Bone Cold: A Soul Shamans Novel (Volume 2), page 21
“A fighter until the very end,” he said. “If only you’d joined me when you had the chance.”
“Where is Nathan?” I asked him through gritted teeth.
“Oh, don’t worry. He’s inside.” Anthony dragged me toward the barn door and threw me into the darkness. A moment later, the door slid shut behind us, and a match sparked to light. It illuminated the dusty corners of the barn, the headstone in the middle of the floor, and a crouched figure squirming on the ground. My heart shuddered inside my chest.
“Nathan?” I shuffled forward.
The head turned, and through the shadows, I could see how very wrong I was. It was George.
“Hello. I am here, Holly Bennett.” Nathan stepped out of the shadows, his voice oddly flat and dull. There was a strange blankness to his expression, almost as if his emotions had been turned off. Almost as if this was a robot version of himself, one I couldn’t recognize as the boy I’d fallen for.
“Nathan?” I started forward, but Anthony held me back by my bonds. A tear leaked out of my eye and burned a hot trail down my cheek. “What’s going on? What have they done to you?”
“Holly,” George hissed. “Get out of here. Run.”
“Holly isn’t going anywhere,” Anthony said from behind me just as Mary stepped over to Nathan’s side. She gave me a wicked grin and place a long, sharp knife against his throbbing throat.
“Don’t do it,” I said quickly, my head roaring with static. “I’ll be the sacrifice instead. Just let him go, and you can do whatever you want to me.”
“We were hoping you’d say that, Holly,” Anthony said, tugging me around to face him. “But I don’t think you’re getting the full read on the situation here.”
“Holly, you need to get out of here,” George whispered, her voice raw and full of pain.
Anthony was right. I had no idea what the hell was going on. How was George here, a prisoner like myself? Hadn’t she been involved in this whole thing from the start?
“Tell me what you’ve done to my boyfriend,” I said, staring at the glint in Anthony’s eyes, now much sharper and deeper than I’d ever seen it before.
“We’ve merged Nathan’s body with a being of Lower World.” His mouth widened into a smile. I believe you know the one. Anannan, the spirit who betrayed me in order to help you.”
Choking, I jerked back. I shook my head, refusing to believe what I’d heard. There was no way this could be true. The rift couldn’t be Nathan. It had to be Anthony. This was just another one of his tricks meant to send me crumbling to my knees.
“You’re lying,” I said around a sob that got lodged in my throat. “I know the benefits of merging with a spirit. Eternal life. There’s no way you’d give that kind of gift to anyone else.”
“That’s only part of the story, Holly Bennett.” He jerked me around to face Nathan. “Look into his eyes. Tell me you can’t see Anannan in his gaze.”
Nathan lifted his eyes to meet mine, and my entire body turned to ice. The familiar softness I’d always seen in them was gone, replaced by stone. He blinked at me, his lips neither lifting into a smile or falling into a frown. Nothing about the boy I loved was there.
“No,” I whispered.
“I’m sorry, Holly,” George groaned from the floor. “All I wanted to do was save Nathan. I tried to keep him away from them. Nothing I did worked.”
I blinked down at her through my tears. “But you put up that barrier to keep us out. Why didn’t you just tell us what was going on?”
“This whole time they’ve been watching and waiting for me to screw something up.” She shifted on the floor, revealing the patch of blood underneath her body. “I thought I could help Nathan, but I was wrong.”
“What about that explosion?” My hands shook, my mind reeled. None of this made any sense. “You killed a bunch of innocent men.”
She shook her head. “That explosion wasn’t me. I barely managed to get us out in time, but they were waiting for us when I did.”
I shifted my glare to Mary, where she held the blade to Nathan’s throat. This whole time my anger and energy had been directed at the wrong person. I had a feeling this was exactly what Anthony had planned from the start. He’d created a distraction so he could weave his revenge.
“What about all that other stuff you’ve done?” I asked. “The fires, the tarot cards, the girl in the woods?”
George slumped and shook her head. “Those are all very long stories, and they’re not at all how people have made them sound.”
