Page 39 of Unhinged Magic
“Skip, what is it?” A frown pursed his brows together, a mixture of uncertainty and interest in his tone.
“I mean it,” I affirmed. If I was going to have this conversation with him, which I needed to do before we summoned Landon, I needed to know he was in the right headspace. Ready to deal with what I said next. “Promise.”
He let go of a long breath and nodded firmly. “Okay. I promise.”
I curled my fingers through his, feeling the reciprocal squeeze back.
“I think Landon whispered‘mate’in my ear the other night.”
Wesley’s already-chiseled jaw knotted, but, apart from that, his expression remained impassive. If it wasn’t for his pupils blowing wide, I would have believed he was unaffected by this information. He was holding it together. Just.
I continued. “I thought I imagined it, but now, I think I may have been wrong.”
I braced myself for what would come next, expecting Wesley to fly off the handle. Instead, his grip released mine, his fingers white-knuckling the fabric over his knees. His eyes slid shut.
“What does this mean?” he said lowly, his nostrils flared, an unfamiliar edge in his tone. “He’s dead, I’m not. How can this be possible?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t get it either. But before we do this, I just wanted you to know.”
Long moments of silence passed, and I held my breath.
His lips pressed into a line, hands flattening against his thighs. His eyes shifted back to mine with new determination in them. “Let’s just do this.”
Wesley
Everyfiberinmethreatened to combust.
Those fucking words.
'Whispered‘mate’in my ear.'
I had never come so close to losing my shit in my life. If I was a mage with an affinity for fire, I would have burned this manor to the ground. Instead, I sat there, stuck in my head, my own thoughts threatening to swallow me whole. Feeling pathetic. Useless. This couldn’t be possible.
I had wondered if Skye seeing Landon’s spirit had something to do with our bond’s problem. But I hadn’t considered the thought Landon thought she washismate.
It made no sense. I hadn’t heard of anything like this before. But I knew this could not be dismissed so easily. Something was clearly wrong with the bond between us, and, so far, this was the only lead we had.
So here I was, sitting in a fucking abandoned manor in the middle of the forest, one I wasn’t one hundred percent sure I would return from alive, about to conjure my brother’s ghost, who apparently thoughtmymate was his.
This was so fucked up.
I sat silently as Skye reached for her bag, pulling out a wooden board that I instantly recognized as something I had only ever seen in the movies, an Ouija board.
She shuffled back to create a space between us, and I did the same. The room dipped to an eerie quiet as she placed the board between us, its presence a heavy pressure stifling the calm I so desperately tried to exude. Against the flicker of lit candles, our shadows danced across the bare walls of the room, like ghostly branches swaying, pushing against a nonexistent breeze.
When Skye stilled in front of me, our eyes locked, unspoken words passing between us.
“We need to place our fingers on this.” She held up what looked like a wooden triangle. “In the movies, it moves on its own as the spirit speaks to us.” She set it on the board, placing her index finger on top of it.
I did the same, drawing my gaze back up to meet hers. “I guess we’re about to find out if this is all bullshit or not.”
Skye’s forehead furrowed into subtle ripples, her brows pulling together. She adjusted her sweater with her free hand, tucked a stray hair behind her ear. Drawing in a steady breath, our eyes fell to the small triangle underneath the tips of our fingers, questions pursed on both our lips.
Would this work? Could we really bring Landon forward and sort this mess?
Skye’s voice broke through my thoughts, an unnatural caution edging her tone. “I call on the spirit of Landon to speak with us,” she said lowly.
We stared around the room, expectingsomethingto happen. A gust of wind, a flicker of a candle.
