Читать книгу The Life After Trilogy: Soul Taken / Soul Possessed / Soul Betrayed - Katlyn Duncan - Страница 22

I read the sentence over and over, Ally’s heart pounding. “Cooper,” I breathed.

He appeared at my side. “What’s wrong?”

I shoved the paper at him. He quickly scanned it, his hands tightening on the sheet.

“What does this mean?” I asked.

“There’s only one way to find out,” he said.

Cooper helped me up from the couch, and I dropped the cast act. This girl already knew enough; I didn’t want to be held back by a stupid piece of plaster if the Shadowed attacked.

“Are the wards broken?” I asked Cooper, hobbling into the foyer toward the kitchen. “Is someone watching us?”

“Doubt it,” he said. “David is very skilled. If anything, they sent her in here to do something. But instead she warned us.”

We stood at the bathroom door, the water running inside. “Can you check them? I’ll talk to her.”

Cooper nodded and disappeared.

I knocked on the door and it opened before I could move my hand to knock a second time. Jamie’s small hand grabbed Ally’s arm and pulled me inside the room. She pushed past me and closed the door, locking it behind her, her back flat against it.

“Sorry it took me so long,” Jamie said. “I’d requested to be your partner for the paper so that I’d be able to get you alone and warn you.”

I blinked a few times. “Warn me about what?”

Jamie leaned closer to me, her voice low. “There is a spirit that follows you everywhere you go. It’s a boy around our age. Do you know who he is? Is he a relative? The last spirit I saw was my cousin after he had died from a drug overdose. He looked better and everything but I didn’t want to stick around long enough to ask—”

I held up Ally’s hands. “Wait a minute.” This girl could see us?

Jamie cocked her head and something reflected on her face in the vanity light. I touched the paint spatter on her cheek and the déjà vu mystery clicked into place.

I looked her up and down and found paint splatters on her clothing. I remembered that bun. “It was you!”

Jamie stepped back. “What was me? I’m trying to help you here!”

Cooper appeared in the room. Jamie screamed, making him jump.

“The door was locked,” he said as if that was an explanation. “She can see me?”

Jamie staggered back toward the door. “You can see him?” Her eyes welled up. “I thought I was the only freak around here.”

Did she sound relieved?

“Extraordinary,” Cooper said in awe. “I’ve heard about this. But I’ve never met anyone who could breach the Realms.”

“But how?” I asked.

He shrugged. “There are some things that just can’t be explained in this world. Paranormal phenomena happen every day. I guess the broadest term would be ‘magic’.”

Jamie’s chattering teeth stopped our conversation; we looked at her. Her eyes moved back and forth between us. “I—” chatter chatter “get like this—” chatter chatter “around people—things like you…” chatter chatter.

I leaned toward her, her hands springing to cover her face.

“Relax,” I said. “I’m not going to hurt you.” I turned the knob to the door and pulled it open, wedging it past the shaking girl. Cooper disappeared into the hall. “Come on.” I reached out Ally’s hand towards her. “Let’s get you warmed up.”

The three of us sat on the floor in Ally’s room. Cooper and I distanced ourselves from Jamie so she wouldn’t freeze to death. Cooper had given her a bulky sweatshirt from Ally’s closet with the high school’s mascot on the front and sleeve.

“I’ve been this way since I can remember,” she said after Cooper asked about her ‘gift’. “As a kid I couldn’t tell the difference between your kind and the living people. My dad brought me to a doctor when I was younger.” She shook her head. “That is not something I’d like to repeat. Soon enough I just didn’t speak until I was sure the person I spoke with was alive. And the cold thing…” she held up her arms, gripping the sweatshirt “… would tip me off once I figured out I got this way around them.”

“What about the paint—”

Jamie shot me a pleading look.

Huh, maybe she didn’t want Cooper to know about that. I changed direction. “What do you see when you look at me?” I asked.

“After your accident, I saw someone else, like, inside you. That’s sort of why I came here today. I had to make sure she wasn’t still inside of you and when I didn’t see her any more, I thought I’d warn you that something was happening. Or see if you possibly had some answers?”

Ally’s body stiffened and I met Cooper’s eye. She didn’t know Ally wasn’t there. I looked down at Ally’s arm and squinted, not seeing the outline of my soul.

“What’s happening?” I looked quickly at Cooper.

His gaze flicked to Jamie’s and back to mine. “We should talk about this later,” he warned.

“No!” I stood up and thrust out my arm in front of him feeling panic rising up inside of Ally. “I don’t see me any more.”

He stepped closer, his face inches from Ally’s. He touched her arm.

If he had to try to see me, I knew I was in trouble.

Ally’s heartbeat roared in my ears and the room tilted. I stepped back, arms outstretched for balance.

“Maggie?” he said, his voice distorted.

I opened my mouth but, before I could speak, the room disappeared.

I woke lying on my back on a plush leather couch. My eyelids were heavy but I fought the urge to close them again. Every time I did, I ended up back in that dark place. I’d found my heartbeat again, or at least the sound of it. The hot place took away the heartbeat, yet I still lived. Built-in bookshelves outlined the room. I sat up slowly, burrowing my feet into the soft area rug. A pristine mahogany desk rested in the center of the rug, facing the door to the room. The windows revealed darkness outside. I moved across the room, inexplicably drawn to something.

Where did I have this feeling before?

The heartbeat rhythm picked up until I found the source. I rested my hand on a worn cloth-covered book. All sound ceased. The heartbeat slowed. Everything I had and all of my will depended on what was inside the book.

