Better off Dead Book Three Read online

  I laughed at his description, but I did not turn around, shove the magical equivalent of a bomb in the engine, and destroy it. I did get out, though. My body creaked. It was as stiff as a log. I stretched, pulling my arms high over my head as I stared around me.

  Thankfully this road was as quiet as the dead. We’d driven for a long time. We were well and truly out of Tokyo. Though it was still a dark night, the hills around us were slightly visible under the crisscrossing net of road lights that marked the circuitous path we’d taken up this hill. I stared down at them then across at the darkened valley below us. I thought I saw something peeking out of a dense copse of trees to the left. “What is that?” I pointed at it.

  The rat scurried out of my side of the car, reared up on his legs, and sniffed the air. “It’s a shrine. A powerful one, if I am any judge. As soon as you have destroyed the car, I suggest we head there.”

  “Wouldn’t that be obvious? I mean, they’ll be expecting I’ll head somewhere powerful to try to use the energy to transport.”

  “This is a hidden shrine, my lady.”

  “Sorry?”

  “You must be close to it – as we are right now – in order to find it. We cannot waste this opportunity. Now, let us venture forth – after you have burned this car and sent it to the great scrapyard in the sky.”

  I still had absolutely no intention of getting rid of our only ride. I turned around and stared at it with a thoughtful frown marching across my lips. I had accessed truly incredible magic earlier, but I wasn’t about to call on my sister’s power to hide a car.

  I walked around it.

  “Time is ticking, my lady,” the rat reminded me. “Though I have not sensed anyone on our tail – not that you are gifted with such a wonderful appendage, of course – that could change rapidly. I should not have to tell you that Hilliker and his priests will leave no stone unturned in order to get to you.”

  “No, you don’t.” An enormous smile burst over my lips. “But a stone isn’t a bad idea.” I spread my fingers, moved close to the car, and got right up in its aura. That was to say that I pushed my energy into its etheric field and got a feel for it. Everything has an etheric field – not just the pockets of space that practitioners used to hide their inventory. Every object imbued with energy has an aura – and in a truly energetic world made up of constantly zipping electrons, everything has energy. The trick to understanding an object – and changing it – lay in its ethereal energy, for that is where its form is ultimately stored.

  I know I was getting overly technical, but the point was, it was time to try something I should very much not be able to do.

  I concentrated until my lips went white from clenching them too hard.

  “My lady, what are you planning to do? I sense a great calm and an equally powerful magic descending over you.”

  “It’s time to practice body magic,” I whispered without losing my attention.

  “Forgive me, but you are not a body magician. I might have just met you, but that much is clear.”

  “I’m a child of the Deep,” I said reverentially. “I’m anything I want to be. I have access to the force that underpins all of reality. Surely body magic won’t be that hard.”

  The rat didn’t point out that I’d likely lost my mind, all my power was going to my head, and I was forgetting the general rules of magic. As I’d already pointed out on numerous occasions, you could only practice the stream of magic you were born into. While I’d accessed body magic when I’d claimed my mother’s cross, I had just used it to break through an existing spell. I had not truly practiced it.

  So I should have no chance of practicing it now. That didn’t mean I was about to give up. You could accuse me of going to crazy lengths to save this car, but to be fair, I had paid most of my fortune for it. And I couldn’t just shove it into my etheric pocket – it was far too large.

  “Okay,” I whispered through a long breath. “You can do this. Just attune to the etheric field and let its energy imbue you.”

  “If you do that,” the rat interrupted promptly, “you will become a car. I do not suggest you practice body magic unless you are truly capable of it.”

  Okay, he had a point. You needed to be careful when you practiced body magic, lest you accidentally turned yourself into the thing you were trying to spell. I’d heard tale of unfortunate body magicians turning into rats and cats and snakes for the rest of their lives. They were the lucky ones, however. The really unlucky ones turned into stone.

  While I was epically powerful now, I could still screw up – evidenced by the fact I’d been doing that my whole life.

