The Ravaging in Between (The Reanimation Files Book 3) (25 page)

When I felt like the cage was secure, I opened my eyes. Magda held up the black cord she had brought over. Only now it was entwined with pieces of runes of various colors. She had done all of that while I’d been focusing on separating and caging the dead magic.

Magda took my right hand and wrapped the cord around my wrist. I immediately felt a cool brush of magic slip under my skin. A shiver went through me, but I felt better than I had a moment ago.

“You are still a fledgling, so this bracelet will help you stay in control,” she said.

“Thank you,” I said. “I…I forgot to bring money…”

“Your money has no value to me,” she said. “You, on the other hand, intrigue me very much.”

“So you want…you want me as payment?”

Maybe we should have discussed the terms of compensation beforehand
.
Although in my desperation I might have agreed to it.

Magda’s throaty laugh rang out. “Your feet are far off the known path, I want you to let me guide you through the darker places you’re bound to go.”

I frowned. “I was looking forward to a little sunshine to tell you the truth.”

A smile that had nothing to do with humor curled her lips. “That is not the path for you, my child. It has already been chosen, and you have already started to walk it.”

Her words sent another shiver through my body. I didn’t want to believe her, but I could feel it. I was too far changed to ever go back to just being a working necromancer who helped ghosts settle their affairs. But what exactly was I going to be now? Jury was still out on that one.

“Again, thanks.” I stood up, but she remained sitting. “I’m happy to have gotten a handle on this ghost absorbing thing.” I turned to leave.

“Child.”

I turned back.

“I sense many things as I pass my time here, one such thing being a consistent opening between the living world and the In Between.”

“They’ve been unable to figure out a way to close it,” I said. “Do you know how—”

“There is something important you must keep in mind,” she said, cutting me off. “I told you that unlinking yourself from that Absorber would kill you, but you should know that if that ghost were to cross back over into this world, it would break your connection.”

A horrible feeling spread through me. “So if that ghost shows up here through the open circle…”

“Then the part of your soul that he has will be in the land of the living, not the dead. And it is only because part of you is in the Afterlife that you have been able to cheat death. Therefore, if the ghost crosses back…”

“I’ll die,” I finished. “I’ve already received injuries that should have killed me.” I ran a shaky hand over my sweat-slick face. “Oh God, the news just keeps getting better and better for me, doesn’t it?”

“What will you do, child?” There was genuine interest in her tone and expression when she looked at me.

Leave
. For now, I would leave and go home to my bed.

And pray that I would wake up in the morning.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

I was happy to wake up to sunshine and not the desolate landscape of the In Between or wherever else I might end up next time I died. Luna was gently licking my face to get my attention, so I forced myself to get up.

For the first time in a while, I didn’t feel sore and achy. I’d been beginning to feel like I was an old lady trapped in a younger body after being in so many altercations recently. I closed my eyes and took a moment to concentrate on the shield I had built around the dead energy. It was intact, but it took a bit of effort to keep it that way. That was a little draining, but it would take some time before it became an easier hold for me to maintain. It would likely never become as easy as it was to control my necromancer and reanimation power, but I was just banking on it getting better than this. I was grateful the shields held in my sleep and figured that was mostly due to the rune bracelet Magda had made.

Magda. I couldn’t figure her out. She made me feel extremely on edge. It was unsettling to know how strong and knowledgeable she was. In the paranormal world, knowledge was a dangerous thing, as showcased by Renton, Larry, and Michael. Once you knew how to do something no one else did, you became a dangerous entity. Magda also had a personal interest in me, but I was not sure if that was a good thing or not. I guess it was always better to stay on the good side of someone so powerful. She had helped me, and I assumed I could go back to her for further assistance, so maybe I was overthinking things. Maybe.

For now I’d just be grateful, because there was no way I would have gotten a handle on this new pain-in-the-ass ability without her help.

But that didn’t mean the end of the road for all the problems. I wondered what the latest was with rounding up the ghosts that had escaped from the In Between. Had Kyo been caught? I got the feeling he’d be good at evading capture. He would likely show up again soon enough.

