My Tethered Soul: Volume 2 (Reaper's Rite)

by Dorothy Dreyer

  “We went over just now, to check. But no one answered the door.”

  She rubbed her wrinkled lips with her forefinger and slowly nodded. “Hunter will check it out.”

  Hunter gave me a curt nod. “I’m on it.”

  Chase leaned against the side table with his arms crossed over his chest. Sable circled his legs, rubbing up against them as she purred.

  I bit my lip, swallowing back the sick feeling in my throat.

  “Best not to worry about it now,” Lilura said. “There’s nothing we can do until we have more information. And even then…” She ended the sentence with a shrug and then sipped more of her tea.

  I knew she was right. There was nothing we could do if the damage was already done. The most we could hope for was to defeat the Reaper so he couldn’t do anyone else harm.

  “Lilura, I don’t understand. If a Reaper is controlling me, I thought I wouldn’t be able to remember anything. Like when Mara was under the spell. She didn’t remember anything she did. For me, it was more like a dream.” Except that I woke up with a bloody knife in my hand. “There were parts that were blacked out. But the rest of it? I saw it all happen.”

  Lilura studied my face, her eyes flicking around as she thought. One brow slowly rose and she sat up straighter. “Maybe it has something to do with how you destroyed a Reaper. Maybe this Reaper knows what you’re capable of. It’s trying to beat you down, knowing you have a kind heart and would never want to hurt anyone. It’s using your feelings about what it’s making you do as a way to punish you. Kill you with guilt. As well as using your mother to pull you under his control.”

  “That would make sense, I guess.” I rubbed my hands on my jeans. “Especially if it’s my mother’s Reaper.”

  The logic didn’t escape me, but that didn’t make it any less scary.

  “On a positive note, I’ve been doing some reading.” Lilura motioned to Chase, who brought over an old, worn, gray book. “This combined power that you and Mara were able to generate? There have been a few cases of it noted. It’s rare though. Only happens between sister Vila. And even then, it’s a difficult thing to master.”

  She flipped open the book and showed me a page. Her yellow fingernail tapped the entry. “Read this.”

  The words swam before my eyes, but a few of them caught my attention. Words like “immense power” and “conjoined magic.” Just as I finished reading the journal entry, someone knocked at the front door. Hunter rushed by me to open it.

  “Well, my day just brightened up.” Hunter stepped aside and let Mara in. “Too bad I’m on my way out.”

  “Oh, you’re leaving?” Mara lifted her chin. “Guess my day just brightened up.”

  Hunter smirked at her, tossing his keys in the air and catching them, then left the house. Mara watched him a little too long for me to believe she wasn’t interested. When she looked my way, she rolled her eyes.

  Yeah, right, Mara.

  Lilura flattened her hands on the table and pushed herself out of her chair. “It’s about time you showed up. Come on, we’ve got a lot to practice.”

  As she walked by me, Lilura tugged on a strand of my hair.

  “You okay?” Mara’s voice was a whisper. She still looked as worried as she did this morning when I told her what had happened.

  “Not really,” I said.

  She squeezed my shoulder and gave me an encouraging smile.

  We followed Lilura out back, where she instructed Mara and me to stand side-by-side. Gavin and Chase settled in on the picnic bench to observe us.

  Lilura joined her hands in front of her chest, her forefingers steepled together. “I’ve been trying to figure out how we can use this to our advantage. Unfortunately, I can’t have you practice on anything living, though I’d love to catch the mole that keeps messing up my yard. In any case, this is probably as good as anything we’re going to find.”

  She walked out to the edge of her yard and picked up a garden gnome. She then hobbled to the middle of her lawn and set it down so that the gnome’s beady eyes were staring right at us. Returning to where we stood, she placed her hands on her hips.

  “Okay. Destroy it.”

  Mara and I glanced at each other.

  “Are you sure?” Mara asked.

  Lilura scoffed. “You’ll be doing me a favor. Got that ugly thing from an old friend years ago. It’s always given me the creeps.”