  I still concentrated until I accessed the etheric field again. I let it sing through me until I felt what it was like to be this car. Its energy rose up through me. I swore I had a set of four hot magical tires, a dented hood, a burned chassis, and a lovingly maintained interior.

  Heck, I even thought I’d start making revving noises.

  But just when I started to convince my soul it was really a car, I pulled back. I turned my hands to the side as I gained full control of the car’s etheric field. I injected it with magic, then stood back and watched as it wobbled, expanded, then crumpled down until it was nothing more than a largish rock.

  The rat looked so shocked, he could have swallowed his own tongue. “My word, you actually did it.”

  I wiped my hands on my pants and nodded several times before thumbing my nose, picking up the stone, and throwing it into my subspace pocket.

  “Alright,” I announced happily. “Let’s go check out this hidden shrine, then.”

  To be honest, I’d never heard of hidden shrines. I knew there were plenty of concealed magical abodes across the planet. Magic, after all, lends itself perfectly to secrecy. But the way the rat had spoken about these made me wonder if I was missing something.

  “How do you know about these places, anyway?” I turned to him as he scurried through the undergrowth.

  “They are a common haunt of my kind.”

  At first, I thought he was talking about rats, and I just shrugged. Then I reminded myself of exactly what kind of rat he was, and I slid my eyes over to him. “You mean the possessed?”

  He nodded.

  I blinked once or twice and quickly calculated if this could be a trap. I doubted it, but it was still worth checking in. I had to remind myself that Hilliker could control possessed souls while still trapped in Hell. It wasn’t impossible that this rat could be leading me into a place where Hilliker would be able to capture me easily.

  Then again, if the rat were still working for that bastard, the little guy wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to save me from the priests.

  I still cleared my throat. “Do you think it’s a great idea to head to a place seething with the possessed when our number one enemy has the ability to control them?”

  The rat looked thoughtful. “I hadn’t considered that. Now I think about it, however, it is irrelevant. You have the power to break Hilliker’s control on possessed creatures easily.”

  I didn’t say anything. The rat was right, but he was wrong. Right now at this point in time I had the ability to snap Hilliker’s control spells. But what if he got out of Hell?

  I quickly snorted at that thought. It was ridiculous. If Hilliker got out of Hell – sorry, when – he would come straight for me, and regardless of what situation I was in, I’d be screwed.

  Clutching my sister’s ring first then letting my fingers slide over to my engagement ring, I picked up the pace. “Do you think there’ll be enough magic at this shrine to rig up a transport node?”

  “I am unsure. We will have to wait and see. First things first, stop being rude.”

  I arched an eyebrow and got ready to point out I’d been perfectly polite, thank you very much. That’s when I saw the rat nodding at something ahead in the forest. I narrowed my eyes but couldn’t pick anything up. “What are you doing?”

  “Greet the forest spirits,” the rat commanded.
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  I narrowed my eyes again but couldn’t see anything. I went to shrug, but a slice of wind shifted fast past my hair. Though I knew it was the wind – because I could see it rustling leaves and hear it as it moaned on by – that didn’t change the fact it felt like a hand.

  I stiffened up and grabbed my cheek.

  “I told you to stop being rude,” the rat snapped. “Greet the spirits.”

  “What spirits?” I began, but the rest died in my throat with a gurgle as I saw masks appear in the air right in front of me. You’d think after the day I’d had that nothing would be able to surprise me, but you’d be dead wrong. The mask started as a conglomeration of dust, but then started to add to itself. I watched leaves and twigs and lichen being sucked up from the forest around. Soon enough, a perfectly smooth bone-white mask appeared. A second later, an amorphous spirit body floated up from the ground and pushed its face into the mask. The eye holes lit up with an eerie magical blue glow.

  Not knowing what else to do, and with little ratty breathing down my neck, I placed my hands reverentially on my knees and bowed.

