“What did you see?” Alaric asked, pulling me closer to him, his hands trying to warm mine.
I shook my head, still gasping for air. “It was awful. A little boy drowned. His brother pushed him in.”
Alaric’s mouth was set in a firm line, his voice grave. “The first few brushes with death echoes are the worst. You’ll get used to them over time, learn how to even let them play but in the background of your mind, like a TV on mute.”
I shivered. “That sounds terrible. Those poor people.”
He nodded. “The original Bloodwrights believed their purpose was to help these death echoes, to give those lingering spirits the peace they needed to move on.”
“How do we do that?” I asked, eager to learn more; how I could not only learn how to ease my own suffering through death echoes but helpthose souls attached to them move on.
“It’s a lost form.” Alaric sighed. “When the Ancient Council was wiped out centuries ago, so many of our codices and ancient teachings were destroyed along with them. This book plus a few others are all my father has been able to collect over the years since he awakened. He’s traveled all over the world, looking for any scraps of the missing manuscripts.”
“Maybe my uncle has some of the same books your dad has been looking for,” I replied thoughtfully. “He has this entire secret room right off his office at the apartment with tons of old books and a map of the world. It looks like he may be tracking the same thing you’ve been noticing, about the upticks in emergences.”
Alaric’s eyes narrowed, his grip on my hands tightened slightly. “What? Your uncle has tomes?”
“Yeah, he says it’s what was left of our family’s Bloodwright Order of the Red Lexicon or something like that,” I said, trying to remember my uncle’s exact words. “I could always ask him and see if the book you need is in there. The one that could teach us how to help those who’ve passed cross over, like our ancestors were supposed to do.”
Alaric nodded, his eyes turning soft again as he stood, reaching out to help me up.
“I think that’s enough training for now.” He pulled me up, his thumb softly caressing my finger where his, now mine, ring hugged my finger. “We can pick this up tomorrow.”
“No,” I replied quickly, pulling my wet hair up into a bun at the top of my head to keep it out of the way. “I want to try again. I was able to manifest the death echoes as those threads of light, like you mentioned. But I want to do it again, without getting lost in it.”
I sat up, moving back towards the book and arrowhead where they sat, preparing myself to try again. Alaric looked at me with genuine curiosity and understanding in his eyes as water dripped from the strands of his black hair that had fallen out of his bun when he dove in after me. He came beside me, taking my right hand in his as he prepared to take my ring off again.
“Okay, let’s try again.”
Alaric trained with me for two more hours after that. I luckily didn’t get dragged into the water again and was able to eventually stay grounded, keeping the death echoes at arm’s length, metaphorically, as Alaric instructed me to do. But I could tell Alaric was giving me a lot of his own magic and energy to help me, acting as an anchor that kept me from getting lost at sea in the voices. His eyes were tired; his normally smug self seemed deflated by the time he walked me back to my apartment around midnight.
I didn’t see John or his older brother again while tapping into different death echoes, but the eerie feeling that burrowed deep within my belly never went away. The terrifying feeling of drowning and the look of elation in John’s brother’s eyes never left me. Even after a hot shower and a dreamless sleep.
I woke the next morning, bleary-eyed and exhausted. I felt like I could sleep for another eighteen hours. I got ready for school in a haze, not really paying much attention until I walked into the kitchen to grab something quick for breakfast. Both Uncle Dan and Aunt Tiffany were sitting at the kitchen table, looking serious, with Iris washing dishes at the sink, her face also grave with worry.
“Mari, can you please sit down for a minute?” Tiffany’s usual carefree demeanor had been traded in for an intense seriousness that made my stomach clench tightly, all thoughts of breakfast gone.
“Sure.” I hesitated as I finally took a seat across from them. I glanced at Uncle Dan, who smiled encouragingly but then turned his focus back to Tiffany.
“Where were you last night?” Tiffany’s eyes narrowed, her normally upbeat and kind aura turning stern and grave.
Oh, shit.
“What do you mean?” I tried to play dumb, but the way Uncle Dan shook his head let me know that technique was not going to fly.
“According to the doorman, you left the apartment around 7:45 last night and didn’t return until after midnight.” Her voice was tight, accusatory. “And there was an older boy with you.”
My cheeks heated as I rushed to defend myself. “He didn’t come into the apartment.”
“But what were you doing out so late with a boy on a school night?” Tiffany demanded. I looked over to Uncle Dan for help. Surely, he understood I wasn’t just hooking up with some guy but starting my training as a Bloodwright. My uncle shrugged, communicating that I was just going to have to take whatever punishment was coming because there was no way I could tell her the truth.
“I . . .” I hesitated, unsure of what to say, before Uncle Dan finally decided to step in, but not in the way I had hoped.
“Was this the same boy the school called about you kissing in the library the other day? Is he your boyfriend?” My uncle’s voice matched the same level of seriousness that Tiffany had used, but with a slight glint in his eye, like we were in on some inside joke.
It felt like the air had been sucked out of the room.This can’t be happening.
“What?” Tiffany whipped around to face Uncle Dan, her ire turning to him. “Whendid the school call you?”
