Chapter 40: "Half a Ghost, Three Beginner Shamans, and One Suspicious Sister"
In which I learn that superpowers require concentration, Toby develops terminal origin-story envy, Mara starts researching legendary ghosts, and Lena asks a question Asterion very clearly does not want to answer.
Two days.
That was how long it had been since the Ghost Portal had taken one look at my DNA and apparently decided:
This could use more ghosts.
Forty-eight hours ago, I had been Evan Mercer.
Human.
Mostly normal.
Okay, normal-ish.
I already had an ancient cultivator living inside my head, knew how to circulate Yin ki, owned several weapons that could stab dead people, and had recently body-slammed my childhood bully hard enough to rearrange Ravencrest High's social ecosystem.
But biologically?
Human.
Now?
That description required an asterisk.
A very large, glowing green asterisk.
Because I could fly.
I could become invisible.
I could walk through walls.
I could fire ectoplasmic energy.
I could lift objects without touching them.
Apparently I could even possess people, although Asterion had responded to my first question about that ability with:
"No."
Not:
Not yet.
Not:
We'll discuss it later.
Just:
No.
Which, naturally, made me approximately three hundred percent more curious.
Still.
I wasn't complaining.
This was every superhero fantasy I'd ever had wrapped into one deeply concerning laboratory accident.
There was only one problem.
Actually, there were several.
The first one was that Mom and Dad had absolutely no idea.
As far as Garrick and Selene Mercer knew, their son was still their perfectly ordinary, biologically human teenager.
A perfectly ordinary teenager who happened to spend too much time around ghost equipment.
They knew the Gateway had experienced an unexpected overnight activation.
They knew the system logs were a mess.
They knew something had happened inside the lab.
What they did not know was that I had been standing inside the thing when it turned on.
And they definitely did not know that their portal had rewritten me into something that would probably make both of them scream, cry, hug me, run forty-seven tests, call the Paranormal Department, build twelve new machines, and possibly argue over who got to name my condition.
So for now?
Secret.
Mara knew.
Toby knew.
Lena knew.
Asterion obviously knew.
My parents?
Nope.
And keeping something like that secret was much harder when you occasionally forgot that floors were supposed to be solid.
"Again."
I hovered above an endless forest inside Asterion's mental world.
Asterion floated several feet away with his arms folded.
I sighed.
"I've done it six times."
"You've crashed four times."
"That means I succeeded twice."
"An inspiring standard."
I glared at him.
He smiled.
There was a time when that smile had seemed reassuring.
I knew better now.
It usually meant suffering disguised as education.
"Focus," he said.
"I am focused."
"You're arguing."
"I can multitask."
"No."
Fair.
I inhaled.
Technically, breathing wasn't what made my powers work.
But it helped.
The first day had been chaos.
My ghost form reacted to everything.
Excitement?
Float.
Surprise?
Turn intangible.
Embarrassment?
Half my body became invisible.
Sneezing?
We don't discuss the sneezing incident.
Asterion had spent hours making me practice inside the mental world.
Over and over.
Human form.
Ghost form.
Human.
Ghost.
Flight.
Stop.
Turn.
Descend.
Accelerate.
Phase.
Solidify.
Energy blast.
Barrier.
Repeat.
Because mental training couldn't magically make my real body perfect, but it could teach my mind what the abilities were supposed to feel like.
And that mattered.
Now, when I actually paid attention?
I could fly.
Not wobble.
Not accidentally launch myself through somebody's chimney.
Actually fly.
I leaned forward.
Energy shifted through my ghost core.
The air moved around me.
Then I shot across the sky.
Fast.
Not Asterion fast.
Not even close.
But fast enough that the forest below blurred into streaks of green.
I banked left.
Climbed.
Rolled.
Dove toward the trees.
At the last second, I turned intangible.
Branches passed through me.
Three trees.
A boulder.
Part of a cliff.
Then I became solid again and shot upward.
"YES!"
Asterion appeared beside me.
"Better."
I grinned.
One word.
That was all it took.
My ego immediately became unbearable.
I folded my arms while flying.
"So basically I'm a natural."
"No."
I turned to look at him.
And flew directly into the side of a mountain.
WHAM.
The mental world reset around me.
I emerged from the crater several seconds later.
Asterion was waiting.
His expression was painfully calm.
"You lost focus."
"I was celebrating."
"You lost focus while celebrating."
