“You’re alive!” Brenden cried as we walked through the door. We were gone for a while; the sun set as we walked back to the house. I really needed to get Egan to invest in a car.
“Told you they’d be fine,” Andy muttered, rolling his eyes.
Michael smiled. “I can see who the optimistic one is.”
“Did you find anything?” Brenden asked.
“We found a pile of dirt,” Egan replied falling onto the couch. I joined him.
“How intriguing,” Andy said, sitting forward. “What does that mean?”
“It means that our summoner got there before we did,” Mikayla replied. “Which means he or she is stronger than we thought.”
“Which is bad?” Andy assumed.
“Which is very bad.”
“What about Benji?” Brenden asked Mikayla suddenly, scratching his sleeping dogs head.
“Benji is a lot better than Bubbles,” she replied, glancing at Egan. He shook his head.
“Wait, he suggested you name the dog Bubbles?” Michael asked, looking at Egan.
“Yes,” Mikayla sat on the ground in front of us.
“Ailia, a word of advice,” Michael walked over to the couch so he was standing next to me. “Don’t let him name any future pets.”
“Not planning on it,” I smiled.
Egan turned to look at me. I laughed and lay my head on his shoulder. He smiled and shook his head.
“So, why are there books scattered all over your living room?” Michael asked.
“Egan didn’t like them,” Andy replied.
“Right.”
Egan sighed. “I was trying to work out what happened with the whole astral projection thing. I can only find stuff on how to astral project.”
“You want to know how it happens when you’re not trying to do it?” Michael asked.
“Yes.”
“Do you know?” I asked, turning around.
Michael shrugged. “I studied astral projection. What you’re looking at is an out of body experience.”
Egan’s eyes widened. “Why didn’t I think of that before?” he jumped off the couch and ran into the library.
“What’s the difference?” I asked.
Michael sat next to me. “An out of body experience is when you leave your body accidentally. There are a lot of records on them actually. Astral projection is when you leave the body on purpose.”
“Intense pain,” Egan returned to the room with another book, “Can cause astral projection. It’s an automatic escape if things are really bad.”
“Yeah, but surely the subconscious would stop her from projecting to the same plane as a demon.”
“I’ll keep looking, but so far this is all we have.”
“Right.”
“Benji! Down!” Brenden cried. His new puppy woke up and was climbing up him.
“Come here,” Andy muttered, walking over to Brenden and pulling the pup down. Benji turned to Andy and started barking. He jumped off Brenden’s lap and ran to the archway between the living room and kitchen. He stopped, stiffening his back legs and keeping his ears up.
“What’s he doing?” Brenden asked.
Pain coursed through my head and I bit my lip to stop myself from crying out. My hand automatically flew to my forehead.
“Lia?” Egan asked, inspecting me.
“Can you feel that?” Michael asked Samuel.
Samuel nodded.
“Ailia, shield yourself. Now!” Michael instructed, pulling his athame from his pocket.