AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I can’t risk offending them and ending up like that horrible man.
Turning back to me, the girl’s smile falls, and her shining eyes turn to pools of worry mingled with hope. “There are others. Can you free them too?”
Inside me, the other stirs at the words. She hasn’t gone back to sleep even now, and she’s not hiding from this anymore.
No, she wants to help. She wants to do what the little girl asks.
Together.
I smile. We are the vengeance and the hope.
We are the ones to whom the dead souls turn.
I hum to myself as I head for the exit. We have work to do.
Chapter 16
Mabel
Igasp as between one step and the next, we shift, and suddenly I’m the one in the cage, not Creepy.
But I can still see the dead.
I stop in my tracks, staring at the ghostly figures around me. I’ve only seen the dead once when Huck was having his nightmare, but they’d been nothing more than mist. I’ve never been able to see them like Creepy can. Our gifts are different. Like how Ghastly has tentacles and Zeb doesn’t. We’re not the same creatures, even though we live in the same skin.
Yet now Creepy and I are sharing in a way we never have before, and I think maybe it’s not just because we found the others to help us have balance.
It’s because of me. Because I stopped pushing her down, stopped letting myself be pulled under by unconsciousness when she was the one in control of our body.
We’re not each other’s alter ego anymore. We’re Creepy Mabel in truth, not just name.
And she’s letting me take control.
Pink light and mist flare around my hands. The energy grows, crackling like lightning around my forearms.
My eyes lift to the room again. If the rest of that asshole’s crew are in this building, they almost certainly heard him screaming. So even if the traders are regrouping, they’ll be in here soon.
“Will you be okay?” I ask the ghosts around me.
They smile, and the little girl with the heart-shaped face nods. She might be a fae. I can’t be sure. But she glances at the others before turning back to me. “We want to help.”
My brow climbs. Well, then…
The ghosts pull back, making space as I stride out of the cage. I scan the room while I descend the steps from the elevated platform to the main floor, and I spot a few little black boxes that might be cameras perched up high in the shadows.
So the bad guys could be watching us right now.
Okay.
Bright-pink lightning flies from my hands, lashing out across the room like crackling arrows shooting out around me all at the same time. The devices pop and scatter, blown apart by the blasts and leaving only smoking scorch marks on the walls where they were anchored.
In my head, Creepy smiles.
I do the same. That felt good.
Turning my attention to the little keypad by the door, I lift a hand.
The door bursts open before I can let our magic go.
