Ethereal Entanglements

by Lee French

  Enion filled the air with a devastating, heart-breaking keen. The other dragons joined him, weaving a harmony of anguish together. Drew shuddered as he wept over Claire.

  “Claire?” Justin felt his eyes burning. He refused to accept this. Ripping her shirt open, he prodded the wound. If he poked her, maybe the healing would start. He blanched at the sight of snapped ribs and gore. Nothing moved inside her chest. There should be things pumping and shifting while she healed.

  He covered his mouth with the back of his hand and didn’t know what to do. If only he’d reached them a few seconds sooner. He thought he’d killed her an eon—two days—ago. This time, he’d done it for real. All because he didn’t want to kill Djembe. Looking up, he saw Djembe. The man seemed confused. Justin wanted to beat the crap out of him.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Iulia getting to her feet with her dragon’s help. Both seemed unsteady but otherwise fine. New scorch marks marred her already-stained dress. They approached, both limping and leaning on each other.

  Justin tossed away the baseball bat so he wouldn’t be tempted to hit anyone with it. Still too stunned to think, he watched Iulia stoop and pick up Claire’s dagger. Her mouth went taut with a frown as she regarded Claire.

  “Blood will always out,” Iulia murmured. She shook her head and limped to the column of light.

  “Blood— What?” Justin surged to his feet, ready to blame all of this on Iulia. “You killed her,” he snapped.

  “In an abstract sort of way, yes.” She waved him off. “Let’s not let her die in vain, hm?”

  It hurt to see Claire’s face on such a dismissive woman. “I’m not done with you,” he growled.

  Iulia paused and glared over her shoulder at him. “Don’t even consider taking Caius’s place. We came to destroy the seal. That,” she pointed to the column of light, “is the seal.” She raised the dagger and took the last few steps to reach the column.

  His shoulders slumped and Justin rubbed his face. Distantly, he noted Iulia stabbing Claire’s dagger into the light. The brilliant column melted from the ceiling like a candle at high speed. In the center, a large, clear crystal with jagged silver and black lines shot through it rested in a black marble pedestal. She jabbed the dagger into the crystal.

  The crystal exploded, filling his vision with pure white. For a moment, he thought she’d killed them all. He hit the ground with a thump, cracking his head on a knotty tree root. He groaned and sat up and touched the back of his head, finding a tender spot but not blood. Aches assaulted his entire body.

  Even without the yellow ribbon on its branch, he recognized his sycamore and the bare earth at its feet. With him landing here and no other Knights in sight, he suspected everyone wound up at their preferred doorway into the Palace. At least he could count on never seeing Djembe again.

  The sooner he got up, the sooner he had to deal with Claire. Out here, with no one watching, he covered his face and admitted to himself that he couldn’t hold tears back.

  Chapter 41

  Drew

  Drew fell onto the couch in Justin’s cottage with Claire still on his lap. Enion thumped onto the floor behind it. Another dragon landed in front of him, smashing the sturdy coffee table into pieces and tossing crystals and sticks everywhere. Iulia, her aura swelled with an immense amount of power, landed beside her and fell onto her side.

  Everything he cared about in the entire world lay in his arms. Her death was his fault. He should’ve been stronger or talked her into waiting. He’d learned so much in a few days, he could’ve been much more powerful in only a month. But they rushed. Like morons.

  Tears streaked his glasses. He ripped them off his face and tossed them aside as useless. The mark on his arm burned with an itch he couldn’t motivate himself to scratch. Wild hope took seed inside him and he pressed the mark to the blood-covered locket on her chest. Nothing happened.

  “Drew.” Iulia knelt before him, holding Claire’s dagger. Claire’s face looked up at him with polite sympathy and he chose to be grateful he couldn’t see it clearly without his glasses. He held Claire tighter. “Caius is dead. She made it possible. She did everything necessary to set the pieces into play and saw it through to the end. She’s the hero here.”

  “But she’s…I swore…” He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut. The pain didn’t go away. “Bring her back!”

  “Magic doesn’t work that way.” Iulia touched his hand, her fingers smooth and warm. “I’m sorry. I had hopes and dreams for her too. But be still while you hold her, because I need her to make the new seal.”

