Bone Dry: A Soul Shamans Novel (Volume 1) (20 page)

“Information.” I spoke slowly, enunciating every syllable, hoping the spirit would be able to understand me, too. Hoping it didn’t notice how my voice shook.

“Speak.”

“Okay,” I said. “I need to know what happened to my mom and who did it to her.”

“Blood mother?” The spirit moved, suddenly closer.

I leaned back.

“Yes,” I said, feeling the need to answer in as few words as possible.

It rushed at me then, giving me a closer view of a spirit than I’d ever had before. It was dark, eyeless, noseless, with a black circle where its mouth should be. It had no features that I could tell. Everything was an oval blur of shifting shadows. And then it made a sound, a whiffing breathy sound like it was sniffing me. Smelling my blood.

Smelling my fear.

My eyes watered. I tried to put a clamp on my emotions, but they were whirling so much inside me that it was impossible. Being this close to my enemy, letting it be this near, took every ounce of self-control I owned. Knowing I would have to let it do more than smell me later, I couldn’t help but have the itch to scoot back, shimmy away on my butt. But I forced myself to stay still.

It backed away, and even though it didn’t have a face, I could have sworn it looked unhappy.

“I have information. Where is my payment?”

I took a deep breath before saying the words that would take away part of my life. “Right here. Me. You can feed after you’ve told me what you know.”

The spirit let out a low hissing noise that grated and scratched my eardrums.

“Fool,” the spirit said. “You are foolish to call upon me without knowing the rules.”

Rules? Anthony didn’t mention any rules.

“I don’t understand,” I said, trying to calm the pattering of my heart. Anthony knew I hadn’t done this before, and he hadn’t told me about these so-called rules. What else had he kept from me? What did I have to do to find out who did this to my mom?

“Of course you don’t,” it hissed, whipping its strange head from side to side. It rushed back to me, sniffing at my face again, letting out a low guttural noise that sent shivers racing along every surface of my skin. “Your blood is strong, full of power, full of magic. I very much desire to feed on you, but I cannot.” It rushed back again, and this time I flinched away. “You summoned me with your blood and the blood of the one who bound me. I cannot harm you.”

“No.” I shook my head slowly. This couldn’t be happening. I’d have to summon the spirit on someone else. My mind whirled, trying to figure out another option, but I knew there was no other way. The spirit seemed angry, ready to leave here, and if I didn’t give in, it might disappear without telling me who the shaman was. “Fine. I’ll pay you after. Just tell me about my mom.”

“Done.”

A frosty tingling rushed through my veins, a sensation similar to the binding spell I performed with Laura. Invisible ropes tightened around my skin. I choked out a shocked breath. It was like the spirit was binding me…to my words, to my promise of payment.

The spirit said, “I cannot tell you the name of the man, but I can show you the place where this happened.”

My fingernails dug into the carpet. “You mean you tricked me into agreeing to pay you, and you can’t even tell me who did it?”

“I can show you the place through astral projection, but I cannot show you the man. It is impossible to show you a moving being.”

I narrowed my eyes. “I didn’t ask to see the place. That doesn’t help me at all.”

“That is all I can give you,” it said.

I almost argued again, but then thought better of it. It wasn’t what I wanted, but it was better than nothing at all. “Fine. Show me.”

I wasn’t sure what to expect because I’d never astral projected more than a few feet for fun. Mom hadn’t told me much about astral projecting either, saying it was the kind of thing only adult shamans should try. She’d said that about a lot of things.

The spirit touched my knee, its hand—or whatever it was—an ice pack on my skin. I felt a sudden jerky tug, and then a sensation like I was floating and being ripped apart at the seams. A sudden burst of doubt about leaving my body behind surged through me, but then a calm blanketed my mind as I traveled through darkness.

I could see vague, dark shapes and a blur of motion as we traveled along some sort of spatial current in the Borderland. I tried not to think about how dangerous this was, how I should have an anchor for this, too. If I got stuck here, I knew I couldn’t find my way back.

And then came a sudden jolt as the floating part of me slid to a halt. Then, a blinding brightness until a fuzzy building hovered before my eyes.

“This is the building.”

I looked at it hard. I knew this was Boston by the skyline in the distance, but I didn’t recognize the neighborhood. I took in the building’s appearance as best I could although it was just a generic brownstone. I glanced at the number on the awning. Thirty-eight. Then glanced at the street sign at the corner. Belleview and Rockton.

“I’m ready to go,” I said to the spirit.

And then we were off again.

I’m not sure I took a breath of air until I felt myself snap back into my body, which I momentarily saw sitting there, pale face, long wet hair, cheeks covered in dry tears.

Weird
.

I jumped when I heard a hissing noise, and I glanced to the bedroom door to see Astral standing there, hair on end and teeth bared in a look I’d never seen on him before.

“We are done,” the spirit said immediately. “I expect my payment before this night is over.”

I dropped the summoning rune onto the candle flame and watched it burn.

CHAPTER 21

I
wandered into the living room to check on Mom. She was still the same, alive and breathing, but empty. Astral was curled up on her lap, but his eyes were wide open, staring at my mom. It was like he knew she wasn’t okay, too. I took her hand in mine, fell onto the floor and peered up at her, wondering if there was some other way to pull her back. The shiny silver of her necklace reflected the low lamplight. The one with her key.

I shot up. She’d never let me take the key from her. I’d tried several times, but she’d always whip her hand up and stop me, like it’d be the end of the world if I ever found out what was in her trunk.

Now, when I could easily grab the key, I felt wrong about doing it. Like I was prying into something private and personal. I shook my head, reached out my fingers and grabbed it. I unclasped it from the chain and turned the cool metal over in my palm.

