Page 5 of Delinquents Turned Fugitives
I’d never been fully depleted before.
I mentally yanked at my hands, trying to stop the flow of magic—my heart pounded in my chest and my mind careened like a raft through the rapids—every ounce of my existence focused on trying to shove that magic back, even as I heard the ghost control my lips.
He made me smile and say, “I’m going to kill you all.” A laugh I didn’t recognize spilled out of my mouth as the ghost turned me to face my team and slowly lifted my hand higher, shoving out more magic, making my entire body quake as my magic changed and the glow disappeared from my hand.
Wait? What?I felt the pull on my magic. But I didn’t see the normal stream of light or shadow emanating from my palm. I flipped on my infrared vision, but there was nothing there, though I could feel the power leeching out of me. I turned on my X-ray vision and saw my team turn into a pack of skeletons trading magical shots with Ginny until she screamed in pain. But still, my hands didn’t look like they held an ounce of power.
I switched my vision to the end of the spectrum, past X-ray and into lethal territory.
Gamma radiation. The ghost had turned on my most lethal weapon.
No! Fucking no!
My soul scrabbled and my body spasmed as I tried to figure out exactly how to expel this fucker …
“She’s possessed!” Malcolm was the first to figure it out.
“I can’t see,” I heard Evan moan in the background, making alarm shoot through my system. Had my light …? I couldn’t even think it.
I had to stop this ghost.
Had to.
Instead of turning off my magic—which the undead asshole had somehow turned up to full blast so that it was raging out of me like I was a damned fire hydrant—I simply tried to flip the switch.
Light to shadow. One power to the other. My shadows couldn’t hurt the guys.
As soon as my power swapped in one hand, I felt suction on my bones, as if a vacuum was trying to swallow me—trying but slipping.
My consciousness expanded and, suddenly, my mind didn’t feel quite as crowded as before. It didn’t feel as small.
I succeeded at curling my fingers in, but only slightly.
Somehow, I’d seized back control of myself.
The ghost barreled into my psyche. Even though the match was internal, I felt each one of his movements as though they were real, as if we were two bodies fighting inside my own personal, virtual reality. I felt it when he punched my soul and kicked my spirit just as if we were facing off in a boxing ring. As we grappled inside my head, my body seized, quaking. My power shifted from light to shadow and back again as each of us tried to decimate the other and wrest control away.
How can I kill a ghost?
Even though my head was a battlefield, my body’s eyes registered Claude blasting the team with fire and Ginny’s light filling the space so that the round vault door gleamed silver.
I heard Z groan as something hit him and my panic ratcheted up.
Evan had already been hit. Now Z.
Fuck. Are we even going to be able to make it out of here?My moment of doubt cost me as the ghoul inside my head grabbed my will and twisted. It felt like he was trying to wring me out, squeeze until there was nothing left. It felt as though my spine started to break, as if my willpower was snapping.
No.
An animal side of me—one I never even knew existed—roared to life. Never before had I truly felt seconds from death. But as the ghost’s cold bore down on me, rage soared through me, giving me a burst of primal energy and somehow— impossibly—I yanked out of his grip. I became feral as I fought, ripping at this phantom, shredding his essence with claws that somehow sprouted in my mind, claws as vicious and wild as a vampire’s.
Blackness took over my thoughts.
And my hands finally went completely dark.
My power, which had been on the verge of flickering out, soared to life. Shadows swallowed the room, coating everything in impenetrable ebony—even Ginny’s magical light. Shadows swirled inside my head and filled every crevice of my mental battlefield.
I felt the ghost flicker inside me.
Then he went out like a light—shoved out of my body.
And I realized … ghosts existed on the light spectrum.
He couldn’t exist in pure darkness. Pure shadow.
A wild laugh escaped my lips. The irony of ghosts, and all the haunted tales that took place at night, the idea that ghosts existed in darkness … it was a lie.
I turned in the direction I’d last seen Claude and Ginny. I heard their shallow breathing and a deadly smile crossed my face.
It was time for my stepfather to get exactly what was coming to him.
