Page 92 of Light As A Feather
“This is for your girl? You should have led with that. I’m absolutely on board with this plan.”
“Wait, Solaneen is back?” Becca’s attention sharpens as her eyes meet mine. “Why didn’t you tell us immediately?”
“I was going to, but things have been…chaotic.”
“You can’t just be vague.” On the edge of her seat, Becca demands details. “Hawthorne, this is oursoap opera—no offense—but you know we’re invested in this.”
“She’s right. You’ve waxed poetic over her for years. Told us your whole goddamned life story, and you don’t give us possibly the biggest update ever? Kind of fucking rude, don’t you think?” Stasi backs her up.
“I know, I know. And I promise, I’ll give you both the full play-by-play next time I visit. But this is urgent. She’s not safe for long.” They’re right, they’re invested in this, too. I owe them updates.
“Fine,next time.” Becca sinks back into the couch, defeated but understanding.
“I’m not super well-versed in binding spells, or the death magic slash paranormal side of things, but theoretically you’re going to need something that’s significant to that person, or an object that’s already pretty powerful on its own.”
“I’ve got that part covered. I’m just not too sure about the rest.”
“Well, in my opinion, a lot of spell work comes down to intent. And, I know you say you don’t dabble in this stuff, but I feel like the fact that you came back from the dead, and you have your whole freaky half-ghost thing going on, you’ve started from a pretty strong place.”
“You can’t really be half-ghost, but?—”
“Not the point. The pointis, that whether you exercise it or not, you’ve got a foothold in the occult that’ll work to youradvantage. You shouldn’t have any trouble with a binding spell when you’re dealing with pure spiritual energies on the regular.”
“That’s good, I guess. So, how do I do it?”
Stasi stands, grabbing a pen and paper. “Let me write out a spell you can use.”
“This will work?” I ask, hopeful but cautious, as she hands me the paper.
“I think so. Emphasis on thethink. But like I said, this isn’t really my area of expertise. Personally, I would probably get a secondary source.”There’s no time for that.She sits back down, resting her hand on Becca’s knee, but not fully relaxing into the couch. “You know, if you really want to be sure that”—she bites her lip—“you know what, never mind.”
“You can’t do that.” I level her with a ‘spit it out’ look.
“It’s kind of deranged. Don’t judge me,” Stasi warns as she holds up her hands in innocence. “I’ve never dabbled in it, but I have done a bit of…research.” Becca turns to face her. “If you want to make him suffer first, you could trap him in a body.”
“Anastasia Eden, are you insinuating that he should not onlytorturesomeone, butkillsomeone in the process?” Becca protests.
She’s horrified, but when I turn to Stasi, there’s a fire in her eyes that I recognize, a desire to protect what’s hers but also the need to make them pay.
“Tell me more.”
“Well, for starters, you’d need to convince him to possess the living person. How the hell you’d do that, I have no idea. You’ll have one chance to trap him.” I nod, encouraging her to continue. “Once he’s in there, you’ll use the object to anchor him there.”
“Then?”
“I mean…then you do your thing, whatever that entails.” She avoids Becca’s prying gaze. “And then obviously, you’d have to kill them, pretty straightforward stuff.”
“Right, just casually kill someone,” I laugh. It’s not that I’m unwilling, like I said, I’ll do anything for Sol. But finding someone, that’s a whole other story.
“Yeah, you know.” Stasi waves her hand flippantly. “If you need a target, go to any frat party and I assure you, you’ll find someone you have no problem removing from this earth.”That’s not going to happen. I’m way too old for that. But it gives me an idea.
“How the hell do you know so much about this?” Becca asks.
“Just dabbled in a little harmless research, Angel. Nothing to worry your pretty little head about.” Stasi cups her cheek. “I’m not hiding anything, I promise.”
A look passes between them, but the tension recedes.
“I’m really grateful you never truly hated me.” Becca shudders but laughs all the same. She sees Stasi exactly for who she is, and while they’ve really been through it, it’s obvious she wouldn’t change a thing about her. That’s the kind of unconditional love most people spend their entire lives trying to find. They’re so lucky they found it in death.
