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I almost took a chunk out of Pritkin’s leg. “What?”
“Yeah. I was thinking about it last night. It’s like when I helped you possess that dark mage that time. I pushed you out of your body and sent you flying into his. Well, the way I got it figured, you can do the same thing with Pritkin. You can move back to your own body and force him out.”
“I know that,” I said, resuming work. “I’ve always been able to go back. But there’s no telling where his spirit will end up once it’s on the loose.”
“Yes, there is. Because spirits recognize their own form. It’s like with ghosts and whatever we’re haunting—it calls to us.”
“You make it sound like we haunt our own bodies.”
“In a way, you do. Your body feeds you, protects you, lets you move around. After death, if you want to keep doing all those things, you have to find something else for a power source. Like my talisman.”
“I know. But—”
“And a soul separated from its power source is dragged back like metal to a magnet. It’s why I’m able to find you sooner or later wherever you end up. I zero in on the talisman.”
I rinsed the razor and put it down. Marsden had supplied it, along with a few other toiletries, probably assuming that I’d want to shave Pritkin’s day-old beard. But it was probably too dull for that now.
I toweled off, crossed to the sink and brushed my teeth while Billy waited. “What if you’re wrong?” I finally asked. “I could end up back home, safe and sound, and in the process kill Pritkin.”
“That’s why you have me. If the mage can’t find his own way home, I’ll help. And if he blunders back into you, I’ll inhabit his body until he’s ready to try again.”
Yeah. I could see myself explaining to Pritkin that he was about to have yet another houseguest. I sighed. “You know there’s something wrong with a world where we’re even having this conversation.”
“I’m telling you, I can do it,” Billy said stubbornly.
I stood over the sink, hands braced on the countertop. I grinned at my reflection, and my borrowed green eyes looked hopeful. It just couldn’t be this easy. Could it?
“We can try,” I said, my voice breaking the slightest fraction. God. To be back in my own body. It suddenly seemed like every other problem I had was surmountable, if I could only get that one thing right.
“What about the Senate?” I asked. “Did they mention where I am when they accused Marsden?”
“I don’t know. It’s a madhouse over at war mage central. They’re trying to establish a new base in some warehouse out by Nellis, and it’s not going so great. Nobody looks too happy.”
“They’re war mages. They’re never happy.”
“Anyway, if I were you, I’d assume they know. Which means that staying around here probably isn’t healthy.”
Crap.
I got dressed in record time despite the fact that none of the clothes fit. The blue polo strained over Pritkin’s shoulders, the khakis were painfully tight in the thighs, and the waist was at least two sizes too big. But I tucked in the shirt, which helped a little, and ran barefoot down the stairs. Billy floated behind me, looking full of himself. I was going to owe him big for this.
I found them in the kitchen. Marsden was by the stove, turning sausages in a frying pan, while Pritkin was intent on a paper. The lurid title proclaimed it to be Crystal Gazing, which I hadn’t known they had here. It was a pretty disreputable tabloid that didn’t seem his style.
“Billy says the Circle knows I’m here. You may have more visitors soon,” I told Marsden.
“Good morning, Cassie.” His electrocuted hair was extra fluffy today, a bright halo around his head. It was kind of awesome. “What would you like for breakfast?”
“I’ll skip it. We need to get out of here.”
“The wards will hold,” he said placidly. “Now, one egg or two?”
“I’ll just have toast,” I told him, hoping to hurry this along. I didn’t have his confidence in the wards.
“She’ll take two eggs, a side of sausage, mushrooms, potatoes and toast,” Pritkin corrected.
“I can’t eat all that!”
“You can and you will. You may starve your body, but you do not get to do it to mine.”
