The 13th: Destiny Awaits by Ela Lond Read Free Book Online Page A

wishes. Nothing in this world was free, was it? She unclasped the chain and, together with the pendant, lowered it onto Ethan's palm.
    “Thank you.” Ethan pocketed it. He moved back and sat down. He crossed his legs, straightened his spine, and rested his hands on his knees with the palms up. “Let's start now.”
    Kate mirrored Ethan's posture. She closed her eyes, relaxed her body with deep breathing, and dove into the darkness behind her eyelids.
    After a few minutes, Ethan spoke up. “Look into the blackness and tell me what you see.”
    “Dots of light.”
    “Look deeper.”
    Kate stared into the darkness before her and the dots started to form an image as they had so many times before. However, this time the picture in front of her eyes was much clearer than before. What was it?
    “Do you see it?”
    “See what?”
    Ethan sighed.
    Kate could hear the rustling of clothes. Ethan was probably getting up, but she refused to open her eyes and check. She was more interested in the dots, which had connected and formed an object. It was a stick with a blade... “Is that a scythe?”
    “You can see it? Clearly? ”
    The image started to become more distant and blurry until it melted with the black. “Not anymore.”
    “Try again.”
    Kate did and the scythe again appeared before her eyes. She stared at it intently, trying to distinguish every detail of it. Dark-blue vines wound around the curved black handle and climbed up until they reached a sharp-looking blade, their leaves appearing to move.
    “Can you see it?”
    “Yes.”
    “Now imagine holding it.”
    The stick had no grips and the leaves that covered it jutted out in all directions, not leaving enough empty space between them for fingers. Kate obeyed Ethan anyway; she curled her hand and imagined the scythe in it.
    Suddenly she could feel its weight in her hand and on her crossed legs. Her eyes popped open, and there it was, lying across her lap. Impossible!
    The ebony wood -- was it even wood? -- started to flicker.
    “You have to believe that it's real,” Ethan said.
    “Is it?” At Kate's question the scythe started to disappear.
    “If you believe so.”
    Kate's eyelids fluttered closed and she focused on the thing she held in her hand. After the weight returned to her lap, she opened her eyes. She examined the leaves, sliding her fingers over them. They looked delicate, and they moved under her fingertips, coiling their sharp edges or flattening themselves against the snath. “Is this like your gloves?”
    “Yes.” Ethan stood up and leaned over the scythe, examining it.
    Kate pulled herself up, weighing the scythe in her hand. It was lighter than it looked and it felt familiar, like she had held it her in her hand countless times. And her mind had produced it. A real scythe. She didn't want to, but she couldn't help but ask, “How do I use this?”
    Ethan scrutinised her face before he nodded. “Yes, I think you are ready.” He went to the French doors and opened them. “Come.”
    The house, the yard, and the garden no longer had the protection of pentagrams and salt. To calm Kate's fears, Ethan had secured the house with spells, narrow slips of paper with symbols drawn on them, ensuring her that ghosts couldn’t enter even if she might see colour lingering outside the windows here and there.
    She expected to see them now, just hints of colours, but then she looked at the garden and her mouth fell open.
    People floated outside, their semi-translucent bodies and features clear and sharp, and they glowed, mostly in blue and yellow and the colours in between. They looked... beautiful.
    “They have been waiting for you for such a long time now.” Ethan moved aside and pushed her out.
    “Why do they look so different?” Not scary at all. “Because of the scythe?” Kate watched wide-eyed as the group of ghosts lined up in a row before her.
    “No,” Ethan said. “It's because the charms are gone. They were restricting your sight, and now