The walk from the living room to my mom’s bedroom seemed to stretch out before me as I passed the rows of photos from around the world. Mom smiled in each one—alive, happy, exhilarated by her adventures. One from the time she went spelunking in South America to find ancient shaman artifacts. One from the time she’d gone on an Arctic cruise to follow up on rumors that spirits were attacking passing ships.

The person in those photos was nothing like the one sitting in the living room now. Even if a miracle happened, and I was successful in getting her back, I wondered if things would ever truly be the same.

I forced my feet to take me into her bedroom, but I refused to look at the blank, off-white walls where she used to hang her beads. Instead, I moved straight to the bed and reached underneath it. The heavy trunk groaned as I pulled it out from under the bed. It was identical to mine, but with its own unique spots from years of wear and tear. I slid in the key, turned the lock and held my breath when I heard the familiar tumble.

When I pushed back the lid, all I found inside was an old book, similar to my rune book, with a piece of folded notepaper taped to the top. On the side facing up was my name scrawled in my mom’s handwriting.

I stared hard, almost afraid to read what she’d left for me.

To my Holly,

You must be reading this because I’ve gotten sucked so far into the Borderland, I can’t respond to you anymore. I’ve been afraid things were getting this bad for months now. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I was hoping to find a way to stop it. And I never wanted you to have to worry about these kinds of things at your age. Honey, I’m so sorry.

Anyway, I knew you’d come looking in this trunk. The book you’ve found is one of a set of three original rune manuscripts. This is the only copy of Book One. A colleague has Book Two and the third is unaccounted for. No one knows I have this copy, and you can’t tell anyone about it. It’s highly sought after. When you’re done reading this letter, put the book back inside, lock the trunk and don’t ever let anyone ever know anything about it. Once your dad gets his head on his shoulders again, he’ll take care of it. Okay?

Of course, knowing you, you’ll want to know what is so important about this book. In order to satisfy your curiosity as quickly as possible, here it is: it’s a book of runes for more powerful shaman spells. Some spells in this book are known by the shaman community. Some are definitely not known. By anyone. And it must stay this way. Some of these spells are dangerous.

Holly, there’s nothing I can do now to guide you and your insatiable curiosity, but I believe in you and that you’ll make the right decisions.

Put the book away.

I’ll try my hardest to get back to you. I’ll do whatever it takes. Just…be prepared I might not make it. I’m so sorry life has turned out this way, honey. Don’t ever forget I love you very, very much, and in some form or another, I’ll always be by your side.

Mom

I took several deep gulps of air to calm my breathing. I gripped the paper tight in my hands, my eyes roaming over the words again. I read the entire letter through three more times before I folded it and gently placed it on the floor next to me.

I leaned over the trunk and stared at the book. Mom didn’t want me touching it, but she’d said she expected me to—in so many words—in her letter. Besides, a quick look wouldn’t hurt. It wasn’t like anyone knew it was in the house. I just had to take a peek at all these runes I’d never seen before, get a glimpse of all the magic I was missing out on.

I lifted the book from the corner of the trunk and opened it, the leather spine creaking. The old papers fanned out in front of me. I turned the pages slowly, glancing at each rune. I didn’t recognize any of them, and the words underneath were in some language I didn’t know, but Mom had gone through and written the runes’ names in English. Seek, Speak, Listen and Smell were on the first few pages. I kept turning. Chain. Wave, Bind and Shadow.

I didn’t know what any of these meant. On several pages, she’d jotted out a two or three word explanation of what the rune did, but left the specifics of how they should be cast in the original language. I guessed she didn’t want to make it easy for me or anyone else who stumbled across this to translate the spells.

The shrilling sound of my phone made me jump.

“Hello?” I asked before bothering to glance at the readout. My eyes were still glued to the runes.

“I need you.” Jason’s usually lighthearted voice sounded shaky and rough. Blood rushed to my head when I heard a scream in the background.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”

“We can’t wait any longer, Holls. Whatever this thing is, it came out of my room and went after the rest of my family.”

“Is everyone okay?” I asked in a whisper.

“No, it attacked my youngest brother, and my parents took him to the hospital. They think it’s my fault. They think I did something to him, and when I tried to tell them what it really was…they grounded me. I have to stay here and watch my other brother and sister. I’m trying to talk everyone out of the house, but they think I’m being a jackass.”

“Oh god.”

“Megan called me a few minutes ago. Same thing is happening over there, and she got her family to go to the movies, but she’s freaking out about what will happen when the movie is over.”

“This is bad.” I bit the inside of my cheek. Fear crawled all over my skin, making my arm hair stand on end.

“Holls, please help me.”

I’d never heard anyone sound so hopeless. I didn’t even want to think about what would happen if his family was left with a spirit loose in their house. How had it gotten out of his room?

“Yeah, okay,” I said, trying to come up with a plan. Anthony and the Congress were going to stop the shamans, but it would obviously not be in time to help Megan or Jason. I closed my eyes.
I have to help
. Something heavy weighed on my shoulders, and my body curled into a defeated slump. I didn’t want to fight spirits right now, not with Mom like this, and I didn’t want to risk running into the shamans again. But I didn’t know what else to do. “Get the kids outside somehow. Maybe a game of Capture the Flag or something. I need to get Laura, and then I’ll come over, okay?” I rolled my head back and stared at the dark, round water spots on the ceiling. “Tell Megan I’ll take care of hers, too.”

After I hung up, Astral jumped off the bed and meowed at me, blinking his eyes like he disapproved. I scratched his neck and turned my attention to Mom’s book. It was open to the page with the Shadow rune. Mom had written “To hide/conceal” in the margins.