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  “Goodness, no,” Gabriella said, shaking her head and laughing again. It was a sweet sound and the room grew a little warmer when she did it. “I know my way home, have no fear.”

  “I don’t understand,” I said, frowning at her. “If you know your way, why haven’t you crossed over?”

  “Because my work here is not done,” she said gently. Some of the warmth in the room fled as her smile slipped, but I still didn’t feel the wash of chilly air or the hair-raising sensation of the dead. She really was one of a kind, Nathan’s Gabby.

  “What work?” I asked quietly. I saw a flash of true sorrow in her light green eyes before she looked away and was surprised to find myself blinking back tears as it infected me, too.

  “I must set things right,” she said, drifting over to the window and staring out at the darkness beyond the glass. “This war between Bastian and Nate has gone on far too long. My selfishness was to blame for its beginning, therefore it is my responsibility to bring it to an end.”

  “Your selfishness?” I asked, frowning at her again. “How were you selfish?”

  “I did not wish to marry Bastian,” she said with a delicate shrug. “He was a fine man, handsome and charming and wealthy. Any woman would have been proud to marry him. But I wanted more.”

  She dropped her head and I saw a glimmering tear slide down her semi-transparent cheek. I wanted to go to her and hug her, to tell her that wanting to choose who you love wasn’t a terrible sin, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t comfort her. Knowing that made her sorrow that much harder to witness.

  “He disappeared that night, Bastian did,” she continued in a voice as soft as a whisper. “No one ever saw him again. He gave himself to the Dark Ones in his misguided quest for vengeance. His hate and jealousy twisted his soul, cursing him to become what he is. I loved him, like a brother, and knowing what became of him causes me more grief than I can ever express. But I cannot let him continue. I will not allow him to harm anyone else. This must end.”

  Gabriella drifted closer to me as she spoke, almost like she were being drawn against her will, and I saw a glimmer of true friendship in her eyes as she lifted her hand as if to touch my face. She let it drop before she could reach me, however, and gave me a warm smile instead.

  “You said the others wanted to help me…” I said, letting my words trail off suggestively, eager to change the subject.

  “Yes.” Her lovely face hardened in anger and I made a mental note not to ever make her mad at me. Gabriella looked like she could be a bit of a handful when she was pissed. “As I said, you are well-known amongst my kind here. There are very few witches who see the spirits of the departed without summoning them. If they lose you, many will lose the chance to find their way home. It is not a chance any of them are willing to take. They can’t actually fight the demon, but they can shield your location from him. They are ready to protect you at all costs, myself especially.”

  The ghosts that had always annoyed me were willing to do battle to keep me safe? If I thought I had felt guilty before, it was nothing compared to the guilt I felt then. How many times had I ignored the spirits I felt close to me, unwilling to see them because I was too wrapped up in my own selfish pursuits to care about them? And, yet, they were trying to protect me. I vowed in that moment to help each and every one of them, no matter how long that might take.

  Before I could tell her that, Gabriella’s face brightened and she held a finger to her lips in a gesture for silence. I nodded even as the door of the room opened and Nathan peered inside.

  “Who are you talking to, Ember?” He asked, glancing around the room warily.

  “Nobody,” I said, quickly, moving to intercept him before he walked right through Gabriella’s translucent, smiling form. “I was just thinking out loud. You know? Working everything out in my head?”

  “Uh-huh,” he said, clearly not buying it. “You were talking to one of your ghosts, weren’t you?”

  “Why do you say that?” I asked, realizing even as the words were passing my lips how stupid that question was. Changing tactics, I smiled up at him. “Okay, so even if I was, it’s no big deal, Nathan. I talk to my dead buddies all the time. It’s something you should probably get used to. Seriously, you’re going to find me talking to empty air a lot.”

  “I’m sure I will,” he said, grinning and kissing the tip of my nose. “Kim and Blake are here…and so is Constance. Amelia is on her way and she said she’s bringing someone who can help us.”

