The Case of the Secret Spirit-Half by Lucy Banks

Author:Lucy Banks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2023-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8 – THE GAME IS UP

Kester’s eyes flew open. He cried out—a garbled protest that brought him firmly back to the present. At first, the only thing he could see was Hrschni’s face, barely inches from his own.

“Leave me alone. I don’t want to see anymore!” he shouted, flinging his arms outwards.

The daemon flew into the air, landing against the opposite wall with a whiplash crack of energy. Kester gasped. He hadn’t meant to do it; in his desperation to stop seeing, he’d reacted instinctively, still entangled in that strange darkness between the present and the past.

Hrschni’s form shivered for a few moments before returning to its usual steady glow. However, his expression showed concern. Unsettlement too, and Kester couldn’t help but notice that he remained a safe distance away.

“I’ve never seen anything like that before,” Dr. Barqa-Abu said, from her position by the window. She drifted towards Kester, holding her hands over his body as though trying to detect some sort of static charge. “How on earth did you manage it?”

“I don’t know,” Kester said shakily. “I was so angry, I couldn’t control myself. I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Hrschni said. “I should have known that seeing those things would upset you.”

Kester sat weakly on the bed. He felt sick, feverish almost. Of course he’d known that his mother and Ribero had been together, but he’d had no idea that it had been like that.

“I always presumed Dad had seduced Mum,” he said bleakly. “I thought she’d just been swept along by his charm. But it was her fault as much as it was his. She chose to do it, even though Miss Wellbeloved was her best friend.”

“That’s true,” Hrschni said, resting beside him. “But you know as well as anyone that life is never a simple case of right or wrong. It exists in the cracks in between, the messy areas of truth that are hard to define.”

Kester lifted his head. “How did you feel? You must have known about it; you’re a daemon.”

“I did, as soon as it happened. But don’t feel pity for me, Kester. Spirits don’t feel things the way humans do, so I didn’t feel betrayed. In fact, I understood. She craved humanity, and that’s what she got.”

“They don’t come more human than Julio Ribero,” Dr. Barqa-Abu said wryly.

“You were different to what I’d imagined, too,” Kester said to Hrschni. “I always presumed you’d tried to force her into opening permanent spirit doors. But it wasn’t like that at all.”

“She was correct, though, when she said I only thought of myself,” the daemon said sadly. “I was so immersed in what I wanted, I forgot to think of what Gretchen needed. Again, you can blame that on my spirit nature. Sometimes, I fail to understand human emotion.”

“Why were you so different towards me, then? You were gentle and kind to Mum. But you kidnapped me, trapped me in a cave, then tried to force me into doing what you wanted.”

“Call it desperation if you like.

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