"That's different."
"It isn't."
I rubbed my face.
The worst part was that he was right.
When I was concentrating, my new abilities behaved beautifully.
When my attention wandered?
Physics started gambling with my life.
Toby discovered this weakness later that afternoon.
We were in Mara's basement.
Not my house.
Very important detail.
Because my parents had enough ghost-detection equipment in the walls to make practicing there approximately as intelligent as setting off fireworks inside an airport security checkpoint.
Mara's family, meanwhile, had a basement larger than some people's homes.
Rich people.
Very useful during supernatural conspiracies.
Lena sat on one of the couches with a Paranormal Department research file open on her tablet.
Mara was stretching.
Toby was staring at me.
Again.
I had learned to recognize that look.
It meant he was about to complain about my life.
"What?"
He pointed.
"Do it."
"No."
"Just transform."
"No."
"Please?"
"You've seen it six times."
"I want to see it again."
Mara glanced over.
"He's going to keep asking."
"You're supposed to support me."
"I support reality."
Toby put both hands together.
"Evan."
"No."
"You got the coolest origin story ever created."
"I was electrocuted by another dimension."
"Exactly!"
He threw his arms outward.
"Do you understand how unfair this is?"
I stared.
"You can use Yin ki now."
Toby pointed at himself.
"Yes."
Then at me.
"But you got blasted by a portal, your DNA rewrote itself, your hair turns white, your eyes glow, you can fly, phase through walls, turn invisible and shoot energy beams."
"They're not beams."
"You're focusing on the wrong part."
Mara smirked.
"He is jealous."
"I'm not jealous."
Toby paused.
"I am consumed by jealousy."
At least he was honest.
He stood dramatically.
"You know what my supernatural origin was?"
I sighed.
"Toby—"
"Asterion touched my forehead and told me to breathe properly."
Mara snorted.
Toby pointed at me.
"You got DIMENSIONAL LIGHTNING."
"I nearly died."
"Heroic."
"My DNA changed."
"Iconic."
"I woke up glowing."
"Marketing."
Lena didn't look up from her tablet.
"You realize Evan currently has to concentrate to avoid falling through furniture."
Toby considered.
"Still worth it."
"Thank you," I muttered.
I leaned against one of the basement pillars.
Then Mara looked up from her stretching.
"Careful."
I frowned.
"About what?"
"The ego."
I smiled.
"What ego?"
She gave me a look.
"The one currently hovering three inches off the floor."
I looked down.
...
Oh.
I had, in fact, started floating.
I immediately dropped.
Toby pointed.
"See? Even his arrogance has a visual effect."
"Shut up."
Mara smiled, but there was something real underneath it.
"Seriously."
I looked at her.
"Don't let this get to your head."
"I'm not."
"Evan."
"I'm trying not to."
That answer she accepted.
A little.
She sat back against the couch.
"You're different now."
There wasn't accusation in it.
Just fact.
"You don't need armor to fly anymore."
"Yeah."
"You don't need a weapon to hit a ghost."
"Probably."
"You don't even need Asterion to make you supernatural."
That one made me pause.
Mara noticed.
She always noticed.
"I'm not saying it's bad."
Her voice softened.
"I'm saying power does weird things to people."
Toby nodded solemnly.
"One day you're saving civilians."
He raised one finger.
"The next you're wearing a cape, sitting on a skull throne and demanding everyone call you Lord Evan."
I looked at him.
"Why would I wear a cape?"
"That's your objection?"
"Capes get caught in things."
Mara threw a cushion at me.
I caught it.
Then my hand accidentally phased through it.
The cushion hit me in the face.
Toby collapsed laughing.
Mara folded her arms.
"Terrifying."
"I hate both of you."
Of course, I wasn't the only person whose life had changed.
Mine had just done it with more screaming.
Asterion already understood Yin ki.
That wasn't new.
He had taught me how to sense and circulate it long before I became half ghost.
Back then, I had been completely human.
The amount I could use was tiny.
Barely anything compared to him.
But it had been enough to help with training.
Body reinforcement.
Recovery.
Sensing supernatural things.
Learning what spiritual energy felt like.
The portal hadn't taught Asterion how Yin worked.
Trying to teach Asterion about spiritual energy would be like teaching Dad that sandwiches existed.
He had nearly a thousand years of experience.
What the portal gave him was something different.
Context.
This world's Yin energy wasn't exactly the same as the systems he'd known.
