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I whirled about quickly There was no i I strainedsaid, but the voices were so faint, seeether I rose and crossed cautiously to the center of the rooain, I could make out the faint but distorted sound of fenized Ellen’s voice and could ale of her and Iris huddled over my mother, but the vision looked like a poorly preserved kinescope being projected onto the rooe froze and then stretched like a rubber band, wrapping around and going through itself, reaching up and feeding into the portrait of my mother I realized that any eo been channeled into the painting

I tried to focus, to tune into the faint energies I grasped the painting’s fraainst the lacquered oils I could feel s, but what I had coy that had been channeled into the work had been per and put them over my face A sob formed in my breast, but I stifled it I didn’t want to cry I wanted to know the truth

My arive up without er and disappointht ball and raised ht where I had aiether I stalked forward, focusing all y I could see the flickering ie from the past stretch distortedly across its surface I fell toin to try to interpret the jerky rainy, bulbous vision The rooic, and the snore these distractions I channeled y into the orb Distorted sounds, out of sync and incolowing sphere collapsed in on itself and was gone I had forced too , and it tookthe sound

I fought a growing sense of hopelessness I held y for a last-ditch effort, but my concentration was broken whendown from above I leaned my head away, but a soft speck landed ononly to smear it I looked at my hand and realized that it was ash My istered this realization than other flakes began to descend froray snow The ashes formed a thin powdery layer all aroundwhere they lay, they lifted back up, whirling aroundits way intooff the cover to use as a shield against the ash I froze at the sight of Connor’s face staring back at me

The easel held more than just a simple portrait It was a triptych--the canvas had been divided into three equal portions Both side panels had been completed; the one on the left showed Connor as he had been in his youth, and in the one on the right, his face had been turned into a de through the ie’s eyes The center panel was still inchoate A few layers of paint gave the i this portion I realized she was using her art in an attees she held of her dead husband: the ht she had lided straight over the reflection of his youthful glow on the left, drawn to the ie of the flames I had seen devour him Here on the canvas they were frozen in time We had held no funeral for Connor There had been no remains to bury; no body had been found The fire elementals had feasted well Ashes were all that had been left of Connor

Ashes I began swatting at the dust with the tarp, trying to wipe Connor’s remains from my skin, shake his ashes frohter I spun around toward the sound The ashes coalesced before , reached out of the dusty cloud and grasped at ain I will live through you" I felt his words more than I heard the ashes rushed up in an attempt to surroundto possessto supplant that ofto happen I forced ic I slid away from Iris’s studio and into my own roo for this moment since the day after Connor’s death, when I’d witnessed his essence lurking in a mirror An attempt had been ies and re with evil intent, but soh Neither ofhis presence, but foron the periphery, just beyond capture Angry Jealous A black cloud of hopelessness that fed on its own shadow

I threw open h school rasped the cool neck of the bottle I had hidden there I shuddered a little at the sight of lass bottle, but Jilo had coachedy A crude but recognizable i to sacrifice h he believed hie don’t have to be dead on," Jilo had told e you hold of hie of hiness His rapaciousness His cruelty

I feltin me My te out everything but the burning anger I held for Connor I felt confident I felt in control The door to an to bend in and out as Connor tried to force it open It looked for all the world like the door was breathing, expanding as it gasped in air, flattening as it let it go I stood there in the silence Waiting Listening My pulse pounded in an to shake so hard I halfway expected it to pull off its hinges, and then it stopped cold

"Come on, you son of a bitch," I muttered under my breath "This tirasping the stopper in my sweaty palm I felt his sudden panic I knew he had realized that the balance of power had coirl he could injure and leave to die He y retreat Instead of pursuing an to flee At that moment I realized Connor’s spirit had no power outside of what I ic, I had given hiy to rasped the spirit trap tightly with both hands and usedthe door open