by A. J. Locke
“There’s too much on the line for me not to try.” Even as I said the words, I was picturing the graveyard collapsing on our heads and dying the worst possible death. I prayed Magda truly knew what she was doing and I’d get to walk out of here alive. I might damn well skip my way out from the sheer joy of not being crushed to death.
“Very well. Do as I say and do not speak. Take these.” She handed me the two power absorption runes. “Activate them, then touch them to each binding rune.” I channeled energy into each rune, then did as she instructed.
When I touched the runes, they began to glow, and a jolt went through me that caused my body to buck. It wasn’t exactly painful, but it was forceful. Magda then instructed me to turn my hands so the runes were resting on my palms. She pulled my hands over the rune circle.
“You are now connected to each binding rune.” Magda’s voice had dropped to a whisper. Now I felt not just her power, but the power from the binding runes. It did not feel good. It was as though I was holding on to the leashes of very huge, ferocious dogs, and in a split second they’d decide to run and I’d lose all control and be pulled along with no way to stop.
Magda’s eyes were closed as she whispered rapidly under her breath. Magic sparked over the skulls and the rune circle in colorful whips. When it touched my skin, it burned, and I had to fight not to drop the runes and rub my aching skin. The feel of magic in the small space intensified. The binding rune’s power, mixed with Magda’s, felt as though a block of cement was sitting on my chest. I started gasping for breath as the magic tightened around my body. The connection I had to the binding runes kept growing, and I was afraid at any moment all the power in those runes would be unleashed.
I was putting a lot of trust in a mysterious dead witch and I hoped it would not cost me my life.
Then, within all the pain and power, I felt something else. My reanimation power. It reached out for me from within the binding runes and another jolt went through me, but in a good way. My reanimation power channeled through the runes in my hands, then into my body. It was only a small amount, but my body thirsted to take it back. Magda kept up her whispering, and slowly but surely I felt my reanimation power detach from the binding runes and come back to me. It was a familiar sensation, and I relished it. I hadn’t realized just how much I missed my reanimation power. Despite the trouble it had caused me these past few months, I was not whole without it.
I closed my eyes and pictured that small streak of red reanimation magic rejoining my blue necromancer magic. I felt good, stable, stronger. I smiled. I couldn’t believe this had worked. Part of me had not really believed the outcome of this trek would be positive.
When I opened my eyes and looked down, those colorful whips of magic poured from the binding runes and into the skulls around the rune circle. The intensity of the power increased to the point where I heard rumbling, and the ground and walls started shaking. Dirt rained down on us, and I was very, very afraid of a cave-in.
I wanted to leap up, drop the runes, and run the hell out of here, but I knew the dangers of interrupting a rune circle before it was properly deactivated. I stayed put and hoped with everything I had that Magda really knew what she was doing. Her eyes were rolled back in her head, her body shook, and those whips of magic encircled her.
Finally, Magda stopped muttering and her eyes returned to normal. Even though we faced each other, I got the feeling that she wasn’t really seeing me. She held herself still for a long moment, and I realized that as she remained unmoving, the rune circle was deactivating. The crushing feel of power dropped off, and magic sparked around the skulls for a while, and then disappeared. The room stopped shaking. Thankfully. Finally, the rune circle and all the runes stopped glowing. The circle had been deactivated. I released a huge breath.
Magda took back the power absorption runes and I drew my hands into my lap. The burning feeling caused by the magic was subsiding.
“It has been done.” Her voice sounded deeper somehow. “You feel it?”
“Yes,” I whispered. “I have my reanimation power back.”
“Yet you do not seem overjoyed.”
“I feel complete again, but my reanimation power has brought me a lot of trouble. Deadly trouble. But I need it to try and save lives now.”
“Your troubles in the above world must be deep. Your agitation is strong.”
“Ghosts that were forced into the Afterlife through a necromancer circle are somehow back here seeking the revenge that was denied to them. They’ve also been absorbing other ghosts and inflicting massive amounts of ghost energy on their victims, who eventually die horrifically. So yeah, my troubles are deep.”
“You believe your reanimation power is the key to undoing these problems.”
“I don’t believe, I just hope.”
A cold smile returned to Magda’s lips, and there was darkness in her eyes that wasn’t there before. A chill ran through me and I glanced down at the skulls and the now dormant binding runes.
Supposedly all the power from the binding runes now lay within those bones, and I’d be leaving them in Magda’s possession. What would she do with all that power? What could she do with it? I didn’t want to entertain the thought that she would use the power for something sinister, but really, I had no idea. In order to get what I’d needed done, I had to leave that power here, so if something bad came from it, I’d just have to deal with it. I really hoped I wouldn’t have to deal with it.
“You will find out, I suppose,” Magda said. “Your time here is over for now.”
I got up and shook as much dirt off me as I could. I could not wait to get home and take a shower.
“Thank you…for your help.”
Magda nodded, her expression stoic. She did not move from where she knelt.
Nothing to do but leave. I turned around and started to walk away.
“When you need me again, girl, you know where to find me.”
