Bloodstone (21 page)

A louder thump emerged from the wall to my right, suggesting my sister had once more slammed a hammer into the drywall, since I couldn’t imagine Zephora straining to complete this task. If anything, I could imagine her sitting on the sofa opposite Alexis, watching on while drinking lemonade. I looked in the direction from which the noise sprung, but they hadn’t busted through the wall of this room, although I suspected it would happen within the next few minutes.

Thankfully, Alexis couldn’t rely on any abilities that could break the wall without using her hands. She could have used telekinesis to fling a table at the wall, but what if it got stuck between both walls? She’d need to pick it up and yank it out by hand. Likewise, she could sling snow or ice at the wall, and while it could also bust the plaster, shards of drywall and ice/snow would fill in between both walls, forcing Alexis to remove the foreign objects before breaking open the wall we stood behind.

A wide smile came over Delphine’s lips, telling us the answer wouldn’t assist us. “The answer you seek is in
The Book of Souls
.”

“No, it’s not,” Celestina said defiantly. “I’ve read all of it. Nothing is in there about how to kill Zephora. So I’m asking you, how can I kill—”

My niece’s outspokenness delighted me. Far from a young woman with low self-esteem, she seemed to be coming into her own.

Delphine’s lips elongated. “The answer you seek,” she repeated, “is in
The Book of Souls
.”

“That’s not true!” Celestina yelled at her, stomping up to her image. “I told you. I read the whole damn thing: every single line of every single page, and there’s nothing in it about how to kill Zephora.”

Delphine’s smile grew even brighter, reiterating that no matter what Celestina might try to harm her, she had appeared in spiritual form, and thus, no one could injure her. “And yet,” Delphine said, “she has been defeated four times. Are you suggesting you’re the only bearer of
The Book of Souls
who cannot defeat her?” She used her tongue to issue a tsk-tsk. “How unfortunate for you.” She set her gaze on me. “And for you,” she said, setting her smile in my direction. “After all, Celestina is but a child, and if you were intelligent enough, you would know how to convince her to carry out your every command.”

The hammer slammed into the wall again. “Celestina!” shouted Alexis. “When I get in there, I’m going to freeze your face!” A deep-throated laugh emerged. “Do you here me, you little twat?” The hammer reared back, tearing some plaster with it, revealing that she’d removed a section of the family room wall.

My niece stilled, giving her grandmother her undivided attention.

“Don’t let her mess with your head,” Nolan said.

“Can she be right?” I asked Celestina. “Maybe there’s a spell in the book that—”

“No!” Celestina shouted. “She’s lying. There’s no spell in there to—”

“Silence.” Delphine’s grin slowly dissipated, leaving a sneer in its place, not because my niece had caught her in a lie. More likely, she had told the truth and despised when another didn’t trust her. “I answered your question. If you aren’t smart enough to remember...or look through it once more, it’s not my fault.”

“You’re lying!” Celestina shouted, closing the distance between them so only three inches separated them. “You’re a liar! You just want me to fail!”

“That’s untrue!” Delphine screamed at her. “You were a bad student. Oh, you tried, I’ll give you that. I know you tried, but your brain isn’t large enough to absorb anything. You read it, but you can’t comprehend it. I’ve watched you read the same paragraph
four
times in a row…and you still had no idea what you read. That’s your problem, Celestina. You aren’t smart enough!”

I despised my mother’s mean-spirited attitude. How had Celestina managed to retain the slightest shred of self-esteem after living with Delphine day-after-day, year-after-year? A parent should guide and nudge but also instill confidence in their children, not tear them down for failing.

More plaster blasted through the wall opposite us. This time, however, a small bump appeared in the drywall of this bedroom, meaning my sister’s efforts had slowly gained traction. Soon enough, most likely with the next hammer-fall, Alexis would drive the metal through our wall, making it easier to harm us.