  “Why didn’t you just get rid of it?” I asked.

  Lilura shook her head. “I’m not completely heartless. It was a gift. Now, blow the sucker up!”

  I fidgeted. “What exactly do you want us to do?”

  “Do the same thing you did on prom night. Only to the gnome.”

  Mara let out a small laugh, and I had to bite my cheek to keep from joining her. The thought of the Reaper looking like a pudgy little red-hooded garden gnome was beyond ridiculous. Still, Lilura was right. We had to practice on something.

  I reached for Mara’s hand. She stopped smiling. Clearing my throat, I concentrated on the gnome. Mara tightened her grip, letting me know she was doing the same. At first, nothing happened. Then the pulsation began. Sparks of white glittered from our joined hands. My skin felt hot. The white flame grew, and soon it was about the size of a softball. On Mara’s signal, we lifted our hands and tossed the energy ball at the gnome.

  White fire hit the gnome with a thunderous bang. On impact, jagged pieces of ceramic shot in every direction across the yard. A puff of smoke billowed up from where a perfectly good lawn ornament used to stand. Lilura responded with a throaty whoop I never imagined could escape her lips. Chase and Gavin applauded us, laughing.

  With a clap of her hands, Lilura turned to us. “Okay, now we’ve got to see if it will work on something magical.”

  “What do you mean?” Mara asked.

  Lilura pointed to the patch of black grass where the gnome formerly stood. “That was just a defenseless gnome. You probably could shoot at anything with that electro-ball of yours and do damage. But magical things and magical people are different.”

  “But we hit the Reaper.” I shrugged. “He’s considered magical, right?”

  “Yes. But he might use some kind of defense now that he knows what you two are capable of.”

  I hadn’t thought of that. “So what do we do?”

  “I’m going to shield something with my powers, and I want you two to try to penetrate it.”

  “Shield it?” Mara glanced at me as if I’d been keeping something from her.

  I remembered back to when Mara’s Reaper had taken her to the In-Between. She was unconscious, so she wouldn’t remember Lilura temporarily trapping the Reaper with her glowing, blue force field bubble. That wasn’t the technical name for it, but I never got around to asking Lilura what it was. Maybe “magic shield” was a closer guess.

  “It’s a trick I’ve yet to teach you girls.” Lilura waved Mara’s question away. “Chase, go get me one of those old tires from the garage.”

  Mara swept her hair away from her face and leaned closer to me. “Don’t tell you-know-who, but this is actually kind of fun.”

  I tried to conceal my smile. “Right?”

  Chase emerged from the garage rolling a car tire beside him. When he got to the patch of burnt grass, he dropped the tire on top of it. A curt nod in my direction, and he sauntered back to the picnic bench.

  “All right, girls. Pay attention.” Lilura rubbed her hands together. “I’m going to conjure up the shield. I want you two to wait until it completely encases the tire before you fire off your weapon. Do you understand, or do I have to speak slowly and use easier words?”

  I glanced at Mara. “Yeah, we got it.”

  Lilura pursed her lips and faced the tire. A breeze blew her hair in tangles around her head, but her eyes stayed focused on the tire. Her lips moved quickly then, though I could barely hear what came out of her mouth. As she continued to chant, a blue-ish globe appeared around the tire. It grew brighter as she got lou
der. When it surrounded the tire completely, Mara grabbed my hand.

  Together, we conjured up our energy ball. The warmth of it zinged between my fingertips. This time, I signaled to Mara. We raised our hands and shot the sphere toward Lilura’s shield.

  There was a crackling sound when it hit the sphere, high-pitched and accompanied by a blinding blast of light. I didn’t know whether to cover my eyes or my ears. As the light faded, my heart sank. Though the glow of Lilura’s shield blinked and fluttered, we hadn’t penetrated it. The tire was untouched.

  Lilura clicked her tongue, and the shield disappeared. Wiping her brow, she looked toward the ground and closed her eyes for a moment.

  Chase jumped up from the bench and rushed toward her. “Are you all right?”

