He squints up at me. “Lace, I’m not helping you because we’recoworkers. I’m helping you because we’re friends.”
I smile sheepishly. “Right. I…I’m not good at friends. I have a tendency to fuck up my friendships.” I push people away and then blame them for leaving me. I’m coming to terms with this, and I’m trying to stop. Easier said than done, though.
His mouth forms a fine line. “I know, but it’s too late to fuck this up. You’re stuck with me, like it or not.”
I smile to myself. “I like it.”
We go back to our research.
Matthias grumbles to himself before saying, “Bad news.”
“Oh, goodie.”
“I think this spell needs to be done close to where he died. ‘The departed will awaken where there is the largest trace of their soul.’ Where did he die? California, you said?”
I groan. “You think we have to go to California?”
“That’s a strong possibility. That’s where his body is buried, right?”
I start to say yes, but then I remember something I read in his obit. “No. There is no body. He was cremated.”
“Cremated? Well, Lace, if there’s no body to send his soul back to…”
“From what I read, it sounds like this spell is creating a new body around whatever is left of his soul, not transferring the soul back to his old body. It’s been ten years since he died,so even if there was a body for his soul to return to, it wouldn’t be a good body. This isn’t a necromancy situation.”
“Would his soul have been burned up with his body?”
“No. I literally watched a reaper pull Kit’s soul from his body in his memories. The reason we’re doing this is because he still has a soul to be restored. What he is nowishis soul. It’s morphed and twisted and tarnished, but it’s his soul.”
“So, wouldn’t his new body form around what he is now?”
My teeth scrape my lip. “I don’t think so. ‘Largest trace’ makes me think it means whatever is left over from his completely human soul. And then he’ll be called to this new body, in a way.”
“So, that takes us back to California. Or Hell?”
I shake my head. “Possibly to California, but I don’t think Hell. I don’t know. He still has so much of his humanity intact.” My fingers drum on my keyboard. “Maybe the largest tracecouldbe his demon-soul.”
“Or left behind by his demon-soul. There could be enough of a trace of him here in your apartment.”
“Possibly?”
He shakes his head. “We’re only making ourselves more confused with all this guesswork. We need reinforcements. I’m calling my cousin Cassia. She’s been practicing longer than me.”
Matthias dials and puts her on speaker.
“Hello?” she answers in a sing-songy voice.
“How much do you know about souls?” Matthias asks as a greeting.
“Broad topic, man.”
“Okay, souls after someone dies. Let’s say, someone diedand went to Hell. They came back as a demon. What happened to their soul?”
Cassia snorts. “That’s one hell of a hypothetical. Well, if they’re a demon, thatistheir soul. But the thing about souls is that they’re not solid. They’re pliable. Or, you know, like mud, leaving a smear wherever it goes and on whatever it touches.”
“So, if a soul was removed from a body, there would still be traces of it there? In the body where they lived when they were alive?”
“Sure. If they’re a demon now, the last trace of the human soul would likely be in the body it lived in.”
