9
The next day at school, Lukas caught up with me in the hallway. “Do you know her?”
He nodded toward Sara, wandering aimlessly through the halls, looking like … well, like someone just killed her best friend. Sara normally appeared ready for the paparazzi, even in her uniform. Perfect hair, killer shoes, envy-worthy bag. Today her hair looked like something had nested in it. And, my God, were those sneakers on her feet?
“I did,” I said, still baffled about how I could make everything good between us.
“She looks sad,” he said.
“She was in love with Coby.”
“Maybe she just needs someone new to get him off her mind.” He glanced at her, appraisingly.
“Leave her alone,” I said, sharply. “And while we’re on the subject …”
“What did I do?”
He tried to appear innocent, but failed, and I gave him an earful about treating the ghosts in the museum better.
“They’re only ghosts,” he said.
Could he really be so dense? “No,” I said, “they’re people, even if they are dead. And if I find out you’ve made Nicholas trot around like a horse again—”
He towered over me, a slight grin on his face. In my tirade, I’d forgotten how tall he was. “You’ll what, Emma?”
The class bell rang, and I didn’t have time to come up with a better threat than, “You don’t want to find out.”
Then I marched away, before he could mock me.
I sprawled next to Natalie on the gym floor, waiting for Fencing to start.
“Have you seen Coby?” I asked. I hadn’t seen him since I sent him off with Edmund.
“No.” She pulled her hair back and started to braid it. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m just worried about him.”
Natalie glanced at the two ghost jocks sitting in the stands. “It can’t be easy, turning into a ghost.”
“No,” I agreed. “Especially if you get bossed around by some loose-cannon compeller.”
“You still pissed at Lukas?” She snapped a hair band around the base of her braid.
“I talked to him, but I don’t think he took me seriously.”
“I don’t think he takes anything seriously.”
We stood as Coach came in, and my helmet, which I’d propped on my head like sunglasses, slipped and clattered to the wooden floor.
The ghost jocks snorted, and one said, And they say she can kill wraiths.
Sure, if she trips and falls on them, the other said. Then they laughed hysterically. It was like having my own personal booing team.
“You have to admit he’s cute, though,” Natalie said, handing me back my helmet. “Think one of his parents is Asian?”
“I don’t know. Didn’t you ask?” It wasn’t like Natalie was shy.
“He doesn’t talk about his parents much,” she mused, a dreamy look in her eyes. “It’s hard to believe that gorgeous face could be the product of two boring white people.”
He was undeniably hot, even if I was in love with someone else. But Natalie’s dazed look said something more. “You like him, don’t you?”
“What?” she said. “With Harry gone, there’s no one worth flirting with, that’s all.”
“Fine.” Who was I to deny Natalie a little innocent flirtation? God knows what kind of trouble she’d get into without it.
After lunch, I found a quiet corner in the library and tried to sense Coby and Edmund. I didn’t immediately feel either of them, and didn’t push it. After yelling at Lukas for bossing ghosts around, it seemed hypocritical to summon them. Instead I researched my World Civ paper.
The rest of the day went okay—still a little chilly, socially, but Harry was gone and I managed to avoid Sara. Lukas was too busy flirting with a senior girl to join us at the gate, so Natalie and I walked home together.
We talked about nothing in particular until I suddenly blurted, “Max contacted me.”
She frowned. “How?”
“By ghost,” I said. “He compelled some girl to memorize a message and sent her to me.”
“I’ve never heard of that.”
“Me either. Wonder if Simon has. Anyway, she …” I started to explain more about the ghost girl, but a familiar humming noise suddenly filled my brain.
“She what?” Natalie asked.
“What?” I tried to clear my head. “I don’t know. I forgot what I was going to say.”
“Is Max all right?”
“He’s okay, I guess. I got the sense he wasn’t in Nepal or Tibet—wherever he’s supposed to be. He said he didn’t have anything to do with the ghostkeeper killings, thank you, Captain Obvious. And then there was some stuff about defeating Neos.” I bit my lip. “Do you think that’s what he’s been doing all along—looking for Neos? Did he know before we did that Neos was responsible? Why wouldn’t he tell the Knell?”
Natalie shrugged. “Your parents aren’t really fans.”
“Mmm. Do you think I should tell Simon?”
“Why wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t know. What if Max has a legitimate reason for keeping this stuff from the Knell?” I’d tell Bennett, even though he’d probably spill it to the Knell, but he wasn’t here.
Natalie fiddled with her hair, looking like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to say something.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing. I—I heard from Bennett. He texted me to make sure we’re okay. I guess he heard about the ghasts.”
I stopped on the sidewalk. “Where is he?”
“He didn’t say.”
Why had he texted her and not me? It made me sick to my stomach. It was okay when I thought he was ignoring both of us, but now it felt like his friendship with Natalie was more important that whatever was going on between him and me.
“Did he mention me?” I felt pathetic asking, but had to know.
“He wanted to make sure you’re okay.”
