Page 5 of Shackled to the World
“Pulling on the afterworld is a muscle memory, and the more you do it, the easier it will become.” Eddie came to a stop in front of her, his blue eyes intense as he gazed down at her. “Most phantoms learn the skills when they’re young. In truth, most can’t do more than just touch the other side. Very few can actually visit the afterworld. They just aren’t strong enough. Some don’t even try for fear they’ll never be able to return.”
Late at night, when she couldn’t sleep, she played with the afterworld, watching the particles fill her room, and once even called some of the black butterflies over to watch them dance and chase each other, ignoring the fact that they were carnivorous bugs that fed on the flesh of the dead and dying. She didn’t say anything to the others because she knew the guys would bust a nut over her practicing on her own.
They wanted to shackle her powers, afraid she would be pulled into the afterworld and end up trapped beyond their reach. Yet for some reason she felt comfortable in the afterworld. Maybe it was because she’d visited so many times as a child, but the other world no longer held any fear for her.
The real world had more than enough monsters to fill her nightmares.
She studied Eddie, not sure why he didn’t spill her secret.
Maybe now that he was no longer living in the afterworld, he couldn’t sense her intrusion anymore, but she quickly dismissed that idea as ludicrous.
Right?
She narrowed her eyes on Eddie and saw him stiffen slightly. “You were stronger in the afterworld,” she accused.
“Everyone is stronger in the afterworld,” he answered smoothly, not missing a beat.
Annora stubbornly shook her head, knowing she was on the right track, and poked him in the chest. “It took something out of you to assume physical form again, didn’t it? You’re weaker.”
The lines around his eyes tightened slightly, as if she just questioned his masculinity. She saw the debate in his eyes over whether to tell her the truth or not, and she placed her hands on her hips. “Spill it.”
“The transition weakened me.” He kept his face expressionless. “I need more time in the human world to gain my strength back.”
“Because of me.” Everything inside her went cold, the air freezing in her lungs. “You didn’t take the shape of a ferret to trick me,” she murmured, the truth taking shape in her mind. “You were scattered in the afterworld. You could only take the shape of small forms because you were trying to pull yourself together. You came early to save me.”
He gave a negligible shrug, like it wasn’t a big fucking deal that he risked his very soul to save her. “You needed me.”
Xander immediately jumped on the only question that mattered to him. “If they come for her, are you strong enough to fight?”
Eddie lifted his chin, his jaw tightening, dark smoke rising from his skin. “I won’t let anything happen to her.”
“But you’d get stronger if you went into the afterworld, wouldn’t you?” It was a hunch, and she assumed she was right when his eyes went blank.
“No, only time will cure me.”
Even Xander snorted at the lie, but when she went to shove Eddie in the chest and force him into the afterworld, Xander tightened his hold on her hand. “If you enter the afterworld with him in his weakened state, he won’t be able to conceal your location. If your father senses you, he’ll hunt you down. Eddie made the right choice. If he can heal on his own, let him.”
Annora yanked her hand away from him, her fury surging wildly. “Stop making decisions for me.”
Xander’s teal eyes widened slightly, his white hair bristling, as if the gryphon’s feathers in the other world stood on end, and his face darkened. “If your father is as powerful as Eddie claims, he will easily plow through us to get to you. None of us will let you go without a fight. If you don’t care about that, think of Logan before you do anything you can’t take back. If they find you and take you from us, he’s as good as dead.”
She flinched, agony like a gaping wound opened up in her chest, as if he’d physically sliced into her with his talons, leaving her feeling gutted. That he would think she was capable of abandoning them stole the very breath from her lungs. “I would never risk him, or any of you.”
“That’s not what I meant.” He reached for her, his teal eyes sad.
She held up a hand, unable to bear being touched right now. She paced away from them, stopping at the bottom step leading up to the house. While she might not be able to help Logan, she could do something for Eddie.
Before she had a chance to doubt herself, she reached for the afterworld. Magic from the human realm flared around her, exposing secrets and spells, until she could even see the souls of the people around her, and their animal counterparts.
Dark particles began to rise from her skin as she funneled more of the afterworld through her. As she absorbed the particles, the bruises and aches in her body faded, the knots in her muscles eased. The particles clung to her, begging her to play with the darkness, an invisible current tugging at her hair and clothes, but she resisted the pull.
“Holy shit.” Eddie’s whisper drew her back from the edge.
Reminded her of her purpose.
She cupped her hands, carefully gathering the dust-like particles, and turned to face Eddie. Before she could doubt the wisdom of her plan, she blew the particles directly in his face, engulfing him in a cloud that left him no choice but inhale the darkness.
He immediately began to wheeze and hack. Ignoring them both, she stomped into the house, taking little satisfaction in slamming the door behind her.
