But the truth was it was thoughts of Colt that consumed me. That he might have died because I had apparently flashed my stupid heart to the entire crew when I myself didn’t even understand my feelings.
“Could you . . . contact his ghost?” I asked as I opened an apple pie and took a bite of the still-hot flaky pastry and sweet filling.
“Colt’s?” Wally gave a slow nod. “Maybe. I mean, I could try. He was killed rather than dying a natural death, so there is a forty-seven percent chance that he is a restless spirit, like Tommy. But we’d have to be back in the House of Wonder to really talk to him. I’m not strong enough to draw him away from his place of death. Only about three percent of necromancers have that ability. I doubt very much I’m one of them.”
“Can you try?” I asked.
She smiled but it was wobbly. “Okay, I’ll try. But don’t be disappointed, okay?” I nodded and she closed her eyes, sitting cross-legged across from me, her hands on her thighs as her head tipped back.
The whisper of her magic—that gorgeous deep wine-red—flowed around her and slowly filled the room. As it slid over my arms, the hair stood on end and my muscles tightened with a sudden tension. Not fear, but anticipation.
“Colt of the House of Shade and the House of Wonder,” Wally intoned in her deep voice, “come to me.”
Her magic swelled, spread out around us and then just as quickly, faded. Wally shot me a look. “I’m sorry, Wild. I . . . I’m not surprised. But we can try again back at the House of Wonder.”
Which would be probably never at this rate. I leaned my head back and my eyes slid shut. “Thanks, Wally, I know you tried. Wake me when the guys get here.”
She shuffled around until she was next to me, lending me some of her warmth. I must have fallen asleep.
Colt sat in front of me. “You have to try again, Wild. You have to.”
I jerked awake, the taste of blood in my mouth. “Wally.”
“What is it?”
“Call him again.” I knelt and tried to shake off the weight of sleep that wanted to tug me down.
Wally sighed. “Okay, one more time.”
I nodded and took her hand. “I’ll help.”
Once more her magic swirled up and around us, deeper in color than the first time.
Once more she intoned his name.
But this time the magic didn’t fade.
There was a tugging sensation in my belly as her power rose, and on instinct, I pushed some energy toward her. She gasped and the magic swelled again, filling the space of the crypt until I couldn’t see her.
But there was someone walking out of the deep clouds of magic straight toward me.
“Colt,” I whispered his name, pain snaking around my heart. There had been something between us. A different time, a different place, and things . . . well, they would have played out in a totally different direction.
His smile softened as he saw me. I didn’t stand—I wasn’t sure I trusted my knees to hold. He stopped in front of me. “Wild. Good job. I have to tell you what I know.”
“What you know?” I grimaced.
“That I’m dead? Or that you love Rory?”
I put a hand to my face. “I’m sorry. For both. This is all my fault.”
His gentle smile slid a little. “I thought Ruby was focused on the Shadowkiller. I thought . . . that I could kill her when she wasn’t looking and maybe prove myself. It’s a flaw I’ve had all my life. But I hesitated. It had nothing to do with what I’d felt from you, Wild.”
My guts untwisted a little.
“Are you sure? Because I didn’t even know . . . what I felt exactly. I mean, I think I do now but . . . .” God, I felt like a tool just saying it out loud.
He crouched beside me. “Wild . . . I knew Gen was hot for Rory, she’d been trailing him even during the Trials where she could. So despite what I felt, I knew I still had a chance. And I took a chance to protect you.” He lifted his hand and brushed it down the side of my face, his ghostly touch sending a soft shiver through me. “But it wasn’t Ruby who killed me.”
I blinked up at him. “It wasn’t?”
He shook his head and the smile finally slid away, turning into a sharp frown. “It was a mage who killed me. One I trusted with my life. When you opened up about Rory, we felt everything. I knew I ranked behind Rory. And behind me, far below, was Ethan. He didn’t like that.”
Colt reached up and touched me again even as the horror of what he was saying flowed through me. “He . . . Ethan killed you?”
The boy with the green eyes and the soft lips stared down at me. “Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying. Be careful, Wild. Please. As much as I care about you, I don’t want to see you here with me any time soon. Deal?”
His body began to fade along with the burgundy mist. I held up my hand as if to high five him, and he did the same, our palms almost touching. “Deal.”
Colt winked at me and then faded completely, along with the magic.
Wally let out a soft moan. “Wow, that was . . . draining, but so amazing. He really came to speak to you!”
I nodded. “You heard what he said?”
“About Ethan? Yeah . . . I wouldn’t have thought it possible. I mean, cheating, yes. But actually killing Colt?”
She might not, but I could. If anyone got in the way of a Helix, death was a very distinct possibility. But still, the disappointment was there. That Ethan could kill his best friend did shock me on some levels.
“Nothing we can do about Ethan right now,” I said.
I pulled out the map that Gordy had given me of the jail where Frost was being held. Not that I needed it now. It was a giant square set on an island out in the harbor. An island the human world couldn’t see, apparently, because I was pretty sure I would remember mention of a “Shadowspell Island Penitentiary.”
I smoothed the map out. “Not very inventive with names, are they?”
Wally leaned over the map with me. “It’s a giant square.” Her words echoed my own thoughts.
The paper in my hands was layered, and I peeled up the first sheet. The next section was a more detailed look at the interior of the building, including entry points and windows. Another flip, and I was looking at a side view of the building. Four stories above ground and two stories below ground, though the underground section looked to be smaller than the footprint of the rest of the building.
I flipped another page, and I was looking at guard stations. One more final flip, and my adrenaline spiked. I was suddenly feeling the urge to go now, to test myself against what I was staring at.
“It’s levels and levels, by the looks of it. Each kind of supernatural in a different section.” I turned the papers over again and realized how incomplete it was. It looked like a lot of information at a quick glance, but as soon as I saw that maze . . . “This would help if you had to go in, but there are a lot of unknowns. Has anyone ever broken in before? Successfully, that is?”
Wally shook her head. “Every attempt at escape has resulted in . . .” Her voice deepened. “Death.”
Of course it had. Wally shrugged. “Far as I know, no one has ever tried to break in,” She pause. “Were you really going in there to break us out?”