AllFreeNovel
Share Us
7
ADDIE
Alone on the back porch, I sighed. My arcana writhed inside me, but I paid it little attention. My thoughts were on Maddox and how quickly he’d retreated. He’d seemed distracted while I’d been playing with the extent of my arcana. I hadn’t been able to ask him about it with so much going on.
The hunt for Bastien had seemed so much more straightforward compared to this. He’d wanted me dead. It’d been a game of survival, while this was much more of a mystery. We had no idea who was hunting people, or why death seemed to be acting oddly.
I didn’t know if Maddox was to blame, either.
Hel’s words came back to me. She thought there was something wrong with him. I desperately hoped that I could fix it, because I didn’t want to consider any other possibilities. Maddox would survive one way or another. I would see to it.
I owed him my life. It was only fair that I work just as hard for him as he had for me.
This wasn’t about my growing feelings for him or the fact that life had been hollow without him. I could move on, if need be. It would be easy so long as I knew that Maddox was alive and well.
I stood and looked out into the dark. I almost expected Hel to walk out of the shadows with a message for me. Nothing happened, though. The night wasn’t hiding anything from me tonight. The shadows were simply a lack of light, not traps waiting to be sprung.
Out here, it was quiet. I could get used to this, even if I would miss being close to my friends. The shifters would like it out here. Ryder and Morgan would be able to fly in the mountains again. I knew they’d lived in Colorado most of their life. The Adirondacks weren’t the same, but maybe it would be nice to bring them out here.
Inside, I rinsed out my mug and put it in the sink before retreating to the guest bedroom. Before I could climb into bed, a scream sent a chill down my spine. I didn’t lurch. I didn’t run. My entire body froze. Muscles clenched, I couldn’t move.
Her scream echoed inside the house. No one could hear it but me because it was a ghost. She’d come back.
Her scream had no real power. It hadn’t grabbed ahold of me with some sort of arcana. I’d simply frozen in fear. I didn’t want to see her and her void-heart again. Yet, I still stumbled out into the hall to go find her.
The sound led me to Maddox’s room. He sat on the edge of his bed in the dark, his head in his hands. The woman’s spirit stood over him. Her mouth ripped open wide. Her head jerked back and forth. When she reached for him, I leapt.
I threw myself between her and Maddox at the last second. Her hand went through my chest. It felt nothing like the other times ghosts had phased through me. Her hand left a trail of searing cold. It made me think that my soul was being ripped out of my body.
I gasped. Maddox surged to his feet. He grabbed me by the waist before I could fall. He said something, but his words were distant. I grasped my chest and lifted my gaze to the ghost’s.
Her eyes were empty, though. She glared at us with the hollow darkness of her void-eyes. Her form was more transparent than it had been before. Dark lines slithered across her body like blackened veins. It took me several heartbeats to realized that they spread outward from her heart.
“Don’t touch him.” Though I issued a command, no arcana reached my voice.
I reached deep, but I couldn’t grab ahold of my arcana. It’d always been so ready to spill out. Yet, when I needed it most, there was nothing. I reached and reached. Nothing happened.
Terrified, I gaped at the corrupted ghost.
“Who is he? Why was he at my house? Does he know the white wolf?” The ghost wailed, her questions bleeding one into the next until they were almost unintelligible.
I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could say a thing, the world went dark. The floor fell away. I tumbled into a void. It was familiar, even through the fear that slammed into my body. I’d been here before.
I knew exactly where I was about to land. That goddamned bitch.
The ground came up fast. My knees hit the hard rock, the impact making my teeth chatter. I grimaced and turned a glare up at the figure standing over me.
She didn’t smile. There was nothing warm about her being. She gave me a cold, imperious look that infuriated me.
“Hel,” I said in an equally cold greeting.
I’d never been this brazen before. Any other time, I would have deferred to her because of her divine power. However, the goddess had ripped me out of a very crucial moment. Maddox was alone with the demented ghost. I couldn’t do anything to protect him from here.
“Send me back,” I demanded. “Now.”
She lifted one brow—maybe because that’s all she had. The skeletal part of her face looked down at me with unfeeling emptiness. It was the embodiment of death while the other half of her was the image of life.
Hel crouched in front of me. I recoiled, expecting the worst. A god wouldn’t lower herself to my level unless I was about to receive some kind of punishment. Yet, it never came. I cracked open one eye to find her smirking at my fear.