“Okay that’s enough. It’s time for you to do what I brought you here to do.” Anthony held onto my bonds and pushed me a step closer to Nathan. “See, your sources are a little off in their information. Nathan will receive eternal life, but only humans can merge with spirits. Luckily for us, the moment he becomes immortal, the sorceress and the shaman who combined their powers will also reap the benefits of the conversion. That’s me and Mary here, and we’ve got the rune book to finalize the spell, thanks to you.”
“They need a willing sacrifice,” George said, voice weak. “I refused. So, now they’ve come after you.”
“Well, I’m not going to do it either,” I said, gritting my teeth. “You can both go to hell for all I care.”
“Ah, but you won’t allow your boyfriend to go to hell, will you?” Anthony whispered into my ear, causing shivers to course along every inch of my skin. “Agree to be his sacrifice or we will shove that knife right into his pretty little neck.”
A cry lodged in my throat when Mary shoved the blade deeper into Nathan’s neck, the end piercing his skin. Blood pooled around the sharp metal, but Nathan didn’t even flinch, too overwhelmed by his spirit side to feel anything at all. My whole body shook as I fought to find the right words inside my head. The angel on my right shoulder and the demon on the other had gone eerily silent. They didn’t know what to do, and neither did I.
“You wouldn’t.” I finally found my voice. “He’s your ticket to immortality. You won’t kill him and lose your chance to live forever.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Mary said from Nathan’s side.
“She’s not lying,” George said in a rush. “They’ve already done this before with someone else. They created another merge to bring some spirits through as a test. That’s how Megan died at the beach, and your friend’s mom. All of that happened before they merged a spirit with Nathan.”
“What happened to that other person?” I whispered.
“That merge was merely a test,” Anthony said. “He was disposed of once he did his part. That’s why you’re here now. I didn’t want to leave Holly Bennett, the girl who killed me, out of my path to immortality. Nathan will become our permanent rift by the spilling of your blood.”
“You’re crazy.”
“If you don’t make the sacrifice,” Mary said, “all three of you will die, and we’ll move onto another town and merge another pair of bodies. It’ll be even easier now that the Lower World spirits have a thirst for this world.”
“If you make the sacrifice,” Anthony whispered into my ear, “Nathan will never die.”
“And George?” I asked around the lump in my throat. “You’ll let her go, too?”
“Holly, you can’t do this.” George raised her head and met my eyes in the darkness. “The rift will destroy everything. Nathan isn’t even Nathan anymore. Not like this.”
“If that’s what it takes to get you to agree to your sacrifice,” Anthony said, “then yes, we’ll let George go.”
“Okay.” I took a deep breath and forced myself to say the words that would save my boyfriend’s life but be the end of mine. “If you let her go first, I’ll do it.”
“Holly, you can’t.” George struggled against the floor when Mary went to her side and hauled her up from the dirt. “Listen to me. If they make this spell permanent, the rift will destroy all of the Borderland. Nothing will be able to stop those demons from attacking humans anytime they want.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered as a tear leaked out of my eye. “I can’t let him die, George.”
Mary swung open the barn door and tossed George onto the boardwalk. She fell to her knees with a sharp crunch, crying out my name as I turned away. George might be right, but Nathan couldn’t die, not because I refused to do whatever it took to save him. Maybe he’d never be the same again, but my dad and Constantine and Laura would find a way to undo the spell. They had to.
“Everyone freeze right where they are,” my dad’s voice rumbled into the barn.
My heart leapt into my throat just as Anthony whipped me in front of him, his dagger piercing the skin on my neck.
“Bad idea, Hank,” Anthony’s voice was as sharp as his blade. “I have your daughter in here.”
“Everyone calm down now.” Constantine edged into the room, the rifle in his hands glinting against the sun. “Lombardi, you’re surrounded. There’s no way out of this.”
There was a thump, and a sharp cry from outside. I froze, breath held in my throat. Dad appeared next to Constantine, an unconscious Mary slumped in his arms. “We’ve got your friend here, Anthony. Don’t do anything rash.”
