Chapter Seventeen Edith #2
Rain lashes the window as I look around.
There must be a clue to who Emilía was seeing here somewhere.
Lightning flashes, illuminating her side of the room.
Her bed is unmade, her textbook lies open on her desk, her backpack slung over her chair.
A shiver spreads through me. It looks like Emilía could return at any moment.
Nils frowns. “Will this even work?”
“It has to.” Irina mutters, flipping through the pages. “I definitely saw something about séances in here.”
That doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. Like Nils, I remain doubtful, but this is my chance to search Emilía’s room. There must be some photos, a note, or some kind of clue about who she was seeing in secret. I can’t make it obvious though, so I go along with the whole séance thing.
“Even if it works, is it really a good idea?” I ask.
“Just think of it as having a call with Emilía,” Irina says. “Or FaceTime, if you’re a seer.”
That gives me pause. “Isn’t that taboo here?”
Irina hesitates a moment. “Well, I haven’t really told anyone this, but…” She fiddles with the book she’s holding. “My Aunt Anastasia was actually a seer. She died in the Tragedy, so I only ever heard stories about her until I found this notebook of hers in our attic. It contains all her research.”
“Even so, a séance would require a seer, wouldn’t it?” Nils asks, sounding more than a little doubtful.
“That’s the thing… I’m pretty sure I am,” Irina confesses.
“I’ve seen ghosts on and off my whole life, but my parents always dismissed me, saying I read too many books and have an overactive imagination.
Until I found that notebook hidden among my aunt’s things, it was like this piece of myself that I’d been missing fell into place. ”
My stomach sinks. I know what that’s like.
Irina pushes her glasses up. “I-I realize using seer powers isn’t technically allowed here anymore, but I had to bring it with me, okay? I just had to. You wouldn’t understand.”
“Actually, I kind of do,” I admit.
A smile spreads across her face. “Well, I’m pretty sure I saw something in my aunt’s notes about contacting spirits—we can try asking Emilía that way.”
“Aren’t you a witch, though?” Nils asks her.
“Just because I’m a witch doesn’t mean I can’t also be a seer.” Irina flips through the notebook. “Any of us can manifest seer powers. In fact, since the different branches of seier all stem from seers, I think we all have some degree of it. It’s just a question of how much.”
Nils leans over her shoulder. “Like how Egill was both a seer and berserkr?”
“Exactly. My aunt was a witch and a seer. When she attended Skallagrim, the school had a special program dedicated to it.”
“Kind of like an honors program,” Nils says.
Irina nods. “Without any formal education, I’m not very good, but… I think I can do this.”
“I’m willing to try anything.” I blow out a breath. “We need to find out who she was meeting. He’s probably the one who killed her.”
Nils frowns. “Why would you think that?”
“If a girl dies, it’s usually the boyfriend,” I say at the same time as Irina.
“Oh, do you like true crime, too?” Irina asks.
“Not really.” Not when my whole life is a true crime.
“Ah! Here it is,” Irina says. Nils looks over her shoulder while she reads. “I knew I saw it in here. Okay, according to my aunt’s notes, we need at least three people to perform a séance, so we’re good there. Oh, and something that was important to Emilía so we contact the correct spirit.”
“Well, that shouldn’t be hard to find here,” I say, using it as an excuse to search through Emilía’s things. I peek through her drawers and browse through her papers, but I don’t see anything from her secret boyfriend.
“This seems promising,” Irina says from across the room. “My aunt said that the longer someone is dead, the more difficult they are to contact. Since Emilía just died, I might actually be able to do this.”
“Any luck, Edith?” Nils prompts.
There’s a stuffed rabbit sitting on Emilía’s bed.
If she brought this to Skallagrim, then this probably meant a lot to her.
As I reach for it, I notice an odd scent on her blankets.
My nose wrinkles. The scent is a little spicy, but also sweet.
It’s not cologne though. It smells more like it belongs to an animal…
Or a berserkr.
I carry the stuffed rabbit over to them. “Will this work?”
“It should,” Irina says, placing the rabbit in the middle of the floor. “It must be important to her if she still sleeps with it.” She presses her lips together a moment before continuing, “Okay, now we need to sit in a circle and link our hands.”
“Kind of like a circle of protection?” Nils asks her.
Irina nods. “Which means no matter what, we can’t let go until the spirit is gone. Otherwise, one of us could get possessed.”
I let loose a short laugh. What has my life become?
“We definitely don’t want that,” Nils says, but he’s deadly serious as he scans the page. “Wait, it says here we also need a dark space. Do you have any candles?”
“Of course.” Irina sets some candles on the floor around us and starts lighting them one by one. “Bring the notebook over, Nils. Oh, and Edith, can you get the lights?”
I flip off the overhead light, and the dorm room disappears into darkness. Candlelight illuminates Nils’s and Irina’s faces as they sit on the floor.