Same broad principles.
Different environment.
Different souls.
Different relationship between flesh, spirit, ghosts, and supernatural creatures.
When the Gateway activated, it flooded the lab with an absurd amount of concentrated ectoplasmic energy.
And because that energy had been rewriting me at the time, Asterion got a front-row seat to how a human body from this world reacted to it.
How it entered.
What pathways accepted it.
Where the resistance occurred.
How the physical body and soul interacted.
Basically, while I was busy having the worst night of my biological life...
Asterion was taking notes.
Not literal notes.
Probably.
I wouldn't put it past him.
And once he understood this world's interaction with Yin better?
He looked at Mara.
Toby.
Lena.
And said, essentially:
You three can do this too.
Not become half ghosts.
Absolutely not.
Nobody was getting thrown into the Gateway.
What Asterion did was help them consciously awaken the ability to sense, hold, and circulate Yin ki.
Something humans in this world could already potentially do.
The same foundation used by Shamans.
Which was how the four of us ended up sitting in a circle in Mara's basement while Asterion taught three teenagers and one university student how not to spiritually constipate themselves.
"Stop forcing it."
Toby's face was red.
"I'm not forcing it."
"You look like you're attempting to move a mountain with your intestines."
Mara opened one eye.
I choked.
Lena's mouth twitched.
Toby looked betrayed.
"Was that necessary?"
Asterion shrugged.
"It was accurate."
Toby relaxed.
Slightly.
Asterion sat cross-legged in front of them.
"Again."
The room went quiet.
I sat on the floor nearby.
Mostly because Asterion had banned me from hovering.
Apparently my floating was "distracting."
Jealousy.
Probably.
"Don't try to drag the energy toward you," Asterion said.
"Recognize it first."
Mara's breathing slowed.
Toby stopped making the face.
Lena was already completely still.
"Yin exists around you."
Asterion's voice was calmer now.
"Especially at night."
"In emotions."
"In places touched by death."
"In supernatural activity."
"But what you're doing now isn't simply absorbing whatever happens to be nearby."
His eyes moved between them.
"First, learn to recognize your own spiritual capacity."
Toby's fingers twitched.
A faint cold haze appeared around them.
Then vanished.
His eyes snapped open.
"I DID IT."
Asterion sighed.
"And then you became excited."
"I still did it."
"Yes."
Toby grinned.
"I am basically a wizard."
"No."
"A beginner wizard."
"No."
"Supernatural tech wizard?"
Asterion ignored him.
Mara had managed to produce something steadier.
A thin layer of Yin ki coated her hands.
Barely visible.
Like pale mist hugging her skin.
She opened her eyes.
"This feels..."
She flexed her fingers.
"Cold."
"At your current level," Asterion said, "that's normal."
Mara stood.
The mist remained.
"Can I use it?"
"Yes."
That immediately got everyone's attention.
Asterion pointed toward one of the training pads we'd dragged downstairs.
"Punch it."
Mara walked over.
Set her feet.
Threw a punch.
THUMP.
The pad shifted.
Not dramatically.
No explosion.
No wall crater.
But harder than Mara normally hit.
She looked at her fist.
Then at the pad.
Toby stood.
"My turn."
Asterion looked at him.
"You haven't stabilized yours."
Toby sat back down.
"Dictatorship."
Lena was studying her own hand.
A faint trace of Yin moved over her fingers.
"So we're technically supernatural now."
"At the lowest level," Asterion said.
Toby immediately perked up.
"Still counts."
"It does."
That made him way too happy.
Asterion continued before any of them could celebrate.
"Your current capacity is tiny."
Celebration over.
"The amount of Yin ki you can hold is minimal."
He gestured toward Mara.
"What she used for that one reinforced strike was a noticeable portion of what she can currently circulate safely."
Mara frowned.
"So I'd run out quickly."
"Yes."
"And the quality?"
Lena asked.
Asterion looked mildly pleased.
She had asked the better question.
"Poor."
Toby looked offended.
"Wow."
"He's talking about the energy."
"Still hurt."
Asterion continued.
"Capacity determines how much you can hold and use."
He raised one finger.
"Quality determines how refined, stable, and effective that energy is."
Second finger.
"Two people can possess the same amount of Yin and produce very different results."
Mara looked back at her hand.
"So we increase both."
"Over time."
"How long?"
"That depends on you."
