Page 114 of Chasing Your Ghost

“I’ll let her go if you all promise to behave. No funny business.”

“We’ll do anything,” Riley promised, knowing they had no other option. “Just let her go.”

“Okay,” Brett said, his arm easing its grip. “I’d never have hurt her anyway,” he said once he’d removed it completely and Ella was free to scramble away from him.

“What have you done to Asher?” Riley asked once Ella was safely next to Noah.

“Absolutely nothing,” he replied.

Riley’s jaw clenched so tight it hurt. “Is that why I’ve been seeing his ghost for the last month? Is that why he’s—” She broke off, the word too hard to say. “Is that why he’s not breathing?” she managed.

His eyes narrowed. “And here I thought I was the only one who could see the plane of the dead,” he noted, ignoring her question. “So, I’m guessing that makes you a medium. How very inconvenient.”

“Look, man, there’s four of us and one of you,” Chris said. “How exactly do you think this is going to end?”

“I see it ending with you letting me go after I release your friend from the stasis spell I have him in.”

“Spell?” Riley asked in disbelief.

Brett lifted a brow. “You know that ghosts and people like Ella and I exist, but you don’t believe in spells?”

“Can’t say I’ve ever given it much thought,” she gritted out.

“Fair enough. Neither did I until something very precious slipped through my fingers.” His eyes moved to settle on Ella, and Riley drew in a sharp breath, the realization of who was standing in front of them hitting her like a punch to the gut.

Noah also followed Brett’s gaze to the pale, too-still woman he was standing beside, and Riley could see the moment it hit him. It was in the way his eyes lasered back on Brett, his gaze burning into him with enough heat to burn down a building. Brett saw the look and smirked.

“Of course, it helped that I can access planes that you can’t,” he continued. “I can see them all right now if I focus hard enough, and magic threads through almost all of them, just waiting to be harnessed. It’s how I kept your friend here in a state of suspension for the last few weeks. The reason he isn’t breathing is both because he can’t and because he doesn’t have to.”

“You mean he’s alive?” she asked, not sure if she should let herself believe it.

“Technically, no. His heart isn’t beating, and his cells have stopped metabolizing.”

“Is. He. Alive?” she asked through clenched teeth.

“Yes,” he relented. “As soon as I release the spell, he’ll wake up and be as good as new.”

Riley’s eyes closed, and she breathed in shakily. Asher was alive. She hadn’t been horribly wrong. The relief was dizzying, almost more so than the shock of thinking he was gone. Maybe she should have been more skeptical or cynical, but when you could see ghosts and knew someone who could dreamwalk, you tended to be more accepting of all things supernatural.

“Except for the cuts you gave him,” Noah accused Brett. “Kidnapping him wasn’t enough?”

Riley opened her eyes and saw the man shaking his head condescendingly.

“What do you think powers the spell that keeps him frozen in time? I assure you that the blood was quite necessary.”

“And one cut wasn’t enough?” Riley wanted to punch him. She would have if they didn’t need him to break the spell.

“I had to keep feeding the spell,” he said with an uncaring shrug. “A stasis spell is powerful magic, and the longer it’s in use, the more frequently it has to be replenished.”

Just like the time between Asher’s disappearances became shorter, Riley realized. Every time Brett had replenished or strengthened the spell, Asher’s spirit must have been ejected from his body, which for all intents and purposes was dead. And when the spell had begun to weaken, and Asher’s body began fighting for life, he’d been pulled back to it.

“This is all very fascinating,” Chris snapped. “But there’s no chance in hell that we’re letting you go after what you’ve done.”

“It’s your choice. Either I leave Asher in that spell, which only I have the ability to unlock, and I leave anyway, or you all back away, let me release him from the spell and watch me walk out of here.”

“Okay,” Riley agreed, holding her hands up in a sign of good faith. “We’ll let you go as soon as you’ve undone the spell and Asher wakes up.” She had no plans of doing any such thing, but he’d hold no leverage over them once Asher was awake. That was when they could strike.

“Good. Back up against the wall,” he ordered, gesturing behind them. “And if any of you try something, I’ll make sure your friend never wakes up,” he added once they were lined up against the wall.

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