Ness charged Vince. It gave me a moment to look back. A wreath of blue-light fire danced around Addie’s shape. Behind her, Vi’s hair turned white. The antichrist clung on to Addie even though Addie was sucking the life out of her.
No one here could tell Vi to let go. The woman didn’t register what was happening to her, that her friend was killing her. I had to leave Ness with Vince before something bad happened. Addie would never forgive herself, even if she wasn’t in control right now.
“Release me!” Addie shouted—not from within her own body.
Her voice boomed through the clearing. It came from everywhere and nowhere all at once.
Vi jerked away from Addie’s body. The antichrist threw herself out of the Jeep and rolled back onto her feet. She frantically searched for the source of Addie’s voice.
“I’m talking to you, shades! Get. Out. Of. My. Body!” Addie howled.
To my right, Ness whimpered. I darted away from Addie and her body, so I could go help Ness. Vince had her pinned to the ground. The slap of her tail on the ground and the light in her eyes warned me to stop.
The sky opened up. Lightning slammed down from the clouds above and hit Vince. Smoke and the smell of burnt hair blew out like an explosion. I jumped into the cloud and found Vince. He turned tail and darted away before I could hit him again.
Finally, we had him on the run.
I sped after him without waiting to see if anyone else was following.
Addie
Ness stood on wobbly legs.The earth was scorched at her feet. Bits of singed hair crumbled to ash and drifted away. The bolt she’d pulled down from the sky hadn’t hit Vince. He’d somehow deflected it and sent it close to Addie.
I would have cursed if I could have controlled my body. Outside myself, I watched the shades drag my body into the woods. They had an iron grip on my arcana, much to my annoyance. I tried to pull it out of their control, but their anger overwhelmed me when I reached into my body.
So, I was stuck outside myself.
“Well, this is a fine mess,” someone said beside me.
I startled and jerked away from the woman suddenly standing alongside me. While Vi and Ness chased after my body, I looked the stranger up and down. She had pale brown hair that’d been cut into a pixie cut a bit longer than Vi’s. She turned green eyes on me and grinned wide.
“You’re not a ghost,” I said, though I wasn’t quite sure of my conclusion.
She didn’t have the presence of a ghost. There was nothing about her that felt incorporeal. That could have been chalked up to my own incorporeal status, but that wasn’t it.
When I realized what I was feeling, I audibly gasped. “You’re a Reaper!”
I’d never seen a Reaper post-death before. The only other ones I’d met had been…well, dead, but not like this. I found myself face to face with the soul of a Reaper that was working on the other side.
She nodded. “I am. I came to get a look at Maddox’s new partner.”
I blinked, confused. “Now isn’t the time. I don’t…What?”
“I think you should go catch up to yourself, godkin. I think your body might be getting away from you right now.” She smiled and gestured in the direction everyone had gone.
Annoyed, I threw my hands in the air and stomped away, but not before calling back. “The one time I meet another Reaper, and I can’t even stick around to ask questions. This is bullshit. I hope you know that!”
She laughed. The sound should have lightened the situation, but I could still feel the press of the shades on my chest. How long had it been since my body last took a breath? I really hoped I would pass out and the shades would leave before they suffocated me.
Hope hadn’t done much for me in the past. It was time for action.
Like the Reaper said, I was godkin. My blood could be traced back to Hel herself.
I didn’t need my body to access my arcana. Reaching low, I grabbed ahold of the arcana in the weave of the world. It was strange to pull it from another source. I could feel it trailing behind me like swirling clouds in my wake.
What was I going to do with it? I had no idea. I was making all of this up as I went.
A wave in front of me sent me rocking backwards. My heart would have stuttered had I been in my body. The wave was as familiar as the back of my own hand. The shades were doing something with my arcana…