An hour later, I sat on the ground in my small bedroom with sweat rolling down my face, trying to recreate the spirit-trapping spell on my jewelry box while Bria created differently colored billows of smoke by my side. Kieran sat on the bed with his fingers clasped, watching my efforts and occasionally dealing with my surges of power that kept chasing Bria from the room.

I wiped my forehead and sat back, staring at the mishmash of weird that now coated the mostly empty jewelry box. A look at the trunk prompted a sigh.

“I can’t make it look the same.” I dropped my hands onto my knees. “But I’m pretty sure what I created will do that same job. It’s kind of like eternal banishment.”

“What does that mean?” Bria asked, wiping her nose. One of the lit incense sticks had apparently given her a runny nose. She didn’t volunteer which one, or accept my offer to put it out.

“Well…” I chewed my lip, thinking it through. “It’s essentially a banishment spell. Something I use to send spirits packing. Not across the Line, just away. I erected that into a sorta standing situation, one on each side of the box. Each wall repels the spirit away. In this tiny box, the spirit would be pinging around inside of there all the time. A real shitty situation. But in a room, it would just be tossed away from the walls or ceiling.”

“What about the ground?” Kieran asked.

“The ground acts as a natural barrier,” Bria said, wafting more smoke my way. “If you were to kill someone by burying them alive in more than three feet of earth, their spirit would be trapped with the body. It’s why cultures typically leave dead bodies out for a least a couple days—for viewings, wakes, that kind of thing. It gives the spirit time to figure out what they’re doing.”

“I didn’t know any of that,” I muttered.

“Do you think another magical worker would know you switched out the spells?” Kieran asked.

I pulled my lips to the side in disappointment, knowing when I was beat. “Unless it was a real idiot, yeah, they’d know.”

“They’d also know someone with a pretty unique skillset was banging around,” Bria said with a sly glance at Kieran. It wasn’t hard to miss her double entendre, and unfortunately, she was too far away to smack without being seen.

“I agree,” he said, either missing her jab or not caring. “Take off the trap and leave it as is. Possibly the magical worker will think his own carelessness was to blame.”

“It’s not like he would say anything.” Bria pulled a crumpled-up tissue from her pocket. “Valens wouldn’t know one way or another, and the magical worker wouldn’t want to admit to letting the most important spirit get away.”

“Unless he intended to stuff her in a body down the road…” I let my words trail away.

“We can find this S.O.B. before then.” A determined look crossed Bria’s face. “We’re on to him now. A tiny bit of digging and—”

“No.” The word came with a crack of command, the effect snapping my back straight and sending a jolt of fear racing through me. Kieran was intense, there were no two ways about it. “You’ll leave him to me. This is the end of it. Bria, you will continue training Alexis, but Alexis, your task is at an end. After tonight, there will be no more investigation.”

My mouth dropped open, and a different sort of fear crawled in. Memories of job searches, crappy positions, and starving kids raced through my head. The kids were working their tails off, but they were happy now. They had full bellies and a purpose. I had a purpose.

If that was coming to an end…

“I will pay you a year’s wages, Alexis,” Kieran said softly, clearly reading my expression. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think you’d solve this so quickly. Additionally, you have a bonus coming for your quick work, written in by your business manager.”

“And after that, I can get you work, no problem,” Bria said, winking. “We can get out of this murky pit of despair, too. Maybe hit up Australia or something—”

“No.” There it was again, only this time, something in his tone sounded tortured, pulling my gaze to him. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, like he was stopping himself from commenting further. He gestured stiffly at the trunk. “Release her skin. Let her go.”

“Whoa, whoa.” Bria hurriedly gathered up her supplies. “That’s too personal for me. I need to get out of here.”

After she was gone, I stared at the trunk for a moment, uncertainty rolling back in. The termination of my job should’ve been a good thing, especially since I was still getting paid. I would totally take that check and nod in thanks. Who was I to say boo? I mean, Kieran was a nightmare of a boss: possessive, controlling, and he often stuck his nose in where it didn’t belong. And then there was the danger from Valens. It would be way safer to distance myself from the lot of them. I could move somewhere nice, with better weather and cleaner streets. We could start over, with the money to do it right.

So why did my chest ache like I was about to go into cardiac arrest?

“Is she here?” Kieran’s voice was quiet and thick, ringing with emotion.

I startled out of my daze, worried about what I was feeling. Worried about letting go of it.

“Yeah, sure. I mean…” I shook my head and glanced around at the empty room. “Uh…no.”

Confused, I met his eyes, recognizing the sadness there. Usually that was all it took to bring his mom floating in.

“Is there a way to call her?” he asked, his focus on me intense.

“Well…” I patted my nonexistent pockets for my tarot cards, as though I just carried them around constantly. “How do you usually call her?”

“Think of her, I guess.”

“Well…” I frowned, still confused. “Aren’t you doing that?”

He blew out a breath and shook his head before looking away. His brow furrowed, which probably mirrored my expression, and silence descended in patches as conversation rose and fell from beyond my closed door.

A few moments later, Lyra drifted through the wall, her expression sublime and her dress flowing without a breeze.

“No one usually looks that good as a ghost,” I muttered, turning toward the trunk. “It’s unnatural.”

“Is it time?” she asked, taking a seat beside her son.

“Yes,” I answered.

“I meant to ask…” She paused and I lifted my eyebrows at her. Kieran continued to stare at me, so I pointed at her. “She’s here. In case you thought I was talking to myself.”

He nodded, but his eyes didn’t leave mine. Not like there was any reason for them to, I supposed. He had to take my word for it, after all.

“As a spirit, do I have any power in this world?” she asked.

