before. I winced and closed my eyes, even though every instinct I had screamed for me to be on alert, on attack.
A gentle touch to my arm brought me out of it.
“Lizzie.”
I opened my eyes to see my father standing between me and the spirit, but this—this wasn’t the Xavier I’d left behind in the Cave of Visions. This was a being of pure energy, completely untainted by the demonic influences he’d carried as long as I’d known him.
This was Xavier the angel. “I thought I’d lost all chances of coming back to this side. But feeling you in pain, knowing I had to be something different…” He took my hand. “I think I can do this.” Doubt flickered across his drawn features. “I hope I can.”
I gaped.
He smiled and unfurled a pair of wings. Xavier’s gaze held mine, as if he was still getting used to the change himself.
“I never thought I could be this again,” he told me, his pearlescent wings blocking the spirit like a shield.
“Watch out,” I said as the spirit lunged for him. His hands passed straight through my father, and both gasped.
I reached for my father. Speaking hurt. Moving hurt. My spirit was so tired and aching that all I wanted to do was lie down and pass out.
Xavier folded his wings and turned to face the master spirit.
“Be gone, angel, this doesn’t concern you,” the spirit snapped. “Your powers are almost spent.”
Xavier nodded. “That’s true. I’m not strong. And I’ve never been as noble as I should. I won’t make it out of this. But neither will you.”
“Say my name,” I said to my father. “All of it.”
“Elizabeth Gertrude Brown Kallinikos,” he said, as proud as any father could be.
The spirit stumbled as my name escaped him, and I saw a red ribbon flutter to the surface of the dull, black water.
I reached down for a switch star and felt it hard and solid in my hand. It began to churn. The spirit glared at me. Instead of the tall, intimidating figure I first saw, he seemed bent and frail now.
“You should never have threatened me,” I ground out. “You should definitely never have threatened my children.” I raised my switch star. “Enjoy oblivion, asshole.” I threw it, and it cut right through the spirit’s head. He fell apart like he was being unzipped.
Bright light burst from him as the spirits of those he had captured shot forth, free at last. It was beautiful. There would be no more names to read, no more souls captured. No more torment and pain from that monster.
The two halves of him fell away. And just as I breathed a sigh of victory and relief, the void itself crumbled with him.
“Yikes!” I was falling. Until I wasn’t. I hung in the middle of nothing now, surrounded by the vast emptiness of the spirit realm. The only point of contact I had was Xavier, who held me by my shoulders. His wings, so bright only moments ago, were fading quickly, and so was the rest of him. “Dad!” I hollered, looking for some guidance. A bit of reassurance.
“It’s time for you to go back,” he ordered.
That seemed like a great idea. “Let’s go.”
Xavier shook his head. “Get your spirit tended to fast, Lizzie. You’re leaking everywhere.”
“Shouldn’t you be doing that?” I barked, trying to absorb what he was saying.
“I’ve done all I can.” He smiled down at me, sad yet more fulfilled than I’d ever seen him. Light shone from his entire being, and he almost appeared…happy. “I love you, pumpkin. I always did.” He paused. Cringed. “I just wasn’t good at being good.”
Oh, my god. “You’re leaving me.”
He shook his head, a rueful gesture. “It has to be this way. I can’t go back in this form, and I am fading.”
“But—” I began.
His eyes held mine. “I’d give anything for it not to be this way. I swore I’d do better this time. I swore I’d never leave again. But this time, I really do have to go.”
“You saved me,” I told him. “You saved your grandbabies.”
He lit up at that. “They saved me back.” Then, through eyes welling with tears, he added, “Go now.”
He pushed me away. The winds that had carried me here rose out of nowhere.
Before I could say anything else, the hurricane swept me away, tumbling me back toward the physical world and leaving Xavier, the last of his power diminished from a tether to a tiny thread, to watch me go.
21
My dad was gone.
He’d sacrificed himself for me. He’d tried to use the last of his powers to get me out, and…the wind pushing me away, back toward the Cave of Visions, slowly died down.
Then it stopped altogether.
I hovered in…nothingness. White surrounded me. Wispy shapes, like clouds, formed here and there in the distance. Otherwise, I was completely alone.
