Page 82 of Courting the Dragon King

“Can you ask her how she died?” Konrad asked.

“I can, but I doubt she will even respond in this state.” Wraith cleared his throat. “Grand Healer, can you tell me what happened to you? Do you know how you died?”

“This isn’t right. This isn’t right.” Her voice grew in volume. “This isn’t right!” she shouted. Then she fell to her knees and sobbed. She rocked back and forth.

Wraith knelt beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder as her body shook. “I’m so sorry.”

She was too fixated on something from life to be able to see Wraith in death. And he knew that Umbra would not help in this situation. The grand healer would not notice the hellhound.

Then the grand healer’s head snapped up. “I must tell the grand monk.”

“What? What do you have to tell the grand monk?” Wraith asked.

“Yes. I must tell the grand monk. Now.” Then she rose. She froze for a second.

Then she began pacing once more, seeming to have forgotten that she’d decided to speak to the grand monk. “This isn’t right. This isn’t right. What do I do?”

Wraith exhaled. “She’s stuck in a loop.” He stood.

“What do you mean?” Konrad asked.

“She has a problem in her head, something that she would have been dealing with shortly before death. It consumed her, and now she is stuck in that problem,” Wraith said.

“What has she said so far?”

“‘This isn’t right,’ ‘What do I do?’ and, ‘I must tell the grand monk.’”

Konrad’s brows furrowed. “So maybe she found something out that wasn’t right, didn’t know what to do, and decided to go to the grand monk.” He placed his hands on his hips and stared at the floor for several moments.

“Perhaps she found out some plot against the treaty. But …” Konrad glanced in the direction of the grand healer’s study. “But the plotters realised what she knew and that she was going to tell the grand monk. Then they killed her to silence her. Maybe it was the robed figures.”

“This isn’t right. This isn’t right. This isn’t right!” The grand healer fell to the ground. She held her skull in her hands, rocking back and forward as she wept. Her cries grew louder, turning into screams.

Wraith’s spine curled. He gritted his teeth. This behaviour could be the result of her violent death. The details might have been forgotten. But the trauma could have been absorbed by the spirit.

“I have to send her on,” Wraith said.

“Is she ready?”

Wraith shook his head. “No. But she is extremely distressed. I doubt she will ever be ready to move on on her own. She is more likely to turn into an angry spirit, a poltergeist who haunts and harms.”

Wraith took a deep breath and stepped towards her. “I’ll have to force her on. I don’t like doing it. But I don’t think there is another option for granting her peace.”

With a thought, he summoned the Bone Door. He heard it open behind him. Cold wind rushed through the corridor.

“Grand Healer Eveline. I am here to help you move on. Will you come with me?” Wraith held out a hand. He had to at least try to reach her.

But she didn’t even glance at him. She just threw back her head and wailed, “What do I do?”

“Grand Healer Eveline. It is time for you to move on. You must leave this mortal plane. You must go through the Bone Door to the beyond.” Wraith’s hands, feet, and lips tingled. The wind intensified as the temperature plummeted.

“Go now. Leave this place. I command it of you.” Wraith pushed his will into the words he spoke, making them an order.

The wind whirled around the grand healer. She let out a cry as she was lifted into the air. The wind and the grand healer whisked towards the door and through. The door slammed shut behind her.

The gust died away. The air returned to its normal temperature.

“What was that wind?” one of the monks down the corridor said.