Weekly Newsletter 169: Nov 1

     I turned to float on my back as Beryx climbed up on a nearby rock to keep watch. He knew I needed to think and there was something about water that helped calm my mind.

     My mind wandered to the redheaded victim, and the baby Alkyone was going to raise. Was the baby technically her grandchild since it had some of her daughters DNA, or had he used Ariel’s DNA making it her half-sister? Did that DNA transfer to the baby, or just the mother’s original DNA? What about the other girls? They all had a similar gash across their abdomen.

     The scar on my abdomen throbbed like it hadn’t in ages. Was he living out a fantasy when he raped and cut me? Or was he continuing a fantasy through my DNA? Why did he use Cassia and Ariel’s DNA? What was his fantasy?

      “You don’t want the answer to that,” a small, sweet voice in the back of my head said, and I lost my focus. It sounded like Serenity, but I hadn’t heard from her or seen her since Christmas Eve. She said it was too risky for me. I asked Beryx, but he hadn’t heard from her since Christmas, when she used the Ak’Chada’s name then disappeared.

     I’d been worried about her, and researched spirits like her until I found a way to call her. My attempts had all failed, but that was definitely her voice. I flipped up, ducked under the water, and dropped to the ocean floor. I rested there and listened for the voice again.

      “Keætæ, I don’t have much time.” I reached toward her voice with my power and closed my eyes. I couldn’t see her. I could faintly feel her, but that was all.

      “Do not pursue him. Listen to me, please. Don’t get caught up in this again. Let the agency handle it.” Her voice was frantic, tainted, and strangled. Something was wrong, and I refused to do as she said. I grounded myself to the ocean floor, created a bubble with oxykinesis, and surrounded it in a shield of pulsing violet energy. My powers were still volatile, and if I didn’t get sleep soon, they’d flicker out on me, but I couldn’t risk losing her now.

     I crisscrossed my legs under me and summoned the Book of Divination. It had a section on ghosts like her. It claimed they were the presence and power of a being who had passed on, but had done so either against the Maker’s Will, or violently, and refused to rest until their killers were brought to justice, or they’d fulfilled their purpose.

     In the very back of that section, there was a way to bind a ghost to a place or an object, but they had to be close or have strong ties to you. When I read it, my intuition said that the Ak’Chada[1] bound her, but like Marcus’s hold on Ivanya, there was a way to undo it. The spirit only had to be close. I read over the incantation and carefully memorized the runes inside the pentacle.

     Something screamed at me not to do it, but the Maker’s presence suppressed the scream until it was a whisper on the wind. That was the sign I needed. I couldn’t just let that monster torture Serenity. It was my fault that she showed herself to him. Yes, it had been her choice, but she did it to save me, and I would not leave any of my allies in his clutches.

[1] Demoki: Liar.

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