Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
“Three!” Luna shouted at the same time. She let go of Hanna’s hand and jumped through the open doorway, directly onto the hospital bed.
Hanna watched anxiously as she settled into the limp, pale body. She hoped the spirit hadn’t been gone too long for it to join with the physical body again.
But just as she was getting worried, Little Luna’s eyes flew open and she began to wave her arms.
“Mommy! Mommy!” she cried.
“Oh my goodness! Look—look!”
The mother’s voice was almost a shriek. Immediately she had her daughter in her arms and tears of happiness were filling her eyes.
“You came back!” Hanna heard her sobbing. “Oh my sweet girl, my baby—you came back to me!”
Feeling a warm glow of satisfaction, Hanna walked through the door herself. With a little hop, she found herself back in her own body, which was still being held gently by Uncle Bruin.
As she blinked her eyes and looked up at him, she saw relief spread over his bearded face.
“Thank the Goddess!” he exclaimed hoarsely. “I feared the worst!”
“I knew that Hanna could do it—I knew she could find her!” Aunt Luna was suddenly at her side, hugging her even before Uncle Bruin could put her down. “Oh sweetheart—I’m so proud of you! For the first time, you used your Gift instead of it using you. You’ve truly come into your own today.” She looked over her shoulder and frowned. “But…I feel a cool draft. You didn’t leave the door open—did you?”
“The…the door?” Blearily, Hanna tried to focus on the place where she had opened the door to the Shadow Lands. To her concern, she saw that she had indeed forgotten to shut it. It still stood open, showing the gray and featureless twilight of what Little Luna had called “the gray place.”
“I don’t think—” she began and then she saw them…
Two glowing red eyes were staring at her from just inside the doorway. As Hanna watched in horror, an evil mouth filled with long, jagged fangs slowly widened into a grin. And then a long arm that seemed to be made of the substance of shadows reached out for her.
“Hanna, my sweet little slut,” a voice hissed in her ears. “At last we meet again…”
22
WRAITH
“Warrior, arise—a choice lies before you!”
Wraith knew at once who the voice belonged to—it was the voice he had been waiting to hear from the moment of his death, when he had so foolishly drunk the poison potion.
“Goddess!” He rose from the chair he had been hovering over in Hanna’s suite and bowed low before her.
The Mother of All Life has a beauty so terrible it is difficult for mortals to perceive. But Wraith was no longer strictly mortal and he saw her for a moment when he dared to lift his eyes. The sight was one of such shining beauty as to strike a warrior blind and dumb and for a moment, he could say nothing else.
“You must make a choice,” the Goddess repeated. “The human female that you love is in dire peril. Even as we speak, her soul is being ripped from her body.”
“I’ll go to her at once!” Wraith exclaimed, finding his voice at last. “I gave her my Oath—I’ll save her! But, Goddess—she’s on Earth and I can’t leave the Mother Ship!”
“Therein lies your choice, Warrior,” the Goddess told him. “I can transport you to the Earthly Realm so that you may fight the demon who seeks to claim her soul. But I cannot promise you will be able to return. Even if you are able to save your love, you may be trapped there forever, wandering in darkness.”
Wraith didn’t hesitate.
“I love her, Goddess,” he told his deity. “I will go to her and fight for her, no matter what the cost. Please—send me quickly! I have to save her!”
The Goddess nodded her shining head.
“I chose well when I marked you as her Protector. Very well, Warrior—brace yourself. The trip will be swift and terrible and you must be ready to fight the moment you arrive.”
Wraith drew his sword, the steel ringing as it left the scabbard.
“I am ready,” he said grimly. “Send me, Goddess. And if I never return, so be it.”
“Your courage is beyond praise,” he heard her murmur.
And then there was the sound of a mighty wind rushing in his ears and everything was blackness.
23
HANNA
“No! No, leave me alone!” Hanna shrieked, but her voice came out as nothing but a whisper as the hand made of shadows clawed her spirit from her body.
With horror, she saw her physical form slump forward as Aunt Luna and Uncle Bruin grabbed for her.
“Oh no!” she heard Aunt Luna exclaim. “The Dark Entity—somehow it found her!”
And then she was being dragged through the open doorway to the gray Shadow Lands again and leaving the brightness of the Living Lands behind her for the second time.