I felt the last of Xavier’s powers give way, thinning from little to nothing until, with a pop I felt like a last gasp inside my chest, he was gone. Xavier, my father, my tether, was gone, and I was trapped.
Nausea stirred in my belly, and I placed a hand there. The babies. They were trapped here with me. We were supposed to be back in the Cave of Visions. I’d defeated the spirit. Well, Dad and I had. And the biker witches. Everyone had come through for me, and in the end, Dad just didn’t have enough power to get me back.
I was alone, adrift, and terrified.
There was nothing around me, nothing at all. No landmarks, because there was no land. No distinguishing colors, because everything was the same flat, hollow white in every direction. There wasn’t even a breeze anymore, nothing to push me back toward the realm of the living.
I pumped my arms, as if swimming would help. It didn’t.
Oh, my god…Oh my god…
I had no idea how to move, and even less of an idea about where to go if I could. How did you pick between left and right when there was no real difference between them?
My heart beat like a snare drum in my chest, sounding louder in my ears than it had any right to. I stretched out with all my limbs, trying to feel anything, anything at all, but—nothing. I tried to turn myself around, to swivel and roll like I was back in the windstorm of Xavier’s power, but it was impossible. There was nothing to push off of, nothing to use as a catalyst.
Grandma had said point-blank she couldn’t get me back.
It had been up to my dad.
And now?
I strained to see past the dull white of nothing.
“Scarlet!” I hollered, my voice barely registering. The sound here was muted. As if there was nowhere for it to go. “Battina! Any Red Skull!” I tried.
I yelled until my throat went hoarse.
It seemed my dad had gotten me closer to home, but certainly not close enough—they couldn’t hear me.
“No,” I whispered. It wasn’t going to end like this. It couldn’t. After everything I’d just gone through, all the fights and the showdown and Xavier’s death, I wasn’t going to go down stuck in the middle of nothing. “No!”
I reached out with my power, which made every spirit wound on my body pulse like I’d been doused in acid. It didn’t matter—pain was temporary, but if I couldn’t get out of here, then I’d be looking at an eternity of emptiness, and that just wasn’t an option. I had Dimitri to think about and Pirate and my parents. I had my babies to think about.
Oh god, my babies. I couldn’t stay here. I had to get home!
I knew that panicking wouldn’t get me anywhere, but fighting it down felt almost as hard as defeating the master spirit. It took too much time, but eventually I calmed my rat-a-tat breaths and brought my heart rate down from “Led Zeppelin” to “Ringo Starr” levels. There had to be a way out of this. I just needed to find it.
Maybe I could summon up my own wind. I didn’t have a destination, true, but if I was lucky, I’d blow myself to a solid place then find my way back to the physical realm from there.
I mean, I’d been lost in purgatory before. I could do this.
I closed my eyes and envisioned the hurricane feeling that had wrapped me up so strongly before. I was half angel. If Xavier could summon a gale, I should be able to get a breeze going.
I felt a stirring. Just a hint, but it was enough to give me hope. I poured my energy into it, shouting with joy as I began to tumble again.
But the spin stopped almost as quickly as it began.
I frowned and opened my eyes. Then I caught sight of my body and gasped with horror. My wounds had gone from dripping drops of silver light to looking more like faucets, draining me dry. Hadn’t Xavier just warned me about getting my spirit tended to soon?
I let go of my effort completely, so frustrated I wanted to cry. I couldn’t push too hard, because then I’d drain myself of everything that still sustained me. If I didn’t push, though, I’d be stuck here, because I knew that the coven wouldn’t be able to find me in this nowhere place. It was a miracle I’d gotten the help I had from the Red Skulls who’d already crossed over. I wished I weren’t so far away. The Red Skulls always had a plan.
“I’ll figure this out.” I had to believe that. Something would come to me, but in the meantime…I hurt, every inch of skin stinging like I’d rolled in a field of nettles. I had overextended. I needed to rest for a moment, just rest. I’d try again in a minute.
I closed my eyes again and wrapped myself up in a hug. I could barely feel the solidity of my own body anymore. No spell jars clanked in my pouch, no switch stars dangled at my side. There was only me surrounded by all of this emptiness. It was almost beautiful, in a terrible way. Almost…tempting. The pain started to fade, and I sighed with relief. I’d get going again in a minute. Just one more minute…
But in my heart, I knew that was just a fantasy.
