My Tethered Soul: Volume 2 (Reaper's Rite) (15 page)

When I got into the passenger seat of Gavin’s car, I stared at nothing through the front window. “Gavin, I have to find out what happened to Rudy. Please come with me?”

Gavin took a slow, steady breath. “Are you sure we should go there? If something bad did happen to him, if the police are there or something, then we probably should lie low for a while.”

I shook my head. “Please, Gavin. I need to find out if I did something to him.” Or if the Reaper was just messing with my sanity. Like he did with Mom. “If we see police, we’ll keep driving.”

After searching my face for a moment, he nodded. “Okay.”

Though it only took us five minutes to get there, he held my hand the entire drive.

We parked near Rudy’s house, staring at it for what seemed like forever. Except for the broken windmill—which made me cringe—nothing seemed amiss. Rudy was nowhere to be seen, but that didn’t mean anything.

He could be inside, playing solitaire or watching some game show. Or he could be lying on the floor, dead, for all I knew. I continued to stare at the house, wondering what to do. Gavin didn’t press me, which I was thankful for. I just needed to work up my courage to get out of the car.

Finally, I opened the car door and mustered up the bravery to go up to the house. Gavin fell into step beside me, and when I couldn’t bring myself to ring the doorbell, he did it for me.

I reached for Gavin’s hand and clung to it as if my life depended on the connection. We rang again, but no one answered the door.

I’d spent the morning wondering if what I remembered was just a dream. But that didn’t explain the blood on my hand. Was I really capable of hurting someone like that? New tears broke free.

“Gavin?”

He drew me into his chest and wrapped his arms around me. “There’s no way for us to know for sure what happened. We’ll have to come back another time and check.”

A car pulled up behind Gavin’s. Candice patted her huge head of hair and hopped out of her car, carrying a pile of papers. She didn’t look our way, but went directly to the neighboring house and unlocked the door. Once she disappeared inside, Gavin and I made a run for his car. If Rudy was badly injured in the attack—or dead—we didn’t need a witness who could point out the fact that we were on his porch.

We drove straight to Lilura’s.

Hunter cleared the table of breakfast dishes. Lilura sipped her tea, hunched over and scowling. As hard as it was to get the words out, I finally filled her in on what had happened.

“We went over just now, to check. But no one answered the door.”

She rubbed her wrinkled lips with her forefinger and slowly nodded. “Hunter will check it out.”

Hunter gave me a curt nod. “I’m on it.”

Chase leaned against the side table with his arms crossed over his chest. Sable circled his legs, rubbing up against them as she purred.

I bit my lip, swallowing back the sick feeling in my throat.

“Best not to worry about it now,” Lilura said. “There’s nothing we can do until we have more information. And even then…” She ended the sentence with a shrug and then sipped more of her tea.

I knew she was right. There was nothing we could do if the damage was already done. The most we could hope for was to defeat the Reaper so he couldn’t do anyone else harm.

“Lilura, I don’t understand. If a Reaper is controlling me, I thought I wouldn’t be able to remember anything. Like when Mara was under the spell. She didn’t remember anything she did. For me, it was more like a dream.” Except that I woke up with a bloody knife in my hand. “There were parts that were blacked out. But the rest of it? I saw it all happen.”

Lilura studied my face, her eyes flicking around as she thought. One brow slowly rose and she sat up straighter. “Maybe it has something to do with how you destroyed a Reaper. Maybe this Reaper knows what you’re capable of. It’s trying to beat you down, knowing you have a kind heart and would never want to hurt anyone. It’s using your feelings about what it’s making you do as a way to punish you. Kill you with guilt. As well as using your mother to pull you under his control.”

“That would make sense, I guess.” I rubbed my hands on my jeans. “Especially if it’s my mother’s Reaper.”

The logic didn’t escape me, but that didn’t make it any less scary.

“On a positive note, I’ve been doing some reading.” Lilura motioned to Chase, who brought over an old, worn, gray book. “This combined power that you and Mara were able to generate? There have been a few cases of it noted. It’s rare though. Only happens between sister Vila. And even then, it’s a difficult thing to master.”

She flipped open the book and showed me a page. Her yellow fingernail tapped the entry. “Read this.”

