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I traced his lips. “You are one of my chosen,” I said, feeling his tongue curl around my finger. “You are one of my great loves and we’ll always be together. We’re bound for eternity, my youkai, and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. And when it’s our turn to cross over, we’ll pound down these gates together, and you will enter the Land of the Silver Falls with me.”
“We should take care of the goshanti,” he said, his thoughts curling around me like a warm embrace.
“Use me, direct me, guide me.” I reluctantly turned back to the land, wanting nothing more than to hang out on the astral. But we had work to do.
As we settled into the rhythm of the energy, Morio tapped me on the shoulder and I stood, guiding him toward the goshanti. I could barely see the land around me, the colors were so brilliant and amplified. There was a definite disconnect between my feet and my mind, but Morio steadied me. Something slithered over my shoes but it was just a snake, and I paid no attention.
And then we were there, next to the goshanti. She was asleep, and in her slumber I felt sorry for her. I could see how she’d come to be born. Her body, her essence, was a swirl of pain, of anger, of heartbreak and torture. Tears began to slide down my cheeks as I watched her, curled in a ball like a cat.
“You poor thing,” I whispered. “The world can be so fucked up, and you’re just as much a victim as those you prey on.”
Morio squeezed my shoulder in agreement. “We have no choice, Camille. She’ll hurt other innocents if we leave her be. When we send her back to the Netherworld, she’ll be with others of her own kind.”
“Can’t we kill her? Put her out of her misery? It’s no life, to live in hatred and bitterness like this. No matter where you are.”
I didn’t like hearing myself talk like this, but if it were me, I’d rather be dead than live my life a shell, acting out of pain condensed drop by drop from women who’d succumbed to horrendous deaths.
With a slow sigh, Morio nodded. “We can. Are you sure?”
I bit my lip, thinking again that death magic was a nebulous path, a thin line between the power to repel, and the abuse of power.
“I’m not sure of anything anymore.” I shrugged. “But if we kill her, the energy is free to disperse, to be cleansed and renewed. We freed spirits earlier, this will just be ridding the world of another trapped memory of pain.”
“Then we use the Mordente spell, but rather than the banis, we use the despera chant.” He held out his hand and I took it, closing my eyes.
The power filled my lungs with the taste of graveyard soil and dust, of the hand of glory and the hand of might. I licked my lips and joined in as he began the incantation. Again, I would be the focus for the energy as it traveled through him, through me, toward the goshanti.
“Mordente reto, mordente reto, mordente reto despera.”
The goshanti opened her eyes, still in her energetic form rather than physical. She lifted her head and gazed at us, her glowing eyes curious.
“Mordente reto, mordente reto, mordente reto despera.”
I could feel the energy quake through me as a breeze sprang up. The rain began to fall again, the sky dark with threatening thunderheads. The goshanti opened her mouth and let out a whimper.
“Mordente reto, mordente reto, mordente reto despera.”
Morio’s will was strong, and mine as well. The spell raced through us now, alive and aware on its own, affixed to its target. I focused on the goshanti, willing her to go quietly, willing her to accept that if she allowed us to release her, the pain she felt would cycle back to the universe, cleansed and renewed in joy.
“Mordente reto, mordente reto, mordente reto despera.”
Morio’s voice thundered above mine, and his direction was absolute. I hesitated a moment, but remembered how the devil had come to be and steeled myself. Together, our voices danced on the breeze, spun in a whirlwind of autumn leaves, blotted out the life force of the goshanti.
“Mordente reto, mordente reto, mordente reto despera.” As Morio continued with the incantation, I took up the counter-rhythm.
“Go to peace, go to rest, go to slumber, go to your ancestors, go to the dark depths of the world and let go your body, go back to the realm from which you came, disperse on the wind, disperse on the rain, disperse to the flames, disperse to the soil—”
The goshanti screamed as she woke fully. She reared up, still on the astral, staring at me with hatred and lust. But her powers were wavering. We were making an impact.
“Mordente reto, mordente reto, mordente reto despera,” Morio commanded, forcing the energy through me at a tremendous rate, so fast and hard that I could barely stand against the astral tidal wave crashing through my body.>“Good enough. Now get your ass back in the box.” Morio held out Rodney’s home. “Or I’ll take you apart bone by bone.”
Rodney sounded aggrieved. “Don’t be that way—”
“Now.” Morio’s voice was too calm. Apparently, Rodney thought so, too, because, without another word, he shrank to his normal size and climbed in the box. Morio slapped the lid shut and stared at the box. “Motherfucking piece of trash. Where the hell did Grandmother Coyote get this thing?” He slid it into his bag and turned back to me. “You okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah, but don’t ever leave me alone with him when he’s off his leash, okay?” The thought of being at Rodney’s mercy, especially when he was my size, was too nauseating to consider.
Delilah was staring at the two of us like we were crazy. “I feel like I’m watching some bad B-grade horror flick. I’d like to know just what you guys have been up to over the past two months.”