  Lilura pushed at him. “Get away from me. Can’t you see I’m working here?”

  Chase hesitantly stepped back, brow furrowed.

  “I’m fine. I’m fine. The light…threw me off.” Turning toward Mara and me, Lilura shook her head. “I was afraid it wouldn’t be enough. You two are going to have to kick it up a notch.”

  I shot a quick look at my boyfriend. “What about if Gavin steps in?”

  “Yes, that should help.” Lilura pointed a bony finger at us. “But even then, you two are going to have to concentrate harder. Really push your power into the ball. Will it to breach the shield.”

  Gavin hopped up from the bench and strode over to my side. I squeezed his hand and then nodded to Mara.

  “Ready?” she asked.

  “Let’s do this.”

  Lilura rubbed her hands together and faced the tire. The chant flowed from her lips. Gavin rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand. As the spark began between Mara’s hand and mine, I repeated over and over in my head what I wanted. We needed to get through the shield. If we couldn’t, we might not stand a chance against the Reaper.

  The energy ball glowed brighter, the white fire practically sizzling in our hands. Though the vibration of it shook us, we didn’t throw it yet. We let it grow even bigger still. And then, when it was the size of a grapefruit, we aimed and shot.

  This time, the impact made an electrical shock sound, like a bug caught in a zapper. The bright blast of light blinded me. It was almost as if the flash sucked up all sound for a minute. When the light faded, there was nothing left of the tire but a smoldering pile of black goop. My jaw dropped, and I squeezed Mara’s hand. We’d done it. We’d broken through the shield.

  But when I looked over at Lilura, she was sprawled out on the ground, motionless.

  Chapter Thirteen

  We all hovered over Lilura, who lay, unmoving, on the couch where Chase set her down. He moved with lightning-quick speed. He checked her pulse, shook her, and then fetched something from his alchemy kit, which he placed under her nose.

  Her eyes popped open. “Are you trying to kill me, boy? Get that awful-smelling stuff away from my face.”

  Chase flinched. “You’re okay?”

  Lilura pushed herself up from the couch. “I will be once you nosey kids learn to give an old woman some space. Move it!”

  As we backed away, Chase’s phone chirped from his pocket. Glancing at the screen, he put a gentle hand on Lilura’s shoulder—which she shoved away—and excused himself from the room. I wondered briefly if it was Hunter texting him with news about Rudy.

  Lilura pulled a handkerchief from her pants pocket and wiped her brow. “That was an impressive blast, girls. And what’s even better is that it knocked me out.”

  Mara and I exchanged a look. “Why is that good?”

  Lilura rolled her eyes and went over to the dining room table. Mara and I followed, taking a seat and waiting for Lilura to explain.

  “I collapsed because of the energy created from the impact of your magic sphere hitting my shield. Not only is that ball of yours powerful enough to penetrate a magical object—and a strong one at that—but it also seems to wipe out the power generated, as well as the magical person or thing, that created the power. Hand me that journal, would you?”

  I hopped up, grabbed the journal from the side table, and handed it to Lilura. She licked her fingertip and turned the pages of the book, finally slapping the page she was looking for. She cleared her throat, ready to read the passage.

  “The village witches, who know what I am, call it an Orbis. They say it’s one of the highest forms of Vila energy. So strong a weapon, it seeps the power from any magical object or person in the area, rendering them defenseless.”

  I pressed my fingers into the table as this bit of information sank in. “So you think we can use this to our advantage against the Reaper?”

  “I do.”

  My spirits brightened. I was glad we finally had a direction to go, assuming it would really work.

  “We can make a more detailed plan later. For now, I’m still mighty worn out from that blast. Think I’ll go lie down for a recharge.” Lilura raised a brow at us. “In other words, get out of here.”

  “Oh.” I pushed my chair back and stood. “Right. See you tomorrow?”

  Lilura nodded. “Tomorrow.”

  Mara and I headed toward the door. Neither of us spoke, but I had to assume we were thinking the same thing. Did we really have something strong enough to use against the Reaper? Something conjured up between the two of us, a weapon made purely of magic? It was enough to give me hope.