  Gabriella blew me a kiss as Nathan dragged me from the room, and I really felt like it landed on my cheek. Once again, that lump began to form in my throat, but I followed him, smiling, finally feeling like everything would be all right.

  I seriously considered just covering up my head and ignoring the dreaded sound of the alarm going off the morning following Bastian’s interior design makeover of our house. Between fighting with my witchy guard detail about what the best course of action would be to keep Bastian from killing me—or Nathan—and helping Grams and Nathan organize the ghosts packing the house into guards to watch my back, I got approximately two hours of sleep.

  I actually had to give myself a pep talk before I hauled my butt out of bed, threw on the first clothes I laid my hands on, and put my hair up in a sloppy twist, yawning the whole time. Then, skipping breakfast in favor of a mega-sized mug of coffee, I zombie-walked my way back to the grim reality of being a senior in high school.

  My vacant stare didn’t go unnoticed, unfortunately. Mr. Simmons, my Trig teacher, even held me after class to suggest that I make an appointment with the school counselor. I had actually started giggling at the suggestion, too tired to care if he thought I was on drugs or something. I mean, what was I going to tell her? Unless she was some kind of paranormal expert there wasn’t a whole lot she could do for me.

  By the time I made it to English Lit, I was a nervous wreck. I had a pounding headache and I was so on edge that the slightest sound made me jump. I kept a wary eye out for Bastian, but he was nowhere to be found. I couldn’t relax until Nathan gave in and left me alone outside of Ms. Cantrell’s classroom long enough to check the school for me. I didn’t take a normal breath until he came back to report that my personal demon really wasn’t there, which didn’t help with the fuzzy feeling in my brain.

  “Miss Blaylock!”

  Ms. Cantrell’s voice cut across my dazed stupor like a whip halfway through her class and I jerked upright in my seat. Everyone was turned around in their seats, staring at me in horrified admiration, and I struggled to figure out what I had missed. Lisette Martin, the secretary’s student aide, was standing next to Ms. Cantrell’s desk, and I saw her shoot me an anxious look. I saw the slip of paper Ms. Cantrell was holding, but my mind just couldn’t put the pieces together. Admitting defeat, I said the only sane thing I could think of.

  “Yes, ma’am?” I asked, quietly, the tension in my voice causing it to break.

  “I said you are wanted in the library,” she barked, clearly at the end of her tolerance. “If you are unable to stay awake in my classroom, I would prefer you didn’t attend my lectures.”

  I exchanged a panicked glance with Nathan. If I left in the middle of class I would be alone. I’d nearly become a demon’s favorite form of entertainment the last time I’d left a classroom alone, but my mind was too dull and fuzzy to come up with a reason to refuse to go.

  “I would like to resume my lecture today, if you don’t mind, Miss Blaylock,” Ms. Cantrell said, coldly.

  “Yes, Ms. Cantrell.”

  I slid out of my seat slowly and gathered my things, my eyes locked with Nathan’s. I could see how uncomfortable he was with the idea of letting me out of his sight, but there wasn’t anything he could do unless he wanted to get up and storm out. I gave him a weakly reassuring smile, and then walked slowly to the door.

  The second the door closed behind me, my nerves went into meltdown mode. My eyes darted left and right at a nausea-inducing speed as I made my way s
lowly toward the library. The hall was eerily empty and way too quiet. My footsteps echoed around me, making me think someone was following me. I was so busy looking over my shoulder for my invisible stalker that I nearly ran into the library door.

  “Get a grip, Ember,” I scolded myself, shaking my head in disgust. “You’re going to give yourself a heart attack and then where will you be?”

  I smiled in relief when I pushed open the door and saw who was waiting for me. Kim turned away from the librarian’s desk, where she was waving her hands and talking a mile a minute, and smiled at me before giving me a conspiratorial wink.

  “All right, Kimberly,” Mrs. Fletcher said, confused, staring down at a piece of paper in her hands. “Headmaster Grayson didn’t say anything about your group meeting in the library conference room today, but this all seems in order. I wasn’t even aware we had a Paranormal Studies Club.”