“Do you have another question, Celestina?” Delphine asked with both ends of her mouth perked, as though amused by her quandary. “You have one more. What will it be?” She glanced at the wall Alexis hoped to break though. “Or would you prefer to wait?” Her smile grew more cheerful. “I’m already dead. I have all the time in the universe. How about you?”

“Yeah, I have a question,” Celestina said. “I want to know—”

“Wait!” I said and pulled on her shoulder, stopping her from answering. “What do you plan on asking?” I hoped she didn’t ask about whether or not Delphine had cursed Alexis to love her. On second thought, I thought Celestina was too scared to hear the truth. Besides, the question lay outside the confines of what the book could answer, since the question was of a personal nature, not a magical one.

Celestina’s eyes diverted with uncertainty as she shrugged. “I don’t know.” Without looking Delphine’s way, my niece pointed at her. “She’s wrong. I read the entire book. I know every spell, every curse, every—”

“Okay,” I said calmly. “I believe you. I’m sure you did. Is there something we’re missing? Something you brushed past, something boring that—”

“No!” she said emphatically, although she looked down as though consulting her memory. “I’m sure.” Nonetheless, she didn’t sound convincing. Even worse, Celestina knew it, based on the way she looked left and right, as though hoping to grasp hold of something to confirm her certainty. “I’m sure,” she said, once more trying to convince herself.

“Are you, Celie?” I asked in a tender tone. “Are you, really?”

“I don’t know.” After a couple seconds, she shook her head. “Maybe? I don’t know.”

Although more powerful than nearly everyone on the planet, Celestina was just as fallible as anyone. It seemed her impatience, perhaps a trait carried over from her mother, had wrecked our chances to escape without incident.

Another pulverizing blow cranked into the wall beside us. This time, a sprinkle of dots surrounding a one-foot wide break in the wall, elicited light.

“Celestina, we don’t have time to ask another question. We’ve gotta get out of here!”

“What’ll it be?” asked Delphine with a grin. As a hammer bashed into the wall, she looked in that direction. “Ooh, they’re getting closer.”

“How about asking whether…” I intended to continue with my question, but my body rushed toward the wall behind me, without my doing. Rather than feeling hands pressing against my frame, an invisible force butted against me and had me backpedaling without my own volition. “Celestina, are you doing this?”

She swung back toward me, her eyes bright with shock. “No! Don’t go.” She rushed toward me, reaching out with a hand in hopes of clutching me before I fell against the wall behind me. “Come back!”

The speed which with I windmilled my arms, while doing my best to put on the brakes, increased so that I slammed into the wall behind me. A second later, as Alexis once more slammed the hammer against the wall, I saw Nolan staring at me intently, his arm outstretched in my direction, as though he’d…propelled my body away from him, as though he’d purposely sent me reeling backwards.

My body locked up, which straightened my nerves so I didn’t waver in opposite directions. No matter how hard I tried to stave off whatever force Nolan pushed my way, I couldn’t quite do so.

My back legs and spine bumped against something solid. I tried to glance behind me, but an invisible force prevented me from shifting my neck. Panic settled through my chest as I tried to figure out why I couldn’t move my legs or arms. Second by second, the rest of my body solidified as though pushing through a capsule of molasses. I finally collected my wits and looked at Celestina and Nolan in hopes they might know how to stop this invisible force from directing me away from them.

Nolan reached toward me, as though trying to seize my hand...except he didn’t move his legs to approach me. He extended his hand to force me away from him!

Fearing that sediment and other material might enter my eyes, I snapped my lids shut. Solid material enveloped me, and I continued moving backwards, my body sliding past the heavy yet smooth filament around me. Only when I tried to breathe did I realize I’d clamped my mouth shut and held my breath. When I attempted to open my mouth, my lips prevented me from doing so. In the absence of trying to catch another breath, my chest burned, and my mind grew fuzzy. I attempted to bat my arms and kick my legs to no avail.

