Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Lexi scooted over and explained what she was seeing.
“Okay, hear me out.” Bria tried to crawl out farther. Someone grumbled within the wagon. “Well, if you weren’t sitting so close, Jerry, I wouldn’t accidentally kick you.” She resumed speaking to Lexi. “What if we throw a couple of those fae into a body or two and see what damage they’re capable of? I bet we could figure out their magic, and then we’d know a little of what we’re getting into in the fae lands.”
Lexi started to shake her head. She didn’t like forcing spirits to do things they didn’t want to, like inhabit a rotting body.
But Kieran said, “It isn’t a bad idea, Lexi. It’s not like they’d be any worse off than they are now. And you could try to march the spirit-filled cadavers into Faerie and release them there if you wanted. Let them go to their afterlife, whatever that might be.”
The creature at the side of the wagon lunged for the nearest horse, twice its size. Lexi flinched. The horse’s ears flattened as the creature sailed through it. In life, it would’ve landed perfectly to rip out the jugular. In death…it hit the dirt, rolled, shook itself off, and watched the progression go by. She wouldn’t mind one of those bodies to control in the human world. That would scare the living hell out of people.
“Yeah, sure,” she finally said. “We can do it when we stop for the night.”
The flare of sunset lit the sky in a beautiful array of pink and violet and gold. Lexi sat next to a cold firepit, the remains of the fire fresh and a scuffle around it evident. A petite body had lain just…there, so close to where Lexi was now.
Footprints matching Daisy’s size and the tread of her shoe the night she was taken were just over…there. Disturbed by much larger prints in some places. The echo of her soul wasn’t here. Her spirit was not in this plain. Whatever had happened, she had lived long enough to get out. She’d moved on, presumably to Faerie.
Lexi’s crew was active behind her—half getting ready for the night, the other half pulling Bria’s cadavers off the cart and positioning them close to Lexi.
She pivoted her gaze to a blue-green fae with hair sporting branches and twigs, something like scales adorning his chest and shoulders, and an important-looking headdress perched on his cranium. He held himself straight and tall, with shoulders that were too broad and muscles too big for his frame. He’d thought more of himself in life than he actually was, and the echo of that showed in death.
Others of his kind hung around, their postures stooped and their eyes lifeless. They knew they were dead and weren’t handling the transition as well as their leader. Their passing had happened recently, even though no bodies surrounded the area. Signs of a scuffle, yes. Zorn had gone through the footprints stamped in the dirt indicating sword work, strangely not disturbed by anyone else who might want to use this campsite. Whatever had happened, the evidence of bloodshed was gone. Except for these guys. Spirits all.
Most of them watched her crew—the leader with a frustrated expression—as the bodies were lined up. Two of them stared at her. She chose one, the less forlorn of the two, and stared back.
He looked behind him and saw nobody standing there. Back to her. His hairless brow lowered…and he looked behind him again.
“Yes, I can see you,” she said. It was how communication with new spirits usually started. Had since before she’d known what kind of magic she had and thought she was a Ghost Whisperer, like a Medium.
The other spirit that had been watching her started…and looked behind his friend. These guys weren’t very bright. If they were the ones that had taken Daisy, it was obvious why they were dead. She would’ve made quick work of them.
“You…” He put his hand to his chest. “You can see me?”
“Yes. Who’s your leader?”
He looked behind him yet again.
“Great god of the underworld, man, I can see you,” she barked. “And you just made me use Hades’s name for a curse. Do you know how delighted that makes him? He doesn’t need a bigger ego. Who’s your leader?”
Bria hastened over and sat beside Lexi, leaning forward. “I’m ready.” She paused. “I can barely feel these ones, though. They aren’t very powerful.”
“I don’t care. Unless there are a bunch of ugly blue fuckers coming and going, these are the guys who snatched my kid. I have questions.”
“Totally. While you do that, though, I’ll grab some of the other spirits in the area and stuff them into cadavers, yes? They’re all over the place around here. Easy snatching. Call me when you got something.”
She was right—there were. Lexi would have to do something about the spirits trapped in this area. Maybe find a way to punch a hole into the underworld, or maybe just yank them with her when she crossed through the portal. Something. No matter their sins in life, she couldn’t leave them to this wayward fate. It wasn’t in her.