80

To my horror, we were not only trapped in the magical bubble with ghosts but with three six-foot-long baby basilisks that writhed out from under a knot of roots. Pushing myself up to my hands and knees, I heard J.D. scream and saw him swinging his enchanted club at the serpentine beasts as they snapped their poisonous jaws at him.

Tate and Abel shifted on instinct, stupidly dropping their weapons as they did. I had no clue why they would do that. The wolf form of a shifter was even less of a match for a ghost than the human form. Without hands, they couldn’t wield the only weapons that would work against them.

My fingers tightened on my club as a ghost came flying like a jet toward Wyatt. Its arms were outstretched, ready to attack him or slip into his body to possess him. I leaped up and swung my club, slamming it into the ghost right before it got to Wyatt. There was an electric crackle as the orb at the top of the club made contact. The specter shrieked and flew through the barrier. It kept going, getting as far away as possible.

“Thanks,” Wyatt grunted as he swung his own club at what looked like the ghost of a dragon shifter. The abomination looked like it had died mid-shift. It slashed its ghostly claws at him.

He would be fine, but the screams coming from my right sounded panicked and horrified. Spinning, I found Nathaniel on his back, kicking and punching at a group of ghosts that had him pinned down. One of the spirits lashed out, and blood spurted from the claw marks it left on Nathaniel’s chest. He screamed even louder when he saw the blood. It didn’t look deep, but it had to have been agonizing.

My feet got stuck in the mud as I sprinted to help him. Yanking one boot out of the muck, I kept trying to rush to him, but two more ghosts appeared, passing through the barrier like it was nothing more than air. They rocketed straight toward me, hands open, claws out, jaws hanging wide as they screeched.

Backing away, I swung my club but missed. Beyond them, I watched as two spirits grabbed Nathaniel’s feet and dragged him toward the barrier.

“Help!” He sounded more like a child than a grown man.

He clawed at the muddy ground, digging furrows with his fingers. My fight ended when I cracked my club into both ghosts with one swing, sending them fleeing from the magic. I sprinted to Nathaniel, desperate to save him. No matter how much of a dick he was, he didn’t deserve to be torn apart by ghosts.

The creatures had him halfway through the barrier when I wrapped my hand around his mud-caked wrist. The ghosts were so strong, they pulled me along with him. The spell must have been designed to allow them to pull us out, because Nathaniel’s feet slipped past the barrier into the swamp beyond.

He clutched at my wrist like a drowning man. His face was covered in mud, but his eyes were white orbs of panic as he looked beseechingly at me. “Please, Kira. Save me. Please!”

I never had the chance to answer him. The specters yanked on him one final time, and his wrist slipped from my grasp. Horrified, I watched as the ghosts tugged Nathaniel deeper into the swamp. I scrambled forward but slammed into the barrier, busting my lip on it. I slapped my palm onto it, but the thing was as solid as steel. Nathaniel’s screams grew even more chaotic until they died off completely.

He was gone. Killed by the ghosts. There was nothing more I could do.

A battle raged behind me. I needed to help the ones I could. When I heard Wyatt’s scream, I turned to rejoin the battle.

He stood above the corpses of the basilisks, his club covered in their greenish-blue blood. But that wasn’t what he was screaming at. He was yelling at J.D. and Tate, who were locked into a wrestling match and trying their best to kill each other. Their eyes were solid gray. Fuck. They were possessed. They weren’t actually trying to kill each other.

Wyatt was doing a decent job of pulling them apart, and I was fairly sure he didn’t need my help. He and I were the best trained out of the whole group, and others needed me. Mika stumbled away from a ghost and swung his club at it, his other arm pressed to his stomach. Blood oozed from an awful wound there.

I lunged towards him, my foot catching on something, and I went flying face-first into the mud again. Enraged at the indignity, I turned to see what the hell I’d tripped on, then gasped. Jammed deep into the mud and wedged beneath a root was a pulsing green crystal. It had to be the gem.

Forgetting everything else, I grabbed it and pulled it free, then jammed it into a pocket on my cargo pants and zipped it shut for safekeeping.

Leaping back to my feet, I helped Leif dispatch the ghosts that were trying to drag Mika out like they had Nathaniel. We fought for what seemed like hours. Wyatt had successfully forced out the ghost possessing Tate, who was unconscious in the mud. Now Wyatt was wrestling with J.D., trying to touch his enchanted weapon to J.D.’s chest to force the ghost out.

A slimy green kappa came crawling from the mud to join the fight. The enormous frog-like creature let out a wet hiss and slashed at Abel with its webbed claws, digging deep wounds into his back all the way down to his ass. Screaming in agony, Abel fell forward. I leaped over him, bringing my club down on the beast’s head with a bone-breaking crack.

Finally, heaving with exertion, we were done. I was on my knees, gasping for breath as I took in the damage. Wyatt had dispelled the ghost from J.D., and the guy looked like shit. His face was pasty, and Leif was at his side in a second to help him up. Wyatt had Tate, Mika, and Abel together, checking over their wounds.