  “The new seal?” Drew blinked at her. He didn’t care about a seal unless… “Will she be inside it like Caius was?”

  “No, not at all. That was a mistake.”

  “Then why should I let you do anything?” Drew pulled Claire’s body out of Iulia’s reach. Enion raised his head and growled.

  Iulia sighed. “Because this is what she died for. Her death isn’t stupid and meaningless. It’s a sacrifice she made in the name of doing the right thing for everyone. She didn’t have to charge in and face Caius. She could have hid behind those three Knights or helped you get back on your feet, or any number of other things. Instead, she stared down the thing she feared the most. She died to save everyone else. You knew her best, I think. Isn’t that what she would’ve wanted?”

  “She would’ve wanted to live!” Drew buried his face in her neck, heedless of the blood.

  “We all want that,” Iulia murmured. “But we all die. Better to die for something than nothing.”

  He’d never see her smile again. He’d never wipe her tears away again. He’d never do a lot of things again, or for the first time.

  The air thrummed with power and the symbol on Drew’s arm flared with white-hot pain. Not expecting it, he screamed. The woman from the graveyard stepped out of Missy and Lisa’s toy chest, displacing the stuffed animals and costumes as if she’d been hiding inside it all along.

  “Oh no,” Kay moaned. “We’re so dead.”

  “You swore an oath, guardian.” Her voice echoed over and over inside the house.

  Unable to speak, Drew nodded. He held Claire’s body so the spirit could see what had been done to her.

  “There is only one penalty for failure.”

  “Please, something happen,” Kay whined. “Whatever’s listening, for the gods’ sake, intervene!”

  “Shut up, Kay,” Drew choked out. Death seemed too kind for him. He closed his eyes and hoped it wouldn’t hurt much. Maybe he could be with Claire on the other side. They could do whatever ghosts did…haunting the Portland Underground and scaring the crap out of people might be okay.

  “No. Wait. I need him. And her. Both of them.”

  He snapped his eyes open and stared at Iulia, now standing between him and the spirit. She stood in a pose of defiance, ready to defend him.

  “What?” Drew sputtered. “Why?”

  The spirit tried to reach into Iulia’s chest, but Iulia snatched its wrist and held on. It failed to pull itself free. “Who are you?” it demanded, eyes flashing teal.

  Iulia straightened and glared at the spirit. “My name is Iulia Marius, daughter of Albanus of Perusia and wife to Caius Marius of Antium, the Gorgon Slayer. Who are you?”

  The spirit froze, though its edges and hair still rippled. After a moment so tense Drew could taste it, the spirit lowered itself to one knee and bowed to Iulia. “A servant of Marius. May I be of assistance?”

  “Yes. Power me.” Iulia turned and touched Drew’s cheek with warm fingertips. “Drew. I can see how much she means to you. But Claire is the key to everything. Will you help me make her immortal?”

  Drew’s breath caught. “Immortal? What do you mean?”

  Iulia smiled at him again. “There’s so much you don’t know or understand. Right now, the barrier between Earth and the ghost realm is gone. It failed a long time ago. We put a new one into place, then it was flawed by Caius creating the Palace. T
hanks to Claire’s sacrifice, the Palace and its seal are gone. Do you see?”

  Claire lay dead in his arms and Iulia wanted to explain magic to him. The only true friend he’d ever had died and she wanted him to understand a concept defying the laws of physics and every religion he knew about. “No? What do you want from me?”

  “Let me do what I need to do.” Iulia touched Enion’s face. “She trusted me. I’m only asking you and the dragon to do the same.”

  Enion slid behind the couch, sniffling and whimpering. Drew traced the line of Claire’s cheekbone. She felt cold already. “She’s all I have.”

  Iulia nudged his hand aside. “You don’t have to leave. Just don’t interfere.”

  Whatever Iulia wanted to do, Drew kept hearing the word “immortal” echoing in his head. If it meant some demented fable-worthy half-a-life version of forever, he’d have to undo this. Somehow. And probably kill a piece of himself to do it. But if she meant genuine immortality, he had to let her try. “Okay. Don’t hurt her.” The absurdity of his request only made his tears fall faster. Drew leaned back on the couch and hugged himself with Claire’s limp body draped across his lap.

