Chapter 19 #2
This was going to be my priority. The ghosts looked at me with desperation and a flicker of hope that made me feel like I’d been selfish pining over my own misfortune. It paled in comparison to theirs. They were literally fading into nothing before their own eyes with no idea why.
Lila stepped towards Penny, her head tipped to one side in thought. “Why couldn’t you come and find us?”
“We can’t leave the Cemetery District,” Penny replied, as that answered everything. But it didn’t make sense.
“You can’t leave?” I asked, looking at the rest of them. They all shook their heads. “Why?”
Lila grabbed my arm, her energy zapping my skin. “They must be bound here.”
Lila started to frantically search the room, lifting cushions and peering behind all the knickknacks. Clouds of dust filled the room, swirling in the shafts of moonlight filtering through the moth-eaten curtains.
My friend was going crazy. “What are you doing?”
She whirled around to face me, her eyes wild and bright. “There must be a rune or something hidden in here. Something that’s holding the ghosts so they can’t leave this place.”
“But Penny left,” I pointed out.
Lila froze. “Maybe it’s over the district itself. Can you do the dead sight thing you can do?”
I snorted. “Excuse me. My what?”
The rest of the ghosts looked at me with a mixture of curiosity and wariness.
“You know, when you go into your Reaper form and peer beyond the Veil?” Lila said frantically, her hands waving all over the place.
I walked over to her by the window and took her hands in mine. “Lila, if there was an enchantment holding the ghosts here, we would be able to feel it, even if we couldn’t see it. The only thing I can feel is them.”
She looked over at the ghosts before turning her gaze back to mine. “Can you just look? Please? For me?”
Her brows pinched, and she hit me with the puppy dog eyes. Gods, she was good at that.
“Urgh. You’re as bad as the twins. Fine.”
“Yes,” she squealed and clapped her hands. “I knew you would.”
Of course I would. I’d do anything for my friend.
I just didn’t want her to be disappointed if there was nothing there, and it was risky because ghosts were susceptible to the pull of death magic.
They’d be hit with a desire to cross over.
It didn't matter if they were ready or not. Kind of like how an incubus inspired lust. If they weren’t careful with their pheromones, they wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything because there’d be orgies around them all the time.
I turned to face them and tried to arrange my face into a reassuring expression. “I’ll do this fast, and I’ll try not to claim any of your souls, but if you could resist the pull of my scythe, that would be great.”
“Gee, inspiring speech,” Jack mumbled.
I threw him a frosty look, but he just shrugged and folded his arms. “You do know, the more of a jackass you are, the harder it is to resist crossing over, right?”
Jack narrowed his eyes at me but didn’t say anything. Pfft, that was what I thought. All bark and no bite.
I took my friend’s hand and gave it a quick squeeze. “Try and hold them back.”
She nodded and went to stand with them. I walked back out of the creepy house and into the even creepier lane outside.
It was like something out of a Dickens novel.
The street was barely wide enough for a single vehicle, and there were no lamplights.
The only light down here was from the moon, and it made the shadows look long and unfriendly.
Gods, this place gave me the creeps but I was sure the Cemetery District was a lovely place in the daytime…
The evening air was cool, and I couldn’t shake the sensation that something bad was about to happen. It lurked at the back of my mind. A dark cloud gathering before the storm.
My stomach churned with unease as I stared down the empty street, anticipation prickling my skin.
Lila, Penny and Bernard watched me from the window, their pale faces clouded with worry.
Part of me wanted to find whatever was holding these ghosts here, but I also prayed it wasn’t something that needed my Reaper sight to see because that meant we would be dealing with something a lot darker and more powerful than we originally thought.
I called my death magic to me and let the darkness sink into my bones, swallowing me in its cool embrace. My skin peeled away, and my long coat morphed into my Reaper’s hood and cloak.
I turned to look back at the window of ghosts, spotting more peering through other windows around me. I caught a glimpse of my reflection, and it still felt alien to see, even after ten years.
Half my face was missing, exposing the bone underneath.
It was a bright white and covered in an intricate pattern of swirls and lines, like a tattoo carved deep into the bone.
My red hair fluttered around me on a phantom breeze, and my cloak swirled around my feet as I floated a few inches off the ground.
Now that I'd experienced that darkness that lingered in my soul a few times, I was also starting to differentiate it from my Reaper death magic.
