Chapter 28

Ifelttheflash of dark magic, just like all the others. They all shared one long, wary glance. Then the boogeyman"s presence faded. If I had a physical body, I would have let out a sigh of relief. But still….

The memory of that brief flash of magic lingered. It had reminded me of my own magic, in some way. I pondered as I floated along with the others and into the house. As an angel, I had existed in another realm, one that even witches and other magical beings couldn"t easily access. But angels had the ability to move more easily between realms. That"s why everyone thought us so ethereal and all knowing—really angels were just good travelers. And now, as a ghost, I existed partially in yet another realm that was inaccessible to the others.

I wasn"t sure where I went when I lost consciousness and slipped away into that quiet darkness. All I knew was the feeling of the boogeyman"s magic had reminded me distinctly of that. Of that in between place.

It was quiet there. It was muffled and dark. But it wasn"t empty. There were things that lived there, just beyond the awareness of the living. And they weren"t all benign watchers.

I floated in the entryway with the others.

"Someone check on me in about fifteen minutes or so and make sure I"m not dead," Andy called out as she headed for the stairs.

Everyone started to disperse, and I considered whether I should try to convince one of them to help me read my books, or if I should retreat to the bestiary. The bit of my essence that held me tethered here sometimes grew…depleted. Returning to the bestiary seemed to help replenish that. And I had to be careful to keep myself strong enough to stay connected to the living world. My essence was slowly fading ever since I had woken up and started regularly spending time outside the book. Resting helped bolster it. But the truth was, I was still waning. It was slow, but noticeable.

Andy worried that she would have to destroy me when she destroyed the bestiary—because the book was my anchor. What she didn"t know was that I had accepted my fate. Because with every creature she freed, the book itself weakened. Which meant the spells tying me here weakened. By freeing the others, she would free me, whether she wanted to or not. The book would eventually lose all remnants of its own semi-sentient energy, and I would slip free. And with nothing to anchor me here….

I didn"t know if there was a heaven or hell. I suspected not. I had resolved myself—mostly—to fading into nothingness. But I hoped like heaven and hell that the in between place wasn"t a final destination for my kind. Because that would be much worse.

I tried not to let myself dream of what could have been, if only. I tried not to imagine how things might have been different, if I had met Oleander Lovell as a living, breathing man. There was no use dwelling on impossible things.

I drifted through walls until I reached the Lovell library. Most of the books and artifacts in this house were at the very least vaguely disturbing, and at most chillingly dangerous. But there were some things the Lovells had excelled at that didn"t involve murder. A few of the books were actually interesting, informative, or fun, and they didn"t talk about how to manipulate magic into powerful new spells meant to subdue or decimate all who opposed you.

I drifted over the books that were laid out in the library for me, reading two pages of each one before moving on to the next. When Aahil passed the doorway, I called out to him to turn the pages for me, but the jinn just kept walking, pretending he hadn"t heard me. Typical.

If I had eyes, I would have rolled them. That poor creature needed love and connection more than he would ever admit. I just hoped he didn"t completely destroy Andy—or himself—before he realized it.

I hovered by the doorway for a moment, pondering which one of my housemates I should search out for assistance. But then Niamh came striding by, clearly geared up for some gardening time, with a little spade in her hand, and that bright energy about her that she got when she was yearning to make things grow.

"Niamh?" I said, drifting further out into the hall. "Can you help me for a moment, please?"

She looked at me, then looked around and kept walking.

Fine. The fae could be a bit stand-offish sometimes. I knew she was a good woman with a fierce protective streak, but she had her own wounds to deal with. Our years in the bestiary had left us all with scars. Even those of us who didn"t have bodies. Not all scars were physical.

I drifted across the hallway and through the wall into the kitchen, where I found Zhong making lunch for the others. "Hello, Zhong," I said happily. The gargoyle was a nice guy. And I thought Andy needed his steady, adoring presence in her life. She needed someone to show her what loving devotion and quiet support looked like—things I suspected she had never experienced before.

Zhong ignored me, his focus on making things just how the others liked them.

I let out a faint, gusty sigh. "I know you"re busy, but…."

He picked up the platter he was preparing, glanced my way with a frown, then marched out of the room.

Unease slid through me, making me waver and lose shape for a moment. That wasn"t like Zhong.

I found Hasumi in the bathtub, playing elaborate games with the water as the elemental took a nice soak. Fondness welled up inside me, probably helped along by Hasumi"s magic. The water weaver"s simple, childlike joy and wonder humbled me. I couldn"t interrupt that just to ask them to go turn pages for me.

I drifted across the hall to Andy"s room. She was standing by her bed, flipping through the bestiary, a frown of deep concentration on her face. My dear witch. I had never met someone so focused and so committed to her duty to do what was right. Aahil might yammer about how he had bound her to him to ensure she finished freeing the others and destroyed the book, but that was all nonsense and everyone knew it. Andy would right the wrongs done by her family if it killed her—which it had every chance of doing. But she had been planning on freeing us all to begin with. Oleander Lovell was stunningly, brilliantly unique among her bloodline for one reason—she didn"t need anyone to tell her what was right or wrong.

I longed to be able to step up behind her, to wrap my arms around her waist and pull her back against me, to wrap my wings around us and shield her from the world for as long as she would let me while I tried to sooth that frown off her face.

But I was nothing but a specter. A ghost. The leftover whisper of what had once been a person—and a boring, misguided one, at that.

"Andy?" I said softly as I hovered behind her. "I know you"re busy, but would you mind turning pages for me?"