Then there was Ethan. I still didn’t know how to feel about that.

So I just sighed over my cereal bowl and kept eating. Luna stared up at me with her mouth open like she hadn’t just gobbled up her dog food. She had developed a sweet tooth over the years—through no fault of mine, of course—so the smell of my sugar-laden cereal was irresistible to her. I dropped a few pieces on the ground. I so was not an enabler though.

I was cleaning up when the doorbell rang. When I looked through the peephole, I saw Micah. I pressed my head against the door and took a deep breath before I opened it and let him in. I hoped I had the strength to deal with wherever this conversation would lead. I already knew it wouldn’t be good.

“Hey,” he said, dropping his messenger bag on the sofa. “You haven’t been answering my calls or texts.” He didn’t blow in on an angry vibe; that was good. It showed that he knew he had no reason to be angry at my avoiding him when he had continued to lie and hide things from me.

“I haven’t been ignoring you. I just have not looked at my phone in a while. I couldn’t even tell you where it was right now.”

“I was worried about you.”

“Yet it took you this long to come down here?” I couldn’t help but say.

Where was he when Larry and his army of ghosts were attacking me yesterday? Only Kyo seemed to know to be around when he might be needed.

Micah raked his hands through his hair. “I would have been here earlier, but the PTF have been bringing in crossover ghosts so I’ve been busy with making sure they are secure.”

“Are any of them linked to our victims?”

“No, with those we’ve only rounded up the ones from Carlos’ tip offs.”

“Damn,” I muttered. “Well, at least more of them are being tracked down.”

“Yeah. Why have you been so MIA though?”

“Let me tell you what yesterday was like for me.” I recounted the events with Larry, how it had ended, and where I’d gone after. But first I told him how I’d gotten my reanimation power back so my trip to Magda yesterday would make sense. Micah looked shocked and concerned by the time I was done. He stood up from where he’d been leaning against the back of the couch and came over to me, taking my hands in his.

“Unbelievable,” he said. “Larry was behind the attacks?”

“Like the cowardly little bastard he was, he tried to get others to do the deed, then came out of the woodwork when they couldn’t get it done.”

“And you…absorbed him?”

I resisted the urge to lean my head against his chest. Had to remember I wasn’t a hundred percent happy with him right now. He was lucky I didn’t pull my hands away.

“Him and all the ghosts he brought along. I did not enjoy that. They got channeled back to old boy in the In Between who’s carrying around a piece of my soul.”

“Selene.” Micah’s eyes were searching mine, concern written in every part of his expression. “Why didn’t you call me? Something this dangerous happens to you and you didn’t think I should know? You didn’t even tell me about this Magda.”

“If you had come to Ilyse’s fading, then you would have found out all about her.” I pulled my hands away, crossing them over my chest. “How are you still acting surprised and hurt that I did not call you about something? Especially after yesterday!”

“I told you, I did that for you!” Micah’s eyes were pleading, but I was not one to plead with right now.

“Did that for me,” I repeated. “Did you really think I would see Ethan and be happy once I found out what you did to give him a body?”

“I thought you would be happy that he was OK, that he was whole. We took on that project to try and give him a life again.”

“And once again, you had to lie to me,” I said. “Don’t you see a pattern here, Micah? You lie about something you know is wrong and unethical, but you think will help me or make me happy, but when I find out, am I happy? Did you really think it would be different this time around because you used ghosts from people that were already dead? It’s still wrong. You have them trapped in those runes on Ethan’s back just like your uncle had your mother and his wife and daughter trapped in runes for years. Maybe your reasoning was they were the ghosts of bad people. OK, sure, the In Between is where people who had violent unfinished business end up, but that isn’t the only type of ghost a circle is used on and you know it. There are ghosts who were forced over because they wanted something unattainable like being able to carry and birth a baby, or something too risky like climbing Mount Everest. And I seriously doubt you stopped to make sure you were only putting ‘bad’ ghosts in those runes. Not that it would matter because no ghost deserves that fate. Being stuck in the In Between for all eternity is punishment enough, trust me.”

