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It didn’t add up.
However, I had to admit it could be all stress related, as I had thought once before. Who knew what I’d find when I woke up—perhaps a crazed Wayde ready to butcher me.
Oddly enough, I had the sense I hadn’t woken up on my own, and I couldn’t tell if Nettie had forced me awake or something else had. I managed the headache, as I had become an expert at now, and peeked open one eye.
The flashlight still hung on the ceiling, and in front of me, everyone remained asleep. The dark corners also hadn’t changed, but I didn’t see anyone else standing, nor did I see Wayde.
“You’re awake,” a deep voice stated.
I gasped and scooted back on my butt along the cement ground, trying to think of a way to kick Wayde’s ass and save mine. But when I took in who had been standing behind me, I froze. “Sammy?”
The sight of the ghost that had lived at the Animus headquarters stuttered my brain. Was a ghost behind Alexander’s murder? Did he do a magical spell that knocked us all out? I couldn’t see any of that as plausible, since Sammy was a ghost and had no physical power now. At this point, I was so damn confused I didn’t know much of anything.
“What?” was all that could possibly form out of my mouth.
Sammy smiled, crinkling his soft brown eyes. “Hi.”
With his sweet smile, I knew, without a doubt, that I had nothing to fear from him. As he’d been since I met him, he seemed kind and extremely patient, considering he only tried a couple times to get my help before he stayed silent.
I took a quick look around, paying a little more attention to the details, regardless that my head still throbbed. Max snored, as did Dane, and deep breaths from everyone else surrounded me, especially from Zach at the staircase. Even Eddie looked sound asleep, although he was a quieter sleeper.
A moment of relief washed through me that no one had been murdered. With my friends all in the clear, I finally looked to Sammy. “Why am I awake and they’re not?”
His gaze swept over my friends before he turned to me again. “No idea. Something changed in the energy around you just before you woke up.” He hesitated, nibbled his lip, and then shrugged. “But I can’t explain why you’re the only one awake.”
“Okay, weird.” It did creep me out to see everyone still under the spell, but I wondered if Nettie had somehow broken the spell on me. I focused away from the ice lacing my veins. Something else was more important. “Have you seen the man named Wayde that stays at the house with you?”
Sammy shook his head with strangely sad eyes. “No.”
Even weirder—why would Wayde not be here after he cast the spell to knock us all out?
Regardless of the confusing bits, happiness at what had happened in the Netherworld warmed the chill in my blood. Right now, it appeared we all were safe. Could the one thing I’d hoped for finally been achieved?
Had Kipp been saved?
Only one sure way to find out. Call Kipp’s brother, Brandon, and see if he’d woken up.
With total urgency and a hammering heart, and not thinking about Sammy or my unconscious friends, I reached into my pocket and dug out my cell phone. Perhaps part of me had a hard time believing we had found the answer to save Kipp. After all we’d been through, maybe it seemed unreachable.
I hurried through my list of contacts and found Brandon’s name. After I hit the call button and raised the phone to my ear, nothing happened. I tried to call two more times for good measure.
When I only heard a dead line, I cursed at my phone. “Of course, there’s no service. Why would I expect otherwise?” Maybe Wayde had used magic to disrupt the signal when he placed the magic on the Lux.
Apparently, the lunatic was one step ahead of us all, which made us simply fucked!
A scary thought indeed, considering all my friends were still in the basement and I had no idea what to do now. Especially since I didn’t know what kind of magic Wayde had placed on them. What would happen if I left the basement? Could it kill them or something?
After one more try on my cell phone, that resulted in another failed attempt, I heaved a sigh and placed my phone back in my pocket. I turned to Sammy to understand what had happened while I’d been unconscious. “How did you know we were down here?”
He ran a hand through his brown hair. His arms were incredibly skinny. “After what happened at the house earlier, I really needed to talk to you. So, I followed you here.” He gave me a slow once-over. “Besides, you glow and it tends to show up extremely well at night. I don’t think it would’ve been all that hard to find you.”
Lovely.
However, while he irritated me before, since I didn’t have time to help any others ghosts, having Sammy with me came as a blessing. Right now, as the only other conscious one, he had answers I didn’t. “Do you know what happened to us?”
Sammy studied me with a frown. “Not really. I was waiting outside for you.” His head lowered, shoulders slumped, and then he peeked up at me through his thick eyelashes. “I’ve been trying to give you the space you asked for, but when I felt a shift in the energy, I decided to check in. I thought something was wrong.” He glanced at all the sleeping bodies, and then gave me a long look. “Clearly, I wasn’t wrong.”
“You came down a couple minutes after you felt the shift in energy?” At his nod, I pondered, since that meant he’d come in immediately after the spell had knocked us out. “How long have you been waiting around?”