Toby smiled.
"I choose three days."
Asterion stared at him.
"That isn't how cultivation works."
"I choose aggressively."
"Still no."
I knew that pain.
Asterion had explained similar things when he first taught me.
There was no free jump to greatness.
Their bodies had only just awakened to conscious Yin circulation.
Their channels were limited.
Their reserves were tiny.
Their control was rough.
Their energy itself was barely refined.
But it changed something important.
They weren't ordinary humans anymore.
Not exactly.
Mara reinforced her body again.
Her movements became slightly quicker.
Not superhero quick.
More like:
someone turned all her physical settings up by ten percent.
Strength.
Speed.
Durability.
Reflexes.
Even senses.
Small improvements.
But real ones.
And with cultivation?
Those improvements could grow.
Toby stared at her.
Then looked at me.
"You know what?"
"What?"
"I'm less jealous."
"Really?"
"No."
Worth trying.
Lena was the first one to say the word.
"Shamans."
Asterion looked at her.
Mara stopped testing her reinforced grip.
Toby immediately leaned forward.
I frowned.
"What about them?"
Lena closed the Department file on her lap.
"This is their path."
Asterion nodded.
"Broadly."
That word mattered.
Lena caught it.
"Not exactly?"
"Different traditions develop differently."
Asterion gestured around them.
"But using Yin ki to reinforce the body, perceive spirits, interact with ghosts, and develop supernatural techniques?"
He nodded.
"Yes."
Lena sat back.
"I thought so."
Toby looked between them.
"I feel like I'm missing important lore."
"You are."
"Thank you, Lena."
She ignored him.
"My parents learned most of what they know about Shamans through the Paranormal Department."
I looked at her.
"You've never mentioned them much."
"Because I've never met one."
There was irritation in her voice.
Not anger.
Academic frustration.
Which for Lena was practically the same thing.
"Mom and Dad have worked with Department files, researchers and agents who have."
She tapped the tablet.
"But direct information on actual Shaman practices is restricted."
"Why?"
"Tradition."
She shrugged.
"Privacy."
"Politics."
"Probably all three."
Mara sat forward.
"So what exactly can Shamans do?"
Lena's eyes shifted toward Asterion.
He gestured for her to continue.
Apparently Professor Lena had the floor.
"They've existed in some form for a very long time."
"Long before modern paranormal science."
"They're supernatural practitioners who work directly with Yin energy and spirits."
"Some specialize in purification."
"Some in barriers."
"Some in exorcism."
"Some in communicating with souls."
Her expression became more serious.
"And one of their most important roles is helping harmless wandering souls move on."
That made sense.
The Mercers had learned enough about ghosts to know that not every spirit was a monster.
Some were just people.
Dead people.
Confused people.
People stuck because something in them couldn't let go.
Those were the ghosts you didn't shoot.
Shamans helped them.
"Then there are contracts," Lena said.
Toby's eyes widened.
"What kind of contracts?"
She looked at him.
"Ghost contracts."
The room went silent.
Toby slowly turned toward me.
Then toward Mara.
Then back toward Lena.
"So..."
He pointed carefully.
"We have ghost Pokémon."
Asterion closed his eyes.
"No."
"But—"
"No."
Mara ignored both of them.
"What does a contract actually do?"
Lena answered.
"Depends on the ghost."
"Depends on the Shaman."
"Depends on the terms."
She started counting.
"A contracted ghost can fight alongside the Shaman."
"Share supernatural senses."
"Allow the Shaman to channel part of its power."
"In some cases, the Shaman can use versions of the ghost's abilities directly."
That...
was cool.
Extremely cool.
Toby looked personally betrayed again.
"Why didn't anyone tell me this yesterday?"
"You learned Yin ki existed yesterday."
"I could've used those hours."
Mara had stopped joking entirely.
She was thinking.
That expression worried me more than Toby's excitement.
I knew Mara.
Give Toby a new supernatural system and he'd ask whether he could connect it to Wi-Fi.
Give Mara one?
She'd start making a five-year plan.
"How powerful can a Shaman become?" she asked.
Lena hesitated.
"Very."
That was not a normal Lena answer.
Usually, she'd give measurements.
Percentages.
Historical examples.
Charts.
"How very?" I asked.
She looked at us.
"The Mercers are strong."
That was obvious.
Between the serum, armor, weapons and Battle Wagon, my parents were terrifying.
