Read Immortally Embraced for Free Online Page A

me.”
    “No,” he said hard, unrepentant. “I only want you to talk to my ghost.”
    “To a murdered soul,” I whispered under my breath.
    “I’ll stand with you,” he said. “I’ll do anything you need to keep you safe.”
    But he wouldn’t see what I saw. The souls couldn’t touch him.
    Murdered dead were traumatized by the sins of their killers. They were unpredictable, angry. If they moved on, they could be restored. Until then, they were dark. Their rage gave them wild and unpredictable powers.
    “I told you about the spirit of the murdered girl in Laveal Swamp,” I said. I’d steered my boat out to her. She’d dived straight for me, burrowing into my skin, greedy to get inside me. For a brief moment, she’d possessed me.
    I’d blacked out, lost myself, and felt only the sheer, startling pain of her black soul crushing me.
    Murdered souls were mindless, vicious. They wanted to live again and would do anything to find an easy host—me.
    “I know what I’m asking,” Marc said, his words low and unapologetic. “I’ve thought long and hard about this. You’re not a teenager anymore. And I wouldn’t ask this if it weren’t important.” He fixed his gaze on me. “Can you talk to him?”
    My mouth went dry.
    It was very likely that Keller had been slaughtered just so he couldn’t talk.
    I drew a hand over my eyes. It might be too late anyway. “How long has he been gone?”
    “Two nights ago,” Marc said, regret coloring his words.
    Damn it. There was a good chance he’d be around. Sprits often lingered where they died, especially in the cases of violent death.
    “In your lab. In an enemy camp.” I said, trying to wrap my head around it.
    He looked at me steadily, willing me to say yes. “I can get you in.”
    It was nuts. “I’m not even sure how you got out.”
    “Look here,” he said, drawing a small military map out of his back pocket. He unfolded it over his leg. “The armies are dug in at the edge of the fourth quadrant, both in a U-shaped pattern.”
    He traced a blunt finger over the sandy beige topographic map. In red, he’d scrawled the long front lines of the armies, with their backup forces pulled in on either side.
    “How am I supposed to get around that?” That much power in one place could literally make the battlefield vibrate. The energy on the ground would be astronomical. It would fry me in a second.
    Marc glanced up. “I’ve got a person working on it.”
    I studied him. “Do you really think I’m crazy enough to go with you?” Even I had my limits.
    A dull suspicion spiraled in the pit of my stomach. “Wait. Are you trying to use this to somehow try and reunite?” Because it wouldn’t work. “I can’t handle that.” I was done getting yanked around.
    He didn’t budge, but his eyes betrayed the depth of his hurt. “I’ve known about you for weeks.”
    “Oh,” I said, stung. He certainly hadn’t rushed to my side.
    Guilt flashed across his features. “PNN.”
    The hoarders. Great.
    He looked me square in the eye. “I’m not going to lie to you.”
    I nodded, not sure if I appreciated that or not. There’s nothing like knowing your ex truly didn’t miss you.
    Stamping down the hurt, I offered a tremulous smile. This wasn’t about love or loss. The practical, bold, take-no-prisoners Marc hadn’t been hell-bent to see me. He was risking his skin in order to talk to our dead ex-professor. And this really was about a reckless field trip to an enemy camp.
    I pushed back a layer of hair that had fallen over my eyes. “I don’t even know how I’d get there.” He could shift and fly, but I was stuck on the ground, within the strict confines of camp.
    We kept our borders protected for a reason. Imps roamed the limbo landscape. And if they didn’t get you, you were just as likely to be swallowed by a bottomless sinkhole or attacked by a rogue demon.
    Not to mention what had happened to Galen when he went AWOL.
    Still, I couldn’t help but think