Two Halves Series (60 page)

I concentrated on the outside trying to pinpoint where my husband had gone.

“Hold on, Sarah.” My father tried to grab my wrist but failed. “Where are you going? He may be far away by now.”

“I’ll find him. Please, guard them.” I nodded toward my children.

“Find yourself as well.” He eyed me from top to bottom. Yes, my father knew how to find humor in grave times. “The anger you hold onto will destroy you if you don’t,” he warned.

“I will fix it. I promise.”

He leaned forward to give my cheek a peck, and I thought I’d felt the cool warmth of his lips.

I tried to leave through the wall and instead bumped into it. Stunned, I used the front door to let my ghost exit.

“Going somewhere?”

On the other side of the clearing, the warden leaned against the trunk of the fallen tree. With his black hooded cloak covering his head, the grumpy man reminded me of a demon. The hump in his back was gone, but the tick in his left eye was as disturbing as when I’d first met him. Gold embroidery on his garment reflected the sunlight that slipped under the late afternoon clouds hanging above the treetops. The cover on his head fell to his nose, concealing his eyes under a shadow.

I tried to make my ghost disappear as I moved toward the left end of the clearing.

The demon tracked my movements. “Not so easy to hide when you cannot disappear.” He laughed.

I recognized the cackling, but not as the warden’s. It belonged to someone I dreaded seeing and wondered how he’d found us. Was it him?

“Having trouble in this shape?” he asked as if he’d known I couldn’t disappear or float through tangible objects. “The witch still has her touch, even without a body.” He yelped wildly, slurping saliva between the words and laughter.

Miranda
.
She cursed me to stay visible in the moment I chose to be so.

“Why are you here?” I asked as I considered how to overcome my predicament. My ghost couldn’t disappear nor float through objects. He’d follow me if I ran, but running wasn’t my priority; my unguarded family was.

“You got rid of my top two trainers, sending their souls to be refurbished, but you cannot get rid of me.”

The freezer and the mover from the prison’s parking lot.

“That’s right. I know what happened, and your little ones will pay for it.” Now, the laugh reminded me of the warden’s, but it’s yelping belonged to someone else.

“You will not touch my children.” The threat vibrated in my vocal chords.

“Ah, but I already have.” He cackled from the back of his throat.

The sound sent chills down my back, something I found odd as a ghost without a body. The familiarity of this demon was striking nerves in my spirit. The warden’s odd personality transformed each time he spoke.

I floated to the side of the clearing, just beyond where Ayer had blown up the tree, drawing the demon’s gaze away from the cabin. He followed with a step to the side. The way he carried his weight didn’t remind me of the warden’s wobble, but of someone floating above the ground.

“Liar!” I shouted, then thought,
Eric! I need you!

“Ah, silly Sarah. It’s difficult to recognize me in this body, isn’t it?” my foe hissed in a slow drawl, pausing between each word as if to draw breath. “Yesss, I can see why. Silly Sarah. Silly half-breed.”

If I could, I’d have had a difficult time swallowing the lump that had formed in my tight throat.
Aseret,
I thought.
In the warden’s body.
My ghost trembled.

“That’sss right. I’m sssomeone you should fear. Your mother’s esssence is quite potent. Yours shall be, too.”

I took another step to the side, but the warlock mirrored my move.

“Ah-ah-ah, not thisss time,” he said in mocking disapproval.

If I could get him to follow me, at least I’d take him away from the children and my family; I was certain they’d been listening intently to our conversation.

“You stole the warden’s body,” I accused, hoping Eric would show up soon. I knew Xander wouldn’t leave the children, so unless my evil-bender heard me, I was on my own. Mira was probably helping Eric. And what had happened to William? He must have left before Aseret showed up—I hoped.

“No losss compared to what you’ve lossst.” He smirked at my ghostly figure. “You should have joined me when you had a chance.”

“To hell with you.”

“Ah, and soon it shall be with you, too.”

“How did you find me?” I asked to buy time.

“You’ve gotten sssloppy, sssilly creature. GPSss tracking is younger than our kind, but much more effective than traced magic.”

I remembered the electronic thank you card Willow found in last week’s mail package.
He tracked a shipment from one of the plants.

