—Val launched out of me, diving into the lightning rod—
—just as I hurled it with all my strength—
—adding his spirit, his soul into the weapon.
“No!” I yelled, reaching for Val, trying to grab his spirit. But the ghost slipped through my fingers, lost in the weapon’s magic.
Mother Hush lunged, jaws snapping.
Too late. Much too late.
The lightning rod struck true, impaling the creature through the throat. Her head whipped back, hands scrabbling at the metal stake, her scream beyond the range of human hearing.
The lightning rod exploded with Crossroad magic that tore through Mother Hush like a wildfire through brittle trees.
All our hatred, all our anger, all our fear fed that magic. Bolstering it, like a jet engine beneath a wing, was trust, friendship, love.
Unbreakable.
Mother Hush whipped and spiraled in a final macabre dance, burning alive, consumed. Then the magic detonated.
I covered my head, the explosion deafening, blinding, but nothing fell on me except dust and ash.
Mother Hush was gone.
The lightning rod was gone.
The connection to Ricky’s magic was gone, leaving me cold and shivering.
“Val?” I asked, looking for him in the darkness.
I braced one hand on the wall behind me and closed my eyes, reaching out for the ghost, for any fragment of him that might still exist.
“You get your ass over here and possess me right now,” I growled.
Nothing.
“I’m not going back without you.”
Nothing.
“Please, Val,” I whispered.
Then, the slightest brush of coolness, a nudge too exhausted for more.
I opened my eyes and saw Val’s wolf, burned, its eyes swollen shut, its breathing ragged.
My heart caught.
“There you are,” I said softly. “We need to go now.”
The wolf whined and dropped his head.
“No, you’re coming with me. Don’t you dare give up now. You have family, Val. Ricky, Danube. Lu and I, we’re your friends. We’re your family, if you’ll have us.”
The wolf took one shaky step. I opened my arms, pulling him closer.
When I was a spirit, I was a doorway for ghosts. I knew how to straddle the plane of their existence and the living world.