A moment later, the heavy material stopped pressing against me. I fell backwards, and my knees bashed into the ground ahead of me. On all fours now, I took in heaps of air, glad that my chest finally accepted oxygen into my body. I opened my eyes in the dark of night. Gasping, coughing, I fell to the ground and clutched the dirt and grass in my fingers, relieved to breathe without restraint. There wasn’t the least bit of silt or any other chemical compound from the drywall, house wrap, or siding on my clothes…or on the ground where I had landed. All told, I had slipped through the wall like a ghost, leaving my body unharmed and the wall intact.

Glancing back, I stared at a panel of white, aluminum siding. A frenetic haze of fright whipped through my mind. How had Nolan sent me out here? Were Celestina and Nolan okay? Had Alexis and Zephora entered Celestina’s bedroom yet?

After collecting enough air to breathe normally, I got to my feet and checked myself for injuries. I didn’t see any. Relieved, I ran over to the outer wall of the house, and pounded my fist against it. I could run around the side of the house and attempt to enter the front door, but I’d no doubt come upon Alexis and Zephora. Therefore, short of calling Celestina or Nolan, I could only hope they were unharmed.

A thump pounded against the wall opposite me. I took it as an assurance both of them were alive and well. A moment later, however, I heard a second thud, this time coming from my right, which I surmised as belonging to Alexis’s hammer. How much more time did Celestina and Nolan have before Alexis and Zephora appeared in my niece’s bedroom? Ten seconds? Fifteen? I couldn’t ascribe a finite number to their circumstances, but I hated being out of the loop. After all, without me, neither Celestina nor Nolan would be in this situation. I brought them into this predicament, and I needed to fix it while leaving them unharmed.

I slammed a fist against the aluminum siding, shocked that Nolan had somehow sent me through the material without the least bit of bodily harm. I spread my hands against the building and felt…rumbling and quaking, as though something appeared intent on pushing its way toward me.

I stepped back, my pulse pounding in my ears as I hoped Nolan had found some way to send both him and Celestina through the wall, as well.

Off to my right, I heard another heavy thump, followed by a shredding sound.

As much as I wanted to pound my hands on the siding to alert Celestina and Nolan, I didn’t want to make a sound and alert our enemies that one of us had escaped Celestina’s bedroom. In that instance, I could imagine Alexis continuing to punish the walls, while Zephora slipped out of the house and around the side of the building in order to confront me. No matter how much I wanted to help, I needed to remain silent and hope my niece and Nolan made it out of the house in one piece.

A second later, the aluminum siding undulated, creating a circular ripple. It surged outward and increased in size until Celestina’s face appeared in its molding of sediment. It looked larger, fuller than it normally would have, probably a product of pushing through the elements. Nolan’s face appeared a couple feet away from her, but he fought his way through the wall with greater speed and tenacity.

A few moments later, he exited the wall. He took a few steps on shaky thighs and plunked his shoes onto the ground, which was probably a byproduct of surging through the wall with as much force as possible. He took a few wobbly steps to regain his familiarity with the expectant amount of pressure required to push forward without any interference. He took in enormous gulps of air.

“How did you do that?” I asked. I moved over to where Celestina jostled through the wall, but my thighs moved slower than expected, as though I’d spent the last thirty minutes running on the treadmill. I extended my hand, waiting until I spotted her hand, so I could yank her through the other side.

“Don’t,” said Nolan, gasping and hobbling over to me. “She needs to come out under her own power.” He took a few more deep breaths. “You can’t rush things like you did at the door. Celestina’s body looked discombobulated, like her limbs could fall off under too much pressure.”

“How do you know that? Have you done this before?”

He looked at his arms and glanced at his legs as though they felt foreign to him.

“What’s the matter with you?”

“Nothing. It’s just…” He curled his right hand into a fist and flexed his bicep. “I feel strong. No, I feel
incredibly
strong. Lighter too. Maybe even faster. He scanned the perimeter with a new understanding. “I can even see clearer.” A smile tugged at his mouth. “This is incredible!”

I turned back to Celestina, wishing I could somehow hasten the process.