I was certain I never wanted to come back here again. I walked quicker, all the while feeling Magda’s eyes on my back. I cast one last look over my shoulder at the powerful dead witch sitting there with her extraordinarily powerful bones, then turned around and got out of that crypt as quickly as I could.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
I woke up feeling sore from head to toe, as though I’d spent half a day in the gym yesterday and worked every single muscle in my body, including my eyes.
I’d felt fine after leaving Magda, but I guess the effects of her ritual were much like the effects of a hard workout—you didn’t really feel the burn until the next day. I lay there for a moment to assess my body. I was sore, but it wasn’t crippling. I was so relieved that the off-balance feeling of emptiness, along with the nausea and dizzy spells, was over.
I tuned in to my reanimation power and felt it thrumming along inside me as though it had never left. I frowned slightly as a strange feeling stirred inside me while I was focused on my reanimation power. My palms tingled, and the only way I could describe how I felt was “off.” But considering what I had been through last night, I suppose it made sense that I didn’t feel a hundred percent normal yet.
Last night felt like a bizarre dream. If I wasn’t acutely aware of my reanimation power inside me, I would not believe any of it had happened.
I lay in bed, feeling like my body had been wrung out like a piece of laundry, until I could lay there no more because my bladder was about to burst and Luna was become more adamant in her desire to communicate that she was hungry. So I reluctantly got up, did my bathroom routine, then fed Luna and poured myself a huge bowl of sugary cereal. It was far from the protein and carb-rich diet the doctors wanted me to follow, but I didn’t have the energy for bacon, eggs, and toast.
Man, did I miss Ethan. I hoped wherever he was he was fine. My cynical side, knowing things tended to lean toward bad more than good for me and the people in my life, laughed at that hope.
After breakfast, I hunted my phone down and called Micah to tell him
that I had my reanimation power back and could now try to draw the ghost energy out of Harvey and those other victims, but he didn’t answer. Neither did Tielle. How annoying. Well, I wasn’t going to wait for them to call me back. Making sure those people didn’t die was important so I’d just head to the Paranormal Control Center. They were probably too busy to pay attention to their phones. I just hoped what was keeping them busy wasn’t more of those people dying.
I washed up, then changed into a pair of jeans, a black and gray sweater, and swept my hair back into a ponytail. I’d have to remember to switch my wardrobe from summer to winter soon. I kept having to dig into storage boxes to get warm clothes out. The floor of my room was starting to look like Ethan’s used to. Luna was having the time of her life romping around in all the clothes on the floor. I pried her away to take her for a walk, then headed out to the city.
While I was in the vicinity of the PCC trying to find parking, I caught sight of Micah and Tielle exiting the building and heading to Micah’s car. My curiosity was immediately piqued. Where were they going?
I dialed Micah again and was surprised when he looked at his phone, then sent the call to voicemail. He then said something to Tielle, who shook her head.
What the hell? Micah was ignoring my call? Maybe that’s what he’d done earlier. Tielle too. But why? Did it have to do with wherever they were heading now?
Only one way to find out. I waited until they drove off, then followed, keeping a good amount of cars in between us but always keeping them in my sights. Before long I realized that they were driving out of the city and into Brooklyn. I wondered if they were heading to my house, but if that was the case there’d be no reason for them to ignore my calls.
About twenty minutes later, I was beginning to get a sense of déjà vu that I did not enjoy. I was following them through that sketchy neighborhood that led to Renton’s bunker. What could they be heading back there for? Sure enough, they drove right to that dead-end street and parked.
I quickly made a turn down the adjacent street so they wouldn’t see my car, and found a parking spot there. I waited five minutes, then got out, once again having to say a prayer that my car would have tires on it when I got back. I then walked over to the dead-end street, keeping a look out in case Micah or Tielle were around.
But as I suspected, they weren’t around because they’d headed over the wall. Or through it, rather. When I saw the wall at the end of the block I thought it had crumbled, then I realized that the gap was too neat to be the result of a cave-in. That hole had been purposely made as though to make the area more accessible. Interesting.
I moved forward and passed through the brick wall. There was now a clear path through the brush. That bunker was really still in use? Renton did have a lot of notes and equipment there, but I’d seen all the boxes by Micah’s desk when he’d given me a tour and told me he was working on typing up Renton’s notes. Maybe not everything was moved out yet. The new path and broken-down wall would obviously make getting in and out easier. Especially with boxes.
That made perfect sense but I was still wary as I moved forward, keeping myself hyper-vigilant for anything that might jump out at me. I might be resistant to death, but that didn’t mean I wanted to encourage stabbings and beatings. Receiving the blows still hurt like a motherfucker.
Finally, I reached the entrance to the abandoned subway station. After taking a moment to steel myself, I eased in. I had my phone out, ready to use the flashlight, but there were battery-operated lanterns strung alongside either wall. Their soft white glow provided ample light to traverse the path comfortably. This just kept getting more and more interesting.
As I continued on, I tried not to let memories of the last time I’d been here overwhelm me. When last my feet were on this path it was because I was running like a madwoman to get to Ilyse before Ethan killed her.
