Somehow, I never felt clean after a bath. I jumped into the shower and washed off. As I rubbed my stomach, my abs didn’t hurt as much. My head wasn’t throbbing as much. It was hard to admit, but Constantine’s brew worked. I didn’t understand how, but I was significantly better.
I walked to my room to get dressed and found a flute case on my bed. I was afraid to move closer, in case it disappeared. My heart was pounding by the time I reached the bed. A note was lying on top of the case.
Dear Isis, your mom asked me to hold this for you. Hope it brings you as much joy as it brought her. Death.
I cried. The last time I had seen this was in the burning vehicle with my parents. It was my mother’s flute. I had never liked the flute; I preferred the saxophone. When they died, that was all I wanted to play. I poured my heart out over things a little girl is not meant to understand. Here it was, looking better than ever. I opened the case. Inside was a picture of my parents and me after my first recital. Mom had placed the picture there to remind me to have fun while I played.
I took the picture out and placed it on the nightstand next to the bed. I needed a frame for it, but it was enough for now. I crawled into bed and took the flute with me. Tears rolled down my cheeks, but I played. The most haunting melody came out, full of pain and sorrow. My pain and years of sorrow, anger, and loneliness. I played, and I felt a small pressure release in my heart. I was not an alchemist, but, by God, I was a hell of a musician. I wasn’t sure when, but I knew I could make the magic work. I fell asleep in my towel holding the flute.
Chapter 16
It was barely five in the morning, and I was already up and working out. I had no idea what Constantine had put in that shake, but I felt amazing. Yeah, my muscles still ached, but I wasn’t bruised from the beating last night. On top of that, I had slept like a baby. Constantine was usually up and ready to roll by the time I got up; this time I beat him. It was going to be a great day.
I was on my fifth pull-up when I noticed the new additions to the gym. True to his word, Constantine had added a punching bag, one of those weird training mannequins you see at martial arts centers. After careful examination of the gym area, I saw that we had some weird ropes hanging from the ceiling, not to mention lots and lots of jump ropes. I was impressed and a bit worried. Constantine had some impressive connections to deliver in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, this meant that my training sessions were going to get even more painful.
“Well, somebody woke up feeling much better today.”
I jumped at least four feet off the ground due to Constantine’s voice. How did he do it? I knew cats were sneaky, but Constantine was the king of stealth.
“You need a bell or something wrapped around you. You scared me to death.” My heart was racing, at least 150 beats per minute now, and it had nothing to do with my workout.
“Not my fault. You should be paying more attention to your surroundings. What if I were the bad guys?” Constantine was too happy with his own skills.
“I’m sure they would have shot me instead of sneaking around trying to scare me. You’re just mean.” I was at least breathing normally now.
“Oh, please. It wasn’t that big a deal. But back to you. How long have you been here?”
I did a quick check of my watch. “Almost an hour. I woke up with tons of energy.” I really wanted to knock the teeth out of that crazy witch who’d hit me the night before, so technically, I was pissed.
“I like the motivation. Isis, remember, these witches are good. They’re powerful and well prepared. They’ve been evading us now for over a year. You’ve been doing this two days. You need to be careful.” Constantine jumped on the bench to have a better look at me. “You’re looking better.”
“So you’re saying I have no way of beating them?” My hopes were crumbling.
“That’s not what I said. Trust me, a few crazy witches are not going to stop us. We just need to be smarter than they are. Unfortunately, they’re pretty smart.” Constantine had moved over to the punching bag and other weird artifacts as he talked.
“How is it possible they are able to do this? Why can Death sense it?” I was feeling pretty good. I walked over to one of Constantine’s torture machines and started doing inverted sit-ups. The blood quickly rushed down to my head in the odd position.
“That’s what we wanted to discuss yesterday. Bartholomew has been running all possible scenarios on his computer. The only thing we could conclude was they’re killing them in a place where Death cannot enter.”
I stopped mid sit-up, with my body perpendicular to the floor. I had to turn slightly left to look at him. “What does that mean?” It was one thing to be working out for an hour, but I was not awake enough to follow Constantine’s theories today.
“Think about it. If a person dies here on earth, Death senses it and appears before the final breath. But what if they were taken outside, to a place where nobody ever dies? Death would have no access or jurisdiction there.” Constantine looked at me, waiting for me to make the connection. I was silent for a