A gust of frigid wind whipped around me, as if someone had opened a window in the middle of winter. I tilted my head back toward the feeling.

“Time to go, Ally,” a voice said.

I let go of the book and my body floated away, the office fading away around me.

I inhaled deeply; Ally’s lungs screamed for oxygen. My body launched off the bed. I sucked air deep into my lungs as if I hadn’t inhaled in hours.

Cooper and Jamie stood watching me.

I fell back against the bed, Ally’s hair wild on her sweaty face. I pushed her locks aside. “Did you do that to me?”

“I don’t think so,” he said, but he didn’t move toward me.

“Are you okay?” Jamie asked.

I swallowed a few times, attempting to get moisture back in Ally’s mouth and closed my eyes. I had seen—felt something. The vision I’d seen quickly faded before I could grasp it, but I knew it had to do with Ally.

Cooper lifted his hand and stared at it. “I must have shocked Ally’s body or something.”

“Whoa, whoa,” Jamie interrupted. Her teeth started to chatter. “What do you mean, Ally’s body? Is that thing still inside?”

I glared at her. “Yes, I am still inside but apparently—” I turned to Cooper. “I’m disappearing.”

Cooper scratched his head. “But I’ve touched you—her before and that never happened.”

I nodded. “What’s changed?”

Jamie looked at Cooper for answers. He didn’t look at us.

I sat up straight against the pillows. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“Like I said before,” Cooper said. “This possession situation is unprecedented, especially a Prognatum possession.”

“What’s a Prognatum?” Jamie asked.

I waved her question away. “What are you thinking?” I asked Cooper.

“Maybe she is in the process of transforming?” Cooper suggested.

I balked. “How is that possible? Wouldn’t the body sense that I’m in here and not a Prognatum?”

Cooper started pacing between the balcony and the bed. “You’d think her body would know that.”

Maybe Ally wasn’t as smart as everyone thought.

Cooper shot me a look.

Damn that mind-reading. I glared right back. Something niggled at the back of my mind. He wasn’t telling me everything. His eyes darted to Jamie and back to mine.

“Harmless, remember?” I said.

“Who, me?” Jamie said, looking between us.

“I think you should check in with Felix; maybe he has more information for you.” And it couldn’t come soon enough with my soul disappearing inside of a teen girl.

Cooper sighed. “Fine. Let me go talk to Felix about this. I’ll be back soon.”

With that, he disappeared.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, comprehending what had happened. Cooper hadn’t wanted me to try to get in David’s office, but there was something in there. Even though I couldn’t remember what I’d seen in the dream/vision, I knew it was about Ally and David’s office might have the information we needed.

Jamie sat back on the bed, resting on her palms. “You know, I spent a long time wondering what I’d say if I had the chance to meet one of you,” she said. “But now, I have way too much information and I’m not quite sure how to process that.”

I pushed off the bed, grabbing her arm. “You can process later; we have something to do.”

“Your leg,” Jamie said.

“I’ll explain later—” I opened the door to Ally’s room and nearly crashed into Aaron. Jamie shrunk behind me.

Aaron didn’t need to know anything about Jamie; who knew what he’d do with that information?

“Um, Jamie.” I turned around, shooting her a don’t-say-anything glare. “You needed to get that notebook, right?”

She avoided Aaron’s eyes. “Yes,” she said through chattering teeth. She shuffled down the hallway, tucking her arms into the sweatshirt pockets.

“What are you doing here?” I said.

“Cooper sent me,” he said, stepping forward into Ally’s room.

I squeezed around him. “This place has wards,” I said. “I’ll be fine without your help.” As if he could help anybody.

Aaron linked his arms behind his back. “I’m just doing my job.”

A job I should have had. Heat flicked across Ally’s skin.

Something fell, hard, down the hallway. I broke Aaron’s gaze to see Marie struggling with a vacuum and a tub of cleaning supplies. She pushed something against the door to David’s office and stepped over the threshold, disappearing into the room.

Bingo.

I ran down the hall. Marie had closed the office door before we got there. I reached up to knock on the door but I heard the whirr of the vacuum on the other side.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Aaron asked. His body was close enough to Ally’s to make goose bumps.

Even a body without a proper soul could sense his creepiness.

He wasn’t going to get any more information than I had.

“I just needed to talk to Marie for a minute,” I said.

Back off!

I hesitated by the door, and Aaron did too. He won the staring contest, mostly because I couldn’t look at his face any more. I brushed past him and down the stairs.

Aaron appeared at the front door, blocking it. “Where do you think you’re going?”

I pointed to the parlor. “Relax, Jamie and I have homework to do,” I said softly.

“Oh,” he said. “I’m going to watch the perimeter.”

“Okay then, you do that,” I said.

He disappeared.

I groaned.

“I take it you aren’t besties?” Jamie asked, rubbing her hands up and down her arms.

I tossed the blanket at her. “Not so much.”

As the last of the blanket left the couch, an envelope fluttered across it. I picked it up, examining the pristine surface. Most of the envelope was flat, but in the corner was a small, hard bulge. No name was written on it, but I hesitated nonetheless.

“What’s that?” Jamie asked, tucking the blanket in around her.

I shook my head. “Not sure.” I slid Ally’s finger under the sealed side and ripped. Tilting the envelope sideways, I pulled out a folded note, and an object tumbled out behind it, falling to the ground. I picked it up and lost all feeling in Ally’s legs, falling to the couch.

Jamie vaulted off the other couch. “Are you okay? You just got really pale.”

I inhaled shallow, ragged breaths through Ally’s teeth as I held the tiny wooden owl between her fingers.