Anthony chuckled and pressed the blade into my neck. “She isn’t my friend. You should know better than that, Hank.”
My dad’s gaze swept through the barn, recognition lighting his eyes when he spotted Nathan, who was still a frozen statue in the corner.
“Nathan, son,” he said, gesturing for my boyfriend to join his side. Anthony dug the dagger deeper into my skin, and I bit hard against the inside of my cheeks. I wouldn’t show Anthony my fear. I wouldn’t show Anthony my pain. “Come on, son. It’s okay to come out.”
“He won’t listen to you, Hank,” Anthony said. “I’d be more worried about your daughter if I were you. She agreed to be a sacrifice for Nathan, isn’t that right? Now that her words have bound her to this, all she has to do is die, and the merge will become permanent.”
My dad’s face fell as he drank in the situation, eyes flicking from Nathan, to me, to Anthony. “Holly, what’s he talking about?”
“Dad, I’m sorry.” I choked on my words. “They threatened to kill Nathan if I didn’t agree to it.”
“What is the meaning of this, Lombardi?” Constantine growled, taking a step into the barn.
Anthony tsked and dug the knife deeper into my skin, sending sharp waves of pain through my throat. I choked and closed my eyes, waiting for the inevitable to happen.
“They’ve merged Nathan with the spirit.” George’s weak voice filtered into the barn. “They needed a willing sacrifice to make the spell final. Holly agreed.”
“John,” my dad barked. “Take the shot.”
“But he has Holly.” Constantine stood frozen in the doorway. “I could miss.”
“Not Anthony.” My dad’s voice was hard. “Destroy the rift. Now.”
The whole world morphed into slow motion as my dad’s words sunk in. Constantine’s eyes widened, and I pulled against Anthony’s vice-like grip, his knife digging into my throat. I had to stop Constantine. He would do it. I knew he would.
Constantine hesitated, his finger playing across the trigger.
“No, Constantine,” I whispered through the tears pouring down my throat. “Please don’t.”
His eyes met my gaze, unblinking. Eyes full of pain and fear and something else. He ripped those eyes away from me and lifted the gun toward us, aiming at Anthony’s head.
“I won’t shoot him, Bennett,” Constantine said through gritted teeth.
“That is a direct order, John.”
Constantine shook his head.
My dad cursed under his breath, raised his gun, and aimed it at Nathan. My heart thundered in my ears.
“No, dad,” I breathed. “You can’t.”
My father pulled the trigger. The shaman bullet soared through the air and slammed into Nathan’s chest. His breath whooshed out of his throat as his eyes widened, showing emotion for the first time since I’d seen him tonight. Fear, surprise, pain. He stared at me and whispered something, but the roar in my ears blocked out the last sound Nathan would ever make as he crumpled to the floor.
CHAPTER 26
In the chaos, Constantine managed to get a shot off at Anthony. His aim was perfect, as always, and the magical force slammed right into his forehead. Anthony didn’t live, not this time. Neither did Nathan. I watched in horror as his body split into a million pieces and melted into the dirty, warped floor. No one seemed to know if his soul tore apart because of the magic or because he’d been half-spirit, but I didn’t care.
All I knew it was over. And in the end, the person who had destroyed Nathan was the one person I never thought would do something like that to me. My father.
“I’m sorry, Holly,” my father said, trying to get me off the barn floor where I’d curled up into a ball. “It was the only way to destroy the rift. If Nathan had been left to live, the spirit attacks would never end.”
“Just leave me alone.” My throat felt raw.
“John,” my father said, finally leaving me alone with my grief. “You disobeyed a direct order in a critical situation. I’m sorry, son, but you’re fired.”
“Fine by me.” A moment later, my body was lifted from the floor as Constantine’s strong arms wrapped around me. I leaned my head against his shoulder and closed my eyes. I couldn’t face the world. Not right now. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to again.
