Page 76 of Cheater Slicks

“Yes.” I didn’t hesitate. “I don’t know how long I’ve got before…” Dis Pater sent Kierce. “I’ll start now.”

“What about me?” Pascal glowed on the edge of my vision. “How can I help?”

“Go with Matty.” I would feel better if he had an extra set of eyes on him. Especially when, with any luck, the doctor was about to have his attention divided. “Tell Jean-Claude if there’s any change to his condition.”

“You know the steps,”Anunit reassured me as I struggled to sink into the right headspace.

The process with Vi wasn’t exactly the same. I had touched her soul, many times, while she was astral projecting to visit me or when she came to help with the Alcheyvaha. Her bold spirit and big heart were easy to find once I understood what I was looking for, and I held my breath as I allowed her knot to unravel from the rest and glide through my fingers like a silk ribbon.

Pressure behind my eyes caused me to wince as I traced the path her soul had gone.

Pinpricks of agony swept through me, tingling in my limbs, convincing me it had been a success.

A whistling inhale snapped my attention to the bed where Vi’s eyelids fluttered before cracking open.

“Frankie,” she rasped, her voice a dry whisper. “I knew…you…”

“Shhh.” I poured her a cup of water before remembering what I had used her glass for, but Josie was ahead of me. She ran into the kitchen, grabbed a fresh glass, and skidded to a stop beside me. “Jean-Claude is with Matty, but he’ll examine you next.” I leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Don’t move a muscle.”

“Don’t think…I…can.” She huffed a laugh, accepting the drink Josie poured her. “Go…to your…brother.”

“I have to do this a few more times before then.” I withdrew from her to focus on the remaining victims. “Anunit?” I skimmed the ball of threads, tangled and frayed, unable to tell one person from another, terrified one wrong move would result in mass casualties. “What do I do?”

“There is only one thing you can do.”Anunit’s grim tone curdled my gut.“You must set them free.”

Set them freecarried an ominous undertone. “What about the ones like Matty?”

“You know the answer.”

“They’ll die.” I saw plain as day how it would happen. “Without help, they won’t make it.”

“Vi made it without you.” Josie attempted to raise my spirits. “Maybe the others will too.”

“Vi has years of experience with astral projection, and she wasn’t caught as long as Matty. Anyone in there longer than she was, anyone without that talent, won’t have the means to join their spirit to their body.” I heard the edge in my tone and tempered it. “I don’t want to kill these people.”

“Cher, you don’t…have a choice.” Vi took another sip of water. “Trust…me. Death is…kinder.”

“I need a minute.” I exited the room. Shut the door. Paced up and down the hall. “I can’t do this.”

Sliding my fingers through my hair, I tugged on my scalp until I worsened my stress headache.

I wanted Kierce. To tell me what to do. To explain how to fix this. To hold me when it was done.

I wanted him.

Full stop.

We hadn’t known each other for long, but he was already a critical pillar of support for me. I looked to him for answers on divinity as well as morality. He was a good person. Yes. He had done bad things. No. I couldn’t lay them all at Dis Pater’s feet. But he was so much more than met the eye. So much more than he knew. And if Dis Pater had his way, if Kierce ever figured himself out, I wouldn’t be there to see it unless I freed him.

“He’s asking for you,” Jean-Claude said from Matty’s doorway. “Two minutes. Tops. Hear me?”

With a curt nod, I all but ran to my brother. I sat beside him on his mattress and threw my arms around him as best I could. “I thought you... Damn it, Mary. I can’t lose you. I love you. I love you so much. You have to finish getting better, okay? You can’t leave me alone with Josie. I can’t handle her by myself.”

A rustling exhale that tried to be a laugh wheezed out, and then he moved his lips in silent words.

“I can’t hear you.” I leaned down. “Can you try again?”

“Set…them…free.”

---