I had to stop and take a deep breath. Several deep breaths. I was already on edge. I couldn’t throw my pain over the loss of Ilyse on top of that. I had to focus on why I came here. To stalk Micah and Tielle for no real reason other than extreme curiosity. That was a good enough reason for stalking in my book.
I made it out of the tunnel and headed to the wall that I had to feel around a bit before I activated whatever made it slide out of the way. Micah and Tielle would know someone else had arrived because of the noise the wall made, so I no longer had to be stealthy. I stepped through the door into the cavernous room beyond.
And was left in jaw dropped shock when I saw who was standing in the middle of the room.
Ethan.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Ethan?”
Ethan had been standing with his back to me, but at the sound of his name he turned around and gaped at me the way I was gaping at him.
“Selene?”
“Ethan?” I said again. I didn’t know what to think, I didn’t know what to feel. Ethan stood there in jeans and one of his graphic T-shirts, giving me a tentative smile. His hair looked a bit longer than the last time I’d seen him, but it was as though he’d purposely grown it out. He looked…warm, vibrant…he looked alive. Not once since we’d met had I seen him look like this, not even when he was bound to me. And then it dawned on me why he looked like that. I was not staring at Ethan as a ghost. I was staring at Ethan as a human. He had a physical body again.
Another wave of shock hit me. I don’t know exactly what I thought I would find after following Micah and Tielle here, but Ethan certainly hadn’t been on the list. This was so unexpected and overwhelming that I could do nothing but stand there and stare. My brain felt like it wasn’t quite able to process all of this.
“Selene?”
I looked over and saw Micah emerging from one of the doors in the wall. He looked from me to Ethan a few times, and when he settled his gaze on me I didn’t know how to read his expression.
“What…what are you doing here?” Micah asked as he came closer.
“I could ask you the same thing.” I wasn’t looking at him though; I was still staring at Ethan. Part of me wanted to run up and give him a hug, but in my thorough confusion at the situation I had just walked into, I stayed rooted to the spot.
Micah heaved a heavy sigh and ran his hand over his head a few times.
“I wanted it to be a surprise,” he said. “We weren’t ready for you to know…”
“You lied to me.” I suddenly snapped to my senses and scorching hot anger surged through me. “You told me Ethan had disappeared, you had me worried out of my mind and searching for him all over the Underground. You have his family out there thinking he’s missing. After everything we’ve been through with keeping things from each other and lying, how could you do that to me?”
“Because I thought surprising you would help make amends between us,” Micah said. “I wanted to show you that I was doing good work with Alchemy, but I wanted to wait until I knew everything with giving Ethan back his body went well. If things went awry I knew there was no way I could face you, but I decided the risk was worth it. Please try to understand.”
“I am really tired of trying to understand your actions, Micah.”
Micah looked stricken.
“What’s more, how could you think this was a good idea when a key component to maintaining the body is absorbing ghosts? Whose ghosts have you been feeding him? If you tell me you’ve been killing bums off the street I think my head will explode right here, right now.”
“No, we have not.” The new voice was Tielle’s. She emerged from a different room than Micah. “Selene, I’m not sure what led you here, but I can promise you we have not had to kill a single person in order to create and maintain Ethan’s new body.”
“I followed you here,” I said. “And if you haven’t been killing people to reap their ghosts, how has this been possible?”
“We perfected Renton’s method,” Tielle said. “He was on a completely different track before he saw a shortcut with you and your reanimation power. No doubt his unstabl
e side took over from there and that’s why things ended up the way they did with him slaughtering people to gain anchored ghosts. But when we recovered his notes, we were able to take things in a direction that did not involve anyone having to die.”
“How is it done?” I said. “I didn’t care to question the crazy man about his process of creating a physical body for a ghost, but now I want to know. How is it done?”
“Selene…it’s not a pretty process, you don’t need to…”
“How is it done?” The force of my words cut Micah off and he turned to Tielle.
“I know you need the ghost’s physical remains,” I said. “But Ethan’s body had turned to ashes. And at any rate, you need things like a brain, heart, lungs, veins, blood, hair, bones…where did all those things come from?”
“No matter what form or condition the remains are in, they contain the blueprint to the ghost’s physical body, to everything that made up their unique being. Ethan’s ashes were used in conjunction with…”
“With?” I prompted.
“A cadaver that was closest to his physical size,” Tielle finished.
My eyes widened. “You stole someone’s corpse?”
Tielle gave me a look. “I am not Renton Morse doing underground experiments no one knows about,” she said. “It is no secret that many people donate their bodies to science after they die. Well, as you should know, there is a paranormal chapter, and people can chose to donate their bodies to paranormal science. That is where we reaped the corpse to help recreate Ethan’s body. Then it came down to Alchemy to take his ashes and mold it around the cadaver to recreate Ethan Lance.”
“And you did not need reanimation to put his ghost back in?”
“No,” Tielle said. “Reanimation was a shortcut, which is why Renton went after you. The longer, harder way was disassembling Ethan’s ghost and assimilating it with his ashes before they were bonded to the cadaver. It is an advanced form of Alchemy that has never been tested before. There was a high risk that Ethan’s ghost could have been lost altogether, but he agreed to take that risk.”
