Veiled Spirits

“What can I do, kid?” Aggie questions as she hovers next to me, wringing her hands anxiously. Aggie’s the only one who sees what I do every night and the toll it takes on me. It’s hard for her to witness me in so much pain, night in, night out.

“There’s nothing you can do, Aggie. I just have to power through today. Then I can fucking sleep.”

Rubbing my gritty eyes, I push to my feet again. I shuffle to my closet and pull out the first top and pants I find. Shrugging on one of Bishop’s faded black band tees, I step into my high-rise dark jeans next. Once I shove my feet into my Chucks, I’m ready to go.

“You need the rest. I’m not bringing any ghosts for you tonight. You can’t keep going so many days without sleep.” Aggie stares me down, daring me to argue with her. I’m not planning on it. She’s right. I can’t keep pushing so hard. It’s not sustainable, and I’m going to burn out one of these days.

Nodding to show I heard her, I sling my plain backpack over my shoulder and head for the door. “Your shirt’s on inside out, kid,” she tells me. Looking down, I see she’s right.

“Fuck my life.” I sigh as I quickly change it around and tuck it back in. I have a feeling that’s how the whole day is going to go today.

CHAPTER 10

IZZY

Iblink open my eyes to see my family, Bishop, and the wolves in a line, with their hands cuffed in front of them. Glancing down, I take in the plain white dress I’m always wearing in these damn dreams. Even though I know it’s a dream, I’m powerless to do anything to change it.

Still, I try to yank my hands free of the magic-dampening cuffs. All I succeed in doing is wrenching my shoulders, the cold metal not budging an inch. Even though I’m currently magicless, the two burly guards grip my shoulders like I’m a flight risk. There’s no way I’d run and leave everyone I care about behind.

“Isabel Magnolia Gallagher, the council hereby finds you guilty of every crime you were charged with. You are sentenced to execution,” the smarmy voice booms from somewhere behind me. I can’t turn around to see which councilman it is. “Your family and friends are sentenced to execution by magic as well. It is your fault they have to die. Such a shame the selfishness of one mage will lead to the extinction of two prestigious mage lines.”

“No!” I scream as I buck and twist to speak face-to-face to the man doing the sentencing. The two guards prevent me from turning around. “Leave them out of it! They didn’t do anything wrong.” My begging and pleading never changes anything, but I have to try.

“Carry out the sentence for everyone but her. Let her watch the consequences of defying us,” the disembodied voice orders.

One guard steps up to Bishop, the first person in the line. His blue eyes turn accusingly toward me. He doesn’t have to say anything for me to understand he blames me. “Meeting you was the worst thing to ever happen to me,” Bishop tells me. I flinch at his words, not because they’re too harsh but because they’re true. He deserved so much more than me.

Then the guard casts a spell. A sickly green light encircles Bishop’s head. He can’t breathe through the bubble, and he claws at his throat, trying to get air in. It doesn’t work. After a few minutes, Bishop stops struggling. His limp body drops to the ground with a thud.

“No!” I wail, with tears running down my cheeks. My shoulders shake with sobs as I scream in devastation, “Bishop!” I fight the cruel hands holding me, wanting to go over to my best friend and the only person who really knows me. No matter how much I struggle, I can’t get free.

Instead, I have to watch the guard kill everyone I love, one by one.

“I wish you were never born,” my mom hisses at me before she’s killed.

“You are our greatest regret,” my dad tells me solemnly before being suffocated.

“Our family was better without you,” Rhys informs me before he, too, asphyxiates.

“We never loved you,” Aiden shouts before he’s choked to death.

I scream and cry and beg and plead for all of their lives. It never does anything. By the time they finish with my family, I’m sobbing so hard, I can barely breathe. It feels like someone took a sledgehammer to my chest, and all my bones are shattered and poking my heart. I wish they’d just kill me already. Dying is better than living with a gaping, ragged wound where my heart is supposed to be.

The wolves are a new addition to this horror show. While I just met them a few days ago, they already feature in my recurring nightmare.

Great.

“I wish I never met you,” Luca grits out.

“We deserved a better mate than you,” Archer says without his signature smile.

“You weren’t worth it,” Cain spits, driving the final spike into my already shredded heart. The guard kills all three of them at once. By the time their bodies hit the ground, I’m numb. I don’t feel anything anymore. My mind is too overwhelmed to process the all-consuming grief.

“I’m sorry,” I gasp out to the row of dead bodies. Not that it’ll do anything. Nothing I do will ever undo all the carnage I cause just by existing.

“Save your apologies. Your kind doesn’t deserve to live. Nothing you say will make us spare you,” the voice behind me booms. “Throw the girl on the pyre.”

I don’t try to fight the guards as they drag me to the burning funeral pyre. I don’t try to stop them from throwing me on top of it. I don’t try to escape the flames licking across my body, charring my clothes and skin. Instead, I welcome the oblivion of death.