Page 7 of A Lost Light

It would be best to try to get back to the original portal I had created, but that would mean traveling through the capitol building and the length of the city without being caught. We would definitely get caught now that an alarm had probably been raised. And being caught would mean needing to flex our power in a way that reallywouldpaint us as villains.

So, I let go of the power that was sustaining that portal, and concentrated on slowly, painfully ripping a new tear in the fabric of the realm from right here. I had to get through more magic and protections here. But the chorus members who fed the wards were currently downed, I was a Lovell with a link to several powerful beings, and I had rage on my side. I managed.

Aahil stepped through first, his precious cargo clutched in his hands, quickly followed by Niamh as she guarded his rear. The others followed rapidly after them, but I hung back, making sure everyone got out.

Elijah took refuge inside his anchoring charm once more. Dyre approached slowly, the black fading from his eyes until only violet remained. He glanced back over his shoulder, drawing my attention to an angel. One who had been stabbed by a cultist, and was lying off to the side in a puddle of blood.

He arched a red brow at me, and I hesitated, my mind in turmoil.

“We could help him,” I said, like a good person should. Even though I really didn't feel it.

Dyre shook his head. “No. We couldn't. He died exactly twenty-three seconds ago. And counting. Your first aid would be too late. It's only a corpse now. An… empty vessel.”

I swallowed hard. Dyre's ability to perceive life and death was apparentlyveryaccurate. I reached up and clasped the charm that hung around my neck, felt the surge of Elijah's power. He could hear us. Could see or at least sense some of what went on around him if he tried.

“Elijah,” I whispered. “Speak up now, or we're doing this.”

The charm remained silent and inert.

“Good enough for me,” I muttered, surging into action.

Dyre and I each grabbed an ankle, and we dragged the angel's corpse through the portal behind us.

Chapter 4

Dyre

The corpse guard I had previously animated paused in his patrol of the courtyard for mere seconds when we stumbled through Andy's unsteady portal between realms and into the pocket world. Recognizing his master's magic signature, he resumed his sedate shuffle.

Andy waved a hand, and the portal snapped shut with a sizzling sound like displaced electricity. We all waited for a few breathless moments, but it seemed no one had followed us home.

I dropped the ankle of the new corpse I had helped Andy drag home and glanced down to study it, now that I had a moment to do a more thorough inventory. The others were talking around me, arguing over what we planned to do, but I tuned them out.

Solving magical puzzles was one of my favorite activities. It was something I'd been trained for since I was a child—how to best put my creepy—but undeniably strong—magic to use. But what I was currently proposing was so far beyond anything I'd done before. Similar to animating a corpse using my necromancer talents… but different. So very different.

My creations weren'talive.They didn't have souls or a real, working consciousness. Sometimes I built upon an echo of left behind magic, if the corpse was fresh enough. But mostly, the animation magic was all my own. Well, mine and Sunny's. But that was pretty much one and the same after all this time.

However, anchoring an intact soul into a body was new for me. It was dangerous territory. The sort of black magic that the magical community would insist was impossible, and which would probably get me beheaded if anyone knew I could do it.

CouldI do it?

Probably.

Anchoring Elijah's soul to the finger bone in his current anchoring charm had been mildly challenging, but notdifficult.And what was a dead body, after all, besides an empty vessel waiting to be filled?

I pressed my lips together as I took stock of the body, ignoring the chatter around me. There was just the one stab wound. That shouldn't be too difficult to remedy. The flesh was still almost alive—humming a bit with the last leftover remnants of its previous inhabitant's magic. It always felt to me as if the newly dead bodies wereyearningfor a short window of time after their death, something in them open and begging for their soul to return. Maybe the last spark of neurons firing or consciousness fading. Who knows? But all I had to do was convince this vessel that the soul of our spook was the one it longed for.

There may be rejection.Sunny said in my mind. His thoughts cool and clinical.We've neverreturneda soul before. There is no guarantee this will work.I picked up on the rest of his meaning without the need for him to speak it to me.

There was no guarantee this wouldn't hurt or damage Elijah in some strange, unexpected way. He might even come completely untethered and die for real this time.

I pulled my attention from the brown-haired corpse on the ground and spoke, interrupting the argument Andy was currently having with the rest of her harem. “If we're going to do this, we need to get to it now. The window of opportunity is closing.”

Niamh, who had been right up in Andy's face growling and gesticulating like a madwoman, let out a frustrated snort, spun and stomped away. Apparently, the fae thought what we were about to do was “unnatural.”

I wasn't fazed. Everything about me was considered “unnatural” or “creepy.” I was used to being the abomination in the room. No one ever seemed to get that what I could dowasnatural to me. But none of that mattered just now. What mattered was that the barely tangible thing that made for an easy connection to the body at my feet was fading fast.

Andy glanced around at the loose circle of people in the courtyard. The gargoyle was silent, but his expression was strained, as if he didn't quite know which side to take. Aahil seemed more concerned with the nullifier he was carrying than the drama playing out before him. He huffed and sat down cross-legged on a stone bench to prod at the box that held his treasure. Hasumi seemed as tranquil as ever, watching us as if we were talking about the weather.

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