“That’sss right. Not as bright as you thought you were. It won’t be long before you have no thoughtsss at all.”

The wind swayed the tops of the trees. I wondered why Aseret hid within the warden’s body. He hadn’t attacked or used magic to strike at me. Did he still fear me that much? Why? Would he have been careless enough to leave his body in the underworld? Was his body stuck there?

I pointed at my translucent chest. “You cannot use this body.”

“No, but it won’t stop me from getting the children, will it?” He stepped closer to the cabin.

“Ha!” I mocked, straining to not seem protective.

The warlock took another stride toward my home, but I remained in the same spot. What could I, as a ghost, do anyway?

Aseret resumed his original spot across from me. I moved away from the cabin again. He mimicked my motion. “I will get both you and your children.”

“If you’re such a powerful warlock, then why don’t you listen for their heartbeats? They’re not here.” I smirked.

Aseret’s gaze flew to the house, then back to me. He gritted his jaw in frustration.

It worked,
I gloated
.
Either he didn’t have his powers and couldn’t sense the kids, so he believed me, or he didn’t hear their heartbeats because my children had left this realm.

“Hmm.” He cocked his head to the right and levitated toward me. The wind whistled between crevices and nooks in the forest, picking up stray blades of grass as it crossed the clearing; William had cut it yesterday.

William. Where are you?
I prayed he was safe but feared Aseret had him. The warlock hadn’t mentioned my husband.

As Aseret approached, I wondered whether he would strike me with a hot stream of fire. His palms twitched, but I held my ground, though my translucent legs wanted to run.

“You can’t get me.” I laughed, squeezing confidence into a voice that had betrayed me earlier.

“That’sss what you think. You will not get away, sssillly creature.” He threw his head back and laughed, and the hood slid off his bald pate. When he lowered his head again, Aseret’s eyes glowed orange, so bright that their sheen seemed to pierce my retinas, and I felt my soul being pulled toward him. He reached out, his palm stretched forward, dragging my spirit inexorably forward. I tried to remain still but the energy jerked me across the lawn, closer to the warlock.

“You sure you want me to get close?” I warned, feigning bravery I didn’t feel, hoping Aseret would believe the bluff.

The pull eased, and he wiggled his nose, then smirked and yanked again, yelping laughter. “You are powerless!”

The wind picked up in the clearing, filling the air with a lilac-scented purple mist. Hope sparked in my invisible heart as a swirling vortex opened to my left, lifting the stray grass clippings into a miniature whirlwind. The demon’s face fell.

“She may be, but I’m not,” Eric declared as he stepped from the vortex and moved up beside me. He braced his feet and thrust his hands out, palms facing forward.

Took you long enough,
I complained in my mind.

Sorry, things are getting out of hand.
The fleshy spikes on Eric’s neck fanned out above his turtleneck. The dark hollows under his eyes and the sweat stains on his clothes meant an underworld creature had kept him busy.

Really? I hadn’t noticed.

I’ll explain later,
Eric replied.
Let’s send him back to the underworld first.

“You’re meddling in my businesss, evil-bender,” Aseret hissed, planting his feet solid on the ground. His hands twitched. The warlock’s eagerness to hurl electricity our way stretched across his face, but he couldn’t harness any power.

“You keep forgetting
you
are my business, demon!”

“You can’t fix what’sss been done.”

“That’s what you think.” The spikes vibrated on Eric’s neck.

Aseret’s face grew taut, then distorted, fighting an unseen force I knew came from my friend’s body as he began bending the warlock. “You will not ruin me this time.”

“We’ll see about that.” Eric jerked his head sideways, letting the spikes extend. I hadn’t seen them protruding this far in all the years I’d known him. The color faded from his face, and his eyes went blank as he dropped into a trance. At the edge of the jungle, an orange-rimmed portal opened, within waited the underworld.

Eric forced his palms forward, streaming cold fire into the center of the warden’s chest. The warden’s body shook and convulsed as Aseret’s soul strained to remain inside it. Then the body thumped to the grass as Aseret’s soul fled its host to uncoil as a ghostly figure beside it. Even in this form, the warlock’s wrinkly, scarred face sent waves of fear through me.

