Page 115 of Chasing Your Ghost

“We won’t,” Riley promised on everyone’s behalf. She knew none of them would risk Asher’s life. “But you need to promise that you’ll let us go afterward. All of us.”

“You’re not exactly in the position to make demands, but luckily for you, I have no interest in keeping any of you here against your will.”

“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” Noah asked, apparently as skeptical as Riley.

Brett shrugged. “Not my problem. Now, do you want me to remove the spell or not?”

Riley ground her teeth together. “Yes.”

He gave them an assessing look and then bent down to tug up his jeans. He took a hunting knife out of his boot. “And if your plan was to make your move after I wake him up, you should probably reconsider,” he told them, flipping the weapon in the air and catching it with practiced ease.

Riley bit back a frustrated curse. He held all the power, and he knew it. They’d been so woefully unprepared, walking into his trap weaponless and unawares.

Brett smirked. “The truth is, anyone could have broken the spell,” he said, not taking his eyes off them while he used his foot to nudge one of the candles off the pentagram point. He used the same foot to scrub the rune-like symbol above Asher’s head, the sole of his shoe scraping at the layer of blood and disrupting it. “And it would have worn off by itself anyway after this layer of his blood lost its effectiveness.”

Asher’s eyes snapped open. There was no dramatic gasp, and he didn’t sit up in a flash like Riley had expected him to. Rather, he groaned and slowly rolled over to get on his hands and knees.

She’d believed Brett—perhaps recklessly—but seeing it for herself was different. It was so much better. She started toward him, letting out a relieved sob, but Brett lifted the knife and pointed it at her in a warning.

“I don’t think so,” he tutted. “He can come to you.”

So, Riley couldn’t help Asher to his feet like she wanted to. She was forced to watch with the others as he clambered to his feet and swayed once he was upright. His eyes—the same eyes she’d grown to love, only brighter without the gray that had leeched much of the color from his spiritual form—lifted to meet hers.

She was torn between grinning in relief and crying because of the state he was in. A watery smile was what her body settled on, and the next thing she knew, his arms were around her and he was crushing her in a hug that felt better than any they’d shared before.

“You’re okay,” Riley whispered. She pulled back to look up at his pallid face. She almost couldn’t believe it when she lifted her hands and placed them against skin that was warm with life and that, somehow, in some intangible way, felt more real. Because it was. He was.

“What the hell is going on?” he asked.

Riley leaned closer and whispered, “The man who took you—Brett—I think he’s the one who attacked Ella.”

Asher’s eyes widened. Before he could reply, a hand—Noah’s hand—softly clapped him on the back. “Glad you’re okay, man.”

Brett’s scoff interrupted their reunion. “Do you see now, Ella?” he asked. “I told you that day that I’m the only one who will always choose you.” He lifted the knife again, pointing it toward her. “I’m the only one who will put you first.”

Ella’s only response was to press herself further into the wall. Riley would have put herself between the woman and the psycho with the knife, but Asher was leaning against her in a way that suggested he’d collapse if she moved away.

“Why are you doing this?” The question came from Ella, and it was almost too quiet to hear. “Why did you hurt Asher?”

“Oh, Ella,” Brett sighed. “He was never in any real danger from me.”

Riley thought the cuts on his arms, legs, and chest were evidence against that, but she bit her tongue.

“And I wouldn’t have had to keep him locked in that spell for this long if you’d just come like you were meant to after I took him. If you’d only spiritwalked then, I never would have had to even put him in it in the first place.” He sighed like he was disappointed with her. “I had it all planned out. It would have been just like when we met. Both of us in the spirit plane, just the two of us, no friends, no family, no distractions. Just us. It was so simple, but you refused to come, even after I left his watch in your bedroom for you to find.”

Riley frowned. “If you wanted her to find you so badly, why did you block her?” If he hadn’t done so, they could have found Asher weeks earlier.

“Because even he can’t see or touch me in the dream plane,” Ella explained, her voice thin, and Brett nodded like a proud teacher.

“Exactly, which is why I set up the wards that you’d only be able to break through while spiritwalking. As soon as you’d broken through, I could feel it. It was just a pity I wasn’t here when you came. This isn’t how I wanted us to meet again.” He jerked his chin at Riley and the others.

“You kidnapped me just to draw Ella here?” Asher asked, his face twisting into an expression of disgust. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Brett laughed at that, the sound gratingly arrogant. “I would do anything for Ella. Could you say the same?” He shook his head like he already knew the answer was no. “Of course not. She told me about you, you know. She’s in love with you, but there you are, in the arms of someone else.”

Riley’s brows drew together. What? she thought as she eased the phone out of the back pocket of her shorts. With Asher practically on top of her, it was easy enough to hide what she was doing behind his back.

“What?” Ella asked aloud.

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