"But?"
I asked.
Lena sighed.
"But modern paranormal technology doesn't make them the highest authority in the supernatural world."
Toby blinked.
"Someone outranks your parents?"
"In power?"
"Yes."
"By a lot."
Toby sat up straighter.
That was apparently shocking to him.
Lena continued.
"The current Shaman Leader is considered the primary supernatural guardian operating in the world."
Mara frowned.
"One person?"
"One person with multiple contracted ghosts."
That changed things.
"How many?" I asked.
"Department files don't say."
"How old?"
"They don't say that either."
Toby looked offended.
"This Department sounds terrible at files."
"They know."
Lena shook her head.
"They simply don't put everything in reports accessible to researchers."
"How strong are the ghosts?"
"Powerful."
Toby stared.
"You're doing that vague thing again."
"Because that's all I know."
That clearly bothered her.
More than she wanted to admit.
"The Shaman Leader is extremely old."
"Has been active for a very long time."
"And has several powerful contracted spirits."
She folded her arms.
"The Department treats them as one of the major stabilizing forces keeping high-level supernatural entities under control."
Mara stared at her.
"And you've never met them?"
"No."
"A Shaman?"
"No."
"Any Shaman?"
Lena sighed.
"No."
Toby smiled.
"You're jealous."
"I'm interested."
"That's Lena for jealous."
"It's not."
It absolutely was.
Not power-jealous.
Knowledge-jealous.
Somewhere out there was an ancient supernatural tradition operating beside modern science, doing things her parents' machines replicated through completely different methods.
Of course she wanted to meet them.
Honestly?
So did I.
Mara reacted to the information differently.
We ended up sitting on the basement steps while Toby tried, and failed, to maintain Yin reinforcement for more than twelve seconds.
Asterion supervised him.
Lena read.
I watched Mara scroll through page after page on her tablet.
Folklore.
Old stories.
Legends.
Supernatural creatures.
"You're researching already?"
"Obviously."
"You learned about contracts thirty minutes ago."
"Thirty-seven."
I leaned closer.
"What are you looking for?"
She tilted the screen away.
"Mara."
"No."
"We're dating."
"Congratulations."
"That should earn me some access."
"It doesn't."
I grinned.
Then turned invisible and leaned around her shoulder.
Mara immediately elbowed me.
I became solid too late.
THUNK.
"Ow."
"Don't use ghost powers to spy on me."
"Fair boundary."
She sighed and showed me the screen.
There were lists.
A lot of lists.
Names from different cultures.
Regional stories.
Old monster reports.
Spirit legends.
"You're looking for ghosts."
"I'm looking for possibilities."
"That's somehow more concerning."
Mara looked down at the tablet.
"You got your path."
I went quiet.
"Toby has technology."
"Lena has research."
She touched her chest lightly.
"And now I have this."
Yin ki.
The faintest cold haze formed around her fingers.
Then disappeared.
"I'm not going to be the person standing behind you waiting to be rescued because you happened to get the dramatic transformation."
"I wouldn't—"
"I know."
She looked at me.
"This isn't about you."
And I understood.
Mara had always hated being powerless.
Not weak.
There was a difference.
Weakness could be trained.
Powerlessness meant somebody else decided what happened to you.
Mara pushed against things.
School rules she thought were stupid.
People using popularity as a weapon.
Adults abusing authority.
Anyone telling her she should just accept something because that was how things worked.
Power didn't impress her.
It made her suspicious.
Which was exactly why I believed her when she said:
"I'm not looking for the strongest ghost."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Really?"
"The right one matters more."
She looked back at the legends.
"Something intelligent."
"Something I can actually trust."
"Something whose powers fit me."
"And something that doesn't expect me to worship it because it's older than indoor plumbing."
From across the room, Asterion spoke.
"Your standards are becoming unreasonable."
Mara didn't even look up.
"You're still here."
Toby laughed.
Asterion smiled.
I leaned toward Mara.
"So you're seriously going to hunt down some legendary ghost someday."
"If I find one that's real."
"That's insane."
She looked at my white-haired ghost form.
I realized my mistake.
"Right."
"Thank you."
She returned to reading.
Then abruptly said:
"And I'm not becoming a cheerleader."
I stared.
"What?"
"I'm saying it now."
"Nobody asked."
"School has gotten weird."
She pointed at me.
"You beat Derek."
"Yes."
