AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The shriek went on, and on, and even the guards, the poor human saps, who couldn’t hear it, they could still sure feel the aura of creeping dread that was winding its way through the room like an evil fog. I saw wide eyes and shaking hands, and that wasn’t a good combination for big men with weapons.
Cain stepped through the box I was hiding behind, his face grim.Are you okay?
I nodded, not wanting to draw the attention of the guards or their guns.
He nodded, then turned his attention to the ghost having a temper tantrum in the middle of the storage room. Some of the bits of debris were rolling across the floor, seemingly under their own power. A few splinters rattled off the far wall, and Cain crouched down, draping himself over me.
It felt a bit cool, and buzzy, but there wasn’t any weight to him. It was times like that that Cain seemed to forget that he was a ghost, that he couldn’t stop shrapnel from hitting me with his body. I didn’t remind him. The attempt was sweet, and it made my heart give a bruised little thump, just the edge of an ache. I wished I’d gotten a chance to know him when he’d been alive.
Magda screamed again, and the lights overhead echoed her before finally bursting in a shower of sparks and broken glass, plunging the whole back room into darkness.
Then the fire alarm went off.
That was what finally sent the guards running out of the room. They might have been able to stand their ground in the dark, but no one wanted to face something they couldn’t see that was terrorizing everything in the room.
Lucky for me, I had pretty good night vision. I didn’t know if it was a holdover from being a spook myself, or if it had just always been like that and I’d forgotten over the century I spent haunting the house in Silverlake. Either way, the amount of watery pale light Magda’s ghost form was throwing off was plenty for me to see by, and with the guards out of the room, I got to my feet. No way was I risking crawling around on the ground covered in glass and splinters. I even put my shoes back on.
Cain straightened up, dusting himself off where we’d kind of stepped through each other.
“Darla!” Henner came through the door, squinting into the dark room. “Are you okay? Where are you?”
“Over here!” I waved my arms over my head, and Cain floated up a little so that Henner could see him.
Henner hurried towards us, glass and straw crunching under the soles of his dress shoes. Another crate started to wobble, lifting up onto one corner as it spun in place, gaining speed. I dove forward to grab Henner’s arm to yank him behind the box with us, right before the crate burst apart, sending boards and straw and a few bits of something metallic whirling to the ground.
It was the glint of the rubies that caught my eye. One of the pieces that had landed not far away, a small figure made of gold, and I recognized it instantly. A woman, her face turned up haughtily, with snakes twined around her arms and body. That had to be the idol.
I dove for it, and Henner yanked me back as a pair of marble legs went sailing through the air where I’d been a second before.
“Thief!”
“Holy cats, Magda!” I ran my hands over my face and neck, still a little surprised they were still attached. That statue had flown with some serious speed. Good thing Henner had gamer reflexes. “I’m trying to get the idol back to your family!”
She didn’t hear me. Or she just didn’t care. Trying to argue with a ghost that far gone was like whistling to the sea and expecting the tides to change. I wasn’t even sure she was still seeing me.
We needed to get the idol and blow that popsicle stand, before the guards got their courage back and came with reinforcements. Eventually, someone would be coming for the priceless artifacts. Well, those that weren’t already broken, that is.
Magda’s arms rose up over her head, and her mouth opened, wide. Wider, and wider, until it was far too much for what a human jaw was actually capable of. She shrieked, and the sound was so piercing that I was surprised my ears didn’t start bleeding. Nails on a chalkboard would have been sweet music compared to the sounds coming out of the ghost.
She was inches away from going even fuller poltergeist, and that was bad news for everyone, including Magda. Frank had been a no-account bum, but he’d lost some piece of himself to become a monster. I didn’t want to see that happen to Magda, especially not because I’d screwed up. I’d hoped, once I got the idol back to Sophia, that Magda could have said her goodbyes to her family, and maybe had some time together, like Taliyah and her boys getting to enjoy Cain’s presence, even if he could only be with them in spirit. Literally.
But that time had passed. And if Magda was going to have any chance at all of retaining her sense of self, then there was only one thing I could do for her.
The veil was churning like a storm-tossed sea, the waves getting higher and more deadly with every second. I didn’t have any candles, or oils, or soothing music. But I did have my own power, the shining light wedged up behind my breast bone.
I stood up again, my hair tossing around my face, caught up in the wind of the ghost’s rising power. Henner grabbed for my hand, but he didn’t try to pull me back to safety.
Cain made a grab for my shoulder, but his hands passed right through.What are you doing?he hissed at me.Are you nuts?
I took a deep breath and squinted into the gale. “Magda Erepto!”
I’d always rolled my eyes at the idea of names having power over someone, but with the way Magda’s head snapped in my direction, maybe it wasn’t all bunk, after all.
I met that mad gaze squarely, even though my knees were shaking. Boy, what I wouldn’t have given for a bit of Poppy’s ‘Spirit Oil’, or ‘Crossing the Veil’oil. Heck, I’d be happy with some ‘Uncrossing Oil’, it was pretty good about warding off curses and unfriendly things.
But I didn’t have any of it, so I was just going to have to make do.
I tipped my chin back, like I didn’t have a care in the world. Never let them see you sweat. Or cry, for that matter. My hair lashed at my cheeks, stinging my skin.
