The Ravaging in Between (The Reanimation Files Book 3) (21 page)

She regarded me for a moment. “Yes, I sensed it as soon as I felt your presence. You have walked a path very few have ever walked. And not just on this plane of existence. How far off that path will you continue to stray? That is the question.”

We were getting off topic from what I had come here for, but there was something about Magda’s words that made me want to know more.

“Many centuries ago they fashioned runes from the bones of the dead. Not just binding runes. They were ground up and compressed, then sparked to life by dead witch magic and manipulated into all kinds of runes. As society progressed, you can imagine such a practice was deemed too unethical to continue, so it was wiped out and semiprecious stones were used instead. But bone runes remained alive in the Underground until the art of making them became lost when the knowledgeable ones died out, which is why they are so rare now.”

I looked around at all the bones that occupied the space before turning back to Magda. “So…the binding runes you gave my grandmother were…”

“Old school,” she whispered.

A chill went through me. “Bones,” I whispered. “Used to make runes. Unbelievable.”

“Your textbooks would never teach you that, girl,” she said. “You must leave the lightened path and follow trails to darker places. That is where true knowledge and power lies. Not within the light, but deep within the shadows. If you fear them, they will engulf you and destroy you. If you embrace them, your eyes will be opened in ways you could have never imagined. There is much to see within the darkness. More so than within the light. Everyone thinks darkness hides and light illuminates. But what is hidden can always be found, you just have to know how to look.”

Her words were chilling, but also alluring. It hearkened to what that mysterious Rune Teller had told me when she read my cards.

“I have some experience with being off the lightened path,” I said.

“Yes, you are an interesting one. You underwent an incredible evolution of power only to have it taken away.”

“It caused too much destruction and death. Too much pain. Too many people trying to use me for their own evil purposes.”

“Yes, child, ignorant fools flocked to you aplenty. Yet you stand while they do not. You are a strong one. I can teach you many things if you are willing to learn.”

“Right now I just want to learn how to get my reanimation power back. Can you get it out of the binding runes in a safe way?”

Magda held up the rune to the light as though she wanted to give it a closer inspection, although I was sure she already knew that rune inside and out. “I feel it,” she whispered. “It has the same flavor as you do.” She lowered her hand. “I can do this thing you ask of me.”

I felt a knot of pressure release from my chest as relief washed over me. “Thank you. How much?” I had brought more than I’d ever want to spend, but I’d do it to get this done.

“You, I will not charge money,” she said. “What you have brought me is far more valuable.”

“The binding runes?”

Magda nodded. “I want these runes. That is payment enough.”

The smile on her face didn’t leave me with a good feeling. It was no big shocker that Magda craved power, it wasn’t like she’d gotten to be as strong as I felt she was just by wishing for it. I was sure she’d done things I didn’t want to know about in order to gain her strength.

That was the thing about those with power; they were never satisfied, they always wanted more. The danger came from what they did with that power. I wasn’t sure what Magda’s desires were. I had reservations about her choice of payment, but what other options did I have?

“Fine,” I said. “Now what?”

“Now we get to work. Go have a seat in the middle of the room. Take the binding runes and lay them in front of you.”

I picked up the binding runes, then walked a few feet away before sitting down on the dirt. I arranged the runes in a line in front of me while Magda gathered a few items from her table and came over to meet me. She was barefoot, and even her toes were covered in rings with glittering stones. It was probably hard to find shoes to accommodate all of that.

Magda placed her items on the ground, then sat down and arranged the skirt of her dark blue sheath dress around her. She’d brought over a few vials of rune powder, along with several runes. Two of them I recognized as the rune I was supposed to have used to take my reanimation power back from Renton.

She spent the next few minutes using the powder to draw a large rune circle on the ground. Inside the circle she drew a series of complex-looking runes. She then placed a binding rune on top of each one.

“The dead are powerful,” she said as she sat back on her heels. “Everyone focuses on ghosts, they give no thought to anything else.”