  I had to suppress a snort of laughter at that. Kim always did have a warped sense of humor.

  “We’re just getting it kicked off,” Kim said, smiling winningly at her.

  “I assume you all will behave according to library rules,” Mrs. Fletcher said, her chubby face not pulling off the warning look she gave us over the tops of her square spectacles the way Ms. Cantrell’s bony visage would have. It was like watching one of Santa’s elves trying to glare at someone. Yeah, really scary stuff.

  “Oh, yes, ma’am!” Kim said, looping her arm through mine and beginning to tow me backwards toward the room in question. “We’ll be so quiet you’ll forget we’re even here.”

  “Because we won’t be,” she added to me in a whisper as we turned and fled to the privacy of the conference room.

  “What are we doing, Kim?” I asked, sounding as grumpy as I felt, when she closed the door behind us.

  “Naptime!” Blake’s voice coming from behind me made me jump again. I had jumped so much in the last four hours that I was beginning to feel like a jack-in-the-box.

  “Don’t do that,” I cried without thinking. I wasn’t surprised when Kim slapped her hand over my mouth with a hiss.

  “Shut up,” she whispered. I took a deep breath and nodded and she removed her hand.

  “Don’t be so dramatic, Em,” Blake added, winking. “As soon as Nate joins us, we’re outta here.”

  “Why didn’t you just wait to snatch me until the bell rang?” I asked moodily as I rubbed my forehead in a futile effort to stop the pounding there that was in perfect rhythm with my pulse.

  “We were going to, but you were dozing off in class,” Blake said, shuddering. “I don’t even want to think about the kind of torture the Dragon Lady could come up with for someone who fell asleep in the middle of one of her lectures. I guess we probably just saved you from hanging by your fingertips from the basement ceiling while you recited the entirety of the Iliad or something—from memory. A thank you is in order, I believe.”

  “Thanks.” I rolled my eyes at him. Had he really just called me dramatic? “Wait. How do you know I was dozing off? You have Mr. Vargas this period. His class is all the way on the other side of the building.”

  “I can see you when I focus on you. That’s something I’ve been doing a lot lately,” he explained. Seeing my ‘What the hell?!’ look, he shrugged. “It’s called remote viewing. How do you think we found you yesterday? It’s a pretty handy gift to have when you’re friends with a danger magnet like you.”

  I grimaced at that and he chuckled. Giving him a stern look for picking on me when I was too tired to really defend myself, Kim put her arm around my shoulders and led me to a comfortable chair in the corner of the room to wait for Nathan.

  I wanted to ask how they were going to cover our asses with the bogus Paranormal Studies Club, but I was too tired to really care. All I could think about was finding something to eat that I could inhale between yawns to fight the hunger pains making it feel like there was something gnawing at my insides—that, and my nice, soft pillow. Somehow, I didn’t think my afternoon classes would be on the agenda. I wanted to cringe when I thought about what my repeated absences were doing to my GPA.

  Sitting down was obviously a bad idea, though, because I immediately felt myself dozing off again. I was right at the threshold of sleep where you feel like your body has started to float away when I sensed that Nathan had arrived. It took more energy than I thought I had left to make myself open my eyes. I felt like I deserved a pat on the back when I finally managed it, only to find all three of them smiling at me.

  “Was I snoring?” Blushing, I reached up to make sure I hadn’t started drooling or something.

  “You look dead on your feet, Em,” Blake said, looking kind of worried.

  “We should get her home,” Nathan murmured. “Kim, are you doing the honors? I’ll catch a ride with Blake.”

  “Huh?” I mumbled, confused. Why would he be riding with Blake when his car was in the student lot?

  “We’re teleporting, Em,” Kim explained with a patient smile. “We’ll come back for the cars later. Right now, we’re just trying to get you home so you can lie down before you fall down. This is the quickest way.

  “Now, take a deep breath and don’t throw up on me,” she said sternly, coming over to pull me out of the chair. “It kind of sucks the first time, so brace yourself.”