“Then why didn’t he text me?” I kicked a pile of fallen maple leaves. “Guys are so confusing. All girls want is to know where we stand. He and I have this perfect night in New York, and the next morning he’s barely speaking to me. Now he can’t even bother to text me? Guys are supposed to be the straightforward communicators, but they’re not. They have no idea how they feel, what they should say or not say. They suck. And it’s not just that they suck, they—”
“Emma!”
I realized she’d said my name three times. “What?”
“Bennett loves you. You know that. You just have to wait until we dispel Neos. Then you can ride off into the sunset together or whatever.”
I grunted. “I guess. But guys still suck.”
“Don’t talk that way,” Lukas said, stepping beside me. “You’re hurting my feelings.”
“You’re an idiot,” Natalie told him.
“Are you saying that just because I’m a guy?” Lukas asked.
Natalie shrugged, as if to say, what more reason did she need?
“Then I guess that makes you a girl who likes idiots,” he said.
She gave him that coy smile she does so well. “What makes you say that?”
I felt like a third wheel as they continued teasing each other the rest of the way home. I tried to tune them out, torn between hating Bennett for not contacting me and wishing he were here so I could do a little flirting myself.
After suffering through yet another soy-based dinner, I found Simon in Bennett’s father’s office. He’d trained us so hard that afternoon that we’d saluted and called him Sarge. Sitting on the little sofa, reading a book bound in gray leather, he didn’t look any worse for wear. He bookmarked his place when I came in, and the soft light of the lamp reflected off his glasses, making it hard to judge his expression.
“What is it, Emma?”
I stood there in the doorway, unsure where to start.
“Have a seat,” he said, gesturing to one near him. “Would you like some chocolate?”
The offer surprised a laugh from me. “Have you met me?”
He smiled and handed me a bar of expensive dark chocolate. I broke off a square, popped it in my mouth, and savored the intense flavor as it melted, trying to gather my thoughts. I wanted to tell him everything, but he was still a stranger to me. And from the Knell.
He said, “You don’t know if you can trust me.”
I stopped chewing. “How did you know?”
“It’s only natural, Emma. You’ve been treated unfairly, kept in the dark for most of your life. But I can’t talk you into trusting me. That’s a decision you’ll have to make for yourself.”
“Yeah, I just— I need to talk to someone who knows this stuff.” I didn’t say anything for a minute, then made a decision. “I heard from Max. My brother. I don’t know if you …”
He nodded. “He’s missing, along with your parents.”
I nodded. “At least, now I know he’s alive.”
“Did he phone? It’s possible the Knell could trace his call.”
“They can do that?”
He tilted his head. “We have friends in law enforcement.”
“Oh,” I said. “He sent a ghost.”
“Really?” Simon sat straighter, listening intently as I explained. “That’s remarkable. I’ve read of ghostkeepers doing that, but not in quite a long time. I wonder how he learned to do it.”
“My dad’s library is bigger than this one.” I nodded toward the shelves filled with old tomes. “And Max read them all.”
“I think I’d enjoy your father’s library,” he said. “When this is all over, of course.”
“When is it going to be over?” I asked, praying he had an answer. Simon seemed to be training us for some specific moment, but never said what. Was he waiting for instructions from the Knell? Or for the moment when Neos tried to kill me?
“Let’s start with Max,” he said. “What did he tell you?”
I told him what the ghost had said about my mother’s amulet. I wanted to say more, but I couldn’t seem to find the right words. “And … um … I guess that’s it.”
Simon didn’t say anything for a minute after I finished, his brow furrowed in thought. Then he said, “Let’s talk it out. Neos needs some final rite to absorb the power from your mother’s amulet. He’s afraid of you, and plans to kill you. And he summoned a siren to weaken you, so he’ll succeed. Is that correct?”
“Yeah. Plus we need to find where Neos is buried, for some reason.”
“Perhaps that’s a point of vulnerability. No one knows what will happen to Neos when we dispel him.”
“So where is he buried?” I asked.
He frowned. “No one knows that, either.”
“Then how can we find him?”
He tapped the cover of the gray book. “I suggest we start with the mausoleum where he killed the man for the amulet.”
“I don’t understand why my mother’s amulet gives Neos so much power.” He’d used it to steal the powers of other ghostkeepers, by carving its designs into their flesh before he murdered them. And somehow it had allowed him to possess Coby.
“He killed himself over your mother, and a piece of her is tied to that jade amulet. Ghostkeeping isn’t a science, Emma. It’s magic. And love is another kind of magic—he’s bound to her. He also has some of your blood, doesn’t he?”
I touched the scar on the inside of my forearm, where Neos had cut me as a child.
“He’s bound to you, as well,” Simon said. “There are no easy answers, Emma. He’s groping in the dark for power, while we stumble around blindly after him.”
I let out a sigh. “We really have to go back to the mausoleum?”
“After I finish researching it, yes.”
“And what about the siren? I tried looking it up but I didn’t find much. I thought I heard a weird humming noise at the playground. Could that have something to do with the siren?”
