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“Oh, he will.” I retorted. “But only if I help solve your death.”
“Hmm…” Alexander looked down at his lap, examining Caley’s pink painted fingernails. “I don’t approve of how he’s exploiting you to gain your help. For that, I will do what I can to help you.” His chin lifted. “If you promise to find a way for me to cross over. As it stands, I doubt you will find the one who did this and I cannot stay in this condition. If I unbind myself from the magnetic fields, I will always wander in the Netherworld.”
I glanced at Gretchen and my shoulders slumped. “I’m taking a wild guess the spell to do such a thing is in the Lux?”
“I’m assuming so,” she grumbled in agreement.
Terrific. Also, not a surprise. Of course, anything I needed to help either of the ghosts who needed saved would be in a book not available to me. To Alexander I asked, “No offence, but don’t you know these spells by heart? I mean, all Gretchen has done is speak so highly of you.”
Alexander smiled, leaning off the bed and cupping Gretchen’s shoulder. Odd to say the least, since Caley would rather butcher Gretchen, but the tenderness in her eyes showed me she only saw Alexander now. “It’s not a spell I’ve ever needed.” He finally looked back at me. “There are close to a thousand spells in the Lux. It’s impossible to remember them all, except the ones most needed.”
While that frustrated me some, I totally understood. I had trouble remembering the few spells I needed to deal with the demon. To remember all of them--totally impossible. But what frustrated me more, I now had two reasons to find that damn book. Not only did I need it to save Kipp, but it would also fix Alexander’s situation. “Do you have any bright ideas on how I find it?”
Alexander’s eyes softened further. “I can help by searching for it at the house, since I know what it looks like. But that means I need to borrow your friend for a little while longer.”
I winced in absolute horror. “For how long?”
“Until I find the book.”
Chapter Nineteen
The next morning when I opened my eyes, I had the biggest headache that could possibly be contained in my head before it exploded. I groaned into my pillow, hoping the sun hadn’t risen and I could spend another few hours asleep.
Forcing to keep my eyes shut to fulfill that wish, I desperately tried to ignore the deep throb in my head. Sleeping at the house hadn’t been my idea, since I would’ve preferred staying at the hotel with Zach and the others. But Gretchen had said we needed to keep up the portrayal we were searching for Alexander, which meant we had to stay put.
I exhaled roughly through my nose, welcoming my now more manageable headache, but suddenly had the sense someone was staring at me. I peeked open an eye and Gretchen’s back was to me, the sounds of her deep breaths indicating she remained asleep.
Okay, maybe I was wrong.
More than happy, I shut my eyes again, internally smiling, I could go back to sleep. But the damn sensation crawling over my skin wouldn’t leave me alone, nagging at me to wake the hell up. On a grunt, I rolled over and the second I did, Caley smiled down at me.
“Err…Caley?” I croaked, opening both eyes and leaning up on my elbow. She shook her head and continued with a smile that just didn’t belong to her, holding no sass. “Okay, this is weird.” At the same time, I realized that I didn’t have the same goose bumpy sensation, which seemed odd considering who was in her body. “Alexander, then?”
“Good morning, Tess.” His smile beamed. “Did you sleep well?”
I nearly rolled my eyes since Caley sounded ridiculous asking such a question. Normally, my best friend would’ve smacked my leg and told me to get my ass moving. But as I looked at Alexander, I did like that I couldn’t sense normal ghost stuff from him, because it meant Dane wouldn’t have either. “At the moment, I’m hoping it’s not really morning and I can go back to sleep.”
“Sorry, it’s eight o’clock.” Alexander took a seat on the side of the bed next to me as I sat up, straightening out my cotton pajamas, ensuring everything was where it should be. When I glanced at him again, he added, “Rise and shine.”
Another thing that so wasn’t Caley; her mood hadn’t ever been pleasant first thing in the morning. I rubbed the side of my temple as the throb remained, but wasn’t unbearable, as Gretchen stirred beside me. I looked over at her just as she turned to face me and I chuckled at her unruly hair. “Morning.”
“Good morning.” She examined Alexander a moment before a warm smile spread across her face. “I see you’re still in there.” She laughed softly. “You’re not glaring at me.”
Another reason my suspicions of Dane were simply that, suspicions. Even Gretchen couldn’t tell Caley was any different except to know she wouldn’t be offering her a friendly smile first thing in the morning. And she was right—Gretchen wasn’t Caley’s favorite person at the moment.
“All is well,” Alexander stated.
No, it really wasn’t. All of this was seriously messed up. Not only did my guilt return in a flash seeing Caley in this condition. But I might also have been slightly annoyed I didn’t see Kipp last night in my dream.
Gretchen had given me the sternest of all lectures before I went to sleep to avoid the Netherworld and while I agreed with her, part of me didn’t want to listen. But the stronger and more sensible part realized the danger. Until I got Nettie’s diary and found out the implications of going into the Netherworld, I couldn’t take chances. All of my efforts and current hell was to get Kipp alive again. It’d mean nothing if I were dead once we achieved it.
My desire to see him as a living-breathing man held more strength than my desire to touch him again…for now. And it surprised me that traveling to the Netherworld wasn’t as easy as Wayde suggested.
Motivation held the key. Since part of me was hesitant, the veil never opened. From what I figured out from last night, I needed a damn good reason to be welcomed into the mystical world and I had to believe without a doubt I wanted to go there.
Made sense, I supposed—my first experience in the Netherworld had been caused from my longing for Kipp, my outright need to be together, and my soul deep craving to touch him.
My second trip, I had simply been so desperate to see him again. I wondered, without the motivation of Kipp urging me on, if I could travel there at all. Could I feel that driven about a ghostly stranger? Truth was, I didn’t think so, and somehow, I felt perfectly okay with that.
