Page 33

Neith

I absolutely do not think that it would be a good idea to allow anyone other than my most trusted people to know who my parents are.

They’re royalty so they have enemies, and besides that we have no idea how far the Blue Fuckers reach goes and who he has working for him.

He must have people working for him because how else could he have started the war?

I have no idea how he is even in this realm since the whole point of closing the gates was so that the war, and more importantly, he, couldn’t get into the other realms.

My parents sacrificed themselves in order to keep the rest of the realms safe.

Although, having said that, I have absolutely no idea how Pete is here, he shouldn’t be, he should be in Trieneliea with my mother. The whole situation is confusing.

“Neith?” Raiden asks.

“Sorry, what?” I reply.

“We were wondering what your idea was and what it has to do with the ghost,” Raiden reminds me.

“The ghost has a name,” Ribit retorts with a smirk, appearing in the middle of the hallway on the third floor.

The guys jump.

“Where the fuck did you come from?” Doc exclaims.

Ribit’s eyes widen, “Wait, you can see me?”

“Of course we can,” Griff replies, looking confused.

I chuckle, “We were just coming to see you.”

“Wait, this is Ribit?” Ransom asks. “She doesn’t look like a ghost.”

Before I can explain what Ribit told me about how she can’t communicate with many people or even be seen. One of the workers that we saw on the first day that we arrived comes around the corner. She greets us all by our names and smiles, but doesn’t mention Ribit.

“What did you do to piss her off?” River asks. “She didn’t even look at you.”

Ribit chuckles, “Bold of you to assume that I pissed her off.”

River’s eyes widen slightly, “Shit, sorry sometimes my mouth says things without consulting my brain.”

Ribit smiles, “Don’t worry about it, she didn’t say hello because she can’t see or hear me.”

“What?” Raiden asks. “I know you’re dead, but you’re pretty powerful if we can see you, you don’t look even remotely ghost-like.”

“That’s all you guys. Honestly, I thought it was just Neith, but since you’re all hers, I did wonder if the gift would transfer onto you guys as well,” Ribit says.

She looks at Raiden, her expression becoming serious, “I know you’re a reaper, and I know that you are going to want to cross me over, but please don’t use any of your reaper magic on me and try to make me go, it won’t end well. ”

Raiden’s eyebrows rise, “I have no idea what kind of reapers you have dealt with in the past, although I can imagine, but I would never force someone to move on unless they were a danger or their soul had deteriorated to the point that they were at risk of becoming a Wraith. You’re neither of those things. ”

Ribit looks surprised, “Yeah, you’re definitely a lot different than any reaper I have spoken to in the past, they make it their mission to try to cross me over.”

“It’s always a choice,” Raiden replies with a shrug.

Ribit looks at me and smirks, “I get it.”

“Get what?” I ask, and then immediately regret the question when a mischievous glint alights in her eyes.

“Why you’ve made them yours,” she replies.

“Made us yours, huh?” Doc grins, his eyes flashing gold, while the others just smile and look at me expectantly.

I shoot Ribit a look, “I never said that. Anyway, it’s getting late, and we need to get on with my plan.”

Ribit’s eyes light up, “Oh, a plan, is that why you were coming to see me?”

I grin, “Yep. We should probably go and speak somewhere that we definitely can’t be overheard.”

“Back up to the fourth floor we go then,” Ribit says as she disappears from view.

“That’s so cool,” River mutters as he rushes ahead to the end of the corridor and up the stairs.

We all follow him quickly, and I have to admit that I’m slightly more cautious as I head through the door, but only because I really can’t cope with another trial right now.

To be honest, we should be heading to bed, it’s late and we have a trial tomorrow, or at least I definitely do and after the two trials I have done today, I absolutely need to go to bed, but this is important, and it may be the best way that we can help Coen without wasting any more time.

The longer that we wait to help him, the more we risk that Kylen realizes that we know each other and he disappears with Coen so that we can’t help him.

When we get up to the next floor, Ribit leads us into the room where she and I watched the guys' trial earlier, and then everyone turns to look at me expectantly.

“What’s the idea then?” Reed asks curiously.

I look at Ribit, “I was wondering if you would help us?”

She frowns slightly but nods, “If I can help, then of course I will. What is it that you need help with?”

I pause, checking in with my instincts and the voices, and neither of them gives any indication that my idea is a bad one, so I explain to Ribit all about Coen and what’s going on.