  The spirit, this time not a blazing inferno in his face, covered the locket face on Claire’s chest with its palm. Iulia laid her hand over the spirit’s. Kay whimpered as Drew’s skin crawled with growing power in the room. The fleeting thought they shouldn’t be doing this in the living room drifted through his head.

  Pure white crept over Claire’s skin like a blanket. Iulia frowned as the gaping hole in Claire’s chest filled with bright green-tinted light. Claire’s mouth fell open and darker green light spilled out, pure and vibrating with raw, magical power.

  The magic felt oppressive and dissonant. Drew covered his ears and screwed his eyes shut, and it still pressed on him, poking him with thousands of tiny barbs and assaulting his hearing with thrumming agony. Burning bile filled his nose and threatened to make him throw up.

  “Stop,” he whimpered.

  “What have you done?” Iulia shrieked. “I said clear! I told her to use a clear crystal! Why didn’t she?”

  “The working fails,” the spirit wailed.

  “Don’t die,” Kay squeaked. “Don’t die, don’t die, don’t die, don’t die, don’t die.”

  Enion roared and Drew dared to open his eyes. The dragon leaped halfway over the couch to shove Iulia aside and growl something at the other dragon. The second dragon trilled in despair.

  Iulia stretched her hand toward Claire’s body, but couldn’t reach past Enion. “Spirit! Help me!”

  “All is lost,” the spirit said, its voice thin and reedy.

  “No! I’ve waited too long. I can’t fail.” Iulia gritted her teeth and struggled to push Enion’s claw away.

  The mark on Drew’s arm exploded with agony. Even if he knew what to do, he couldn’t act. Light bulbs throughout the house burst inside their fixtures. Drew felt the power building, trying to tear him apart, and forgot to breathe. Kay panicked inside his head. The door slammed open.

  “What the hell is going on?” Justin shouted.

  The ground shook. Wood exploded everywhere. Drew flinched and hid his face. Iulia screamed, her voice receding into the distance. The power and pain flowed away, leaving Drew’s ears ringing. Someone approached and he finally opened his eyes again to see Justin dropping to a knee in front of him with red, puffy eyes. Anne crouched nearby. She picked up Drew’s glasses and cleaned them on her dress.

  The gaping wound remained in Claire’s chest. Dust drifted down from the huge hole in the ceiling. Enion hung his head and trilled his distress while draped over the couch. Claire’s flesh now had a greenish cast in the same way corpses on TV usually had a bluish tint.

  Nothing mattered anymore. Drew touched the blood-smeared locket in Claire’s chest. Losing his parents had felt like this too. Numb static drummed inside him, filling the place Claire used to own with vast, yawning emptiness.

  Chapter 42

  Drew

  “What did Iulia do to her?” Justin’s whisper hit Drew like a brick to the face.

  “I don’t know.” Drew heard his voice coming from his mouth but couldn’t understand how he spoke. His voice sounded too hollow to be real. “She said it would make Claire immortal and fix everything. Something went wrong and everything blew up instead.”

  “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here,” Anne said through a thick layer of guilt and anguish. She slid Drew’s glasses onto his face and sat beside him. “I only stepped out for five minutes. I had no idea you’d all be back so soon. Then all of this…” She touched Claire’s hair.

  “The explosion blew Iulia out of the house,” Justin muttered. “Good riddance.” He looked away. “I knew it was dangerous, but I never really… It should have been me.”

  The admission flipped a switch inside Drew. Hot tears flowed again. “Yeah, it should’ve,” he snarled. “You’re the experienced Knight. It should’ve been you to take that hit. Instead, it was Claire. It’s not fair! And Enion’s broken!”

  Enion gurgled in anguish.

  “How do we fix this?” Drew could tell he shouted and didn’t care. “I don’t know how to fix it. Everything is screwed up, and it’s your fault. You got me possessed, you got me a possessed dog, you got Claire killed.” He lurched to his feet, trying to lift Claire, but he wasn’t strong enough to carry her. She could’ve carried him, which made it worse.

