Page 31 of Langiappe & Lost Legends

“We will,” Dre promised as we left.

The drive to the morgue was tense. Noah kept shooting me concerned looks from the passenger seat. He was probably remembering the last time we investigated suspicious deaths. That case had involved a student of Phi’s, the Skinwalker, and too many close calls for my taste.

"Stop worrying," I told him. "We've got backup this time."

"Yeah," he replied dryly, "because having a Fae lord and a demon hunter along makes everything safer."

I couldn't argue with that logic. Especially when we arrived to find the morgue's front entrance twisted by what looked like a temporal hiccup. The air rippled and fractured like a broken mirror catching the moonlight. Each shard reflected a different era of the building's history. Through the distortions, decades flickered past like pages in a possessed photo album. Victorian ironwork dissolved into Art Deco columns, and then snapped back to modern concrete.

"Well, that's not ominous at all," Lia commented as we gathered at the side entrance.

Puich met us there. His tiny form vibrated with anxiety. The brownie's white tennis shoes were so pristine they practically glowed in the dim light. They made an amusing contrast with his professional sweater and jeans combo. He bounced on his toes. "Thank goodness you're here," he said as his brown hair flopped over one eye. "The bodies. They're wrong. All wrong. They keep changing."

"Changing how?" Dre asked as her healer's instincts clearly kicked in.

"Sometimes they're fresh," Puich explained as he led us inside. "Sometimes they look decades old. And sometimes..." he shuddered. "Sometimes they're not quite dead yet."

The morgue was eerily quiet except for the hum of fluorescent lights and the soft whir of cooling systems. Puich led us to a secured area where three bodies lay covered on separatetables. The residual magic was unmistakable the second we entered the room.

"They were found in different locations," he explained as he pulled back the first sheet. "But they all show the same markers. Watch."

As we looked on, the body seemed to shift. To my stomach's dismay, it cycled through different states of decay before our eyes. It was like watching time-lapse photography in reverse, then forward, then sideways.

"I’d bet anything this happened because they tried to forge a connection to the crystal," Phi said. Her detection equipment was going crazy. "These people were test subjects."

"Failed experiments," Xinar added grimly. "They were trying to replicate your family's natural bond with artificial means. That never ends well."

"No. They’re killing people in the process." Cyran's voice was hard and his expression was dour. "This ends now."

We were so focused on the bodies that we almost missed the temporal distortion forming near the door. Months of supernatural firefighting had honed our instincts. "Down!" I shouted as a bolt of corrupted magic sliced through the air where we'd been standing.

The attack came from multiple directions at once. Figures emerged from temporal rifts. They were more of those mirage-walkers we'd fought before. Only these were stronger and more focused. "They're here for one of us," Dre realized as she threw up a shield. "They need a sister to study the connection!"

"Over my dead body," Noah growled and moved to cover my flank.

The fight that erupted in that morgue would have been comical if it weren't so deadly. Puich darted between the attackers' legs, using his small size to trip them up. Cyran called up his elemental magic. The air around him crackledas he pulled moisture from it to form deadly ice spears while simultaneously commanding flames that danced between his fingers. Next to him, Xinar's specialized UIS weapons hummed with Underworld energy. They were able to cut through the temporal fields our enemies were using and end them in all timelines.

I caught glimpses of my sisters fighting in perfect sync. Lia and Kota were tag-teaming a mirage-walker while Phi and Dea combined their powers to collapse a forming time rift. Dre stuck close to me and followed up my spells with some of her own. Unfortunately, the assholes weren't really trying to fight us. They were herding us and separating us from each other. Too late, I realized they were focused on me.

"Dani!" Noah's warning came just as a temporal field engulfed me. The world went sideways. Reality bent like a fun house mirror. I caught a glimpse of Viktor standing in a doorway that shouldn't exist. His smile was sharp with triumph. Then everything exploded.

A wave of pure power ripped through the morgue, shattering the temporal fields and sending our attackers flying. Through the chaos, I saw Puich standing amid the destruction. His tiny form was glowing with ancient magic. My sisters were adding their power to the mix to create a magical nuclear bomb.

"Nobody," the brownie said firmly, straightening his sweater, "messes with my morgue."

The explosion ended the fight, and the mirage-walkers were left with no choice but to retreat through rapidly closing time rifts. Noah grabbed me before Viktor could and yanked me to safety. My heart hammered in my chest as I fought to calm my nerves.

"Everyone alive?" I called out as I sunk into Noah’s side.

A chorus of groans answered me. Dre was already moving among us, healing injuries and checking for damage. Puichfussed over his disturbed morgue, muttering about paperwork and proper procedures. "They're getting desperate," Cyran observed as he helped Xinar secure the area. "These attacks are becoming more focused."

"They need one of us to complete their ritual," I said as the realization hit me hard. "The prophecy said we're the crystal's true guardians. They're trying to force a connection through us."

"Which means we're running out of time," Lia added. "The Light Fae party is in two days. If they're getting desperate enough to attack us directly..."

"Then the party is definitely going to be their target," I finished for her. "But they don't know about our trap."

"Or about the prophecy," Phi pointed out. "We need to get back to Marie. Find out what else that book says."

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