I took a slow breath as I processed this new information. “A wraith,” I said. “A wraith was in my house? In my bedroom? Why?”
“Wraiths are undead evil spirits that are bound to this plane of existence because of unfinished business,” my son said. “They can only be killed with holy magic or a holy artifact, and if you attack one, you better damn sure kill it, because it will go serial killer on anything that makes it feel threatened.”
I stared at the teen as if he’d just grown a nipple in the middle of his forehead. “How in the world do you know this?”
“Duh, Mom. Video games.”
Oh, yeah. He spent a lot of late nights on the weekends playing Rogue Slayer Realm Guardians with his friends and every new incarnation of the series for the past decade. “I don’t think video games are all that accurate to the real world.” I looked to Keir for help. “It’s more fiction than fact, right?”
He shrugged. “A lot of fiction is based on some truth. Michael’s assessment of the wraith is accurate to a degree.”
I could see the vindication in my son’s body language. “Great. Then we just need something holy to take the sucker out,” he said.
“I wish it was that easy,” Keir told him. “Wraiths are not the undead. They aren’t ghosts of humans with unfinished business. They’re spawned into existence by foul magic as soulless creatures who survive by stirring up negative emotions in their victims and then feeding on the energy. Meaning, someone used magic to conjure the wraith. But the last part Michael said is completely accurate. Once attacked, it will go after anyone or anything that threatens its purpose. The only way to get rid of the wraith is to kill it, though I’m not sure how. Holy relics and prayers can’t stop the entity. Honestly, I’m not sure what can. I’ve never heard of one being successfully killed.”
“Then how do you get rid of one?”
Keir’s eyes turned black as pitch as his anger triggered his beast. “That’s the question. Usually, a wraith will feed until its target is dead, then vanish since its purpose has been served.”
Awesome. All I had to do was let it kill me, and everyone else would be safe. Fun-fun. “How do I fight it when it comes back?” I didn’t ask “if” because the when was inevitable.
Keir chewed the corner of his lip for a moment, his gray eyes darting back and forth as if calculating data, then he asked me, “How did you fight it this time?”
“Michael,” I said honestly. I gave my son a tight smile. “This isn’t the first time I’ve gone down a dark hole, but it’s harder to stay there when I have someone more important than myself to rise up against the darkness for.” I gestured to the voids on my body. “But if I can’t get my aero-craft under control….” I left off the part about me turning into aether dust. I didn’t want to scare my son. “I can feel the emptiness growing.”
Keir sat down on the bed near me. He looked like a guy on the verge of a difficult decision. “Michael, can you give us a minute?”
My son shook his head. “I’m not leaving my mom. Whatever you guys have to say, I can take it. I’m not a kid anymore. You don’t have to protect me.”
“Oh, baby.” I smiled sadly at him. This was his world now too, and for that, I would always be sorry. “I’ll never stop trying to protect you, no matter how old you are.”
Finally, Keir said, “I know someone who might be able to help.”
“Then call them,” Michael said to Keir. “What are you waiting for?”
“Thomas Darrencroft.” Keir scrubbed his face. “He’s an aero-craft witch. He might be able to teach you how to break this spell that’s got a hold of you.”
“Terrific. Like Michael said, give him a call.”
His expression soured. “The help comes with a price.”
“Is the price death?” I asked. Because that’s what I was facing now. “Anything else would be preferable.”
Keir’s sister Luanne walked in from the hallway. “Calling Darrencroft is a bad idea.” She wore black jeans, black Doc Martens, and finished the monochrome ensemble off with a black T-shirt. She bent over and looked at Linda. “Hey, girl.”
“How long have you been listening in?” Keir asked.
“Not long,” she said. “I just got back from dropping off Fair Konig and Annibish. They screwed all the way up the mountain.” She sucked her teeth. “You can’t even imagine the noises coming from the back seat.”
“I don’t have to imagine,” I said. “You might’ve had a front-row seat to their frantic fornicating, but I was the freaking stage.”
“About that,” she said. “Fair Konig wanted me to thank you again for reviving Annibish.”
“I still don’t know what I did, but I’m glad she’s alive.”
“Your air magic took hold of her and brought her back. He said the wind picked her up from your lap and breathed new life into her. It also triggered her oomatufeit.”
