Bone Dry_ A Soul Shamans Novel - Cady Vance Page 0,6

and terror in her eyes. More terror than I would have expected with even a real spirit.

“You okay?” I kept my voice quiet and calm, hoping that if I seemed relaxed then she would stop freaking out. “This is no big deal you know. I’ll get rid of it, and then everything will go back to normal.”

She just kept staring at me, not blinking her eyes. I wondered how long she could go on like that before her eyeballs got so dry her lids would get stuck like that.

“Something else is wrong,” I said. “What is it?”

Her eyes shifted to a long stretch of flowery carpet. “It…this is going to sound so weird.”

“You know who you’re talking to, right?”

“Yeah.” She spoke in a whisper almost too low to hear. I moved a step closer. “It touched me. Freezing cold hands on my arms and legs. And on my neck.”

I stepped back, instinctively. Kylie didn’t seem to notice, still staring at the carpet and shuddering as if she were being touched right then. This was so over my head. Spirits were nasty things, but I’d never dealt with one that had gone so far as touching a human. Never dealt with one that could. That showed a level of strength that shamans like my mom were specially brought in for. Not a teenager who had banished spirits only twice before.

I should leave. Tell Kylie she needed to call someone more experienced. But what would I say? Sorry, you need a more powerful shaman, but I don’t know the names of any because my mom kept me sheltered from that life? Somehow, I didn’t think that would help her at all.

“Show me your room.”

CHAPTER 3

I stood motionless outside Kylie’s bedroom door. Once I went inside, I couldn’t turn back. Mom had taught me three important rules about being a shaman. The most important one: show no fear. No matter what. If I went into her room and couldn’t see this thing through, I would be showing weakness. Spirits somehow communicate with each other. They know who to fear. And they also know who they can defeat.

I took in several slow and steady breaths to center myself and empty my mind, using the trick my mom taught me. Focus on one image. I always pictured a single sage leaf with its shade of silver-green and web of veins crawling across its surface. And then I focused on it until it was the only thought in my head, the only thing I could see, the only object in the world. As the leafy image took over my mind, all the tension and fear fell away. I could do this. And then I stepped inside.

I spun to take in the room. It was so big that my bedroom, my mom’s room and our living room combined could easily fit inside it. Everywhere I looked there were clothes. They were tossed across the bed, draped over a desk chair and piled on the floor by an open door leading to walk-in closet holding racks of shoes. Sunlight streamed in from the large, bay windows, beams highlighting the corkboard covered in photos of Kylie’s friends and family.

Without the heavy chill in the air, I never would have believed a spirit was here—it was a bedroom fit for a movie set. But I couldn’t ignore the icy breeze. It was the kind of cold that raises the hair on the back of your neck because it shouldn’t be there.

Kylie hurried in after me. “There’s the marking.”

“What?” I asked, striding over. “There are markings?” No markings should be here. That was only what Laura did to have a little fun. Spirits showed up in random places, scared people, got what they wanted and then disappeared leaving no evidence behind them. A spirit wouldn’t carve a rune. No markings should be in Kylie’s room unless…

Unless another shaman had drawn it. To summon the spirit here.

My stomach flipped over fifteen thousand times. Another shaman, here in Seaport. Summoning a spirit. I closed my eyes and counted to ten. I had to stay calm, had to keep my emotions under control.

“Are your parents here?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.

Kylie’s eyes went wide. “No. Why?”

“This spirit is a little…stronger…than others. It’s going to be hard to get rid of it. Probably a good idea your parents aren’t here. They might wonder what’s going on.”

“What do you mean?” She dropped onto the edge of her bed, picked up a ratty teddy