The Half-Ghosts: Aether's Half

Ch. 4: A Dark Crafting

I slipped through the wall and into Hemmett's room, certain I had sensed him on the other side. He's taken a hiatus from school--they pretty much kicked him out--so Father's supposed to be arranging a course of study for him at home. Mom made skeptical noises when they came up with this arrangement. She said Grandad Able tried to spirit-tutor her from home after she got too weird for school, but she wound up spending most of the time learning from Emmett and her other spirit friends. Then Hemmett said something about how he could learn from Dad and his spirit friends, too, and Mom backed down and said they could try it for a week, and if Hemmett didn't keep busy, she was tutoring Hemmett herself.

So you'd think Hemmett would be in there studying like his brain was on fire. However, nothing greeted me on the other side of Hemmett's wall except one of our bat-chis--I think it was Sybil. The little black dog yapped at me, then went back to gnawing on a piece of parchment.

"Com'ere, girl. Let me see what that is."

Sybil growled at me, and trotted off with the parchment between her teeth. She's really my mother's dog and doesn't much like anybody else. Also, she's really old and set in her ways--and spoiled. She flapped her little leathery wings and took off, flapping right out the open window. I followed.

"Please, Sybil. There's a good girl. Just give it to me."

Sybil sped up, but she's fat from too much ecto-kibble plus the mortal food she steals from the table. I've told mother it's a bad idea keeping dogs that can fly. Both Sybil and our other bat-chi, Elvira, will hang over the table on the chandelier, and then drop down to grab food and fly off with it. We've lost entire pies and cakes that way, not to mention a roasted chicken.

Sybil rounded the corner of the house, but there I saw an advantage and I zipped right through the corner and pounced on her. Then she went into a frenzy of biting and snarling, but I just dematerialized slightly. Of course, that made it difficult to grasp the parchment.

"Sybil! You drop that parchment right now!" I said in my most authoritative voice. She stopped snarling, and her Chihuahua eyes bulged at me. Then her mouth dropped open--and the parchment fell three stories, into the garden below.

"Thanks Sybil!"

I sped to the garden, snatching up the parchment almost as soon as it hit the ground. Of course, maybe it wasn't important, but . . .

"Gone to the spirit world. Be back tomorrow. --H"

So! Mr. Spirit Prince had gone off on another tour, again without telling anyone. Technically, we were both grounded. Of course, Dad had failed to implement the punishment, but Mom had meant for him to, and we'd probably be in more trouble if we ignored that fact. I burned with fury. Why did Hemmett always have to crux everything up?

How did he get out of here, anyway? No portals existed in Hemmett's room. I scanned the corners, then I searched his desk and shelves. No scroll either. Had he taken that with him?

My thoughts turned to Reid, as they had so often that day. Reid would never do something like this. Reid was a perfect gentleman. Except when we kissed, of course--then he was like a wild specter on the wind--and he tasted of cinnamon--

Aether! I shook myself out of my reverie. Every second thought of mine had been about kissing Reid the night before, or the moment I passed through him, or his cute messy hair, or--

Stop it! Not again! Even I was sick of my lovesick self. But I hoped he'd gotten home safely. What if Father had gotten curious, toyed with Reid's liminal space as he ported, and Reid wound up two hundred years ago on the moon? Or what if something went wrong, even without Dad to mess it up? Now my mind froze with terror that I'd never see Reid again. Dad probably hadn't been interested in his liminist abilities at all. He'd probably just wanted to "accidentally" banish him to the far dimensions. Yes, that had to be it.