The words swam before my eyes, but a few of them caught my attention. Words like “immense power” and “conjoined magic.” Just as I finished reading the journal entry, someone knocked at the front door. Hunter rushed by me to open it.

“Well, my day just brightened up.” Hunter stepped aside and let Mara in. “Too bad I’m on my way out.”

“Oh, you’re leaving?” Mara lifted her chin. “Guess
my
day just brightened up.”

Hunter smirked at her, tossing his keys in the air and catching them, then left the house. Mara watched him a little too long for me to believe she wasn’t interested. When she looked my way, she rolled her eyes.

Yeah, right, Mara
.

Lilura flattened her hands on the table and pushed herself out of her chair. “It’s about time you showed up. Come on, we’ve got a lot to practice.”

As she walked by me, Lilura tugged on a strand of my hair.

“You okay?” Mara’s voice was a whisper. She still looked as worried as she did this morning when I told her what had happened.

“Not really,” I said.

She squeezed my shoulder and gave me an encouraging smile.

We followed Lilura out back, where she instructed Mara and me to stand side-by-side. Gavin and Chase settled in on the picnic bench to observe us.

Lilura joined her hands in front of her chest, her forefingers steepled together. “I’ve been trying to figure out how we can use this to our advantage. Unfortunately, I can’t have you practice on anything living, though I’d love to catch the mole that keeps messing up my yard. In any case, this is probably as good as anything we’re going to find.”

She walked out to the edge of her yard and picked up a garden gnome. She then hobbled to the middle of her lawn and set it down so that the gnome’s beady eyes were staring right at us. Returning to where we stood, she placed her hands on her hips.

“Okay. Destroy it.”

Mara and I glanced at each other.

“Are you sure?” Mara asked.

Lilura scoffed. “You’ll be doing me a favor. Got that ugly thing from an old friend years ago. It’s always given me the creeps.”

“Why didn’t you just get rid of it?” I asked.

Lilura shook her head. “I’m not completely heartless. It was a gift. Now, blow the sucker up!”

I fidgeted. “What exactly do you want us to do?”

“Do the same thing you did on prom night. Only to the gnome.”

Mara let out a small laugh, and I had to bite my cheek to keep from joining her. The thought of the Reaper looking like a pudgy little red-hooded garden gnome was beyond ridiculous. Still, Lilura was right. We had to practice on something.

I reached for Mara’s hand. She stopped smiling. Clearing my throat, I concentrated on the gnome. Mara tightened her grip, letting me know she was doing the same. At first, nothing happened. Then the pulsation began. Sparks of white glittered from our joined hands. My skin felt hot. The white flame grew, and soon it was about the size of a softball. On Mara’s signal, we lifted our hands and tossed the energy ball at the gnome.

White fire hit the gnome with a thunderous bang. On impact, jagged pieces of ceramic shot in every direction across the yard. A puff of smoke billowed up from where a perfectly good lawn ornament used to stand. Lilura responded with a throaty
whoop
I never imagined could escape her lips. Chase and Gavin applauded us, laughing.

With a clap of her hands, Lilura turned to us. “Okay, now we’ve got to see if it will work on something magical.”

“What do you mean?” Mara asked.

Lilura pointed to the patch of black grass where the gnome formerly stood. “That was just a defenseless gnome. You probably could shoot at anything with that electro-ball of yours and do damage. But magical things and magical people are different.”

“But we hit the Reaper.” I shrugged. “He’s considered magical, right?”

“Yes. But he might use some kind of defense now that he knows what you two are capable of.”

I hadn’t thought of that. “So what do we do?”

“I’m going to shield something with my powers, and I want you two to try to penetrate it.”

“Shield it?” Mara glanced at me as if I’d been keeping something from her.

I remembered back to when Mara’s Reaper had taken her to the In-Between. She was unconscious, so she wouldn’t remember Lilura temporarily trapping the Reaper with her glowing, blue force field bubble. That wasn’t the technical name for it, but I never got around to asking Lilura what it was. Maybe “magic shield” was a closer guess.

“It’s a trick I’ve yet to teach you girls.” Lilura waved Mara’s question away. “Chase, go get me one of those old tires from the garage.”

Mara swept her hair away from her face and leaned closer to me. “Don’t tell you-know-who, but this is actually kind of fun.”

I tried to conceal my smile. “Right?”