  Gavin and Chase stood on the front porch whispering when I opened the door. I’d been so immersed in the conversation with Lilura that I hadn’t noticed Gavin leave the room. Mara stepped off the porch, but the tightening of Gavin’s lips as I neared him gave me pause. As if sensing my apprehension, Gavin forced a small smile for me.

  “Hey.” I narrowed my eyes. “What are you two whispering about?”

  Gavin sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Chase found something. Something that has to do with my parents. My birth parents.”

  “Wow.” I placed a hand on his bicep. It had slipped my mind that Chase had been helping Gavin dig up some information about what happened to his family before he was adopted. “Well, that’s good, right?”

  Gavin shrugged and glanced at Chase. “I don’t know. It’s some guy. My real father’s best friend. Chase says he thinks the guy might be able to tell me what really happened.”

  “Other than what the newspapers say,” Chase added.

  “Well, you have to go find out, right?”

  Gavin had been curious about his real parents for years. This was his chance to put pieces of the puzzle in place.

  He shook his head. “No, it can wait.” But his eyes were far away. I could tell that, in his mind, he was already on the road to meet the guy.

  I cupped Gavin’s cheek. “But if you wait too long, you never know—this guy could move. You could lose him. You should go talk to him while you’ve got a chance.”

  “But that means leaving you alone.” Gavin’s eyes held mine. The crease of his brow told me he was torn.

  A smirk played on my lips. “I’m not alone. I’ve got Mara and Naomi.”

  “And me,” Chase said.

  Gavin regarded Chase then turned back to me. “How about Danny?”

  Chase scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. You know for a fact that no one’s better qualified to protect her, with or without your presence.”

  Gavin set his lips in a straight line and exhaled slowly through his nose. “Fine. You keep an eye on her. From outside the house.”

  Chase smiled at Gavin and crossed his arms over his chest. There was a slight laugh in his response. “Sure.”

  ***

  “I’m stopping for gas,” Gavin said through the phone. “Thought I’d check in on you.”

  “Everything’s fine.” I twisted my hair around a finger and stretched my legs out on my bed. “You be careful driving.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m wide awake. Three cans of Red Bull made sure of that.”

  I giggled, then closed my eyes and pressed my head back into m
y pillow. “Good luck, Gavin. I hope you find out what you need to.”

  “Me too.”

  I missed him already. I’d gotten so used to him secretly spending the night, having his warm body next to me as I slept. “Come back soon, okay?”

  “I promise.”

  I set my phone on my nightstand and sat up. I couldn’t sleep. Not yet, anyway. There were too many things on my mind.

  I walked over to my dresser and grabbed my brush. As I ran it through my hair, I went over to my window to give Chase a peek. His car was parked across the street, about twenty feet down the block. He probably had a good view of my window from there, but unless someone paid attention, no one would discover him spying on me.

  Resigning myself to at least relaxing, I climbed back into bed and grabbed the book off my nightstand. I stared at a page for five minutes without reading it. Why did Gavin have to be gone? I returned the book to its resting place and reached under my pillow. The cold steel of the switchblade cooled my fingers.

  A scraping noise made me sit up.

  Was it coming from in my room? I listened again, and my eyes went straight to the window. A dark figure behind my curtain moved. I held the switchblade out in front of me, and then let out a sigh of relief when Chase’s face appeared.

  “Is that the switchblade I gave you, or are you just happy to see me?” The side of his mouth curled up as he climbed through my window.

  I shushed him. “What are you doing?”

  “Switchblade, Zadie?”

  I still held it out in front of me. Clearing my throat, I ran back to put it under my pillow. When I turned back to him, he was looking around my room. The sight of this tall, brooding guy in his dark trench coat, sweeping around my room with his eyes narrowed, was not something I expected to see tonight.

  “I thought I saw something,” he said. “Decided I should take a look.”

  “What you probably saw was me looking out my window.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe. Better safe than sorry though, right?”