"Talia suddenly likes talking to you."
"Apparently."
"People who ignored us are trying to sit with us."
"True."
"If somebody interprets this social shift as an opportunity to give me pom-poms, I'm leaving Ravencrest."
I laughed.
"I'm serious."
"I know."
"Nothing against cheerleaders."
"Of course."
"I just refuse to spend my life smiling because somebody else decided that's the version of me they like."
That was very Mara.
She stared at the tablet.
"I'd rather make a contract with an ancient dead monster."
I nodded.
"Somehow that sounds healthier when you say it."
"It probably isn't."
Lena's concern came later.
Not during training.
Not while Toby was celebrating holding Yin reinforcement for nineteen seconds.
Not while Mara was building a supernatural creature shortlist like she was comparing university programs.
She waited.
That was another Lena thing.
She didn't ask important questions until she'd already thought about them twelve different ways.
We were still at Mara's house.
Toby had gone upstairs looking for snacks.
Mara had gone with him to make sure he didn't eat something expensive enough to cause a diplomatic incident.
That left me, Lena and Asterion in the basement.
Lena had a Department file open again.
Asterion was sitting across from her.
I was practicing making one hand intangible without affecting the rest of my arm.
Because apparently that counted as a productive evening now.
Lena looked at me.
Then at the file.
Then at Asterion.
"Ghosts change."
I stopped.
Asterion didn't.
"Yes."
"Not just physically."
"No."
Her finger moved across the report.
"A human soul can remain relatively normal immediately after death."
"Then it stays."
"Absorbs Yin."
"Gets trapped in its regret."
"That regret becomes stronger."
"Other desires become stronger."
"Eventually, the ghost changes around whatever dominates it."
Asterion listened.
Lena's eyes shifted toward me.
"Evan is half ghost."
There it was.
The sentence nobody had said directly since my transformation.
Not like that.
Not as a problem.
I made my hand solid.
"So?"
Lena frowned.
"So what happens if the same process applies to you?"
That killed the humor.
I looked at Asterion.
He was still calm.
Which didn't help.
"If ghosts are shaped by their desires," Lena continued, "then why wouldn't Evan be?"
Asterion finally answered.
"Because Evan isn't a ghost."
Lena's expression tightened.
"Half."
"Exactly."
Asterion leaned back.
"An ordinary ghost has lost its physical anchor."
"No living body."
"No biological processes maintaining the relationship between mind, body and soul."
"It becomes a spiritual existence."
"And spiritual forms are far more responsive to emotion, memory, desire and accumulated Yin."
I glanced down at myself.
"So being human protects me?"
"Your human half stabilizes you."
Asterion nodded.
"And your ghost half has been integrated into a living system rather than replacing it."
"Right now, both sides support one another."
That was reassuring.
Mostly.
Lena did not look reassured.
"What do you mean, right now?"
Asterion's eyes moved toward her.
There it was.
Tiny.
Barely noticeable.
But Lena caught it.
She leaned forward.
"You said right now."
"I did."
"So there's a situation where that stops being true."
I groaned.
"Lena."
"No."
She looked at me.
"This matters."
Unfortunately?
She was right.
She turned back to Asterion.
"What happens if his balance fails?"
Asterion was quiet for a moment.
Then:
"If Evan were to lose the human side of that balance and become completely ghost..."
The room suddenly felt colder.
"...then the same vulnerabilities would apply."
I stared.
Mara chose that exact moment to come down the stairs carrying snacks.
She stopped.
Toby almost walked into her.
"What did we miss?"
I looked at him.
"Apparently I have a secret bad ending."
Toby slowly lowered the chips.
"Oh."
Mara's expression sharpened.
"What does that mean?"
Lena didn't look away from Asterion.
"Continue."
Asterion glanced around the room.
He seemed deeply unimpressed that his audience had doubled.
"A stable hybrid has protections a normal ghost doesn't."
He gestured toward me.
"Evan's desires influence him in the same way desires influence any living person."
"They don't automatically reshape his spiritual form."
"Anger doesn't turn him into a monster."
"Fear doesn't redefine his body."
"Regret doesn't slowly consume his identity."
I exhaled.
"Good."
"But."
Of course.
There was always a but.
"If he somehow ceased to be a living hybrid and became fully spectral..."
Asterion's voice remained calm.
"...that protection would be gone."
Mara sat down beside me.
"So then his emotions could change him."