“Sounds painful,” Michael said.
“It’s not,” Lu said. “It’s a process of when a pixie female drops an egg. If it’s not fertilized right away, then it will lose its viability.”
“Ah. Hence all the screwing.”
“Yep,” she said. “Alllll the screwing.”
“Wait.” My son shook his head. “You’re saying we had pixies at the house? And now a wraith? Freaking hell. I was gone one night.”
“Don’t forget the satyr,” Lu added.
The teenager blanched.
I glared at her. “I’m sorry, Michael. You never asked for any of this.”
“Neither did you, Mom. Sheesh.” His tone was annoyed. Better than scared, I supposed. “Why is calling this Thomas guy a bad idea?” He asked Lu. “If he can help my mom, then we should try, right?”
Lu eyed her brother warily. “He’s bonded to the Archdruid.”
I knew the archdruid was Keir and Lu’s grandmother. Finding out she was tied to a tru-craft witch piqued my interest. “Like Keir is bonded to me?”
“Not exactly like us,” Keir said. “But yes, they have a druid-witch binding. He’s very powerful.”
“Because the Archdruid is powerful,” Lu countered. There was an undercurrent of anger simmering below her words. “Darrencroft wouldn’t have half his juice if it wasn’t for her.”
“Is he your grandfather?”
Luanne scoffed. “Hardly.”
“Our grandfather was a druid,” Keir said.
“And did he also have a bond with a witch?”
“He did not.” Lu curled her lip in a snarl. “The Archdruid let our grandfather die to save Darrencroft’s life. She chose him over her own husband.”
“You know it’s not that simple,” Keir said.
When I had first learned what I was, Keir told me that ours was a bond of friendship, companionship, and devotion. A bond that makes a person willing to give up their entire life to save the other. If the Archdruid had that same bond with a tru-craft witch, then she would have the same compulsion. He also told me the compulsion only goes one way. Thomas Darrencroft wouldn’t have the same need to protect the Archdruid, just as I didn’t have the same driving need to protect Keir. I would because I loved him, but not because some metaphysical, supernatural power compelled me to do it.
He had also talked about Arthur Pendragon and Merlin being bonded like us. And that it only happened once in a millennium. “What happened to me being the Arthur of our time. I mean, if it happened to your grandma and this Darrencroft guy….”
“The Archdruid,” Lu corrected me. “She is no more our grandmother than your birth mother was your mom.”
“Luanne,” Keir chided. “Enough.”
However, Lu’s comment hadn’t hurt my feelings. “No,” I told him. “It’s good. It gives me context. I understand exactly what she’s saying. Family is more than blood.” I looked at Lu. “Just like we’re family, even though we’re not related.”
The hard lines around her eyes softened. “Too right.”
“Anyhow, back to the whole, once in a lifetime. How did the Archdruid and this guy get bonded then?”
“It was a carefully crafted spell,” Keir answered. “She couldn’t know how it would turn out.”
“I’m sure Grandfather was a sacrifice for the binding spell.”
I scratched where my absentee arm was because it itched. It was a step up from the nothingness, but not by much. “You mean, you think the Archdruid killed your grandfather all so she could be attached to an aero-craft witch?”
“Not on purpose,” Keir said. “There was a battle, and it came down to Thomas or our grandfather, and the Archdruid was compelled by the magical binding to save Thomas. She couldn’t have known she would ever have to choose between them.”
Lu barked a laugh. “You’ve always been more forgiving of her.” She shook her head. “And more gullible.”
“Wow,” Michael said. He had his arms across his ribs, and he was plucking at his chin hair. “And I thought I had family issues. You guys are making my Dad running off with the coach look like a walk in the park.”
He wasn’t wrong. “All the family drama aside, do you think this Thomas Darrencroft can fix me?” I wiggled my shoulder, which was attached to nothing at this point. “I don’t want to find out what happens if this spell goes to my head.”
Although, at this point, I wasn’t certain it was a spell. I hadn’t tried to use magic to fight the satyr. Which meant the theory I’d hypothesized earlier was most likely the right one. Like the terra-craft had tried to turn me into a pile of minerals, aero-craft was turning me into air.