  I figured out what that warning was all about a second later. I’d only teleported once before, by accident, but the feeling that I was being shoved through a straw wasn’t one I’d forgotten. The insane whirl of color that accompanied that feeling was enough to make my stomach start to heave. About the best thing I could say about the experience was that it woke me up a little.

  “It’s a bit uncomfortable at first, but you’ll get used to it,” Kim said, sympathetically, when I clutched her arm to keep myself from falling over when we reappeared in Nathan’s living room. I clapped a hand over my mouth to hopefully hold back the nausea that was making my stomach feel like I was on a ship on rough seas, and Kim backed up before asking, “You still want something to eat?”

  “Smartass,” I managed to rasp out after a second. “I don’t think I’m ever going to want anything to eat again, thanks.”

  Without warning, my feet flew out from under me and a little scream slipped past my lips before I realized Nathan was holding me. I glared up at him, but he just kissed the tip of my nose and turned toward the bedroom.

  The house still felt like a deep freeze, and I tried to burrow closer to Nathan as I started shivering. That chill once would have bugged me, but I suddenly found it reassuring. My army of unseen protectors hadn’t abandoned me. I could go to sleep without worrying that Bastian was going to show up and slit my throat in my sleep.

  Just knowing that had my eyes closing. I tried to open them again, but the muscles that controlled the action rebelled. I didn’t even fight them. I was too tired.

  I woke up a little when Nathan gently laid me in the middle of the bed and pulled the covers over me, adding another blanket to help warm me up when I continued to shiver. It took me a second to process the fact that he wasn’t planning on staying with me, and when I finally understood I panicked. I reached out and grabbed his shirt, curling my fist in the material and holding on for dear life.

  Don’t think I don’t know just how pathetic I had become. Me, the poster child for the independent young woman, afraid to sleep alone. As far as I was concerned, that was the very bottom of the pathetic barrel. I was instantly disgusted with myself and made myself loosen my grip.

  “We’re not going to leave you, baby,” Nathan said soothingly, sitting down on the edge of the bed and caressing my cheek. “We’re just going in the other room so we can talk without disturbing you. I promise we’ll be right here when you wake up. You won’t be alone for even a second.”

  Forcing my panic down so I wouldn’t look like such a baby, I let go of his shirt and balled my hand into a fist, tucking it under the pillow so he couldn’t see that my fingernails were nearly drawing blood. He must ha
ve noticed, because he continued to sit there, murmuring to me in that calming, seductive way of his until my eyes closed again.

  I would love to say it was the best sleep I’d ever had, but that was so far from the truth that it wasn’t even in the same galaxy. In fact, I would say it won the Worst Nap of a Lifetime award. It was like the second my mind quit fighting to stay awake, the nightmare that was waiting for me pounced.

  I was running down the hall of the abandoned west wing of Oakhurst Academy, tripping over the hem of a ridiculous dress that kept getting tangled around my feet. I glanced down and saw that I was in a low-cut white gown and that what the dress was actually getting tangled around was the heels of the stilettos I was wearing.

  Desperately, I kicked them off and kept running, holding the skirt of my gown up so that I wouldn’t trip on it and break my neck. There was something there, something I had to find. My life depended on it. My life and the life of someone I loved. The terror I felt at the very thought of losing him told me who that someone was.

  Unlike the last time I had been there, every door was open and bright moonlight was filtering in through the high windows, making everything look even more sinister as it illuminated rooms filled with old desks and other things that had been stored there to get them out of the way.

  I saw a flickering golden light coming from one of the rooms at the end of the hall and raced toward it without even the slightest hesitation. I knew what that light was, but I didn’t care. I had to get to Nathan. And if I had to walk through fire to do it, so be it.

  I stopped in the doorway and a scream froze in my throat. Nathan was kneeling in the center of the room and Bastian was standing over him swinging a massive sword like a baseball player taking practice swings. Some part of my brain tried to make sense of the scene playing out before me, but it wasn’t working out. Nathan was more than a match for Bastian, I had seen that firsthand. Why was he just sitting there, waiting to die?