Chase emerged from the garage rolling a car tire beside him. When he got to the patch of burnt grass, he dropped the tire on top of it. A curt nod in my direction, and he sauntered back to the picnic bench.

“All right, girls. Pay attention.” Lilura rubbed her hands together. “I’m going to conjure up the shield. I want you two to wait until it completely encases the tire before you fire off your weapon. Do you understand, or do I have to speak slowly and use easier words?”

I glanced at Mara. “Yeah, we got it.”

Lilura pursed her lips and faced the tire. A breeze blew her hair in tangles around her head, but her eyes stayed focused on the tire. Her lips moved quickly then, though I could barely hear what came out of her mouth. As she continued to chant, a blue-ish globe appeared around the tire. It grew brighter as she got louder. When it surrounded the tire completely, Mara grabbed my hand.

Together, we conjured up our energy ball. The warmth of it zinged between my fingertips. This time, I signaled to Mara. We raised our hands and shot the sphere toward Lilura’s shield.

There was a crackling sound when it hit the sphere, high-pitched and accompanied by a blinding blast of light. I didn’t know whether to cover my eyes or my ears. As the light faded, my heart sank. Though the glow of Lilura’s shield blinked and fluttered, we hadn’t penetrated it. The tire was untouched.

Lilura clicked her tongue, and the shield disappeared. Wiping her brow, she looked toward the ground and closed her eyes for a moment.

Chase jumped up from the bench and rushed toward her. “Are you all right?”

Lilura pushed at him. “Get away from me. Can’t you see I’m working here?”

Chase hesitantly stepped back, brow furrowed.

“I’m fine. I’m fine. The light…threw me off.” Turning toward Mara and me, Lilura shook her head. “I was afraid it wouldn’t be enough. You two are going to have to kick it up a notch.”

I shot a quick look at my boyfriend. “What about if Gavin steps in?”

“Yes, that should help.” Lilura pointed a bony finger at us. “But even then, you two are going to have to concentrate harder. Really push your power into the ball. Will it to breach the shield.”

Gavin hopped up from the bench and strode over to my side. I squeezed his hand and then nodded to Mara.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Let’s do this.”

Lilura rubbed her hands together and faced the tire. The chant flowed from her lips. Gavin rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand. As the spark began between Mara’s hand and mine, I repeated over and over in my head what I wanted. We needed to get through the shield. If we couldn’t, we might not stand a chance against the Reaper.

The energy ball glowed brighter, the white fire practically sizzling in our hands. Though the vibration of it shook us, we didn’t throw it yet. We let it grow even bigger still. And then, when it was the size of a grapefruit, we aimed and shot.

This time, the impact made an electrical shock sound, like a bug caught in a zapper. The bright blast of light blinded me. It was almost as if the flash sucked up all sound for a minute. When the light faded, there was nothing left of the tire but a smoldering pile of black goop. My jaw dropped, and I squeezed Mara’s hand. We’d done it. We’d broken through the shield.

But when I looked over at Lilura, she was sprawled out on the ground, motionless.

We all hovered over Lilura, who lay, unmoving, on the couch where Chase set her down. He moved with lightning-quick speed. He checked her pulse, shook her, and then fetched something from his alchemy kit, which he placed under her nose.

Her eyes popped open. “Are you trying to kill me, boy? Get that awful-smelling stuff away from my face.”

Chase flinched. “You’re okay?”

Lilura pushed herself up from the couch. “I will be once you nosey kids learn to give an old woman some space. Move it!”

As we backed away, Chase’s phone chirped from his pocket. Glancing at the screen, he put a gentle hand on Lilura’s shoulder—which she shoved away—and excused himself from the room. I wondered briefly if it was Hunter texting him with news about Rudy.

Lilura pulled a handkerchief from her pants pocket and wiped her brow. “That was an impressive blast, girls. And what’s even better is that it knocked me out.”

Mara and I exchanged a look. “Why is that good?”

Lilura rolled her eyes and went over to the dining room table. Mara and I followed, taking a seat and waiting for Lilura to explain.

“I collapsed because of the energy created from the impact of your magic sphere hitting my shield. Not only is that ball of yours powerful enough to penetrate a magical object—and a strong one at that—but it also seems to wipe out the power generated, as well as the magical person or thing, that created the power. Hand me that journal, would you?”