I rolled my legs over the side of the bed and stood up. “Keir, I trust you. If you think you should call him, call him.”
“You didn’t tell her, did you?” Lu asked. Was she talking about the Archdruid, or was she talking about me?
Lu crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot. “You see, Iris. Keir has decided that the Iron Grove didn’t need to know about your spark to aero-craft. He didn’t want them sending anyone else to test you the way they’d sent Zev. And when he made the choice to withhold the information, he asked me to keep it a secret as well.”
Keir winced. “I’ll tell them you didn’t know.”
“The Archdruid will punish me anyhow.” She narrowed her gaze on her brother. “And they’re not going to be happy with you. Even so, I understood why you wanted to protect Iris. They wanted to study her after the second element manifested, and I knew it would be hard for you to keep them at bay if they found out about the third,” she told her brother.
Wait? They’d wanted to study me? I knew Keir had been keeping some information about me from them. He’d said as much when I found out he had been reporting on my progress. But I hadn’t realized they’d wanted to treat me like a lab rat.
Lu continued. “Believe me, I don’t trust the Iron Grove where Iris is concerned either, so I’m not sure why you suddenly think they can be trusted.”
“Because if I don’t do something, Iris is going to die.” His blunt words hung in the room.
“Call him,” Michael said. He was clenching his fists as his jaw worked back and forth. “Save my mom.”
“Michael,” I said softly. “I’m going to be okay.”
“Look at you,” my son said. “You’re disappearing in front of my eyes.”
“Aww, damn.” Luanne muttered a few more curse words. “I’m sorry, kid. I didn’t mean to say that.”
“But you meant it,” Michael responded.
She closed her eyes and nodded.
My gaze traveled from Michael to Lu to Keir as I weighed my options. “Lu, you’ve been gone for weeks. I’ll vouch for Keir that you weren’t aware of my new status. If this guy can help me control my air magic, I have to try. I don’t have the lifetime of tutelage from other tru-crafters to shape my magic.” As a matter of fact, I’d never met anyone like me before. I tilted my head to Keir. “Make the call.”
He nodded. “I’ll be right back.”
Lu unlaced her arms from across her chest and followed him out of the bedroom, leaving Michael, statuary Linda, and me alone. My poor kid looked sick with worry. I needed him out of here and out of harm’s way. I never wanted to be without him, but a part of me wished he’d gone to stay with his father for his final school year.
“Come sit next to me.” I patted the bed.
Michael didn’t move. “I’m okay here.”
I sighed and picked at the pilled fabric on my blanket. “I need you to get yourself away from here for a couple of days,” I told him.
“I’m not leaving you, Mom.” He swiped his hand across the air as if giving the final word.”
Bob rubbed his face against my good arm. Absently, I stroked his head. I had to figure out a way to get my son out of harm’s way.
Michael narrowed his stare at me. “Don’t even try to Pikachu me, either.”
I knew he was talking about the episode of Pokémon where Ash had told Pikachu he didn’t want him around anymore and to go away because he didn’t like the sad little electric Pokémon. Michael had been five years old at the time, and he’d come running into the kitchen crying as he told me that Ash didn’t like Pikachu anymore. It was an old plot device. Ugh. Michael had been devastated. I’d had to watch the rest of the show with him until Pokémon and trainer were reunited once again.
A sentimental smile played on my lips. “I’m not trying to send you away for your own good,” I lied. “I’m doing it for my own good.” I pointed to the gnome. “I need Linda, but she can’t come to life with you around. She’ll protect me. Go to Doug’s house. Go hang out with your new girlfriend.”
My son quickly averted his gaze. “She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Whatever,” I told him. “Just go.”
His brow furrowed, and his blue eyes grew glassy. “Promise you’ll text me and let me know that you’re okay?”
“Cross my heart,” I said.
Michael leaned over and kissed my cheek. “I love you, Mom.”
I held back the sob threatening to choke from my throat. “I love you, too, son.”
When he exited the room, Linda burst to life and yanked her cap down over her ears as she shouted, “How could you lie to the young one? How am I supposed to protect you?” She tossed a rock at me, and it sailed through the empty, and that’s when I saw the tears falling down the gnome’s rosy cheeks.
Damn it to hell. I’d made Linda cry.