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Wayde smiled, not warm and friendly, but more like a cat about to pounce on a mouse. He slowly stood from the chaise and approached me. “Gretchen told me you wonder how Kipp’s a ghost when he’s not dead.”
Oh yeah, he planned to exploit me in any way he could, and I sure-as-shit didn’t appreciate being cornered. When he settled in front of me, I squared my shoulders and lifted my chin. “Your point?”
Wayde’s measured expression deepened and it sure felt like entrapment. “My point is…” He leaned into my face and his eyes became cold. “Your ghost has a trapped soul. He’s stuck between two worlds, unable to reconnect to his body.”
I rolled my eyes since now the trapped business made sense. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t already heard. Gretchen suspected the same thing and told me as much already. “So?”
His eyes turned wickedly dark, sending a wave of unease right down to the tips of my toes. “What would you do for a spell that reconnected his soul with his body, which in turn, let your ghost live again?”
Time halted.
I finally blinked. “Excuse me?”
Wayde leaned away from my face, folding his arms. His expression looked so spiteful, I wanted to spit on his shoes. “When Gretchen informed me of your situation, I did some research and discovered a spell. One that is as old as the Animus itself. It will force Kipp’s soul to reconnect.” His eyebrows rose, head tilted. “From what I’ve heard, his body is healed and healthy, which means there’s no reason he won’t awaken.”
I searched Wayde’s eyes for any hit of trickery, but dammit, I couldn’t find any. Not like that reassured me. I didn’t trust anything about this man. I jerked my head to Gretchen. “Is that true?”
“I…” She worried her bottom lip, staring at Wayde, and after a long moment, she turned to me. “To be honest, I’m not sure. I haven’t heard of such a spell.”
Exactly why I trusted Gretchen; she didn’t feed me bullshit.
“But as I told you,” she continued. “The Animus is where you need to be to get the answers you’re after. If any spell existed to hold such a power to force a ghost back into its mortal body, it would be contained here.”
Well, fuck!
I looked at Wayde. “Where is this spell?”
He strode over to couch, sitting in next to Amelia. “Our history—magical and spiritual—is contained in a book we call the Lux.”
Glancing around the large snazzy room, I didn’t see a book of any sort. Maybe I wished I could see it so it’d be easier to believe in. Without the visual, trusting such a spell existed was impossible.
Before I could state as much, Wayde continued, “The Lux is protected and hidden, since the spells and history within have profound power. In the wrong hands, those spells could be dangerous.”
His statement proved Wayde’s desperation, because I doubted he wanted to share the knowledge of the Lux’s existence with me, and I suspected the secret nature of the book was more about control than danger. Even now, it seemed Wayde would rather I leave than help me, but they needed me, didn’t they? And dammit all to hell, I needed that spell.
Wayde had it right—finding Kipp didn’t bring me any closer to solving his problem. Until now, I only wanted discover why he left, but what would happen once Kipp came back?
From all I had learned, there were solid reasons why Kipp hadn’t returned to his body. The Hannah Reid case—which felt like a lifetime ago—caused him to accept his ghostly state to help solve her murder. Then, he became stuck between two worlds because he didn’t belong as a ghost.
While I had it in me to say to hell with it all, not only did I need to find Kipp, but I needed a way to fix him. The Animus held those answers.
On a sigh, I ran my hands over my face and tears threatened to rise. When had life become so fucked up that these were the decisions I had to make? Stay and get involved with solving Alexander’s murder—which could very well have been committed by someone in this room, even if that seemed unlikely since they were trying to solve his murder—or leave and possibly lose Kipp forever? “Tess,” Gretchen whispered.
Lowering my hands, I looked at her sad eyes and clearly, she understood the torment running through me. But only one thing truly mattered above all else; to put an end to this and to regain some sort of normalcy in my life, I had to take action.
Even if I didn’t want to give in to Wayde’s tactics, what choice did I have? “Fine, I’ll stay, but—”
Amelia pounced off the couch and, in a second, had me in her arms, squeezing me in a death grip. “Thank you, Tess. Thank you.” She sobbed into my neck.
Dane turned away from the fireplace, and for a split second, I could’ve sworn a softer edge registered along his face. But how could that be? The man held no soul and only thought of his own agenda.
I stepped away from Amelia and didn’t give her a hug. I didn’t want anything from these people, except for the spell to save Kipp. “Before I do anything, I have two conditions.”
Wayde’s eyes narrowed. “Which are?”
“First, teach me how to go into the Netherworld. Until I see that it works, I’m not wholeheartedly agreeing to anything. How can I trust the spells hold the power you claim?”
“I can agree to that request.” Wayde pushed off the couch and settled in next to Amelia. “The other?”