I’d saved the others, but I couldn’t save myself. I’d never see Dimitri again. I’d never feel his arms around me, never see his smile. We’d never get to cuddle on the couch together as our babies slept on his chest. I’d never watch our daughters fly with him, clinging to his back as he soared over the yard. They’d never mash peas on his shirt. He’d never read them a bedtime story, all curled up in bed together.
I felt a surge of love and loss, and the answering whisper of Dimitri’s energy.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. The only thing I’d ever really wanted was to be a family.
A surge of heat in the center of my chest shocked me out of my stupor. I reached for the source instinctively, and my hands clasped my emerald necklace, the one Dimitri had given me to protect me. The bronze chain had gone from warm to hot in a hurry, and I knew for a fact that it wasn’t responding to anything I’d done.
Was I about to be attacked again? I didn’t think I could take another battle.
I could barely lift my head to search for the coming attack.
One second I was alone, and the next—oh, the next—the most beautiful sight in the world swooped into existence in front of me. A griffin, my griffin!
Dimitri’s wings flared in a dazzling rainbow display of raw Mediterranean heat and power. He flew toward me at breakneck speed, and his piercing cry broke the cottony silence of the spirit realm.
“Dimitri!” My voice sounded muffled even to myself, but he arched his back in joy.
He swooped to my side, and it was the best feeling in the world when I wrapped my arms around his neck. Like coming home.
He was warm, as warm as the emerald he’d given me to keep me safe. I felt whole again, loved. And I sighed with utter relief as I climbed onto his back and felt his solid bulk supporting me. I clung to his neck as his wings began to pump. I gave in to the feeling of him under me as we began to move together.
There was no wind this time, just a slow rise like stepping out of the ocean and back onto dry land. We rose until the white became gray, then black. We rose until everything faded away…
I blinked my eyes open and saw sunlight—beautiful, dappled sunlight shining through a familiar window over my head.
Holy hand grenades, I was back! And I wasn’t alone—Dimitri lay in my bed with me and held me close to his chest, his arms locked in an embrace. He felt like he
might never let me go. I was just fine with that.
“Hey, babe,” I whispered. Dimitri shivered.
“Oh, thank God, Lizzie,” he said, his chest rumbling against my cheek. He bent and kissed me long and hard before he tore himself away. “How are you feeling?”
Better now. I took stock of my body curled up next to him. “Tired, but good.” I stretched my legs. “Surprisingly good.” It was such a relief to be back home, with him.
He let out a short chuff. “Let’s agree to never, ever do that again, all right?” He sounded wrecked.
I snuggled deeper into his arms and kissed his collarbone. “I can get behind that idea. But at least you found me.” I’d been afraid no one would.
Grandma let out a groan. “‘But you found me,’ she says,” Grandma mimicked, as acerbic as a whiskey sour. “The boy’s insane. Good thing, too.”
I rolled over to see her. “Hey, Grandma. We did it.”
She didn’t look happy. In fact, my bedroom was filled to the brim with frowning witches. Hillary was with them, perched on the vanity stool, wearing a Ralph Lauren pantsuit and a worried expression.
Oh no. “What went wrong?” I asked. “Besides the fact that I almost faded into nonexistence in a place of pure existential dread.”
I sat up and realized I had a headache and was a bit woozy. Still, it could have been worse. It had been so much worse.
“You’re crazy,” Grandma said flatly. It took me a minute to realize she was talking to Dimitri, not me. Her harsh gaze turned on me, as if she couldn’t quite believe I was whole and sitting there. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure as hell grateful he found you, but there’s no way that should have worked.”
“Xavier is gone,” I told her. “The spirit had too many lackeys for me to fight alone.” We’d both taken a beating. “My dad used his last energy to try to get me home. It wasn’t enough.”
She lowered her gaze to the floor. “I know.” She shook her head. “We warned him he’d die if he kept it up.” She looked up at me, her eyes glazed with tears. “He said he was done failing; that he’d give anything for you and the babies.” She gave a shrug. “I didn’t know he had it in him.”
