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“Then help me,” I say, looking earnestly into his eyes. “Please?”
* * *
Iwince slightly as the sharp blade of the knife slices through my palm. I position my hand over Seer’s head and let the blood trickle onto his forehead. One, two, three droplets. I look up at Hex, who’s standing on the opposite side of Seer’s bed.
“Your turn,” I whisper.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this with you,” Hex says grudgingly. “This is fucking ridiculous.”
“Are you scared of cutting yourself?”
Hex scoffs in disbelief. “What? Why would I be…? Damn it!” He jabs the knife into his palm and slices through without making a sound. The three blood droplets fall onto Seer’s forehead. “What now?”
We have gone through the whole thing together countless times, but maybe Hex wants the reassurance of hearing it again.
“We’ll join hands while I invoke the spirit of Azharus and become one with it. Then I’ll absorb the poison in Seer’s soul into mine. At that point, you do your part. Pull me out on time, or else I will die, and it will forever trap my soul in Azharus’s spirit.” I search his face. “You got it, right?”
Hex rolls his eyes and looks away. “I hope to God you know what you’re doing.”
I quietly hold out my hands, and he grudgingly takes them in his. I close my eyes and recite the dark chant of invocation. The room gets colder as the chant gets louder in my head. Suddenly, I’m overwhelmed by a numbing cold, and I start to shiver uncontrollably.
“Miss Cromwell? Tory?”
I can hear Hex’s panicked voice, but it was a distant echo, swept under the icy wave that seems to have seized control of my body and soul.
What’s happening? Where did I go wrong?
Something is wrong. I want to pull away, get away, but I’m far too gone.
“Victoria!”
CHAPTERNINE
The Abner Mansion is a grand, sprawling building surrounded by majestic oak trees and a well-tended garden that emphasizes the house's magnificence.
If the outside had seemed grand, the interior decor was even more over the top, with flamboyant furniture and valuable antiques. A butler named Harry had ushered us into the opulent house while a maid name Maria had brought cake slices and champagne on a large tray while we waited for Gerald Abner in his private study.
Bones whistles from his place beside me. “Oh, man. This place is huge.” He turns to face me with an awestruck smile. “I never imagined Seer could have come from such affluence and power. But I always knew there was something sophisticated about him.
I shake my head at Bones with a snort. “I bet you made that up just now.”
Bones chuckles. “Maybe I did. But you can’t deny the man was always different. Look around you, Prez. They fucking have butlers, chefs, maids,” he snorts loudly. “It’s a fucking paradise. Why did Seer ever leave?”
I look around the dazzling yet impersonal room, trying to view the whole place through Seer’s lens. It all seems so… pretentious.
“Who knows?” I say quietly to Bones. “Maybe this paradise was his hell?”
Bones looks like he can’t comprehend that logic, so he shrugs it away and raises his champagne flute in a mock toast. “Damn hell. If I had this expensive ass wine at my disposal all year round, I’d… Oh.”
I look in the same direction as Bones, only to see Gerald Abner walk into the room, flanked by two gorgeous women. I had tried to picture what Seer’s father would look like, but nothing prepared me for the large, pudgy-faced man with thinning brown hair. The two men couldn’t be any more different. Except for the eyes, they both have the same striking blue eyes. Unlike Seer’s, Gerald’s eyes lack the warmth and compassion that made people want to open up their souls to him.
Bones and I stand up to honor the sage’s presence, but he gestures for us to sit as he lowers himself onto the throne-like sofa that’s obviously designed personally for him. The two women who’d followed him quietly find their places on either side of him. The women, despite being garbed in expensive clothes and jewelry, have such faint auras that it’s easy to forget their presence altogether.
I recognize the gorgeous older woman with long silky black hair as Seer’s mother. It seems like Seer got most of his looks from his mother, including his poise and that innate sophistication that Bones mentioned moments ago. The striking blue eyes are the only gene that Seer got from his father, which is a relief.
“How can I help you, gentlemen?” Abner asks, cutting to the chase.
I sit up a little in my seat, clasping my hands in front of me. “My name is Pocus Dunn and my friend here is Bones and we’re from New Orleans. We are friends of your son, Seer.”
