Chapter Eight

The box was carved with designs, and she could feel the magic humming inside it. It was a holding box, and the glyphs were designed to keep the consciousness as fresh as the day that the deceased passed on. It was a bit unpleasant to think of it in such terms, but the spectre she was going to be releasing was not the original man. It was a copy.

The Deegles were waiting for her. She could hear the tapping in the rock to prime the hole. She would do most of the work, but a niche to start with was always appreciated.

Imara looked down at her robes. Packing them had been a whim based on what Kitty had mentioned. Now, Imara realized that they were at least two inches too short. She had grown since she started as apprentice.

Are you ready for this?

“Yeah. I have done this before.”

I thought you had to be a master before you activated a spectre.

“Only if the family is watching. This isn’t a first for me.”

Well, well. The more I live in the modern age, the more I learn. Are you ready?

“Stop asking that. Yes. I am ready. Here we go.”

She opened the door with the box held carefully in her left hand. Leaving the small house was symbolic. It was a neutral site that had nothing to do with the family. There were no ties for the spectre to attach to, so it was the safest place to start from, just in case she activated him early. It wasn’t going to happen, but protocol meant that someone had been stupid at some point.

She crossed the yard with Mr. E at her side, heading up slope from the house and against the trees, geographically in the centre of the property.

The family was waiting, even the grandmother was standing with her burned-out orbs on her fingers, around her neck, and held in her hands.

Andy was standing with the hammer and chisel in his hands.

Imara smiled, “Please set the tools down.”

He nodded nervously and set the tools at the base of the stone that held the chisel marks.

“Does anyone here not wish to see the spectre of the deceased?”

The family looked at each other, and they shook their heads. Andy cleared his throat. “We are in agreement. We want as much of him as we can have.”

“Very well. I will let you know when you can speak to him. Please, allow me to work without interruption.”

They nodded again and stepped back. The grandmother was watching her with fascination, so Imara smiled to her before she picked up the implements and set to work.

The first strike took her an inch into the hard rock. The second made the cavity she needed. With care and reverence, she opened the box and removed the stone that carried the residue of the man who was beloved by those around her.

Imara took the glowing gem and rammed it into the cavity in the stone. The rock melted as she focused on joining the stone and the gem together.

When her hand felt the burn, she pulled her palm away. Now, it was time to do her part as a Death Keeper.

She whispered to him, drawing him out, calling him to the objects he had left behind. She appealed to his love and the wedding ring that was sitting on velvet within the box.

It took an hour to pull the consciousness from the stone, but when she felt him release into the bedrock around her, she stood back and smiled.

“Anderson Morden Deegle, you are requested to join us.”

The spectre emerged from the stone and took form. Anna gasped and sobbed, May had tears in her eyes, and so did her husband. Kitty was simply in shock.

“Death Keeper, how did you come to be here?” Anderson Deegle turned his head. He was still transparent, but his voice came through.

“I am a student who shares a weather magic class with your granddaughter, Kitigan. She is an adult now, and as I was here for a weekend off, I am repaying my hosts with your rejuvenation.”

He nodded. “What about when you leave? How quickly will I fade?”

“You won’t. I will plant power nodes around the property tomorrow, and you will be able to walk the farm again, even hold Anna’s hand again if you wish.”

“Anna.” The longing in the voice was obvious.

“Yes, she is waiting for you. She has seen this moment and has spent twenty years waiting for it.”

He looked around and spotted his wife. “Anna.”

Tears filled her eyes, and she dropped the glass in the grass. “Anderson. Is it really you?”

Imara poured her death magic into him, turning the translucent body into something far more solid.

“Anna.” The spectre reached for her and then paused.

Anna didn’t hesitate, she held his hands, and when she felt the solid warmth of him, she sobbed and threw herself against him.

Imara looked to Kitty. “Did you get those rocks I asked for?”

Kitty nodded, and her gaze darted around until she found what she was looking for. She moved past Imara and grabbed a large pail from next to the stone. “Here they are.”

“Thanks. I am going to take these back to the tiny house. In the morning, if you are up to it, we can take another ride and anchor Anderson to the property. He can then come and go as he pleases or wherever you please. He will be able to reach the edges of your property.”

Andy was hugging the spectre of his father, and the joyful and tearful reunion was heartwarming.