"Over time."
"Yes."
Toby raised one finger.
"Can we avoid that?"
"Very easily."
Asterion looked at him.
"Remain alive."
Toby lowered his finger.
"Excellent plan."
I nodded.
"Big supporter."
That should've ended it.
It did not end it.
Because Lena was still watching Asterion.
"You aren't telling us everything."
Asterion raised an eyebrow.
"I answered your question."
"You answered part of it."
"I answered the part relevant to Evan's current condition."
Lena's eyes narrowed.
There.
That wording again.
Current condition.
Relevant.
Stable.
Asterion loved technically complete sentences that somehow created more questions than they answered.
"What else is there?"
Lena asked.
Asterion smiled faintly.
"Things you don't need to worry about yet."
"That's not reassuring."
"I wasn't attempting to reassure you."
Mara looked between them.
"That's a terrible answer."
"It is an accurate one."
I leaned back.
"Can everybody stop discussing the possibility of me becoming an evil ghost while I'm sitting here?"
Toby opened the chips.
"Want one?"
"Yes."
He handed me the bag.
Good friend.
Lena finally looked away from Asterion.
But I knew her.
She wasn't dropping it.
She was filing it.
Sorting it.
Building a mental folder labeled:
ASTERION IS HIDING SOMETHING ANNOYING AGAIN.
She looked at me.
"Just pay attention to yourself."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Meaning?"
"Your moods."
"Your instincts."
"Your powers."
"Anything that changes unexpectedly."
Mara nodded.
"That's fair."
Toby ate another chip.
"And if Evan starts talking about consuming souls, we hit him with something."
"Thank you, Toby."
"I've got you."
Asterion stood.
"The concern is unnecessary at the moment."
Lena immediately replied:
"At the moment."
Asterion paused.
Then smiled.
Lena's expression became even more suspicious.
"See?"
"I didn't say anything."
"Exactly."
I pointed at both of them.
"This dynamic is exhausting."
Later that night, I lay in bed staring at the ceiling.
Human form.
Black hair.
Normal eyes.
No glow.
No floating.
Important.
Because Mom had walked past my room twice already.
She still thought I'd gone to Mara's to study.
Technically?
I had learned things.
Just not anything that appeared on Ravencrest's curriculum.
My phone buzzed.
Toby.
TOBY: held reinforcement 24 seconds after you left
A second message.
TOBY: new record
Then:
TOBY: still think your origin story is unfair
I smiled.
Mara messaged next.
MARA: found six legends worth researching
Then immediately:
MARA: three probably fake
Another.
MARA: one might eat people
I typed:
ME: maybe avoid that one
Three dots appeared.
MARA: coward
I laughed quietly.
Then Lena's message arrived.
LENA: Do not ignore what Asterion said.
Of course.
No emoji.
No joke.
Classic Lena.
I looked at my hand.
Let the transformation come.
Cold energy moved through me.
Black hair turned white.
Green light filled my eyes.
For a moment, my fingers became translucent.
Then solid again.
Two days.
That was all.
Two days since I became something no one in my family even knew existed.
Mara, Toby and Lena had taken their first step into the supernatural too.
Tiny reserves.
Low-quality Yin.
Barely enough reinforcement to make them noticeably stronger.
But it was a beginning.
Capacity could grow.
Quality could improve.
Techniques could be learned.
Ghost contracts were real.
Shamans were real.
Some ancient Shaman Leader I'd never met was apparently out there holding back supernatural nightmares with a collection of powerful ghost partners.
My girlfriend was already researching legends like she planned to build a supernatural résumé.
Toby had discovered cultivation and immediately turned it into a competition with himself.
Lena had finally found a doorway into a branch of supernatural knowledge she'd spent years reading about without ever touching personally.
And me?
I was half ghost.
Still human.
Still alive.
Still me.
Probably.
I smiled.
Then my phone buzzed again.
I looked down.
Lost focus.
And sank straight through my mattress.
I caught myself halfway through the floor.
Silence.
Then Lena's voice came from the hallway.
"Evan?"
I froze.
"I'm fine."
"What happened?"
"Nothing."
A pause.
"You phased again, didn't you?"
"No."
Another pause.
"You are a terrible liar."
I pulled myself back through the floor.
Apparently becoming a supernatural hybrid hadn't changed one important truth about my life.
No matter how powerful I became...
my sister was still going to ruin every cool moment.