Hudson hissed the second his feet hit the water. He hated it. Well, his prehistoric tiger hated water. Dave undid his leather coat, folded it, and placed it on the stairs before following us in. Dayna’s pastel rainbow maxi dress floated around her as wewaded after the spellcasters, deeper into the flooded catacombs until we reached the central one.
“How does this work?” Hudson asked curiously. It was a far cry from back when he saw all elementals as untrustworthy. Now, he was mated to one.
“Everyone but Cora has a natural shielded state from the dead,” Rockhard said, as he tipped a blue liquid from a flask into a glass with a peach crystal. “So we need to return everyone to how they were. It’s a simple spell, really. We aren’t trying to force nature to do something it wasn’t already doing.”
“But the ghost problem is still happening, right?” Dave asked. “They haven’t disappeared. We just can’t see them.”
Where was he going with this?
“Well, you could see those remnants because they’d separated from the wandering or free soul. Harry, for example, is not someone you can see because he doesn’t exist on this plane,” Rockhard explained.
“Can you make us see them?” Dave asked.
Everyone went still and the temperature of the water seemed to cool a couple of degrees. Lenson tilted his head. “Why would the pack’s chief of security want to see ghosts?”
He had met Harry at the Serpents of the Dawn meetings, so it couldn’t be simple curiosity.
“Leaving Cora to face these ghosts alone seems a little shortsighted. I’m just seeing if there is a way to support her.”
Support or spy? Dangerous Dave strikes again, but his act fooled no one.
“You want to see what she sees?” Lenson checked.
No, Dave, you don’t. Trust me.
“Yes.”
I groaned and massaged my temple.
Rockhard and Lenson shared a look.Tell them it isn’t possible. Please.
Lenson frowned. “We can’t give you the same power as you aren’t an elemental.”
“But that’s not her elemental power, is it?” Dave said as he folded his arms.
I glanced at Hudson.A little help?He smirked. Oh, he was in on this. Wonderful.
“We could potentially filter it through Cora and into you, but it would mean you’d be a drain on her strength.”
“Her angelic strength, not her elemental one,” Rockhard added, like that was better. It wasn’t.
Indigo raised her head and eyeballed the spellcasters. They froze.“They want our power,”she said.
“No, they want to see what we see.”
“That’s easy. Tell the spellcasters to restore your sight, and I will do the rest without endangering your power.”
I relay the conversation between myself and Indigo. Dave huffs but falls silent as Rockhard and Lenson work their magic. A quick cast, some weird dark green paste spread on my forehead that I wasn’t sure did anything besides make me look ridiculous, and they declared me fixed. I glanced around and found Harry hovering at the edge of the cave. His gaze caught mine.
“You can see me?” he whispered.
Warmth filled my chest, and I nodded. A wide grin spread across his face, and he flung himself at me, passing straight through my body in his excitement. I rolled my shoulders to shake off the weird sensation, making Hudson grin at me.
We trudged up the stairs, dripping water everywhere. Lenson handed us a towel each and a hot cup of peppermint tea. Harry stared at me like I hung the moon and the stars. I felt a stab of guilt that I was his entire world. Perhaps expanding that to encompass more people was a wise thing for his mental health,and I wouldn’t feel this constant pressure to interact and ensure he was getting the social support he needed to stay sane.
Rockhard leveled me a stare. “Can I give you a piece of advice?”
“You can, but she’s not great at taking it,” Hudson muttered.
