Page 70 of Phoenix Academy: Madness

"I tried so hard," she says, and I think if the magic were a little more complete, she would be crying. "When he was sad, when he was angry, or distant, or unloving, I tried to make him happy. Whatever he wanted, I gave to him. Except a child... maybe if I had..."

Empty words, because she knows. She sees, and so do I.

The rifle. The slugs. The last night of her life.

Then the anger that followed, when she realized that she was supposed to move on from a life she never got to fully live. So she wound up in the in between place, staying in the spirit realm that slides right up against the mortal realm, the veil between them paper thin.

While other spirits around her moved on, she raged and beat against the confines of her rage, desperate to get back to the mortal realm and do...something.Get revenge. Make a whole, complete life. Just live again.

She couldn't move on.

And so she changed. Became different. It took years and years, until one day she was no longer the recently deceased woman but instead athingthat was barely human shaped and mostly rage.

That was how she stayed until one day, the mortal realm called out to her and tugged her through the veil. She came here, buoyed by my magic that sank into the ground and touched her mortal body.

It was her grave my magic invaded, I realize with a start as I reach towards her barely-physical body, ready to finish the last bit of this spell.

My magic brought her here, then made her flesh, and let her finally tell her story. Now, she remembers that she was once human. Now, she knows that she has to move on—because this world is no longer hers.

Still, there's anger in her, simmering just beneath the surface. It would be best if she's pushed into the Great Beyond before that anger has the chance to turn into rage, and transform her back into the poltergeist she was before I wished her into flesh and bone.

"I'm sorry for what happened to you," I tell her, sensing the others around me but feeling, for a moment, as if it's just me and the ghost standing here. "I was killed by an abusive man too. It's not fair, and it never should have happened to you."

"Will you remember me?" she asks, in a voice soft and gentle, her face showing her youth. "My name was... Jennifer Green."

"I'll remember you," I promise, because I could never do anything else, faced as I am with her life and her death. "You won't be forgotten."

"Thank you."

She sighs.

Gives up the ghost.

And takes my hand.

Remembering the spell Auerbach gave me, I say the three strange words while holding my bracelet against my hand, Jennifer's fingers warm against my palm. A blue glow emanates from the bracelet and flows around us, forming a door.

"She'll need to be escorted through." Looking to the trio, I ask them, "Come with me?"

The shifters move into formation behind me, taking strength from my magic and our bond. In front of us, the blue light forms a doorway. Glancing over my shoulder, I meet Mage Auerbach's eyes; he gives me a nod of approval. I did the spell right.

Now all I have to do is escort her into the spirit realm itself.

Taking a deep breath, I grab the spirit's cold hand, which is impossibly light—she's losing her corporeal form already. Then I face the door with her at my side, and we go through it together, the trio like three points of a triangle around us: David in the front, Xavier to my right, Reggie to the spirit's left.

What's beyond this door, I couldn't possibly predict.

I just hope I'm able to make it through and come out the other side again.

Chapter 34

Ah,death. The great unknown. An experience we all share in common, none of us truly certain what waits for us on the other side.

Death is something you can't reach beyond.

Unless you're a witch like me, that is.

There are a lot of things about death we don't know, and never will, including what the actual Great Beyond—the final resting place—is like for those of us who make it there. But there are dozens if not hundreds of destinations between the mortal plane and the Great Beyond, including slices of the spirit realm, Purgatory for wayward souls, and the inner rings of Hell itself.

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