Backing away, Zavid returned to his human form. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Gautier? That really you?” He reached out and his hand passed straight through Nick’s body.
Nick let out a sound of disgust. He didn’t even want to know what he looked like right now. “That’s not a good sign, is it?”
“Depends. Are you alive or dead?”
“I’m going with alive because it beats the alternative.”
Zavid rolled his eyes. “Where’s Malphas?”
“Cabal!” Nick shouted, hoping it would work. He glanced to Zavid. “Do I really have to call a demon in triplicate every time I want to summon it?”
Before the wolf could answer, Caleb appeared by his side.
“Guess not,” Nick answered. This was getting better. His powers were holding and doing what they were supposed to. At least for the time being. “How do I get S—”
As if sensing the question, Simi appeared instantly on his six. “Akri-Nick! You made it. Good for you.” She slapped Caleb playfully on his arm. “See, the Simi done told you that that mean ole darkness wouldn’t eat his head like you said it would. You didn’t believe me. Next time the Simi tells you something, you’ll listen. Mmm, and speaking of, all this inner dimensional travel done made the Simi hungry again. What you gots to eat in this place?”
Caleb pointed to Zavid. “I hear barbecued wolf is a delicacy on most continents.”
Offended, Zavid glared at him. “Excuse me?”
“I would, Z, but you keep doing stupid crap. And there’s just no excuse for that.”
Nick ignored them while he waited on Kody to join their group.
After a couple of minutes, he glanced back at the two demons, who were still arguing while Simi was rooting through Caleb’s kitchen pantry. Lightning flashed outside before the sound of thunder rattled the windows.
“Hey, guys! Can I have your attention for a sec?” He counted his concerns off on his fingers. “One, where’s the alternate me so I can repo my bod and get back to normal? Kind of miss it, and I don’t want to stay like a ghost. And two, where’s my girl? I miss her more than my body.”
Zavid grimaced in distaste. “Since I don’t hear the screeching whine of a child that makes my ears bleed, I’m assuming Nick Two is still unconscious inside the closet I locked him in.”
Caleb rolled his eyes. “Are you serious?”
“You told me not to let him get eaten or kill him until you got back. He’s not eaten and I didn’t kill him. Really, you should congratulate my restraint … which was seriously hard won.”
“Congratulations. I’m not going to kill you.”
And still, neither answered the most pertinent question. “Where’s Kody? Do I have to summon her by name, too?”
“She’s not a demon,” Caleb reminded him. “That only works on us.”
“Then where is she?”
Zavid shrugged while Caleb scratched uncomfortably at his neck. That was never a good thing where Caleb was concerned.
An awful feeling went through Nick. “What?” he asked Caleb.
He refused to answer.
Oh yeah, this was going to suck.…
With a box of Ding Dongs in hand, Simi drifted back into the foyer where they stood. “Man up, demon. Tell the boy what he’s asking about.”
Still, Caleb hedged.
“What?” Nick repeated, this time to Simi. “What’s happening? Why isn’t Kody here?”
Simi sighed heavily then swallowed her mouthful of cupcake. “You know Miss Akra-Kody not human, right?”
“Yeah, I’m not that oblivious.”
Simi dug out another package from the box. “Well, see, there’s a little problem. Akra-Kody be a ghost and they can’t travel like we does and Caleb couldn’t bring her back like he did me, ’cause she got no real living body. She gots one of them borrowed bodies that are … different. Once they leaves a dimension, they can’t really get back to it.”
The knot in his stomach tightened to the point he thought he’d be sick. “I don’t understand.”
Caleb groaned under his breath before he picked up the explanation. “You know the old joke about the dead, don’t go into the light?”
“Yeah.”
“We went into the light. Kody won’t be able to cross back … ever.”
Rage erupted inside him. Before he could stop himself, he grabbed Caleb and slammed him into the wall. He wasn’t sure how he could do that while Caleb still couldn’t touch him, but he was too angry to question it right now. Not while he had more pressing concerns. “You’re lying to me!”
Caleb shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that. And you know Simi could never.”
Releasing Caleb, Nick didn’t want to believe it. Tears made his vision swim as an unbelievable agony tore through him.
Kody gone? How could that be true?
“Why didn’t she say something?”
“She knew you wouldn’t come back without her and we didn’t have time to waste. We still don’t. You have to merge back into your body, kick down your army, and seal them out before the next new moon. Which is roughly sixteen hours from now, give or take.”
A loud, piercing screech erupted from somewhere Nick couldn’t locate. It sounded like the air itself made it. The storm outside increased its intensity. If he didn’t know better, he’d think they were in the middle of a hurricane.
Zavid flinched as if something had struck him. “Definitely less. That’s the cry from another šarru. Something just broke its seal and released it into this world. We have to move fast.” He rushed for the stairs.
“Nick?” Caleb said in an earnest tone when Nick didn’t rush after Zavid. “What are you thinking?”
He was thinking that he wanted to go back and get Kody. Right now. He was thinking that he had no desire to be here without her. To live in a world where she didn’t exist.
She’d given up everything for them, without hesitation.
And that made him even angrier. Did she not love him at all? How could she just let him go without saying anything, knowing she’d never see him again?
Did she not care?
I meant nothing to her.
She hadn’t even put up a fight about it. She’d just kicked him out of her life as if he was nothing but an unwanted nuisance.
Caleb snapped his fingers in his face. “Nick! Stop!”
He glared at the demon. “Stop what?”
“I can tell by the fire in your eyes what you’re thinking. Kody loves you. More than you understand. What she did, she did for you and you alone. Had you not left, Thorn would have returned and enslaved you, and the others would have killed you. Don’t you dare let that Malachai hate build up inside you and take away from her selfless act. I was there after you left. I saw her break down and weep like you can’t imagine. And now she’s trapped there, completely alone. With no one at all. So don’t you dare hate her for what she did to save you.”
Even so, it was hard. The Malachai wanted to hate, and keeping that at bay was a constant struggle for him. Hatred was quickly becoming his go-to happy place.
But the thought of Kody in tears … that hit him hard. He couldn’t stand the thought of her in pain. Especially not because of him. “I have to go back for her.”
Caleb shook his head. “Without the Magus Stone, you can’t. And right now, the most important thing is to reunite you and your body and put down your army before they get together and party. Not to mention, we don’t know what your spirit will do here in this realm if it’s not grounded in your body, and with the two of you existing in the same time and space … that’s never supposed to happen. And I don’t know the full ramifications if you exist together for long. So let’s take care of one catastrophe at a time. Okay?”