Aseret rushed at me, grabbed my hollow torso, and hauled my form with him toward the opened vortex. Heat pulsed in waves from the portal and somehow I could feel it waft through my soul. Eric struggled to separate us, new power circling his body in blue and purple streams, sparkling outward like fireworks. My evil-bender strained to save me, yet when I read his face, I knew my destiny wasn’t to be rescued. Aseret’s grip tightened as we neared the outer rim of the vortex.

Eric’s face was nearly white, drained from the bending, and he dropped to his knees, apologizing with his eyes. The pull into the underworld intensified. Underworld’s heat and the stench of spoiled eggs wrapped my soul, sucking me in. A cackling laugh vibrated against my eardrums, as Aseret dragged me back to hell.

Chapter 11

My ghostly insides twisted—or perhaps the memory of the spin had tangled them. The nausea stopped when the vortex closed. The scent of honey and lemon flew through me and I looked for my children, but they weren’t here.

My spirit uncoiled in the underworld. The instinct to run passed when I couldn’t sense anyone else near me. My ghost whirled around, inhaling air I didn’t need. Then I crouched, my invisible heart pounding, as I scanned the dim room and the tunnel beyond for Aseret’s ghost. The hum of hot air and lava that flowed under the rock filtered through the corridor I found myself in. The rock wall beside me glistened with moisture; I reached out to touch it, surprised I could. The humidity in this oven-like heat was like magic; all moisture should have evaporated. My palm, instead of falling through the rock, flattened against it. Miranda’s curse held; I couldn’t pass through. I shut my eyes, straining to be invisible, but that didn’t work either. Floating forward, I ventured further into the passageway, then pressed my back against its wall, wary of who I might encounter.

The path seemed clear for the moment. I drifted down it, turning every few feet to ensure no one followed me. Sounds drifted from the maze of corridors, and I perked my ears, intent on hearing everything and identifying what creatures or features might be making the noises. The splashing of a geyser above echoed through the hot air of the maze. I took a whiff and tasted the tart acidity of sulphur on my tongue.

How is this possible?
I thought, swishing the insides of my mouth with saliva and spitting to clear the unpleasant taste. Then I stared at the spittle as it was absorbed into the dust on the floor.
Should a ghost smell or produce spit?

Even my floating wasn’t as high as it could be. I tried to rise higher to avoid being seen from the other end of the hall, but I couldn’t. Instead, I drifted closer to the rocky floor until I had to walk. “Damn you, Miranda,” I muttered, “just when I began to feel comfortable as a ghost, you had to curse me.”

My hand slid across the rock wall until my fingers touched a wooden surface—a door. By this time, I was no longer transparent. I stopped, wishing I could stick my head through to see what was on the other side. A light shone through a keyhole. Crouching, I placed my eye to the small opening. The lit room beyond looked familiar. The smell of burning wood from the roaring fireplace on the side wall floated into my nostrils. In one corner, black roses bloomed.
Xela’s lair.

A shadow passed in front of the door, sending me scuttling into the far wall. “Crap,” I groaned, then paused in confusion after I bounced off the wall. I did not feel like a ghost as I pushed away from the wall and brushed dirt off my jeans.

“Hello?” a voice called from the other side of the door.

I gasped. “William?”

The door opened a crack, squeaking on its hinges. William peeked through the slit, then swung it ajar. “Sarah? What are you doing here?” He pulled me inside and shut and locked the door quietly, drawing the chain hung midway along its groove. His tousled hair looked clumpier than usual. Before I could comment, he threw his arms around me as if he hadn’t seen me in days.

“Me?” I blurted. “What are
you
doing here?”

“Oh my God, you’re real! You’re back!” William lifted me and pressed my body against his chest, the way he had when we met. Somehow, he was able to touch me as if I were in the flesh. “You have a body.”

“No,” I denied. “I don’t have my body.”

“What are you talking about?” He squeezed my arm, then pressed his lips to mine. “I will never let you go again. I thought I’d lost you forever.”

“No, you haven’t, but I’m still a ghost, William. A cursed ghost.” I took his hands. “I promise I will make things right. I should have told you the truth. I’m so sorry.” My promise was more like a vow, and it would not be broken.