  The spirit did nothing. More joined it, though, until every tree had a similar creature floating by it.

  “I am Mr. Fenticle,” the rat said as he bowed low. “We wish to visit your hidden shrine for respite. This is Eve. We will get on well – she is also a cursed one.”

  I shook my head. The rat had a name? Mr. Fenticle? Really? It kind of suited him, but that wasn’t the point. The fact he’d referred to me as a cursed one was.

  I cleared my throat, ready to point out I was a child of the Deep, but Mr. Fenticle got there first. He kept his head low in a reverential bow and twisted his claw to the side in a hurried motion suggesting I should do the same. I bent forward. When I straightened, I saw there were yet more spirits. This forest had to be absolutely filled with them. They looked as if they were coming from every tree, every scrap of fungi and lichen, and every damn drop of condensation.

  I might not know much about hidden shrines, but there was a general rule of thumb when it came to the possessed or spirits. The more of them that inhabited a certain place, the more powerful it was – but the more attractive it became to other possessed souls, too. I hadn’t even reached the shrine yet. Based on how many spirits were in the forest around it, the shrine itself would be a complete haven.

  My hands became itchy, and sweat slicked my back. I shifted closer to Mr. Fenticle. “Is this such a good idea? This place is seething with dark energy.”

  “Precisely. It seems to be a very powerful shrine indeed. You may find the requisite power there to create a transport node. But you may also be exceptionally lucky and find there is already one there.”

  I frowned hard. “Sorry?”

  “Think about it. Very popular possessed haunts like this would require transport.”

  “But if it’s got a transport node,” I hissed, getting close enough to his ear that I could’ve spat right into it, “then what’s to stop Hilliker’s priests from finding it, finding us, and ending this swiftly? We did not just outrun their crazy-ass truck only to hand ourselves over so easily.”

  He brought up one of his claws in a quick move. “You’re failing to appreciate yet again that this is a hidden shrine.”

  I usually didn’t like admitting that there was something in this great big diverse magical world that I hadn’t come across. But it was time to fess up. “Why the heck would that matter?”

  “Because it is hidden to all of those who do not find it physically. One of Hilliker’s priests would have to have followed us. And my senses confirm that has not occurred. They will not be able to transport to this transport node – if it exists – without knowing precisely where it is. Now come. Stop angering our hosts.”

  My back still itched with nerves – and they were the kind of quick, biting nerves that were only getting worse with every second. With no other option, I fastidiously dried my hands on my pants and followed Mr. Fenticle through the forest.

  It was easy enough to get distracted by its beauty. And trust me, it was beautiful. The way the spirits wafted around us gave it this extra ethereal feel. It was like I was striding through a half-dream state.

  But I didn’t let it lull me completely. I knew full well that Hilliker’s men were still out there, combing the whole damn country to get to me. And that did not alter the fact of Hilliker himself. As I tightened my grip, wrapping my fingers around one of my thumbs and digging in and in until I left half-moon prints in my palm, I clenched my teeth and thought of the fight that would come. It was inevitable that I would face Hilliker directly. But would the power of my sister’s ring and my own connection to the Deep be sufficient to win?

  I only had five damn lives left. I—

  We came through a knotted clump of trees to the sight of a set of low shrine buildings peeking out of the side of the hill. There was a red-painted gate above us. I stopped beneath it, my breath becoming trapped in my chest at its startling beauty. Sorry, beauty was the wrong word. It wasn’t like it was intricate or in any way unique. It just... it was clearly the entry point to a powerful place, and my back prickled.

  “Bow once more and follow me,” Mr. Fenticle said.

  I did as I was told.

  As soon as I walked through the threshold, I felt an effect field breaking around me. Instantly I could see the shrine for what it really was. From the outside of that gate it looked relatively run down as if no one had given it any TLC for decades. But as soon as I walked under that gate, it expanded. It became eight times as large, the buildings instantly updated themselves to their heyday, and – more importantly – I could see possessed. Everywhere. They were spilling out of the sides of verandas, over the cobbled central courtyard, and through the damn windows, let alone doors.

