Page 87 of Divine Oaths

“I’ve been consulting with spirits within the sisterhood ever since the stabbing and after we brought Kasem back to the estate for treatment. When he was in a coma, they told me stories of how they’d caught sightings of a young man wandering campus while his body remained tethered to an IV. I had hoped that if Kasem woke from the coma, that his spirit would return to his body, as all living people’s souls do until death comes for them. When you arrived on campus, when Kasem finally woke from his sleep, it seemed possible. But the reality is this: The two of you are a moth and a flame, drawn to each other, and yet fated to perish.”

Angelica turned to me, a shadow cast over her, her eyes burning.

“Kasem died that day in the alley, Sianna. Your powers brought him back.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

For a muse of fire

ANGELICA HAD MADE A MISTAKE. She must have. Because I’d been there. I’d watched Kasem draw breath in the alleyway. I’d watched him wake.

Kasem survived the stabbing. He hadn’t died that night. He couldn’t have.

But then I remembered how cold his body had felt, how, as I’d brought my lips to his, I’d felt my powers manifest in a way they never had before.

“What do you know about wraiths?”

We’d taken the conversation to a small courtyard adjacent to Angelica’s office near the medical center. Among the roots foliage grew, and potted plants hung from light fixtures. Angelica’s personal herb garden had everything from thyme and ginger to peppermint and chamomile.

Vivian had joined us at some point during the discussion. She floated beside a circle of candles that Angelica levitated with ease.

“Well?” Angelica asked, impatient.

“Cecilia mentioned them,” I said. My answer felt robotic. I was talking to Angelica and Vivian, but my mind was back to that night in the alleyway. “Kasem and I were supposed to research them. We asked Jojo and even he wasn’t sure.”

“A wraith is a spirit, similar to a ghost but different entirely,” Angelica said. “It is an entity trapped in a vessel, a twisted corporeal thing that has no sense of self. A consciousness unbound from a soul.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think I understand.”

“Think of a ghost as a spirit separated from flesh,” Vivian explained. “If a person or animal or thing dies, most of the time, they pass on to the afterlife—the other plane. Ghosts, though, are spirits that haven’t crossed that plane and exist in the realm between the living and the dead. But a ghost who is bound to their rage or sadness, who still clings to the realm of the living, can become a wraith. An entity trapped between the realms of the living, slowly losing its connection to its soul. Ghosts can move objects within the realm of the living; we can be seen and disappear. But it takes most of a ghost’s energy just to, let’s say, lift an item or make the lights flicker. Without that deep emotion, we have no physical manifestation, no ability to rupture the veil between the living and the dead, or cause a physical disturbance.”

“But at Theta you were able to possess Sarah and save her,” I challenged. “You use your powers all the time. Why aren’t you a wraith?”

“Because Vivian has the sisterhood. She has a connection to her soul, to her family, to her ancestors,” Angelica answered. “It’s why she spends much of her time reliving her life, pretending to be a student at Westfield. It’s so she won’t start hating the living or covet what they have. And though use of her powers makes her more susceptible to becoming a wraith, her positive connections ground her and incline her to protect humans rather than harm them. Which is why Cecilia warned her that she was in danger of crossing that precarious line by inhabiting Sarah’s body.”

“A wraith is connected to a relic that keeps them tethered to the mortal realm,” Vivian said. “Danny had become a wraith, which is why Theta did the summoning—so they could banish him. It’s not the way our sisterhood does things, but it does the job all the same.”

“And his relic,” I said. “It was the journal.”

Angelica nodded. “It’s usually an object—always an object, as far as I’ve seen it. But in Kasem’s case, we suspect his relic is his body.”

My heart raced like fire.

“Your affinity is of time,” Angelica said. “I’ve seen such powers among our members before, though few possess it. If you were able to channel your powers in the alley that night, then it’s possible that you instinctually rewound time for a moment, enough to save his soul and preserve the countenance of his physical body. Kasem is alive, yes. But his spirit walks among us as a wraith unmoored yet by true death. That means his mortal flesh is even more vulnerable to the curse. And, should his spirit begin to lose its last threads of humanity, as all wraiths inevitably do, Kasem is at risk of facing banishment by Theta and Sigma.”

I couldn’t breathe. Every inch of me was unraveling, dying slowly even as the incredulous reality of what I’d learned sank in.

“How is this possible?” I said, looking down at my hands, as if the answers were woven in the burnt flesh of my fingertips. “My mother had powers, visions, and I’d known I would get them too, one day. But to rewind time—to bring someone back from the dead…”

Angelica looked away.

“He’s lucky you were there that night,” she said. “He would be gone otherwise, and the inheritance would be Alaster’s.”

Her words pierced through the awe and fear and disbelief washing over me at the revelation of my powers and what they truly were.

“So then how do we stop that from happening? How do we bind his soul back to his body?”

Angelica nodded at Vivian, who took my hand, leading me to the back of the garden, where one particular sprout was withered and gray.