Page 51 of Deceiver

“I made you get some tea.”

“Thanks.” With some difficulty, I pull myself up, still clutching the pillow. “Does Calliope know why this happened to me?”

“Not exactly.” He takes a seat on the edge of the bed. “She’s heard of things like this happening before, and the way she described it to me is that some people are just more attuned to the spirit world than others. They have an energy that attracts spirits. It’s possible you even have intuition powers or divination powers that you’re not aware of.”

“What does that mean?”

“You could be a psychic or a medium or be able to read tarot cards.”

“I’ve never done anything like that.”

“You haven’t been attracted to it?”

“No, not really. Not until recently. Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie or something, but I’ve never thought I should do that, or gone out and bought a tarot card deck, or anything like that.”

“Hmm. Well, it could be that there’s just something about you.”

“Great, something about me that I don’t want and can’t do anything about.”

“Unfortunately, that’s how most spiritual gifts go. You get them whether you want them or not.”

“Fantastic.”

“Calliope explains it as being like the way you’re born with an eye color and a hair color already pre-established at the time of your birth. It’s like that. It’s already part of you.”

I rub my forehead. “But she stopped it, right? I think I can feel it.” I rub the center of my chest. “I definitely feel different than before I interacted with her.”

“That’s a good sign. She said that over time you would start to be able to feel the effects of the protection spell she put around you.”

“Protection spell,” I repeat, glancing down at the mug. “So ghosts are real, magic’s real. What else is real?”

Wilder smirks. “Why don’t we focus on what we’re dealing with right now? Eventually, maybe you’ll be in a place where you can handle the rest.”

“That sounds ominous.”

He huffs a laugh. “I didn’t mean it to. Let me just say that there’s a lot more going on in the world than most people can see.”

“You found all that out after you became a Soul Chaser?”

“Yep. My eyes were opened to the spiritual world once I left this one, and I’ve been granted several abilities and powers that I didn’t have in life to help me do my job.”

“Were you scared?”

“When?”

“When you died? Was it scary?”

His brow crinkles, and he seems to be thinking for a moment as his eyes shift to the ceiling, then back to me.

“No, it wasn’t fear I felt. It was a sense of disappointment at first, about how my life could have worked out if I’d had a little bit more time. Perhaps that’s why it was so easy to accept the offer to become a Soul Chaser. I wasn’t ready to leave this life. And granted, I had no idea what I was signing up for at the time, but I don’t regret it. I actually enjoy what I do to some extent.”

“Even though it’s lonely?”

“I never said it was lonely.”

I shrug. “Sorry. I guess I just assumed, since you said you couldn’t keep your lovers with you.”

“I’m never short of company if I want it.”