The Shadow Morpher-Book 2

Chapter 36

Here's the next chapter! I hope you like it. :) Once more, I'd like to thank you guys for staying with me for the story so far and also for helping me getting the first book in the series into the second round for the Watty Awards! :) Thank you, all my loyal readers. Oh, and I'm sorry if I haven't yet dedicated a chapter to one of my loyal readers. I'll do my best to dedicate one of the chapters to you. :D Oh, and there is a picture of Rachel on the side. :)

Chapter 36

                It was Dahlia’s turn to be stunned. She had never considered, not in a million years, that her mother would be here at the Elementary. She flung her arms around Rachel and hugged her tightly. Her mother returned the embrace; both of them were happy to see the other.

                Troy couldn’t help but feel a slight twinge of jealousy. Sure, he had been reunited with his half-sister, but he would never get to know his parents. Both his mother and father were dead.

                 All the same, he was happy that Dahlia had gotten her mother. A small smile quirked at his lips; when he had first met Kayla, his and Dahlia’s first couple of questions had been about his loss of memory and of Dahlia’s missing mother.

                 And now, in the same day, they had gotten the answers that they had wanted.

            When Troy had first met Dahlia and they had become friends, neither of them had questioned the other about the unanswered questions in their lives. Now, all those answers were coming in their own time. Perhaps it had been better to wait.

                But all the same, Troy knew that it would be better if Helen was there to enjoy the day with him. He needed his sister, his real one, not Kayla. Kayla was his half-sister, but she could never replace what Helen was with him.

                As he thought about Helen, he remembered the potion that she had given to him at their last meeting, back in Ohio.

             “Arulan, were you the one who summoned Helen to give her the vial to give to me?” he asked.

                Arulan nodded. “Yes. That is my power. I can talk to spirits that have already been released from the Ghost Kingdom.”

                Troy blinked. “Are you a necromancer?” he asked, thinking again of Kayla.

             Arulan considered briefly. “No, not really, Troy. I can talk to ghosts, but I cannot summon them.”

                “Then how do you talk to them?” Troy asked.

              “Necromancers like Kayla summon the ghosts out of the Ghost Kingdom and into the Mortal World,” Arulan explained. “Once they are in the Mortal World, they can come and go as they please, which, naturally, is a bit dangerous. But once they have come into the Mortal World, I can talk to them. If they are in the Ghost Kingdom or the Shadow Realm, I cannot.”

                Troy thought about the new piece of information. It matched up with what Helen had told him about the three realms.

                “What if I became a bridge out of shadows?” Troy asked.

                “Yes, you are a shadow morpher,” Arulan said. “If I recall, you did that once, didn’t you?”

                “Yes,” Troy began. “But how did you know?”

              “You opened a bridge between the three realms,” Arulan continued, as if Troy had never interrupted him. “When you did that, you released the shadows from the Shadow Realm and the ghosts from the Ghost Kingdom.”