Micah shook his head. “I know, Selene. I know the ethics are muddled. I just wanted to try and make it right. I wanted to give you some ray of happiness.”

“And I truly believe that,” I said. “But once again, you made choices that I just cannot agree with and you put me in a difficult position. Before, it was make the bad choice and I continue to live. And I chose to die. Now, it’s make the bad choice and Ethan gets to live, and I get to keep my friend around. But what happens if the other choice is made?”

“This time it’s not up to you.” Micah wouldn’t meet my gaze. “It’s up to Ethan.”

“That may be true, but it’s my choice whether or not I will have anything to do with all of this and it pisses me off that you put me in that position.”

“Damn it.” Micah blew out a breath and raked his hands through his hair again. “I just can’t do anything right by you, by us. I can’t fix this no matter how much I try.”

“That’s the thing, Micah. You’ve been trying to fix things on your own terms without factoring me in, without thinking about what might really work. You convince yourself that whatever choice you’ve made is the right one and I’ll just come around, but you have yet to see that you’re wrong. The first time you didn’t want to see me die, and to a large extent I get that. But this time you had a chance to do it differently, and you did the exact same thing again.”

“What was I supposed to do then? Force Ethan into the Afterlife? You know where ghosts who are forced over end up. Would you want that for Ethan?”

“No, of course not.” I thought about Ethan spending eternity in the In Between and didn’t want to fathom that being his end game. There’s no way he would ever deserve ending up there. Especially with pits full of ghost beasties, monstrous, shadowy ghost animals, and other asshole ghosts wanting to suck him up.

“He’d been doing just fine, even though he was bound to me. If Tielle could have gotten a ruling that he should not be forced into the Afterlife, he could have continued on as a ghost.”

“Doing what? Living with you, cooking your meals, taking care of your house and dog, and playing video games all day? You really think he was happy like that?”

I was a bit taken aback. “I know it wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine around here with everything that was going on, but Ethan was taking it in stride the best he could.”

“Taking it in stride is not the same as being happy,” Micah said. “In case you forgot, Ethan barely wanted to go outside and he only went to see his family because you forced him to. You knew how much he did not want them to see him the way he was. No matter how tangible his bind to you made him, he was still a ghost. Not alive. Not to mention the fact that he was dealing with murdering Andrew and Ilyse, and almost killing you too. What do you think that did to him mentally? It fucked him over completely. All of his problems stemmed from being a ghost. He hated it. We didn’t force this new body on him. He willingly participated and he knew exactly what it would take. And he’s happier now. He’s been receiving therapy, and has expressed nothing but amazement and joy that he has a physical body again and is no longer in a position where he could be forced to kill someone.”

I was quiet for a while as I let all of that sink in. I had tried to be attentive to Ethan’s mental and emotional state because I knew how much he was dealing with, starting with getting kicked out of his body, but admittedly I’d not done a good job at it. And hell, I was no therapist. Giving someone a hug and telling them you’re there for them and everything will be all right soon only went so far. Especially when soon never came.

As much as the bad shit had snowballed for me, it had snowballed for Ethan as well. And Micah, and Ilyse, whose snowball had ended with her death. At Ethan’s hands. I was dealing with killing a madman who one could say deserved to die, but Ethan had killed two people who hadn’t deserved that fate. Andrew was dastardly, but at the time of his death his worst offense was that he was cheating on his wife and tried to force himself on me. That didn’t warrant the gruesome death he endured and the twisted way his ghost ended up. And Ilyse…gentle, caring, helpful-beyond-compare Ilyse…

I made a sound of frustration and pressed my fists to my eyes. I felt like pulling my hair out. “Micah, I get it. If I was in Ethan’s position, I would have felt the same way. I didn’t have a lot of time to really stop and think about what it was like for him. I saw him cooking and having fun playing his video games and I guess I just let that mislead me into thinking he was doing all right. Especially since he was less ghost-like due to his bind to me.”