“Yeah, you introduce yourself to your grandfather. I have to have a nap with rocks next to me. Ah, the life of a Death Keeper is so glamorous.”

Grinning but tired, Imara headed back to her tiny sanctuary.

Mr. E trotted along on his little legs, keeping up with her tired steps.

I thought that enhancing spectres didn’t exhaust you.

“It doesn’t, but fusing and raising one does. Tomorrow will be easy in comparison. All I need tonight is a good night’s sleep.”

It was as if she was casting a curse.

The howl brought her out of bed in a heartbeat. Imara rolled to the floor and sat blinking as she fought to figure out where she was.

The huffing and growling around the tiny house warned her that the wolves were in her territory.

Those little bastards. Do you want me to hurt them?

Imara spoke silently, “No, I want to take care of this myself. They are young, not homicidal.”

The door to the roof opened from the upper loft, and she slid out, removing her nightgown as she did. She gathered her focus and launched herself from the roof, shifting form as she fell.

The first wolf that had her full vulture weight went to the ground with a grunt. She pecked and pulled, tearing a strip off his neck. Another launch and she got the second wolf.

The third moved so that she was on the ground and couldn’t launch. Imara wasn’t having any of that, so she shifted and jumped at the bugger, pinning him to the ground as her form slowly became fully human.

“Naughty fellas. This isn’t your property, and it sure as fuck isn’t your territory. If you come back here, I will be much less polite.”

She levered herself off the wolf, and he and her two victims ran back to their territory.

Imara stretched, and when she heard a small cough, she turned to see the family staring at her. Kitty was bright pink and pale at the same time.

Imara grinned. “I will get back to bed.”

Andy raised his brows, “I didn’t know you were a shapeshifter.”

“Last term. Top of my class. It isn’t a glamorous shape, but I am definitely comfortable as a vulture. The nudity is literally par for the course.”

He nodded and herded the ladies back into the house. May turned back. “Thank you. I dread to think of what they would have done to us.”

“Just peed on you. That is their big move. My tearing a strip off them will follow them into their human form. It is one of the annoying little bits of etiquette that you have to learn when you change shape.”

Kitty looked as if she wanted to ask a question, but she was tucked inside the house.

Imara opened the door of the tiny house and returned to bed. Mr. E had pulled her nightgown off the roof, and he was using it as a cat bed.

She was tired enough that she didn’t really care.

Over breakfast the questions started.

“How do you learn to change shape?”

Imara cocked her head at Kitty. “You study for it. Not everyone makes it, and many are stuck in forms that would haunt your nightmares.”

Kitty shuddered.

Imara slathered some butter on her bread and tore the bread apart to dunk in her egg yolk.

May cleared her throat. “How is it that you have such a variety of skills at so young an age?”

Imara smiled. “That one is easy. I had nothing to do but focus on my future, so when I was given access to magic, I dove into it with my entire being. For my ultimate goal, I need to get through college with a degree as fast as I can. I have set my sights on courses that offer multiple credits because of their difficulty and that included the shapeshifting course.”

Kitty blinked, “Is that how you met your boyfriend?”

“No. We were in an ethics course. He was taking it for work, and for me, it is a requirement to getting my magical consulting license.”

May asked, “Consulting?”

“Yeah, I want to be a spectral consultant. Since Death Keepers are so few and far between and I am already a registered member of their guild, it is just a matter of getting the Mage Guild to accept me as a commercial member and I am on my way.”

“You would do things like you did last night?”

“Like wrestle wolves naked? Not usually, but I could and would pull a few more coherent thoughts out of the spectres, no matter how old.”

The family nodded and paused when Anna came in with Anderson at her side. They both were glowing with happiness, and it wasn’t in Imara’s nature to ask why.

Kitty, however, hissed, “Can they do that?”

Imara grinned. “It takes a lot of effort on his part, but yeah, they can.”

Andy chuckled. “It was how he died. They had a great sex life right until the last.”

Anna smiled, focused, and in the moment. “And it is back.”

Imara blushed at the hot look that the grandmother was giving the spectre, twenty years her junior.

The worst thing was the reciprocation. He was seeing her as she was, and he obviously thought she was hot.

The eternal bond of love had never taken physical form for her before. She wondered if she and Argus would still be looking at each other with that intensity when they were old enough to retire? She really hoped so.