I feared it. Feared what it could do. It felt limitless and hungry, and I wasn't sure how long I could keep it at bay.
What would happen to me when it was finally unleashed?
Is that what Erebus wanted? Was Nyx that dark energy swirling in my soul?
My bony hands gripped my scythe as I turned my face upwards to the sky. It was full of stars twinkling in the distance. A yearning filled my soul as I watched them. Almost like they were calling me home.
“Asteri…”
I growled. “Fuck off, Erebus. Now is not the time.”
There was a dark smoky chuckle at the back of my mind, and I felt him settle. Strange that his presence was stronger when I was in my Reaper form. It was like he was actually here with me, though I wouldn’t admit that it was comforting. To him or me.
I glanced around me, double-checking he wasn’t lurking in some shadowy corner, but I couldn’t see him, thank the Gods. I did not need his gorgeous face distracting me.
I shifted my gaze from normal to my ether sight, which allowed me to look beyond the physical realm to the space between us and the dead. Well, the ones who had crossed over.
I was hoping to see a rune circle or some kind of enchantment just hovering over the district, but there was nothing. Just the stars, twinkling in the—wait. What was that?
Something shimmered in the distance. A mirage. I twisted and turned, trying to get a better view, but whichever way I looked at it, I couldn’t seem to pin it down.
“You should look at it from the corner of your eye.”
I yelped and swung my scythe in the direction of the sound.
A hand shot out and gripped the handle, stopping its progress before it could chop off their head.
Erebus looked at me with a salacious grin. “Careful now. Those things are sharp.”
He let go and casually tucked his hands back in his pockets like he hadn’t just done something that was supposed to be impossible. Only a Reaper could touch a scythe, and yet he’d held it like it was nothing more than a piece of wood.
I grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand back out of his pocket, flipping it over and back again to look for a mark, but there was nothing. “How did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Hold my scythe and not burn to a crisp.”
“Oh, that,” he replied, his fingers clasping around my skeletal ones. “Part of the magic that makes Reapers also exists in me.”
“Huh?”
He trailed his free hand through the shadowy wisps of my cloak. “This is my handiwork.”
“You made the Reapers?” I asked, my jaw dropping to the floor.
He pulled his hands away, a sadness settling on his shoulders and dragging them down. “Yes. Nyx and I made many creatures. Some were more successful than others, but the Reapers were a favourite of Nyx’s.”
I did not know that. Maybe I should borrow that book of Thane’s. The one on the Origins of Reapers.
Erebus tipped his head back to look at the night sky and pointed at the mirage. “Use the corner of your eye. So that you see it without actually seeing it.”
“You can see it?”
His bright red eyes met mine, a manic spark firing in their depths. “Yes, and it’s impressive magic.”
Erebus held his hands out towards me and lifted them to my face. “May I?”
I eyed his hands warily but nodded. His fingers graced my face softly, almost reverently. No one had ever touched the bones of my Reaper form before, and the touch of his skin across the carvings sent a shiver down my spine.
“Look into my eyes and focus on your peripheral.” His voice was barely above a rasp. “You’ll see the mark.”
I did as he said, looking deep into his eyes. His eyelashes were so thick and dark, and standing this close to him, I could see wisps of shadow pulse and swirl beneath his skin. It was fascinating and beautiful. Was he made of shadow?
“Focus,” he chided softly, a small curl pulling at his plump mouth.
Heat rushed up my skin at being caught staring, and I dragged my gaze back to his eyes. I still couldn’t see the mark.
I huffed in frustration. “I can’t see it.”
“Yes, you can. It’s just an illusion, Roux.” His thumbs whispered softly against my face. Over and over, setting a rhythm that slowed my mind down and soothed my frustration away.
Slowly, the image appeared, right there in the corner of my eye. Just like he said it would. “I see it.”
“Told you,” he replied, his tone a little smug.
But now that I’d seen it, I couldn’t unsee it.
The image of a skull with a blade through the top of its head shimmered and squirmed against the stars. Runes circled the mark, the formation of them jagged like they had been carved into something with difficulty, and where there should have been eyes, two pools of fire blazed in the sky.
A chill swept up my spine as I took in the true horror of the mark. “What is it?”
Sadness pooled in his eyes. “The mark of Nyx.”
“What?” I jerked away from him, my stomach turning sour. “Did you do this?”