Twenty-Four

After drinking a large glass of water, Jordan explained to us all he'd seen. Because even though I'd experienced it through his thoughts, it wasn't the same as hearing him explain it. Especially the part about Edith and what had been on the other side of the veil when he'd investigated the hole her arm had left. "Do you really think it was the wraith?" I asked.

"Well from how Wade and Jason described it, and from drawings I've seen online, I'd say so. But it was strange. It wasn't there gathering spirits or attacking them. If I had to guess, it's blocking them from the other side. They all had their arms extended into the veil, but they were no longer spirits. They were ash."

"It's feeding on their energy. It's found a way to reach from the other side where it's banished to. It has no power there and cannot absorb the spirits as they pass through. But if it could drain them before they could fully pass the veil then it could gain unlimited power in a short amount of time," Janis said.

Both of us looked at her with the same confused expression. "The barrier is supposed to be one way. Spirits are only allowed to return by reincarnation. Why would it be able to drain their energy as they're passing through it?" I asked.

"I'm not sure, but I'm willing to bet it's lying in wait for those with energy it senses and then draining them before they can pass. It's had lots of time to plan a way to escape the other side of the veil." Janis slowly paced the patio area before turning to look at Jordan again. "The mark you returned with is very unique, it's directly related to a relationship and balance between soul and body. If Bran did indeed give you protections, it may prove to be at least as strong as his own."

I hoped it was true but there was only one way to test it and I wasn't willing to even think about that. "After all the trouble with markings it was the last thing on my mind. I'd completely forgotten about mine," I said, and shrugged my shoulder.

"It's strange and amazing what the mind and spirit will do when someone you hold dear is threatened. The symbols we drew on Jordan would have kept him safe and tethered to this world, but they had no power to return him, and while he is capable of walking between the two worlds, the Merkaba pulled him back here."

"I don't want Jordan to try that again. If he's right and the wraith is waiting on the other side of the veil, then it will be looking for him. There's not a chance it doesn't know who he is now, and it will know how powerful he is," I said, and brushed my thumb over one of the symbols we'd painted on him. The Merkaba had disappeared, all that remained were the symbols of protection.

"Bran, I know you're worried, but I'm the only one who can cross over to the veil. I don't know what I saw, and I don't understand it, but I know how I felt. We're all in danger if we don't stop it. The wraith will keep coming for us until it finally gets what it wants, and what it wants is to exist in this world and feed on as many spirits as it can—forever."

I brushed the hair back from his forehead and I looked deep into his beautiful eyes. "You're everything to me, and I won't ever stop fighting whatever it is that wants to try to keep us apart. Janis, when you said we need to fight, what did you mean?" I wanted this over but I knew there was no way it would be simple.

"We aren't strong enough to destroy it from here, but we can hurt it," Janis said.

"Is there a way to do that from this side of the barrier?" I asked. The wraith was an unknown to me. When we'd dealt with it working with the spirit of my mother it had taken me by surprise, and I was more than willing to let the wraith exist if it faded into the background, but it didn't give up. Its hunger for more power by destroying more spirits was insatiable.

"There may be. What exactly did it do to the spirits you saw, Jordan?" Janis asked.

"I think it consumed them until all that was left was a husk of ash. It was horrible. Edith wasn't the nicest person, but she didn't deserve that," Jordan said. "Now she'll never get to be with her loved ones ever again. She was the last of her line, it all ends with her."

"The last of her line?" Janis repeated.

"Yes. Her family was one of the original families that brought the wraith into existence. The old ones. Same as my family." Jordan looked at me and I knew he hated not only admitting it, but also that it had happened at all.

"Your family was one of the old ones?" Janis asked.

"Yes. Bran and I went to my parents to get more information and they finally admitted we are one of the original families, and also one of the last lines of seers. I'm sure the wraith has been waiting for all of them to die off. Now there's not many left so it won't have to fight nearly so hard to come into this world."

"I had no idea you were one of the original families. There's something you need to know. My family is also descended from one of them. That's where the origins of my abilities and my brother's come from. We knew there was a family connection, but we didn't know what that connection was. Only recently was James able to trace it all back to our heritage. In many ways, you and I are bound together in the ways of magic. Our families are some of the last surviving that can destroy the wraith."

"But how? I don't have any idea about magic. I have no clue how to help that way," Jordan said, and looked at both of us.

Janis patted his hand and smiled her serene smile. "We might just have a chance if we work together. My family has an old journal that speaks of their journey from Ireland but there's not much written about them being one of the original families. I think they were trying to hide in plain sight. All the families left Ireland and were scattered all around the world. Part of this was so they could spread their magic around, but part of it was so they would be prepared for the return of the wraith."

"There's more," Jordan said. "I'm not just related to them, I'm reincarnated from one of the more powerful members of their society, and my mate at that time was also a necromancer. I don't know if it was one of Bran's ancestors, but I'm willing to guess it probably was. My father was destined to be the seer, but he chose not to accept the power."

"So that left you," Janis said.

"I was pulled to the edge of the veil by Edith's spirit. It's so confusing where her abilities came from. She said she was the seer for her family line, but the wraith trapped her outside her body." I remembered all the times we'd tried to communicate and lost patience with her, but we'd had no way of knowing what had actually happened. "She died while in a coma and unable to get back into her body. They thought she had dementia, but she didn't. If we don't stop the wraith now, it's going to keep going after every seer until they're all eliminated. We're all that stands between it taking everything it wants."

Janis took a deep breath before slowly releasing it and speaking. "Jordan, I know you feel the pressure to protect us all, but that's not how being a seer works. We all gain power from each other, and you are stronger with Bran and other people around you who share the same connection to the other side that you do. All of us together can destroy the wraith eventually. But for now, we'll need to stop it from feeding off the spirits trying to pass through the veil."

"Tell me what we need to do," Jordan said, and I hoped Janis was right and we were stronger, but I also worried what would happen if one more of us was lost.