The Spirit Seducer

Chapter 4

Santa Fe is the capital with the highest elevation in the United States—well above Denver's Mile High status. Because I'd started my ascent at nearly seven thousand feet, I knew I wouldn't have to go too much higher to lose consciousness. The ghosts drifted close enough I could just make out their concerned looks. They seemed to be talking. I couldn't hear them—air rushed past my ears in thick shrieks.

"I'm going to die," I whispered to the spirits.

That was okay. I'd just lost my mom. Fear and sadness pressed against my chest, the balloon expanding past the point of comfort.

"Thank you," I whispered to the ghosts flitting about my body. "For trying to help me."

The air thinned and I struggled to keep my eyes open. Too little oxygen. I was going to pass out. Because of my clandestine hours spent learning about gravity and mass, I knew I'd hit the ground shortly with enough velocity to break every bone in my body.

At least I wouldn't feel the impact when I finally hit the ground.

Layla's frantic screams below had quieted. The pain in my head had subsided completely. Instead, that something I'd felt when Coyote had touched me pulsed with a primal awareness.

You do not die today, Echo Ruiz. The statement wasn't so much spoken words as the words appeared in my head. The spirits surrounded me, comforting me.

The air around me thickened, so cold I wondered briefly about frostbite. No, not from the thinning atmosphere. I was cradled within the spirits' embrace. I shivered in fierce bursts, but I was safe.

"How do you know that?"

You called us. You are the one we've waited for. We won't let you die. Not today.

That was interesting. I had spirits who'd answered my SOS call. And they took their job seriously.

"You can hold me?"

As long as needed.

The voice was stronger. Almost as if the more he talked to me, the more he strengthened.

I forced my eyes open and blinked at the brightness of the sky. It was impossibly blue. Sunlight needled into my skin.

I relaxed. Euphoria expanded as my mind welcomed the primordial magic pulsing bright within my head, beating faster than a hummingbird's wings. Incredible.

I was so high—above the clouds. A place humans didn't belong. Layla—what had happened to her? And Zeke . . . I wanted to talk to him, thank him for helping me today.

Blackness edged in as I lost consciousness. A memory, much like my dreams, slithered through my mind.

Of the moment I'd met Zeke. I was ten, maybe eleven. He'd seemed so mature, maybe fifteen. He was tall and broad. His brooding brown eyes met my timid gaze. I'd known then he was more than the typical male I'd met, however briefly.

"She's the one?" he asked.

His voice sent shivers down my spine. I stood taller and studied him more closely. He had a secret—it was buried deep in those chocolate eyes.

My mother slid her arm around my shoulder, hugging me to her narrow frame. Her action was a silent message telling me not to step closer to the man-boy eyeing me with the same intensity I gave him.

"Yes. She's begun to have headaches. She says it's a deep, pulsing pain. From the dampening ward I've placed on her, I think."

"Why not let her remember?"