“You mean the corpse?”

“The spirit is one thing, the vessel is another. The dead can speak if you know what to listen for.” She took some of the skulls that were lying nearby and arranged them around her rune circle. I hadn’t thought skulls would play a role in this ritual. A thrill of fear went through me. I really had no idea what I was getting myself into and had to keep telling myself that Ilyse would not have sent me here to put me in danger.

Magda caressed the skull closest to her. “I find stories of the dead much more intriguing than that of the living.” She raised her gaze to meet mine and I hoped my fear wasn’t showing on my face. “In order for this to work, the binding runes have to release your reanimation power. But doing so will unleash not just your power, but all the power that has been stored and growing inside the runes ever since you activated them. If it is not controlled, it will collapse this entire graveyard on top of us.”

I swallowed hard. I did not like the sound of that. My first and only experience with unleashing a binding rune was still a vivid memory. Back then it had only been one binding rune and the collateral damage had been catastrophic. I didn’t want to imagine how bad it would be if all these runes were unleashed. Most of them had been active for years, so the amount of power that would have grown within them was something I didn’t want to think about.

“How does one keep a handle on power like that?” I asked, swallowing past the dryness in my throat.

“You divert it,” Magda said. “You send it somewhere strong enough to hold it.”

I looked down at the half a dozen skulls she had placed around the rune circle and a frown creased my brow. “These bones?” I couldn’t keep the skeptical tone from my voice.

“The binding runes are bone themselves, and thus they can be contained in the bones from whence they came. If you do not trust me, girl, we do not have to do this.”

My hands, which were resting on my thighs, were balled into fists. I was sweaty, tired, thirsty, and uncomfortable in Magda’s presence. But I didn’t have a fraction of Magda’s knowledge, and I couldn’t exactly do a quick Google search to see if I could find something that supported her plan for giving me my power back. I just had to go on instinct, and trust in Ilyse. I nodded.

“There’s too much on the line for me not to try.” Even as I said the words, I was picturing the graveyard collapsing on our heads and dying the worst possible death. I prayed Magda truly knew what she was doing and I’d get to walk out of here alive. I might damn well skip my way out from the sheer joy of not being crushed to death.

“Very well. Do as I say and do not speak. Take these.” She handed me the two power absorption runes. “Activate them, then touch them to each binding rune.” I channeled energy into each rune, then did as she instructed.

When I touched the runes, they began to glow, and a jolt went through me that caused my body to buck. It wasn’t exactly painful, but it was forceful. Magda then instructed me to turn my hands so the runes were resting on my palms. She pulled my hands over the rune circle.

“You are now connected to each binding rune.” Magda’s voice had dropped to a whisper. Now I felt not just her power, but the power from the binding runes. It did not feel good. It was as though I was holding on to the leashes of very huge, ferocious dogs, and in a split second they’d decide to run and I’d lose all control and be pulled along with no way to stop.

Magda’s eyes were closed as she whispered rapidly under her breath. Magic sparked over the skulls and the rune circle in colorful whips. When it touched my skin, it burned, and I had to fight not to drop the runes and rub my aching skin. The feel of magic in the small space intensified. The binding rune’s power, mixed with Magda’s, felt as though a block of cement was sitting on my chest. I started gasping for breath as the magic tightened around my body. The connection I had to the binding runes kept growing, and I was afraid at any moment all the power in those runes would be unleashed.

I was putting a lot of trust in a mysterious dead witch and I hoped it would not cost me my life.

Then, within all the pain and power, I felt something else. My reanimation power. It reached out for me from within the binding runes and another jolt went through me, but in a good way. My reanimation power channeled through the runes in my hands, then into my body. It was only a small amount, but my body thirsted to take it back. Magda kept up her whispering, and slowly but surely I felt my reanimation power detach from the binding runes and come back to me. It was a familiar sensation, and I relished it. I hadn’t realized just how much I missed my reanimation power. Despite the trouble it had caused me these past few months, I was not whole without it.

