Free Lost in Mist and Shadow: A Between the Worlds Novel by Morgan Daimler

it’s not all about you.”
    “You just said…” Allie started but Syndra cut in, pacing around the living room.
    “I said you need to get your head out of your ass, because you do. And that I’ve been trying to get your attention for a while and you won’t let yourself see me which is fucking annoying. But just because I’m here telling you this doesn’t mean you’re the reason I’m stuck here,” Syndra said, waving her hand dismissively.
    “I don’t understand,” Allie said, frowning.
    “Damn, are you always this dense when you’re asleep?” Syn shook her head. “I’m here to talk to you because I want to talk to you, but you aren’t why I’m stuck here.”
    “Well, then why? We caught your killer. He’s dead and that’s close to justice –“
    “Close to!” Syndra laughed again. “Its better justice than seeing him get off on some technicality. I’m glad he’s dead, I’m just sorry Riordan had to do it. He’s not the kind of guy that’ll ever get over that.”
    “I’m not sure anyone gets over shooting their own partner,” Allie said flatly. “So fine you’re not stuck here because of me or him, so why?”
    Syndra stopped in front of the fireplace holding her hands out towards the flames. “I should visit you like this more often. It’s not like being on the earthplane at all. I can really feel the heat.”
    She stopped, looking thoughtful, and then walked quickly over to where Allie was standing and threw her arms around her friend. Allie stiffened in shock – Syndra was as real and solid as if she were alive. Allie could even hear her breathing and feel the warm breath against her neck. Finally Syndra pulled back, looking triumphant and sad. “Fuckin’ A! I have got to do this more often! It’s like being alive again…”
    “Okay,” Allie managed not to sound too stunned. “Okay, so you’ll be haunting my dreams from now on. Fabulous. But why are you haunting anything?”
    “You just won’t let that go will you?” Syndra looked annoyed and walked back over to throw herself down on the couch again. “Honestly, I don’t know. But it’s not because of you, it’s something to do with where I was killed.”
    “The ritual site?” Allie said and then bit her lip unsure if it was okay to mention how her friend had died.
    Syn winced, “Yeah, there. I can’t actually go there – it’s like with the sage, there’s this, this kind of force that keeps me out but I also feel pulled to stay there. It’s super fucking irritating.”
    Allie frowned. “I don’t know why you can’t go there. I mean I know sometimes ghosts are tied to where they died, and the elves are dealing with the magical clean up so they have all kinds of wards on the area-“
    “Do they?” Syn asked staring at the ceiling. “Are you sure? Because it doesn’t feel like that. I tried to follow you to the Outpost and I couldn’t go there either but it wasn’t like a force so much as everything just faded when I got too close to the elven magic. This is like a wall. Like what you did with the sage.”
    “That doesn’t make any sense. The elves are handling the cleanup…I just assumed they warded the space…”
    “Maybe,” Syndra said as the room started to fade out and the dream lost cohesiveness, “You should find out…”

Chapter 4 - Monday
    Allie woke up Monday feeling as if she hadn’t slept at all. Her night had been haunted by nightmares after she’d dreamt of Syndra. She had tossed and turned fitfully caught up in reliving her own experiences interspersed with shadowed dreams of the site of the ritual that had claimed Syndra’s life, the sound of screams and sight of blood running across stone chasing her into the morning.
    It took her longer than usual to get going and she found that all of her cheer from the day before had evaporated. Her mind kept worrying over her dream – if it even was a dream – and what Syndra had said to her. Part of her thought that she should go out