Once I join them, Irina holds out her palms. “Ready?”
Nils takes one hand while I take her other, and then he holds out his other palm to me, waiting. All I can think of is how he helped me hide my claws earlier.
I place my hand in his.
“Okay,” Irina says. “Now we try to make contact. My aunt didn’t exactly specify how, so… here goes nothing.” The candlelight dances in her glasses as she raises her voice. “Emilía, it’s me. Are you still here? Can you hear us?”
Nils and Irina are waiting, breathless.
Rain drums against the window and thunder rumbles in the distance.
Seconds draw out into minutes.
Nothing happens.
This obviously isn’t working.
“It was worth a try, I guess.” I shake my head and start to pull away—
Nils stops me, refusing to let go of my hand. “Did you see that?”
One of the candles wavers, the flame leaping over our heads before returning to a normal height. I swallow, glancing between Nils and Irina. Their eyes shine in the dark, reflecting the candlelight.
“It could just be a coincidence,” I say weakly. I’ve never believed in ghosts. Then again, I never believed in berserkir or seier until recently, either.
“Emilía, are you here with us?” Irina asks.
Everything is quiet.
“Yes,” someone whispers behind me. I jump, immediately whipping my head around, but no one is there. My whole body goes cold at once. That sounded like Emilía’s voice.
Nils squeezes my hand. “Oh shit.”
“I can’t believe it’s actually working,” Irina says, her eyes wide as saucers.
“You both heard that too?” I ask in disbelief.
Irina nods slowly.
“So she’s ready to talk then?” Nils asks.
“Yes,” Emilía whispers.
This time, her voice comes from above us. All three of us look at the ceiling, but nothing is there.
“Who were you going to see the night you died?” Irina asks.
The room goes completely quiet.
So quiet I can hear Nils swallow, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he stares at the ceiling. I listen to Irina’s unsteady breaths, my pulse pounding too loud in my ears. We wait, but there’s no response—
Thunder blasts outside, splitting the silence, making us all jump.
Irina shudders. “Maybe we should stop.”
Suddenly her bun starts to twitch. Then her head jerks back violently like someone yanked her hair. “Ow, what the fuck?”
I stare at her in horror. What the fuck is right.
Irina instinctively starts to pull away from Nils, but he holds on to her.
“You can’t let go,” he says. “You said it yourself, remember?”
We can’t stop yet either. Not until we get some answers. I glance around the room, not knowing where to look. “Emilía, who were you seeing?”
“No,” she says.
“We have to stop,” Irina begs. “I never should’ve—”
“Was he the one who hurt you?” I ask.
Emilía doesn’t answer—she screams. All the candles sputter out at once. Smoke chokes the air, and I’m about to throw my hands over my ears, but Nils tightens his grip on me.
“Don’t let go,” he urges.
In the sudden darkness, I can no longer see him or Irina, only feel their hands in mine. Lightning flashes outside. Looks like the storm has reached its height.
“Who attacked you?” I try again.
“You,” Emilía wails.
My stomach bottoms out. “Me?”
Emilía gives an awful, earsplitting screech.
The window shatters, shards of glass flying toward us.
Irina screams. Nils leans closer, shielding me.
Freezing wind whips into the room like a wailing scream.
The pages of the book beside Irina flutter like wings.
The overhead light flares on, blindingly bright, before flickering off and on again.
In the strobe-like flashes, I can see Nils’s and Irina’s wide-eyed, terrified expressions.
Finally, the light stops blinking.
The wind dies.
We all still hold on to each other. As rain gusts in through the shattered window, I look around the room, staring in disbelief at the toppled chairs, the books thrown from their shelves, and the gleaming wet glass strewn all over the floor.
“Holy shit,” I manage to get out.
“What the hell just happened?” Nils sputters.
Irina is taking gasping breaths. “I-I don’t know. Something must have gone wrong. That shouldn’t have happened… it’s not possible. Spirits aren’t supposed to have that kind of power here, especially not outside of the seer campus.”
“Why is that?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know, okay?” Irina whimpers. “You should leave.”
She pulls her hands free, and then Nils and I do the same.
“Are you sure?” Nils asks. “We can help—”
“Just go.” Irina eyes me distrustfully, looking at me the same way Amund does.
Nils and I climb back onto our feet and head out. The door slams shut behind us, even though Irina didn’t move from the floor.
Nils seems shaken up. “That was… not what I expected.”
“Me neither.” When I turn to him, he has a slice across his forehead, red blood welling. I frown. “You’re hurt.”
Nils reaches for his forehead, smearing the blood. “And for nothing, too.”
“Not for nothing,” I tell him. “I noticed a strange scent on Emilía’s side of the room. A berserkr scent. Emilía must have brought them there when Irina was working in the library. Which means she was seeing a berserkr. And I’m going to find out who.”