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Again, I couldn’t understand how this was all related. Why was Alexander killed in the first place? Possibly because Wayde knew if I had come to White Castle, maybe I’d find this skeleton. But as the thought crossed my mind I knew that was unlikely. How could he have predicted such an event?
It, once again, didn’t add up.
Seeing that line of thinking got me nowhere, I continued to flick through the pages and skimmed over the spells. Nearing the middle of the book, I landed on one spell making my breath hitch.
Angelic Banishment.
There were a list of ingredients and instructions. But I focused on the chant: Angels of Protection. Angels who clear. Remove all spirits who don't belong here.
Part of me wanted to ask Gretchen if this would help Alexander, but deep down in my soul, a tug pulled me to this spell. An awareness that told me this one would work.
I kept my finger against the page to mark the spot when a sudden loud creak sounded upstairs. Dust fluttered down from the ceiling and flickered through the beam of Zach’s flashlight.
While I should be screaming in fear right now, I almost wanted to thank whoever was up there. With the distraction, and with Amelia looking toward the staircase, plus the loud creaks that now came closer together as obvious footsteps approached the basement, I ripped out the spell I needed to force Alexander to cross over.
For the most part, I thought this was all entirely stupid and didn’t see why Amelia couldn’t know. But at the same time, Dane had helped me. If he wanted to tell his wife the news of her father in his own way, I wouldn’t screw that up.
Once the paper was free from the book’s binding, I stuffed it into the front pocket of my jeans. I looked up and spotted Kipp’s smile. Then another creak came at the stairway.
Now my excitement over obtaining the spell we needed to help Alexander vanished, replaced by a fear I couldn’t possibly control.
Wayde was in this house.
The footsteps sounded right above my head and more dust fluttered down from the ceiling. Zach’s flashlight swayed in front of me as the creak of the basement door followed. I doubted anyone in the room breathed, as all guns were aimed at the staircase.
Two black boots stopped on the first step right before a low voice called, “It’s me.”
I exhaled, bent at the waist, and tried to catch my heart that currently wanted to explode out of my chest. “For Christ sake’s, Eddie.”
He trotted down the stairs and on the third step, he stopped dead when he noticed the guns aimed at him. “Hello.” He stood statue-still. “It’s me.”
Max sighed, lowering his gun. “You get the prints in?”
Eddie nodded and finished his descent down the staircase. “They’re putting them through AFIS now.”
Without the necessary push from anyone, and with the threat of Wayde’s appearance now gone, I turned to the book. I continued to shift through the pages and landed on the spell Alexander had used to tap into the magnetic fields in the swamp at the house. The spell that broke the spell Wayde had cast to trap him in the Netherworld.
A bit in awe over that spell, I continued to search. I hoped to hell the spell for Kipp showed itself soon. I had already worked through three quarters of the book and had yet to find a spell that would help him.
By the time I reached the end, a dreadful thought slammed into my mind. Wayde had lied—there was no spell in the Lux that forced Kipp’s soul to reconnect with his body. My worst fears from when I had realized Wayde had made a weak promise had come true.
With that, my body slumped, and I whispered, “It’s not in here.”
“What’s not there?” Amelia asked. “What exactly are you looking for?”
When I looked to Kipp, tears filled my eyes. In this moment, all the hope and drive to see through this fled me and exhaustion stole over my body. I didn’t care about Amelia anymore. I didn’t care about Alexander or Wayde. I only cared about my pain. Had all this been for nothing? “What do we do now?”
Kipp’s pained eyes mirrored the exact feeling in my own soul, and he said softly, “Let’s finish this. Then, we’ll go there.”
I wanted to scream at him that I couldn’t go on. I didn’t want to push aside what I wanted any longer. But as I looked at Alexander and the sadness prevalent in his face, I realized I couldn’t give up.
While I could’ve drowned in my sorrow, I did have hope that if I helped Alexander, then Dane and Amelia, along with Gretchen, would do whatever they could to fix Kipp.
Hope wasn’t lost yet. Not until I heard the words, ‘there is nothing we can do to help him’, would I allow myself to think this wouldn’t work out.
For now, we needed to deal with Wayde and Alexander.
At the tears trailing my cheeks, and maybe the look I gave to Kipp and to Zach, Amelia frowned. “What am I missing here?” She looked at Dane, and then glanced around the basement, as if searching for a ghost she’d never see. “What’s going on?”