I closed my eyes and pictured that small streak of red reanimation magic rejoining my blue necromancer magic. I felt good, stable, stronger. I smiled. I couldn’t believe this had worked. Part of me had not really believed the outcome of this trek would be positive.

When I opened my eyes and looked down, those colorful whips of magic poured from the binding runes and into the skulls around the rune circle. The intensity of the power increased to the point where I heard rumbling, and the ground and walls started shaking. Dirt rained down on us, and I was very, very afraid of a cave-in.

I wanted to leap up, drop the runes, and run the hell out of here, but I knew the dangers of interrupting a rune circle before it was properly deactivated. I stayed put and hoped with everything I had that Magda really knew what she was doing. Her eyes were rolled back in her head, her body shook, and those whips of magic encircled her.

Finally, Magda stopped muttering and her eyes returned to normal. Even though we faced each other, I got the feeling that she wasn’t really seeing me. She held herself still for a long moment, and I realized that as she remained unmoving, the rune circle was deactivating. The crushing feel of power dropped off, and magic sparked around the skulls for a while, and then disappeared. The room stopped shaking. Thankfully. Finally, the rune circle and all the runes stopped glowing. The circle had been deactivated. I released a huge breath.

Magda took back the power absorption runes and I drew my hands into my lap. The burning feeling caused by the magic was subsiding.

“It has been done.” Her voice sounded deeper somehow. “You feel it?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “I have my reanimation power back.”

“Yet you do not seem overjoyed.”

“I feel complete again, but my reanimation power has brought me a lot of trouble. Deadly trouble. But I need it to try and save lives now.”

“Your troubles in the above world must be deep. Your agitation is strong.”

“Ghosts that were forced into the Afterlife through a necromancer circle are somehow back here seeking the revenge that was denied to them. They’ve also been absorbing other ghosts and inflicting massive amounts of ghost energy on their victims, who eventually die horrifically. So yeah, my troubles are deep.”

“You believe your reanimation power is the key to undoing these problems.”

“I don’t believe, I just hope.”

A cold smile returned to Magda’s lips, and there was darkness in her eyes that wasn’t there before. A chill ran through me and I glanced down at the skulls and the now dormant binding runes.

Supposedly all the power from the binding runes now lay within those bones, and I’d be leaving them in Magda’s possession. What would she do with all that power? What could she do with it? I didn’t want to entertain the thought that she would use the power for something sinister, but really, I had no idea. In order to get what I’d needed done, I had to leave that power here, so if something bad came from it, I’d just have to deal with it. I really hoped I wouldn’t have to deal with it.

“You will find out, I suppose,” Magda said. “Your time here is over for now.”

I got up and shook as much dirt off me as I could. I could not wait to get home and take a shower.

“Thank you…for your help.”

Magda nodded, her expression stoic. She did not move from where she knelt.

Nothing to do but leave. I turned around and started to walk away.

“When you need me again, girl, you know where to find me.”

I was certain I never wanted to come back here again. I walked quicker, all the while feeling Magda’s eyes on my back. I cast one last look over my shoulder at the powerful dead witch sitting there with her extraordinarily powerful bones, then turned around and got out of that crypt as quickly as I could.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

I woke up feeling sore from head to toe, as though I’d spent half a day in the gym yesterday and worked every single muscle in my body, including my eyes.

I’d felt fine after leaving Magda, but I guess the effects of her ritual were much like the effects of a hard workout—you didn’t really feel the burn until the next day. I lay there for a moment to assess my body. I was sore, but it wasn’t crippling. I was so relieved that the off-balance feeling of emptiness, along with the nausea and dizzy spells, was over.

I tuned in to my reanimation power and felt it thrumming along inside me as though it had never left. I frowned slightly as a strange feeling stirred inside me while I was focused on my reanimation power. My palms tingled, and the only way I could describe how I felt was “off.” But considering what I had been through last night, I suppose it made sense that I didn’t feel a hundred percent normal yet.