The guys look at me, clearly surprised that I’m giving so much away, but none of them stop me, and they all chip in here and there adding their own parts to the explanation.

By the time that I’m done with the explanation of what is happening to Coen Ribit looks murderously furious.

“I’ll kill him for you,” she says with absolutely no hesitation.

I grin, “As much as I would love to say go for it, I can’t. We don’t know enough about what is controlling Coen to make sure that we won’t hurt him if we just kill Kylen. That was my way to solve it.”

Ribit grins, “I knew I liked you.” She takes a deep, calming breath, and the rage in her eyes dims a bit. “Alright, what do you need me to do?”

“You’ll help?” Reed asks.

She nods, “Of course I will. Not only do I consider Neith a friend, but well, let’s just say that someone being forced to do things against their will is a touchy subject for me.”

Her expression is filled with rage and pain, and I know that this is a subject that she doesn’t want to talk about, so I don’t question her. I simply nod.

“Thank you,” I reply. “Kylen wears a necklace around his neck. I am ninety-nine percent sure that it is what is allowing him to control Coen. The trouble is, we need to know what we’re dealing with before we can break the spell, or whatever it is that’s controlling Coen,” I go on to explain about our plan to make a duplicate.

“So do you think that you can get close enough to him that you could get a really good look at the necklace, and describe it to us well enough that we can do some research on it?”

Ribit immediately nods, “Absolutely, I can do that. I’ve been around for a long time, I might even recognize it and be able to help.”

“That would be amazing if you did,” Reed replies. “But even if not, just a really good description of what it looks like would be helpful enough.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Ribit replies. “Wait here, it shouldn’t take me too long.”

“Wait, do you know who we’re talking about?” Raiden asks.

Ribit nods, “Oh yeah, the cunt that leads the other team. He’s a real fucking piece of work, Castle really fucking hates him, and so do the people that work here.”

“I’m not surprised at all,” Evander agrees.

“We have never had a member of a team come to the Choosing and behave like he does. It’s like he doesn’t want to win, and he’s not taking it seriously at all. There are serious consequences if the Choosing isn’t respected and he is teetering on the edge,” Ribit replies.

“There are?” I question, with a confused frown. “I can’t remember anything about that.”

“That’s because it’s been thousands of years since the Choosing has had to dish out those consequences,” Ribit replies. She looks at me, “You have a trial tomorrow, you guys all need to get your sleep. Give me ten minutes and I will be right back with your information.”

“Thank you,” I reply.

Within moments, she has disappeared.

“She’s certainly unique,” Doc says with a smile.

I nod, “Yeah, she’s awesome.”

“Do you know what her story is?” Raiden asks. “She’s incredibly strong for a ghost that has been around for so long.”

“Remember, only we can actually see and talk to her,” I reply. “She manages to interact okay with the other people here, and everyone knows that she’s here, but it’s not like she can communicate with us.”

“I forgot about that,” Griff replies. “How is it that we can see and speak to her as if she is alive, well almost, we can’t touch her.”

“I can. I shook her hand the first time we met, and then I held it while watching you guys in the trial,” I explain.

“What?” Ransom says, his eyebrows hitting his hairline and showing his surprise.

I nod, “Yeah, I didn’t actually realize that she was dead and a ghost until I was talking to Mabel and asking her to apologize to Ribit because I was super weird the first time we met.”

“When are you not?” Van teases.

“Rude,” I retort with a smirk.

“You shouldn’t be able to touch her,” Raiden says. “I can make physical contact with the dead, but only when I’m in my shifted reaper form.”

“So you couldn’t just shake her hand right now?” I ask and then add unnecessarily, “If she were here.”

Raiden shakes his head, “Nope. I don’t know of a supernatural that can interact with the dead like they’re alive on this plane.”

“But it kind of makes sense,” Ransom starts. “Neith isn’t just any kind of supernatural, is she?”

“He’s got a point,” Doc adds. “She’s a supernatural that is thought to be extinct, and we can’t do any research on it yet, so we don’t know what is normal for her.”

Raiden nods, but looks slightly frustrated, “Yeah, you’re right. I’m not going to lie, it’s driving me nuts that I can’t research anything right now.”

“I know,” River says with understanding. “Hopefully it won’t be much longer though and we can get back to it.”

“Since we’re just waiting for Ribit to get back, how did your trial go?” Griff asks curiously after a couple of moments.