Legions of Bone: Dragon Rider Book 3

Chapter 41: Ghosties

"We need to figure out where Norah is," Dagen said.

Topher huffed as he considered the quiet office they stood in. There was a janitor at the other end of the room, vacuuming. He stopped occasionally to shudder.

"She's dead," he reasoned. "And if her spirit wasn't with her body—"

"Vaella teleported us to the cabin after she died," Dagen reasoned, arms folded behind his cloak. "Her spirit could still be back in the city or be anywhere."

One side of Topher's lips curled up in disdain. "I bet if I died, you wouldn't do this for me—the handsome fellow who made you oatmeal."

"Shit oatmeal," Dagen hissed. He wasn't in the mood for this. There was a panic inside him. Not an all-consuming fear, but a low and steady panic spreading over his skin. It was getting worse. "And you're not dead," he added, quiet and fierce.

    "Easy," Topher placated, only irritating Dagen more. "I'm just trying to lighten the mood. We'll find her, don't worry. But it's a big place for a ghost."

"It's Norah," Dagen said confidently. "She'll do something that'll get them talking."

Topher dipped his chin, eyeing him warily. His voice didn't soften, but the amusement was gone. "She could be in the Afterlife."

Dagen knew it was a possibility. But the last time she died, her spirit had stayed behind, which meant there was a greater possibility of it happening again. And if she did go into the Afterlife, Dagen needed a plan that would get him into Death's realm without resulting in him killing himself.

"Where's her body?" Topher asked, watching the janitor come closer with his vacuum. The old man shuddered again, looked up from the floor, and searched for the rogue breeze.

"At the cabin," he replied lowly. The corpse; his friend.

He remembered Nevaeha landing on Norah. Remembered the silence that drowned everything out as Vaella and the others stared at their hope for saving the world laying on the ground, dead.

Topher nodded, frowning at the janitor, his pine-green eyes hazy with thought. "We'll have to move fast. The longer she's dead, the more her cells die and..." He looked at Dagen, brows arched, lips pursed.

"Makes it harder to resurrect," Dagen finished.

Topher pointed a dry, cracked finger at him. "Harder to resurrect without permanently damaging something--especially the—" he circled a finger around his temple "—noggin which usually goes the fastest, and well, nerves too... And shitting yourself."

They were wasting time. "We need to get going."

Dagen raked a hand through his hair, hearing the janitor shudder and curse at the cold.

Topher blinked, eyes darting down to Dagen's knee, then around. "Where's Eoin?"

Dagen searched around him, called to his brother, but there was no reply. He walked toward the glass wall overlooking the street's busy nightlife and restaurants. That was where Eoin would mostly likely be, watching everyone, but his brother wasn't there.

Dagen passed through the janitor, hearing the man shudder and curse behind him.

    "Eoin!" Dagen hollered, annoyed as much as he was worried now.

    Topher nodded at something behind him. "There he is."

    Dagen turned, finding Eoin trotting back like a child racing for the last cookie. "Oi," Dagen hollered, spreading his hands wide. "Just decided to take off, do ya?"