I inhaled and gulped. “Then let’s do this.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
The air shimmered around us as dusk fell in earnest.
In the center of the circle, Amethyst raised her hands to the sky and murmured an incantation I’d never heard before.
A chill swept over the clearing, and all around the circle, my friends’ eyes widened. The shift in energies and vibrations resonating around us was unlike any I’d ever experienced. I suspected that it was something only Amethyst could tap into, but the rest of us could sense to some extent or another.
“On this eve, we ask that the veil thin,” Amethyst began. “All those who have passed before us, hear our plea and put us in touch with the one we seek.” Her hands twirled through the air in a predictable pattern, and once again, Amethyst began murmuring words in another language.
The cold penetrated all the way to my bones, and a shiver dashed down my spine. Any moment now, my time to call the ghost would come.
It happened faster than I expected, with a snap of the air and a crackle of lights blooming from Amethyst’s hands. The tiny flames of the candles surged up to hip-height, and then shrank back down to nothing but a whisper of flame.
Amethyst dropped her hands to her side and her gaze shifted between Eva and me. She nodded, and I raised the silver blade to my palm.
“With this offering, I call the spirit of Hell’s blood. The spirit of my blood.Crucilarva.”
Eva murmured the same words and the incantation. Together, we sliced the blade across our palms and knelt so that droplets of crimson would soak into the stones.
The guys tensed and stood at the ready. Eva and I locked eyes, unable to tell if what we had done had worked or not. Amethyst seemed half in this world and half not as she gazed at the stars just beginning to pop in the darkening sky.
The seconds ticked on. The cold grew more persistent until my bones seemed to vibrate with it. When I couldn’t take it a second longer, I opened my mouth to ask if we had done something wrong.
Amethyst lifted a finger to her lips, her eyes still firmly on the sky. I closed my mouth, confused.
Then I heard it. A low keening ringing through the forest outside Spellcasters, lifting the hairs on the back of my neck.
My eyes shot to Amethyst. Her lips were curled up, and when she caught my gaze, she gave a single nod.
A thrill ran through me. One immediately tempered by the shackles of fear.
The ghost was coming.
The guys stood motionless, their eyes searching and hands limp at their sides as if they were only bodies to fill the circle. Eva and I dropped our blades to the ground, and a heartbeat later a flash of white appeared over the evergreen pines. It soared from the direction of the school and drew closer and closer with every passing second. My breath caught in my chest, and before I knew it, the ghost was there, hovering around the edges of the salt circle. I hadn’t seen him when he’d possessed Amethyst, but I recognized his energy. The same malevolent vibrations I felt that day rolled off of him now in terrible waves of hate, fear, and malice. I shuddered. This was no regular ghost. His rightful home was in Hell and his time here was, hopefully, short.
“Someone called?” the ghost’s eyes, white as frost bore through me.
“I called you,” I replied. “And as your master’s essence runs through me, I insist that you join us in the circle.”
The ghost laughed, but it was a front. My words had affected him because the way he floated right outside the salt barrier had changed. Before my command, he’d hovered stock-still. Now he seemed to be vibrating. He was fighting the effect of my words and Ishtar’s essence running through me.
This might just work.
“So this is what happens when one whothinksshe knows the ghosts, tries to call one?” His tone was snide, meant to wound Amethyst. “It is not enough for you towantme to join you. Your call is not strong enough. Your power is not alluring enough.” The ghost laughed, low and evil. “I might fly away at any moment.”
Shit.I darted a glance Amethyst. Unlike me, she didn’t look worried. No, Amethyst met my gaze with a hardened expression and nodded down to where I had dropped the blade.
“We’ll see about that.” I scooped up the dagger and dug the blade deeper into my skin. My blood welled, red and bright in the candle’s flame. I tilted my hand, and a few ruby drops poured over the crystal.
A sound between a moan and a cry of indignation rang from the ghost’s mouth. “You’re no match for—”
I squeezed my hand and another trickle of crimson ran over the stone.
The ghost gurgled, and unwillingly, he jerked into the confines of the circle.
“Now!” Amethyst screamed.
