Page 88 of Avelina

“Falon!” Markinius stammered. “How could you? She gave our family everything we have.”

“Well, maybe she shouldn’t have, Markus,” he snapped. “And Seleca was the one who trapped us in a Projection trance. You don’t know that she would have let us out. Look at Shane!” Falondeitric pointed at the bony man. “They were gonna let him starve to death. He used to be your friend until you got too important for him. I guess now that you’re Father’s right hand, things like that don’t matter to you anymore.”

Markinius glanced at Shane, then back at his brother with an expression of outrage. “That could be me or you,” Falondeitric continued, heedless of his brother’s ire. “I’m in. With or without you.”

The two brothers stared each other down, and my opinion of Falondeitric, which had teetered on the edge of contempt, rose considerably. He still hadn’t thanked me for setting him free, but he’d come close. He was reasonable, at least, which was more than I could say for Markinius.

Markinius threw his fork on his plate and rose from his chair, sliding it back so hard that it tipped over onto the floor with a crack. He stalked around the table in the opposite direction of Aaron. He had some sense, at least. He stomped to the front door, pushed it open, then stopped in his tracks.

The scene outside had transformed from a cold, wet night, to a complete whiteout. Snow had begun to fall more heavily sometime in the last hour and had already stacked two inches deep against the indentation made by the opening of the door. Falondeitric followed his brother to the door with Aaron on his heels. The rest of us trailed behind Aaron.

Markinius cried out in surprise, then bolted out into the snow.

“Markus!” Falondeitric howled at the empty doorway.

Aaron jumped to catch Falondeitric, forcibly holding him back. I came up behind them to peer out of the door, but Aaron held me back too.

Out in the snowstorm, a few dozen yards from the door, stood Seleca. She didn’t move when she saw us. She just stared, the snow swirling around her in an unnatural funnel. The flakes collected in her black hair, but she hardly seemed to notice.

Axel’s corpse was draped stiffly over her shoulder, and her clothes were disheveled, like she had been awakened from sleep.

Markinius forged a path through the clean snow and threw himself down in front of Seleca. He knelt before her, his head bowed, his hair and tunic thrown out sideways by the strange wind. Seleca grasped the front of his head, I presumed, to connect to him and learn what our group had just discussed.

Her eyes narrowed, and her hand clenched Markinius’s head. He cried out in pain, struggled against her in vain, then fell limp into the snow. Markinius had literally thrown himself at her feet and she had used him, then disposed of him like garbage.

“Markus!” Falondeitric screamed. He flailed, trying to escape Aaron’s grip.

“I can go,” I said. “I’ll put my shield up.”

“No, Lee,” Aaron said. “You’re too tired. You could pass out in the snow and your shield would come down. It’s too dangerous.”

I wanted to argue, but he was right. It had happened before, and I was dead tired.

“Fine, what then?”

“Just wait,” he said.

Spirit! I called. Why hadn’t she warned us that Seleca was coming? Where was she?

“I’m here,” she said. She appeared behind us, within the house. I turned to her, but she wasn’t as solid as usual. It was like the image of her was pixelated, and some of the pixels were burned out. “I’m sorry, Lina, I couldn’t come.”

“What do you mean? Why not? What happened, Spirit?”

“Seleca has Conjuration, like you. She’s had another ghost helping her this whole time and knew that I spied on her. That’s also how she knew about your reservoirs to begin with, but she kept me from reading that in her thoughts. I don’t know how. And this time she bound me, keeping me from coming to warn you. I couldn’t come until you called me directly.”

“But . . .” I began, but I didn’t need to ask why. I knew. I spun back to see Seleca smiling.

Seleca must have seen what we were going to do with her newly acquired Precognition. She’d waited for me to mix reservoirs with Ward. While he gave some of his Transformation to me, I had probably given him a little of all my reservoirs as well.

A rare combination of reservoirs, I thought. That’s what Ward had said. And now he had that combination too. My stomach dropped and suddenly I thought I might throw up. She had beaten me.

Seleca’s smile widened as she watched me figure out what had happened. “I told you he was my most useful asset,” she said, her face alight with triumph. “I finally have everything I need, and I have you to thank for it. Unlike this one”—Seleca chuckled as she patted the corpse she carried—“a living body that’s empty but still spirit-linked is necessary to let in the possessing soul, but that only happens if the body’s original owner had Conjuration. We almost had your body that first week when you let yourself drift out, but alas, we’ll have to go with plan B.”

“If you hurt Ward, I’ll kill you,” I said softly, knowing she would hear me.

Seleca laughed. “You’ve never played Daggers and Dragons before, have you?” she asked. Her reflective monster eyes shone a bright blue green in the darkness. “Let me give you a little tip. It’s nothing like chess.” She laughed again at that, then turned away and stalked into the swirling snow, disappearing onto a bridge beyond the view of my weak Earth eyes.

I cried out as if I had been slapped. My vision narrowed and I dropped to my knees in the blackened entryway. Oh, Ward, my friend. I’m so sorry. I’ve killed you. I’ve killed another one.

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