Read Murder of Crows (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress Book 2) for Free Online Page B

gain power, the way the witch in fairytales fattens the kids before nomming down on them. There were sort of such a thing as ghosts, but they were more impressions than really the dead still somehow living on. Strong emotions, big events that were usually traumatic, powerful people dying, that kind of thing, all that could create a spirit. How powerful the spirit was and what it could do depended on how powerful the event or person creating it was.
    Alek set me down to unlock his door and I managed to stay on my feet. My body felt like I’d been punched repeatedly, but my magic had warmed me and cleared the cobwebs from my head. I was able to mount the handful of steps and enter the little cabin under my own power.
    The trailer he lives in is very small, about a hundred and ten square feet. It’s efficient, with a kitchenette on one side, a small gas heater and fold-out table and seats on the other, a bathroom at the back, and a ladder, leading to a sleeping loft, built up against the inner wall. Books were piled on cubby-like shelves built into the walls alongside jars of tea and dry goods. The whole place smelled of cedar, beeswax, and bay oil. Cozy, especially given Alek’s size, but he moved about the tiny space with the ease of long familiarity.
    I sank into one of the padded seats as soon as he’d unfolded it and leaned against the wall. Alek held up a hand and his face grew flat with concentration. A shimmering layer of power slipped up the walls, warding off the trailer. I knew no one would be able to overhear anything we said. Smart. That’s why they pay him the big bucks, I guess.
    “It’s not Samir,” I said. “Not a sorcerer; that I’m pretty sure of. But we are dealing with magic.”
    “You should warn me before you do things,” he said with a shake of his shaggy blond head.
    “You were busy with your who-is-the-alpha staring contest. I didn’t want to interrupt. Besides, why else would I touch a corpse? The whole ‘doing magic now’ thing was pretty obvious, I’d think.”
    “I’m going to get you a shirt that says ‘does not play well with others’,” he muttered.
    “I think I own that shirt,” I said, trying to smile. “Get Sky Heart one instead. Then we can be twinsies.” That got me a wry grin before he turned around and turned on the gas stove.
    “So what are we dealing with?” he asked as he filled a kettle for tea.
    “Besides a narcissistic cult leader?”
    “Jade…”
    “A spirit, I think. All I felt was this horrible freezing rage. Not like a hot anger, the kind that flares and burns out. This was real hatred, true rage.” I knew, because I’d felt something similar once.
    Listening to your family die horribly while you could do nothing to stop it? Yeah. That’ll cause a feeling like the one I’d just touched.
    “Could a spirit affect the physical world like this without an intermediary?” Alek took the other seat and unfolded the table between us.
    I tipped my head back against the wall and shut my eyes, trying to recall everything I could about spirits and the way they worked. I sort of had one following me around, after all, so you’d think I would know more. But Wolf was special, a creature outside of reality in many ways. She would probably know all sorts of things about spirits, but if she could speak, she certainly hadn’t demonstrated it in the last forty years. I thought about my guardian more and sighed.
    “I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t think so. Wolf can’t do much about corporeal threats, only help with magic stuff as far as I can tell. I don’t know what rules the Undying follow, if any, but it seems likely that something or someone is enabling this spirit or using its power.”
    “Not Sky Heart,” Alek said with certainty in his tone. “He is terrified but he will not tell me anything. He speaks in half truths. Carlos went away, but I do not think he went far.”
    The kettle whistled and Alek prepared tea. I closed my eyes again and