Chapter 19 #3
“No,” he said instantly. “If I had placed the mark there, it would not be so inferior.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and took a deep breath. The Primordial had a point. There was something about the runes that seemed rudimentary, but I didn’t know what Erebus was capable of. “Well, if not you, then whom?”
He held his hands open wide, as if declaring he had nothing to hide. “I do not know, Roux. I am as much in the dark as you are.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, searching his for anything that seemed suspicious, but he stared straight back with a steadiness that made me want to believe him. “Okay, so where do we begin? How do we get rid of it?”
“Only the person who cast that can get rid of it. It’s ancient magic, pre-dating even the Gods.”
Shit. “Can you weaken it or anything?”
He shook his head. “Only the person who—”
“Cast it can,” I snapped. “I get it.”
“What’s going on?” Lila asked as she rushed towards us.
I pushed my Reaper form back into the shadows. At least the ghosts had managed to stay away. “There is a mark in the sky.”
“What?” she gasped, looking horrified.
“The mark of Nyx.” I needed to get back to the mansion to figure out what we should do about this. As if I needed anything else to worry about. For fuck's sake.
A headache started to tumble around my brain, and I rubbed my temples to try and get it to ease off. “Look, let me just ask the ghosts a few more questions, and then we can go home.”
I went back inside the creepy ghost house and faced the spectres.
They instantly started lobbying me with questions, but when Erebus entered the room behind me, they stopped immediately.
It was a little eerie, and the silence felt overly loud while the ghosts took in the sight of the Primordial in their living room.
“This is Erebus. He’s with me and is on his best behaviour.”
Erebus tucked his hands away in his pockets and leaned against the doorframe. I was surprised the thing didn’t collapse under his weight.
“Lila was right,” I told them, and there was a mixture of gasps and mutters between them. “There is a mark in the sky. Did anyone notice anything unusual?”
“It would have been about four weeks ago,” Erebus added helpfully.
I gave him a grateful smile and completely ignored Lila’s little curious glance between the two of us. That woman was too observant for her own good. “Did anyone see anyone who looked like they didn’t belong? Hear anything that sounded out of place? Anything at all?”
Erebus moved away from the door and stood next to me, that comforting sensation fluttering behind my solar plexus again. “It could be anything small. Nothing is insignificant at this moment.”
“Four weeks ago?” Jack asked, his brow creased. “We had that house fire.”
“Oh yeah,” Penny added, her face lighting up. “The old Atwood residence. It was so strange.”
“What made it strange?” I asked.
“Well, for one thing, ghosts don’t need fire, but it was the colour of the fire. It had been green.”
Fuck. That was witchfire. What the hell was a witch doing down here in the Underworld?
“We need to get back and talk to the others.” I faced the ghosts and hoped that this wouldn’t be the last time I saw them.
I pulled a talisman out of my coat pocket and handed it to Penny.
“Since you can’t leave the district, if you need me, speak the incantation on here, and it will summon me to you. ”
“Thank you. For this and for your help. If there is anything we can do, just ask,” Penny said as she clutched the coin in her palm.
“Come on,” I said to the others, not wanting to linger any longer than was necessary. Witches weren’t supposed to be in the Underworld. It was a space for the dead, for those who belonged and those somewhere in between life and death, like vampires. Witches couldn’t survive down here.
I grabbed my phone and pulled up my group chat with the twins.
ME:
Team meeting. Ten minutes.
RAFE:
Where the fuck are you?
Me:
Cemetery District.
Rayne:
WTF? Why?
Me:
I’ll explain when I get back. I have news about the ghosts.
Rafe
Thane says Erebus is missing.
I glanced at the supposedly missing Primordial and sighed. They weren’t going to like this.
Me:
He’s with me.
My phone started buzzing immediately, but I was stopped from answering it when Lila shouted my name in a panic.
I turned to look behind me and saw Lila standing still about two metres away. “What is it?”
“I can’t cross the district line,” she replied shakily. “And look.”
She held her hand up, and I could see through it.
Fuck.
No.
No, no, no.
I rushed back to her and grabbed her hand. The normal jolt of static electricity I got from her was barely a tingle. “We shouldn’t have come here.”
“Hey, it’ll be okay,” Lila said, a tear rolling down her cheek. “It’ll be fine. I’ll just stay here with the others and wait for you to figure this out.”
But what if I couldn’t? What if she faded because I couldn’t figure this out?
No. I wasn’t about to lose my best friend. I summoned my death magic and reached towards her.
“What are you doing? You can’t give me some of your power, Roux. Don’t be an id—”
I slammed my hand down onto her chest and fuelled her with some of my power.
It wasn’t strictly against the law, but ghosts were supposed to tie themselves to a less ‘alive’ power source.
Lila drew hers from GRIM HQ, but others would attach themselves to ley lines or their old homes.
Anything that was important to them and would remain important to them.
That was the key to a good power source for a ghost. For now though, I was going to be her power source.
I pulled my hand back, and I was glad to see Lila was at least back to her normal solid self. She was even glowing faintly. Whoops. Maybe I gave her too much.
“You’re an idiot,” Lila said as she wrapped me in a hug. “Thank you.”
“Hey, I can’t have you fading on me now,” I replied, my voice trembling a little with the loss of energy.
I didn’t know what I’d do if I lost Lila.
She was more than just my handler; she was my best friend, and she’d been my rock in the early days.
Both she and Thane had done so much to help me acclimatise to the Underworld and rediscover a sense of who I was.
I’d do anything to stop her from fading.
She let me go and braced her hands on her hips. “You know, I think I can do some good whilst I’m stuck here.”
“Oh yeah?”
“I’m going to rope Penny and Bernard into heading up a census of all the ghosts trapped here and their level of fading. Perhaps it’ll help us monitor things while you figure out what to do next.”
“Sounds like a good idea. I will see if there is anything I can do to stop ghosts coming this way. Although, with most of them actually living here, that’s probably going to be difficult.
” I would see what I could do though. I’d have a word with Hades.
He’d know what to do. “Also, have a look around the Atwood house and see if you can find anything, but don’t be reckless.
We don’t know what kind of power we’re dealing with. ”
If there was something at the house that was fuelling the power of the mark in the sky, I didn’t want Lila going anywhere near it.
“Okay,” she said with a firm nod. Then she glanced at Erebus, who was lurking in the shadows behind me. “What are you going to do about him?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. The others are a bit wary of him, but there’s a part of me that feels connected to him.”
“And he’s hot.”
“What?”
“Oh, come on,” she snorted. “Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.”
Of course I’d noticed. “Fine, yes, he’s good-looking.”
“And he can’t take his eyes off you,” she crooned.
“Yeah, because I look like his long-lost wife,” I hissed.
Lila folded her arms and cocked her hip. “I don’t know. I think it’s more than that.”
I glanced at the Primordial and found his eyes fixed on me.
On my ass, to be specific.
Erebus grinned and didn’t even seem bothered that he’d been caught. Cocky fucker.
Huh. Maybe Lila had a point. “Anyway, moving on. Text me if you need more energy. I mean it.”
She was the kind of person who would worry about everyone else first and herself second. “I will do. I promise.”
“Good.”
“Now get out of here and save the world,” she said, a mischievous grin on her face.
Ah, fuck. I really had to do that, didn’t I?