I froze for a moment, because I knew where this was going. She was asking if she could hang around and try to protect her son. Or maybe help her son in some way.

Not only was that mostly impossible, she’d probably just get captured again, and Kieran would be in the same position he just was, only Valens would hide her spirit better.

I took the super blunt approach. “Once you die, you stop being useful.”

Her stare was hard for a moment, as though trying to read me, before she nodded in understanding.

“Okay.” I closed my eyes. “Here we go.”

“Good-bye,” Kieran whispered, finality to his tone. “I’ll miss you.”

“You were the best son a mother could have,” she said, and I relayed the message as I fiddled with the spirit trap. I could crack it open like an egg, but I wondered if I could just fade out one of the little patches cobbling it together and let her spirit slip out the side. If I did it that way, maybe the originator would think he’d messed up. It was possible.

Then again, maybe the guy’s periodic visits to the government building had nothing to do with strengthening the spell. Maybe he just came there to pick up his paychecks. I couldn’t know for sure unless I checked it out...and now, according to Kieran, there would be no need.

“I love you dearly,” she said. “Please live your life to its fullest. Break Valens’s hold over you, and find happiness. Please.”

“I intend to,” Kieran said after I relayed the message.

I glanced at his face, and before his stone mask slipped over his features, I saw the lie. The uncertainty.

He planned to go up against his father, and he wasn’t sure he would win.

Which was crazy, because he always sounded so confident. So in control.

That’s how he was trained.

The ache in my middle grew, responding to my worry of what he faced, as I peeled away part of the slippery spirit trap. There really wasn’t anything to it when I embraced the power of the Line.

A gasp made me jerk my head around. Lyra laughed like a girl and jumped on the bed, putting her hands into the air in an expression of joy and bliss. A strange wetsuit looking thing drifted through the air to her, and she grabbed it and held it close. The Line pulsed above us, all around us, beckoning to her.

I described everything I saw in as much detail as I could muster—describing the Line didn’t make much sense if you couldn’t actually see and feel it.

A boyish smile crossed Kieran’s face. Relief.

Lyra hugged her skin and headed for the wall of the house.

“Wait, wait—whoa. Where are you going?” I asked.

Her smile was serene. “For a proper swim, and then to eternity. I am finally whole again.”

She disappeared through the wall, leaving silence in her wake.

“She’s gone?” Kieran asked.

I stood slowly and pushed back my hair. “Yes. She’ll probably cross over in the ocean. That seems fitting.” I turned my attention to Kieran, sitting on the bed with his hands clasped, that extreme focus on me again. Sadness creased his features and lingered in his eyes. “She was blissful. She’s finally at rest, Kieran. You gave her peace.”

“No,” he whispered, rising and stepping closer. His breath dusted my face. “You gave her peace. I gave her you.”

He grabbed my cheeks with both hands. Passion flared within me and fire licked at my core. I expected a hard kiss, like earlier, rushed and frantic. Instead, electricity jumped between us as his lips slowly grazed mine, savoring the contact.

I closed my eyes and opened my mouth, inviting him in. His tongue probed before he backed off to nibble on my bottom lip. His hands slid down my sides and hooked around my middle.

Warmth spread through me from deep down as I sunk into the feeling of his arms wrapped around me. Of his strength and power. Of his gentle touch. He was what I’d always longed for in my quietest moments—the rush of desire wrapped up in a blanket of safety.

In that moment I knew…I had to ride the train of terrible ideas one more time. Just once more to thoroughly get him out of my system. Right after that, I’d go back to being a logical adult who didn’t get mixed up with dangerous men filled with all the strength and power of a god.

Just one more time.

Toot, toot.

I slid my hands down his front and stopped at the base of his T-shirt before slipping inside and putting my palms flush with his hot skin. His thumbs stroked my chin as he deepened our kiss. I pushed my hands up and the shirt with it, grabbing the ends in fistfuls when I reached his shoulders.

He leaned back, his eyes liquid and opened up all the way down to his soul. Without thinking, I reached into his chest, only needing a trickle of the Line power to do so this time, and stroked the edge of that hard plate protecting his essence. He sucked in a breath and tensed, but didn’t fight it. Instead, he lifted his arms so I could pull off the shirt, and then looked down at me again.

“It’s terrifying when you do that,” he said softly, the corners of his lips tweaking upward into a sheepish grin. “It’s one of the rare times I feel completely vulnerable. I know one heart-stopping moment of thinking I can’t protect myself before I feel my magic build. It’s so primal, the response. I can see why people with your magic have been feared through the centuries.”

Doubt bled through me and heat prickled my eyes. But before I could pull back, he shook his head and gripped my upper arms. His smile melted and eyes grew serious.

“I wasn’t trying to make you feel badly just then, Alexis,” he said, putting one warm hand to the side of my neck, and using the other to capture my hand and place it on his heart. “I’m in awe of you. There is only one other thing that makes me feel that sort of vulnerability. It speaks of your power, and your rare gift. It’s a treasure. You’re a treasure. I trust you implicitly.”

“You didn’t trust me so well when you blasted me with your magic in your bedroom.” My voice quavered, a result of remembering the horror I could become. Amazingly, however, I didn’t lift my chin to offset it. I didn’t reach for anger to cover the moment. He’d admitted to a vulnerability, and so I let him see mine.

His lips quirked upward again. “Usually I can control my reaction. That time I couldn’t. You blindsided me, what can I say? In more ways than one.”

I leaned forward, wanting to steal a little more of his heat. “Where’s the other place you feel vulnerable?”

His eyes dulled and his smile melted away for the second time. “When I’m at sea with my father.”