Deceived Read Online Free Page B

grounds. He stopped in front of a large tombstone which looked newer than the ones I’d seen last night.  The only words inscribed on the stone was a name—Irene Bartlett. I found it odd that no dates or personal inscription was added.
    “I was told you interacted with a spirit a few weeks ago. What was it like?” Kye asked.
    I stared at the ground and bit my lip while I thought of words to describe my time with Bridget Downing. She was the second victim found, only she had stuck around. She visited me through dreams, but Ms. Ozland assured me my time with her was in the ghostly realm. She knew this because I have gray swirling within my aura, so mething only spirit walkers have I guess.
    I looked up at Kye , “Scary and confusing.” Those were the best words to describe my experience, but they didn’t do my encounter justice.
    “That was the first time you interacted with the dead?”
    “On a personal level, yes. I first read a dead person here when I was sixteen. Holly had just given me Aura, my cat and familiar, and then a warlock was murdered. Holly told me to check him and when my fingers made contact, I saw his memories.”
    She had to have known what would happen once I touched the dead warlock, or why would she have asked me to do it? How did she know what I could do?
    “You don’t actually need your cat. Holly gave her to you so you woul d feel comfortable with your gift. Spirit walkers have their own connection with death, they don’t need a conduit such as Aura, ” Kye explained .
    I scrunched up my face. “Of course I need Aura; she’s my link to the spirit world.” Every time I read the memories of the dead, Aura was there. She’s a spirit who assumed the body of a cat. She fed me energy so I could de lve into the ghostly atmosphere. Of course I never tried doing it without her. I assumed I needed her and even though she was just an animal, I felt safe having her with me while I read the dead.
    “Have you ever tried without her?”
    I began to speak but shut my mouth when I couldn’t refute his observation.
    “I didn’t think so. So how do you know you can’t interact with the dead without her?” Kye tilted his head to the side.
    “Holly told me with her I would accomplish great things,” I said . I was beginning to think I couldn’t trust anything Holly told me.
    “And so you will, but with your own magic. I want you to place your palms on this tombstone and tell me what you feel,” Kye instructed.
    “The last time I did what you told me, my hands fell through the ground,” I accused with an arched eyebrow.
    “Which proves your power, now, put your hands on the tombstone.”
    I  did as he instructed. The marble was cold beneath my palms , but I felt nothing else.
    “Close your eyes,” Kye ordered.
    With an annoyed huff, I closed my eyes. I didn’t know how running around the cemetery was going to help the NAWC win their war, but if all I had to do was touch g ravestones, I wouldn’t complain, much.
    “Connect with your magic and wield it towards the stone.”
    I concentrated on my magic’s steady hum of energy.  It was a constant purr under my skin, but when I focused on it, commanded it to come to the forefront, the steady hum became a prickling tickle which danced throughout my body.
    I exerted the tickling energy out of my palms and into Irene Bartlett’s tombstone. I could hear my magic sizzling and popping as it made contact but nothing substantial was happening.
    Kye dusted something over my hands, and when I cracked an eye open to inspect, my hands were covered in dirt.
    “Keep concentrating, connect with the tombstone,” Kye said as he continued to sprinkle dirt over my hands. Soon a steady stream of energy ran from me to the stone. I opened my eyes, and Kye was gone. The sky had turned gray along with the rest of the town. All of the buildings, the trees, and plants were in different shades of gray. The ground had a thin layer of fog rolling across, lending an