  There was every shape and form of possessed you could think of. And that was a lot of fodder for someone like Hilliker. I stood there, my legs spread wide in a powerful, ready stance as I expected an attack at any moment.

  The spirits from the forest did not follow us in. They had a conversation with Mr. Fenticle that I couldn’t follow – as I didn’t speak the strange clicking, hissing language – then they disappeared back to whence they had come. I watched their masks break apart and drift back onto the forest floor, becoming chunks of leaf or twig or tree.

  Mr. Fenticle slapped his little claws together, twisted them this way and that, and smiled. “The first thing we should check out is the bar.” He raised a claw, a wide smile spreading his lips.

  I yanked a hand out and locked it on his shoulder, stopping him in place as easily as if I’d just slammed on his brakes. “Sorry, the bar? Have you forgotten why we’re here? We’re looking for a way out of this place. A transport—”

  He stepped on my foot. I was wearing thick, sturdy boots – the kind I had been taught to wear through thick and thin. That didn’t matter. As he smashed his foot down, pain erupted through me nonetheless. Hissing, I grabbed my foot and rubbed it hard. “What the—”

  “Do not discuss what we are here for. I doubt our primary enemy is here yet – and I doubt any of his henchmen have made it here either. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t people who will be willing to sell us out. Simply follow me.”

  I bristled, realizing he was right. Reluctantly, I let my hand drop from his shoulder. I walked along behind him. It said a lot about how crazy this day had become that I had now taken second position to a possessed rat who’d been spying on me. I still hadn’t had a chance to question him fully about the attack on Sato. I wondered if I ever would. There were possessed creatures everywhere. I thought I’d seen a real cross-section of them when I’d fought Hilliker’s army. I hadn’t. It looked like I had opened up the pages of some kind of zoological manual on ghouls, ghosts, and disconnected bodies. I watched a ghost walk by – a kind I’d never seen before. While his form was technically amorphous and nothing more than a conglomeration of wafting smoke, he had legs. They were these strange little ma
tchstick things that moved with these irritating clicking sounds as if someone was picking at their nails continually.

  Mr. Fenticle caught me staring at him and gestured to the legs with a swipe of his claws. “They are borrowed legs. He presumably picked them up in one of the markets around here. Or one of the gambling dens,” the rat added with a certain kind of smile.

  My face twitched. “Why do I get the impression that you’re going to take me to one of those?”

  “Because it is likely where we will find information on what we need. If we are lucky, we also may be able to find information to help your greater cause. Or should I say our greater cause?” Mr. Fenticle’s voice became grandiose. “For even though I have only been touched by our enemies fell power, I understand the utter importance of defeating him and—”

  “I’ve got it.” I settled a hand on his shoulder again. “Just take me where I need to go.”

  “Very well. But keep your head down.”

  It was kind of hard considering I was already garnering a lot of attention. Fair enough. I was the only one who wasn’t possessed.

  Possessed was a general term and a technical term. When someone was possessed, then another entity had control of them. But when you were the kind of creature who could become easily possessed, you were also referred to in that way. That’s why Mr. Fenticle was still a possessed despite the fact I’d already ripped Hilliker’s control from him.

  My point was, humans, or even cursed ones like me, were not classically possessed creatures. I was trying to say that I stuck out like a sore thumb. And heck, if I’d had a sore thumb that was blistering and bleeding pus everywhere, I would have stuck out less. I was the only one who wasn’t injured or didn’t have some hideous physical deformation.

  “Mr. Fenticle,” I hissed right in his ear, “you told me not to garner attention, but it’s happening automatically.”

  “I have a plan,” he informed me haughtily. He took several steps ahead.

  I went to follow, but he opened his claws in a specific way as if I was much lower than him and I shouldn’t dare to presume to have the right to walk by his side.