Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

IZZY

I t's been over a week since I've seen the wolves. I've been avoiding Bishop and Levi, too, after last Monday night.

Everything was just too much. My mates made me feel too much. I don't know how to get back all the pieces of me they stole when they dropped everything to hold me and make me feel safe again.

The feeling of safety evaporated when I returned to school on Tuesday. Tyler glares at me and bodychecks me any chance he gets. I can tell that he's biding his time to try something again.

I'm honestly just so tired of the bullshit at school. It probably doesn't help my exhaustion that I've been avoiding sleeping. Every time I close my eyes, I see memories I'm not strong enough to deal with. It's just easier not to sleep and handle problems my favorite way: ignoring them.

That's part of why I'm avoiding Bishop. He'd be able to take one look at me and know how much of a broken mess I am on the inside. For now, at least, he's buying the excuse that I have extra work and volunteering. Bishop is also crazy busy essentially working two jobs, so it's easier to evade him than it used to be. He's running himself into the ground to try to keep me safe, which is yet another way I'm fucking up his life.

I sigh at my thoughts and rub my hands over my gritty eyes. My lids are drooping the longer I wait for Aggie to bring the latest round of ghosts. She's even been on my case to sleep more, but I can't. I just can't.

I debate sitting on the ground because standing is draining, but I'm worried I'll fall asleep if I do. I'm so exhausted and lost in my mind that I don't see Aggie until she's right in front of me. "Holy shit! You scared the crap out of me, Aggie!"

Aggie's forehead is pinched in worry as she looks between me and the abnormally large herd of fucked-up ghosts. "We're going to have a talk about what's going on with you, kid. But, first, we have a problem. There are a lot of ghosts tonight, and they all look the same."

Swinging my tired gaze to the mob of ghosts, I startle when I recognize quite a few of the empty, blank faces. They're the young mages that have been going missing in Hawthorne Grove. My heart develops another crack in it when I see Amelia. Her normally sweet, happy face is marred by jagged cuts and hollow eyes.

"Amelia!" I call, even knowing she won't understand me. I turn to Aggie. "Can you bring Lia to me? I'll heal her first."

Aggie strides toward the crowd, cutting through the middle to snag Amelia by the hand. It's always a little jarring seeing Aggie walk. In the spirit plane, she's as real as she was in the normal plane when she was alive. Instead of floating around like she usually does, Aggie has to walk.

Amelia follows Aggie docilely, nothing behind her light brown eyes. I gasp when Aggie brings Amelia to me. Her clothes are shredded, with bloody slashes covering her almost head to toe. Some of the cuts are long and wide, and others are thin and short.

What the actual fuck happened to her?

With how much blood stains her clothes, I wonder if she bled to death. That won't be fun to heal. Then again, it was infinitely worse for Amelia to experience in the first place.

Amelia stands still as I pull on my spirit magic. My hands glow ice blue before I direct the magic to her. It arcs to and slams into her. She stumbles back a step but, otherwise, doesn't react. Slowly, my magic starts mending her wounds, fixing the tears in her clothes and wiping the blood from her pale skin.

When her cheeks are flushed, eyes are clear, and my magic can't find anything else to heal, I pull back on it. Amelia blinks a few times before she focuses on me. "Izzy? Where am I?"

"Hey, Lia." A lump forms in my throat as I stare into her confused gaze. This is always the hardest part. Most damaged ghosts don't know they're dead, so I have to break the news. "You're dead, honey."

"What?" Amelia's light brown eyes widen as she processes what I said. "I can't be dead! I was just at the council for their mage development program."

"Their what?" My dad is on the council. I've never heard of a mage development program, and that's something my dad would mention. He's been pushing for the council to devote more resources to helping the average mage, instead of pandering to the wealthy.

"Mage development program. I got an invitation at the beginning of the school year for a program for lower mages. It's supposed to help us get better jobs." Amelia's lower lip trembles as she takes in the almost alien landscape of the spirit realm. How strange it is compared to the realm of the living is what convinces most ghosts they're dead. "Are you sure I'm dead, Izzy? What if this is just a weird dream?"

"I'm sure, honey. This isn't a dream. It's the spirit realm, where people end up when they die." I give her a minute to process that she's dead. It's the hardest for ghosts who die unexpectedly, like a sixteen-year-old newly awakened mage. When Amelia bursts into tears, I pull her into my arms and rub her back.

