10
ADDIE
Another one who looked like me.
I couldn’t help but see myself on that floor, the scarf too tight around my neck. Already, I could feel it tightening. I scrabbled at my throat, but it was no use. I couldn’t fight the invisible force choking me.
This killer wanted me, and he was going through every woman who even slightly looked like me. If I didn’t do something soon, he would keep killing others. How many would have to die because of me?
My arcana stirred. It rose and rushed outwards in all direction like a bomb cloud. I inhaled sharply as the power brushed against the cold cat before reaching for the corpse. If I let it go, my arcana would steal the cat’s life force to reanimate the woman.
No. I refused.
I turned on my heel and ran. Everything I’d said earlier turned to lies because I had to put distance between myself and that house before my arcana acted without permission. My breath came quick, making my chest burn and my head swim.
My arcana kept reaching, back, back, back. It tugged me towards the woman on the floor in that house, but I wasn’t going to turn around. If I went back, my arcana would do awful things.
“Stop. Stop. Stop.” I begged my arcana to give up.
Why couldn’t it behave for once? I needed a moment of peace, but I couldn’t find anything close to silence. Here, at the end of the street, the voices of thousands of ghosts descended upon my head.
I clutched at my ears, as if that could drown out the sounds. If only I had a hat or a scarf…
The cat had felt cold to my arcana. The pieces all fell into place now that I was away from the house. Those scarves hadn’t been for fashion purposes. She’d had a whole bucket of them to choose from because she needed to veil, too.
That woman had been like myself. And, to my surprise, she’d lived only a few houses away.
By the time I got back to the house, there were police cars outside. Maddox was in the living room, speaking to a scowling man in a cop uniform. The cop seemed displeased to find a detective from another precinct on his turf, which confused me. Shouldn’t he want help?
I approached Maddox and tugged his sleeve to get his attention. When Maddox cast a glance in my direction, I tilted my head away from the cop so that Maddox would understand that I needed to talk privately.
“Excuse me,” Maddox said to the cop. “This is a witness from one of my cases. I need to speak to her to see if that case has anything to do with this one.”
While Maddox pulled me deeper into the house, the cop called out for him to stop. Maddox paid him no mind before shutting us in the bedroom. I found myself surrounded by the life of another woman, a life that was so similar to mine.
Except for the cat, which hopped onto the bed and let out a frustrated meow. Tentatively, I reached out towards it. I expected to meet rotten flesh, but the cat seemed surprisingly lifelike as it rubbed its cheek along my outstretched hand. The cool brush of death whispered along its fur, though, so I knew that I hadn’t mistaken it for the dead woman in the living room.
“What is it? What’s going on?”
I tore my attention away from the cat to look Maddox in the eye. “That woman was like me. We have the same arcana.”
He cocked his head. “Arcana?”
I hadn’t explained arcana to him. Quick and rough, I gave him the run down. Arcana was a blanket term for the innate abilities in every supernatural. Some had more than others. While shifters had just enough to change shapes, some came with a little more like Ness. Her arcana was her ability to deliver undeniable commands. Vi had her fire—I mean, her light.
My arcana was…death.
“Alright, what makes you think that this woman had the samearcanaas you? What’s your proof?”
I opened my mouth to tell him about the cat, then thought twice about it. If I wanted to keep Maddox from knowing about my other abilities, then I couldn’t tell him that this woman had raised her cat from the grave.
Swallowing, I remembered the scarves. “She veiled. Those silk scarves by the door were her veils. I like to use hats, but you can use anything that covers your head.”
“I don’t know. That feels like a reach.”
Footsteps stomped down the hall outside the closed door. I grabbed ahold of Maddox’s shirt and tugged, forcing him to look at me.
“Trust me,” I said.