  Justin scooped Claire into his arms and looked down at her face. “I barely had time to get to know her. But she was still part of our family.”

  Drew deflated in an instant. Seeing Justin lift her with so much care punctured Drew’s outrage. He already regretted heaping the blame on this man. How many times had Claire told him to stop doing that over the past two days? “What do we do?”

  Anne draped an arm around his shoulders. “We can’t take her to the police like that. They’ll have too many questions.”

  “We bury her.”

  Drew watched him carry her across the room. Justin seemed so calm and rational. Drew could barely think. “I can’t do this without her.”

  “You can,” Anne murmured.

  Stopping at the door, Justin hung his head. “I don’t think I can deal with two bodies today. Come open the door for me?”

  With that, Drew knew Justin felt this. Drew had known Claire far longer, but Justin hurt over this. His tone made that painfully clear.

  “I want her back. How do I get her back?” Drew begged.

  Anne sighed and opened the door for Justin. They walked out together. Drew wiped his face and glanced at Enion. The dragon flashed silver and turned tiny, but that didn’t fix the half-healed gash in his side. Taking a step toward him, Drew made a decision. Enion needed help. Claire would want someone to take care of Enion and the rest of the dragons.

  Crouching beside Enion, he pinched the wound shut while scooping him up. “We’ll fix this. I can’t fix anything else, but I won’t abandon you.”

  Enion settled in the palm of his hand, still whimpering. Drew rifled through the kitchen as fast as he could and found some scotch tape. For the moment, he used it to hold the skin together in the hopes it would heal normally. Focusing on the delicate task helped him forget why he had to do it.

  When he hurried outside, he found Justin waiting for him at the edge of the forest. The farmhouse door swung shut, showing where Anne had gone. Drew appreciated her leaving them to handle this. She’d barely known Claire. He and Justin walked together through the woods, Drew’s attention on not jostling Enion or tripping.

  “I don’t even know if Mutt survived. I couldn’t tell.” He shook his head and watched his feet. “I think Djembe…” The words stuck in his throat.

  “If he’s alive, I’m sure he’ll find his way here. He knows where you are.” Justin stepped over a fallen log and Drew got the impression he had a specific destination in mind. “You know you can stay with us still, right? You’re welcome here. You can also leave if you thi
nk that’s the best thing for you. I’m not going to pretend like I have any idea how you feel or what you need.”

  Drew hadn’t expected that kind of offer. Considering it reminded him that Monday was a school day. How could he face teachers and homework after this? The prospect of eating leftover pie turned his stomach, let alone riding the school bus by himself. People would ask about Claire and he’d say…something. Or maybe no one would notice.

  “Thanks. What about your house?”

  “Jack and I will fix it. It’ll go faster if you help.”

  Nodding, Drew went quiet. He thought about how much Claire had griped about being a Knight in the same breath that she whipped out her dagger and seemed so pleased with herself for having it. Justin had no armor or sword now. Neither did any of the other Knights. In fact, they weren’t Spirit Knights anymore. They were just men with a lot of specialized knowledge and experience.

  Drew, on the other hand, still had Kay. Until someone came up with a way to enchant weapons again, he could—and should—pick up some slack in dealing with ghosts. The job would keep him busy, at least. Especially now, when who knew what might be roaming the streets.

  They reached a big sycamore. Portland had tons of them all over the place. The ground around it had been kept clear, aside from a colony of moss on a large rock. Tariel stepped into view from the side and Drew had a feeling the Knights had kept their sprite bonds somehow. She hung her head and stood beside Justin.

  Drew stared at the old leaves covering the dark dirt. Justin stood with him. For several minutes, no one spoke. A light breeze kicked up a handful of dry leaves.

  “I forgot to bring a shovel,” Justin finally said.

  The horse gave a low whinny. Enion chirped. Drew suspected both offered to help. Together, the four of them each did what they could. Justin used a flat rock. Drew pawed through the damp earth with his bare hands. It took longer than it should have, but Drew couldn’t feel good about running off to the ley line to recharge so he could use mist snakes to do this job. He didn’t want to leave Claire here until he knew nothing would happen to her.