After crying for a moment, Amelia wipes away her tears. "What am I supposed to do now? Will I see my family again?"

"Now, you cross over. You will see your parents and sisters, eventually. Do you have any relatives who have died?"

"Yeah. Grammy died a few years ago, and Gramps died this summer." Amelia looks close to tears again, and I feel awful. I've crossed over thousands of ghosts, but it never gets easier to deal with the questions. It never gets easier to tell them they won't see their loved ones for a while. It never gets easier to watch them grieve for a life they should've had.

"You'll be able to see them when you cross over," I lie and don't feel even a little guilty about it. The truth is, I have no idea what happens when ghosts cross. The spirits could end up in heaven, hell, purgatory, or even just vanish forever. I don't know, but I don't want to scare Amelia with that.

She sniffles a few times before nodding at me. "Okay. How do I cross over?"

"You'll follow the yellow brick road to cross over, but I wanted to ask you something first. What's the last thing you remember?"

Amelia tilts her head in thought. "The last thing I remember is being taken to the basement of the council building. I was hooked up to something that was supposed to measure my magic. It felt like it was sucking out all of my magic, though. Then I was overwhelmed with pain, and everything went black." She's shaking by the time she finishes.

I hug her again before stepping back. "Thanks for telling me, honey. Do you want me to go with you to cross over?"

She shakes her head. "No, but thanks. Thank you for everything, Izzy. I always loved when you hung out with me. You and your family were the only high mages that didn't treat me like dirt. It meant a lot."

Now I'm the one who's choked up. She was such a good kid. It's not fair that this happened to her. None of the lives cut short are ever fair. It just hits harder since I knew her.

I dart in for one more hug before Amelia wanders down the yellow brick road. Aggie and I wait for the telltale flash of purple light before turning back to the hoard. "What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know, kid. Am I the only one who gets shady vibes from the council?"

I snort. "No, Aggie. Literally everyone knows they're corrupt, but it's hard to change a nearly millennium-old system." The council is… a problem I really don't have energy to deal with. Hopefully it's just a coincidence that all the ghosts have the same injuries.

It's not a coincidence.

Spirit after spirit tells me the same story as Amelia. They were offered a spot in the prestigious new mage development program. They're from lower mage families in Hawthorne Grove and other mage cities on the East Coast. Every single one of them remembers being in the council basement for testing before blacking out from pain.

My stomach sinks as I realize the council is a bigger problem than I thought. They're clearly preying on lower mage families, but why? What are they getting out of it? None of the ghosts have the answer.

I don't bother to pause between ghosts to heal my injuries. When I don't heal myself between spirits, I have to heal all the injuries at once. It sucks ass. But I'm so caught up in the mystery that I lose track of how many ghost I heal.

"Kid! You have to stop!" Aggie shouts from beside me, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"What?" I look around for the first time in a while. The gaggle of ghosts is a lot smaller than it was when I started, which isn't good news for me.

"You've healed twenty ghosts! Your power is growing, but that's too many, kid!" Aggie is frantically gesturing as she speaks, and she's worn down the grass underfoot with her pacing. "I've tried to get your attention, but you've been in a trance for the last five ghosts."

Fuck. Aggie is definitely right. That's way more ghosts than I can heal in a night. I can already feel the land of the living trying to yank me back to pay my penance for all the healing. My form is flickering in and out as I stand here.

"You need to get Bishop, Aggie. I don't have enough magic for this. Go to Levi, and he can get Bishop for you. Only get Rhys or Aiden as a last resort, okay?" Without enough magic to heal all the wounds, I'm going to die. While that's more appealing than it should be some nights, tonight is not one of them. I can't die until I figure out what the council is up to.

"I can do that, kid. Can you stay here until I get back?" Aggie's blue eyes are wrinkled in concern. She's wringing her hands as she watches me struggle to stay in the spirit realm.

I'm unable to answer her question as I'm forcibly pulled back into my body. I stare up at the clear night sky for a single moment of peace. Then it feels like my skin splits open all over my body. Blood gushes out of what feels like thousands of burning cuts as I scream and scream. My hands claw at the soft dirt underneath me, and my back arches in agony.

I can do nothing but ride the waves of never-ending pain and hope Aggie gets back soon. If she doesn't, well, then at least my mates and family will be safe.

Hurry, Aggie. Please, is the last thought I have before I'm dragged under the swells of excruciating pain, unsure if I'll ever surface again.