“A humming noise, huh?” Simon mused. “In Greek mythology the sirens are enchantresses, bird-women who lived on these islands called Sirenum scopuli. They lured sailors to their deaths with songs of irresistible beauty.”
“If you tell me we’re fighting a bunch of Greek myths, I am going to scream.”
He half laughed. “That’s just the origin. There are whispers of a creature in the Beyond with the same power, but she’s a myth, just like the bird-women. The humming is probably just due to stress. I’m more concerned about finding Neos’s final resting spot. I’m not aware of any connection between him and any burial ground other than that mausoleum.”
We talked for a while about Neos. Then Simon launched into a lecture about his theory of ghasts—which wasn’t even all that boring. He’d make a good professor someday. Then he stopped and looked at me. “May I see your ring?”
I hesitated a moment before pulling the chain from inside my shirt.
Simon reached a finger out tentatively and touched the ring. Then he shook his head. “I can’t feel any power. Does it really turn you into a ghost?”
I nodded. “But I don’t like using it much.”
“It’s embedded with the other Emma’s powers. It’s not unlike the dagger. How is your training going?”
“You know better than anyone—you just spent three hours kicking my butt.”
“I mean, with the dagger.”
“Um. You wanna spar?”
“Not me,” he said. “Your … friend.”
“Oh.” He knew about the Rake. “I haven’t shown it to him yet.”
“Well, you should. Learn to use it before your life depends on it. Before all our lives depend on it.”
Upstairs in my bedroom, I pulled Emma’s dagger from the drawer, where it was buried under my T-shirts. The hilt felt cold and heavy, and I almost hid it away immediately. I didn’t want to face this—another weapon, more killing.
But no matter how scared I was of Neos, or worried that I’d inevitably become cold-blooded, like that Emma in the tapestry, I had to do this. There was no one else who could finish Neos, no one strong enough to protect Natalie and the others, and avenge Martha’s and Coby’s deaths. And it was the only way Bennett and I could ever be together.
So I grabbed the dagger and wandered downstairs. I stood quietly in the center of the ballroom, not bothering to summon the Rake. I knew the power in Emma’s dagger would draw him. It only took a moment for him to materialize. He strode across the parquet floor, looking pleased to see me. Then his expression changed.
Oh, my dear child, he said, with such emotion that tears sprang to my eyes. I didn’t expect sympathy from him.
I’m okay, I said. Though I wasn’t. I’m just ready for a vacation, a few days to pretend I’m an ordinary girl.
I wish I could fight him for you, Emma. But you’re the only one who’s strong enough.
I know. I just wish the Knell took care of this, instead of getting their asses kicked. Why can’t they just dispatch some assassin to track down Neos?
His eyebrow arched mockingly, but his expression remained kind.
And I realized: Oh. They think I’m their assassin. I showed the Rake the dagger. In that case, I definitely need you to teach me how to use this.
Any problems retrieving it?
The ghasts were meaner than I expected, I said. And I kind of froze up.
That happens. You’re young.
I guess. I looked at the dagger’s lethal blade. And later, when I grabbed the knife, I flashed on Emma’s memory of killing a man. I mean, a living man. She was vicious. I don’t want to be like—
She was fighting for her life, he said.
I know, but—
You would do the same. You must do the same. Your qualms speak well of you—but you are not simply an ordinary girl. You are Emma Vaile. Never forget that.
Yeah, like anyone’s gonna let me forg—
He slashed at me with his rapier, and I jerked backward, raising the dagger to ward off the blow.
Would you stop doing that? I said.
Your grip is wrong.
That’s how Emma held it, I told him.
You’re stronger than she was, and quicker. She was good with a dagger, but she could never best me.
Neither have I, I said glumly.
But you will. Hold it like this.
Wait. You think I can beat you? Tell me more. I like that idea.
He shot me a look. If you can’t beat me, you can’t beat Neos. And you will beat Neos. So try this. He moved my hand into a different position, and I tried not to wince as the touch of his fingers burned my own. And remember, it’s not a sword.
He showed me how to slash and thrust, to feint and wrestle with my off-hand. We spent an hour on deflecting blows and counterattacking. I didn’t see how a dagger could ever stand against a sword, but the Rake ignored my complaints and just attacked me again. He explained I needed to get close and up-cut through the heart of a wraith, or through the empty eye sockets.
He didn’t let me stop until I managed to slam him in the temple with the dagger’s hilt in a quick reverse.
Well done, the Rake said, rubbing his head.
That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me. I licked the blood from a cut on my hand. But I still don’t see how a dagger’s better than a sword.
When you fight in earnest, you’ll infuse the blade with your powers, he said. Stay safe. He faded out.
Upstairs, I bandaged the cut on my hand, wondering if the Rake knew that he’d echoed the last words Bennett had said to me. Not for the first time, I pondered how much our lives were a replay of what came before. And what did that mean for me and Bennett? Would he lose his ghostkeeping abilities, or were we destined to remain apart forever?