***
A month had passed, and the snow had finally begun to melt. Huddling on the hillside, I gazed around at the sparse grass and the rows upon rows of stone. I leaned over the small mound before me, a gift from Edmund Cutter to Nathan’s family, and pressed my lips to the name.
Here lies Nathan Whitman. Beloved son and gifted artist. May he rest in peace.
There was no body in the ground, of course. My father’s weapon had made sure of that. There was nothing left of Nathan Whitman in this world other than the bittersweet memories that were already beginning to fade from my mind, like photographs of an era before I was born.
Constantine said it was my brain’s way of dealing with the grief. That one day, when I was ready, I could unlock those memories and celebrate the time I’d spent with Nathan, as short as it had been.
Laura dropped to her knees by my side and slung an arm around my shoulder. I leaned into her hug, letting the tears fall from my eyes. Despite the fading memories, the wound felt as fresh as it had the night my father killed Nathan. It was a feeling I was sure would never fade, no matter how much time would pass.
“These flowers are from George.” Laura placed a handful of white lilies onto the stone surface. It turned out George was wracked with more guilt than my father was. She insisted Nathan had been under her protection, and she should have been able to stop Anthony Lombardi from capturing him. She’d wanted to teach Nathan how to bottle up his spirit side so he could live a normal human life. Everything she’d done had been to protect him, even from us.
If only I’d just trusted her.
After that night, George had explained everything to me. There’d been a massive rivalry between the Proctor family and the Glover family, a centuries-long struggle that dated back to the Salem witch trials. George’s family only tapped a pure kind of magic that focused on nature and balance while Mary Glover’s family wanted nothing more than power, no matter the cost. The only Glover to break away from the dark arts was Wanda, who’d just wanted to run a magic shop in a quiet little town called Seaport. When Mary found out Wanda was trying to help us, Anthony had used a rune to lure Nathan there so his spirit side could take her out.
Her own family had been responsible for her death.
“Have you heard from the Wardwell sorceress?” I asked, referring to the woman Laura had been in contact with online. She’d come to Seaport to break down the barrier spell that night but high-tailed it out of there when she realized exactly what was going on in this town and which sorceress family we were up against.
“No.” Laura sighed and sat back on her heels. “What about your dad?”
My veins turned to steel at the mention of my father. “He’s still MIA. I guess he thinks he’s protecting me from that stupid tarot card reading.”
“Well, I think the reading was right, you know.” She brushed her fingers along the edge of Nathan’s grave. “His being in your life did lead to a young person’s death. Just not yours.”
My heart burned, and a new batch of grief flamed in my belly. “I will never forgive him.”
“He was only trying to save you. Trying to save all of us.”
“He killed Nathan.”
Red filled my eyes. The image of Nathan’s body exploding into nothingness was something I’d never be able to forget. It replaced all the memories of his easy smile, of his laugh, of his drawings he’d made just for me. Not only had my father killed the only boy I’d ever loved, he’d erased every sweet moment with a vicious memory that overwhelmed everything else in my mind.
Laura squeezed my shoulder and stood. “Try not to stay out here too long tonight.”
I gave her a halfhearted nod and dropped my head into my hands. Time passed in a blur. Other people came and went all around me, but the only thing in my mind was the shatter of Nathan’s soul and the way his fragments had melted into the dust-painted barn.
A sudden chill swept across my skin, and I glanced up at the world around me. The cemetery had gone dark and the moon was high in the sky. All the visitors from earlier had disappeared back to their regular lives. Shivers raced down my spine as a cool breeze touched my face and fluttered the hair on the back of my neck. Everything else was still, even the brittle leaves on the ground. My pulse jumped against my throat. I wasn’t alone here. There was someone—or something—else around. My eyes darted to the shadows, and every muscle in my body ached to run.
But something in my gut told me that whatever was out here didn’t mean me harm.
Someone settled on the ground beside me. The scent of cinnamon and aftershave tickled my nose, and I knew without looking who was there. It was only Constantine, nothing more and no one else. Suddenly, my heart felt more hollow than it ever had before. For a moment there, I’d thought…I shook my head. That was impossible.