She shut the bestiary and tossed it on the bed, and I felt the ghost of a smile cross my ghost of a face. It was such a small, selfish thing, and I knew that kind of ego and pride were sinful, according to the indoctrination I had thrown at me when I was alive. But the fact that Andy was never too busy for me…it made me feel almost warm inside. The warmth was still just a memory, but it was almost there…just out of reach, tantalizing and teasing.

Then she turned around, still frowning, and…walked right through me as if she didn"t even see me.

I shook off the disconcerting and wonderful feeling of her aura moving through mine, then drifted after her. "Andy? I"m sorry to bother you. I know you just came up here to rest."

She ignored me, going to strip off her pants and toss them over the chair by her vanity. Wearing nothing but her t-shirt and underwear, she checked her insulin pump, walked through me again, and climbed into her bed, pulling her covers up to her chin and closing her eyes.

I misted out of shape, then reformed, a terrible suspicion filling what was left of my raggedy soul. "Andy?"

She rolled over onto her side, one hand under her pillow, her eyes fluttering open for a second. Just long enough to look at me. No. Not at me, through me. I waved my arms, hovered closer, attempted to touch her cheek.

But Andy couldn"t see me.

The witch with the powerful mediumship ability didn"t seem to know I was there.

I drifted backward, true panic overtaking me. No. It couldn"t be. Not this soon. My fading had been so slow until now. Surely this couldn"t happen from one second to the next. They had all talked to me out in the courtyard. They had seen me.

But…everyone in this house had just ignored my request…because they didn"t know I was here.

I felt the darkness closing in as I lost my hold on the living world and slipped momentarily into the in between. The quiet dark embraced me, welcoming me home with its muffling embrace. And…something moved.

Fear swamped me, the absolute certainty that I was about to stop existing.

But…at the same time, some part of me was clearer here. More focused. As if I had just shaken off some evil spell. What had moved in the murky space before me?

Then I saw it. A faint tendril of darkness, even blacker than the place where I hovered, and glinting with a subdued sheen. It stretched from me, off into the distance, and it was…shrinking. As if it couldn"t truly stay connected to me here.

I followed it, even as realization hit me. The tendril of blackness attached to my luminous being at chest level, where my heart would be, if I had a body. It was magic of some sort. It had a feeling…almost like an aura. And I had felt this aura before.

I followed the shrinking tendril of magic until I was expelled back into the mortal world. And there he was.

The wavering, misty boogeyman was huddled in the corner of Andy"s workroom, in the shadows that clung unnaturally to the ceiling. And his glittering black eyes were staring right at me.

"You!" I said, floating closer.

Just then, a terrified, high-pitched shriek reached my ears. Bis came running into the room, crying for Andy, his adorable eyes wide and frightened, quills standing on end and little clawed feet scrabbling at the floor as he desperately looked around, seeking his master.

I shot a glare at the boogeyman, but he had retreated even further into the amassed shadows by the corner of the ceiling, and I couldn"t actually see him anymore, just the occasional glitter of his night-black eyes. I reached for Bis, then realized I couldn"t really touch the rat-skunk hybrid. He ran into a chair leg, fell onto his back, struggled to right himself, then cowered under the piece of furniture, making terrified, mournful little squeaks the whole time. I misted, moving down to his level. "Bis," I said softly. "Can you hear me, dear little soul. It"s Elijah. I"m here."

He chirped, but kept breathing hard, as if his poor little heart was about to pound out of his chest. I noticed a glint. Narrowing my focus, and knowing what I was looking for now, I saw the tendril of blackness that trailed out from Bis"s chest and toward the boogeyman.

I flowed out from under the chair, righteous indignation filling me. "Release him, you foul, hellish creature!"

A hissing mutter was his only response. The shadows shifted, and one of those tendrils shot out, headed right at my chest area again. I snarled and shifted to the in between, trying to dodge out of the way.

The move seemed to weaken the tendril, and the magic faded away. I shifted back into reality. Then I surrounded Bis with my essence. Concentrating hard, I managed to shift just a part of me into the in between place and back, effectively severing the black tendril from poor Bis.

The little hybrid slowly stopped crying and looked at me with wide, almost human eyes. He let out an inquiring chirp, and I did my best to explain. "It was the boogeyman. He almost bespelled me with his fear as well. I think he caught you in some sort of nightmare, but I found a way to stop it."

He chirped, then scrabbled out from under the chair. When he saw the writing blackness that hung in the corner of the room, he went up on his back feet, extended his arm, and gave the boogeyman a forceful middle finger gesture, practically roaring his rodent rage.

Then, the little guy went to all fours and trotted off, pausing in the hallway to look back at me and give me an impatient little wave.

The others. Of course! If Bis and I had been caught up in this strange magic….

We found them all in the courtyard where Andy had released the boogeyman. And where he had appeared to leave but had really only caught us all in his magic. The sights and sounds that greeted me, now that my mind was clear and I could actually see, were chilling.

Andy was in the center of the space, near where she had done her spellwork. She sat on the ground, shaking and sobbing, tears streaming down her round cheeks, arms wrapped around herself as she rocked. "I"m not like them," she whispered, her wide gray eyes unseeing. "No. No, no, no!" She dug her own nails into her arms as she clutched herself harder. "I killed them," she whispered. "I killed them all."

I went to her, my heart breaking at her terror and her broken sobs. Enfolding her in my essence, I severed the black tendril holding her in her nightmare.