Sin & Spirit (Demigod of San Francisco #4)(62)

“Is this a trick?” I asked softly.

“That question only applies if I have a body and there is a bed nearby. Look, it’s real simple. You’re able to call spirits from across the Line, right?”

I clasped my shaking hands and nodded. “When I have an item, yes. A personal item, like when I called you.”

“Right…mostly. You don’t actually need an item when you know the soul, but that’s a lesson for another day.” He stretched out on his side and braced his head on his fist—getting a little too comfortable, if you asked me. “You’re also able to call spirits to you on this side of the Line, correct? You can even call them on behalf of other people. You think about them hard enough, and they drift to you.”

I nodded slowly. “But those are spirits. They’re not living people.”

“They’re souls.”

“Right. But souls without a body that keeps them put.”

“Exactly. They are souls with no anchor, but they are still souls. Souls that you can feel. Souls whose signature you can recognize. The woman wandering this way right now, for example, is your friend. The kid out near the cliff is probably high and a stranger. One of them you recognize, and judging by the sudden anxious look on your face, one you didn’t know was there. You need to do some serious exercising in magical reach.”

Bria cleared the corner of the house before drifting to one of the patio chairs to watch. She was clearly checking up on me.

He was right—I could find souls beyond the Line and in our world. The latter I called to me because they were easier to reel in. When a soul was over the Line, though, I had to slip into a trance to call them, and if they were powerful, I sometimes had to meet them halfway. Or, in the Spirit Walker’s case, go and get him.

“Okay, assuming I can track her soul down in the world of the living…somehow, then what? She does have an anchor.” Fear choked me. “God, I hope she still has an anchor.”

“She does, Lexi,” Jack interjected. “She does. That little gremlin isn’t one to give up. She’s not one to say die. She’s alive.”

“That’s right. She can’t come to you…but you can go to her,” the Spirit Walker said.

I tried to fit this into what I knew about my magic, but the pieces just weren’t connecting.

“The world of the living operates differently than the spirit realm,” I said. “I can’t be mobile and in a trance at the same time, even if Bria were driving me. I don’t have spatial awareness when I’m finding the souls. It’s just—” I shook my head in frustration.

“You need to think outside of the body. Outside the constructs of the living. You’ll be leaving your body behind.”

Tingles washed over me. Jack shifted his weight from side to side, but didn’t say anything. I repeated what the Spirit Walker had said for Bria.

She nodded slowly. “This is the training no one else but a Demigod or a Spirit Walker could give you,” she said, her voice a low murmur, like she was uncomfortable. It was happening a lot lately, and it made me nervous. It took a lot to make her uncomfortable. “It’s your magic.”

“It’s dangerous,” Jack said.

“How do you know?” the Spirit Walker replied.

Jack spread his hands. “How do you think I know? I’m fucking dead, aren’t I? She has the magic, sure, but if she doesn’t use it right, there’ll be two of us making the boss jump when we enter a room. He doesn’t need that shit. I don’t need that shit.”

I relayed all that was being said for Bria, not getting a chance to offer any kind of response before the Spirit Walker replied, “Then scamper across the Line.”

Jack’s jaw set. “I need to see this through first.”

“So what you’re saying is…” I took a deep breath. “I can find a soul anywhere, but since she has a body, I will need to let go of my body and travel through spirit to find her. Then, once I’m there…” I thought about it a moment. “Once I’m there, I’ll look around, get a lock on the location somehow, and return to my body so I can direct the cavalry?”

“Bingo,” the Spirit Walker replied.

“This isn’t a trick?”

“I’m not going to lie—I’d really like to have a body and a bed. You’re incredibly smart and sexy as hell. I barely need to train you; I just have to explain the basic rules and you do all the work.” He winked. “I like a woman who does all the work.”

I shook my head as urgency coursed through me. “Let me go get—”

“You don’t need to get something of Daisy’s to focus on. You already know her well enough.” He draped his arm over his waist. “Just lie back, close your eyes, and join me in spirit. I’ll guide you until you get your bearings. It won’t take long, not with your kid counting on you.”

I hesitated, and his eyes increased in intensity.

“Think,” he said, his voice low, his tone sending shivers across my body. “This isn’t your first time doing this. This is just the first time you’ve started from a wakeful state. It’s harder, but you have a good reason to make this trip successful.”

“What’s he saying?” Bria asked, leaning forward, but I ignored her.