Deception (27 page)

“Y-yeah. You’re Mr. Sanity.”

He slapped my face, but I was so numb that all I felt was a distant stinging. “I am not
feeble
. Nothing
—
nothing is as powerful as I. It took my death for me to come into my full potential.”

“Why did you kill them? Why kill Martha?”

“Poor, pathetic Emma, the lonely little girl pretending ghosts are her family, and a housekeeper her mommy. By killing other ghostkeepers I gain more power
—
using the focus of the jade amulet.”

I gasped.

“Oh, yes. Your mother’s amulet. I could only use the design, until you kindly brought me the talisman itself.” He opened his mouth and I saw again the jade embedded in Coby’s tongue. He wiggled it at me, like some obscene piercing. “And now I walk in living skin.”

“But
—
why my mother’s? Why me, all those years ago?”

He pulled me close and I smelled Neos under Coby’s body, foul and sulfuric. “Because you’re Jana’s daughter.”

“You knew my mother?”

“I loved her.” The knife blade glowed despite the lack of light, and he traced the tip across my neck, then down between my breasts. I felt so vulnerable, and searched his face for some sign of Coby, but there was no gentle sweetness there. “Why do you think I killed myself?”

“My m-mother?” I asked.

“She chose your father over me. I knew her focus so well, it served to anchor me. Then I bonded myself to you, in that storefront
—
remember me taking your blood? I would’ve risen to power then, if they hadn’t driven your skills out of you. But now your powers are returning, stronger than ever.”

“Lucky me,” I said, rain sheeting down my face.

“And they’ll make me not a ghost, but a god.” He slapped me again, harder this time. “Tell me how you took spectral form.”

I shook my head, my teeth chattering.

And he plunged me into the water again. I couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe. Strapped to the chair, I was shivering and my lungs burned. A moment before I blacked out, the chair rose through the icy darkness and broke the water’s surface.

I gasped and coughed, but the instant I caught my breath, he plunged me under again, brought to the verge of drowning over and over.

“Once more, Emma?” he asked. “Or will you answer me now?”

I longed to tell him everything, to end the fear and stop the pain. But I couldn’t leave him to kill more ghostkeepers. I couldn’t leave him like this, polluting Coby’s body. I couldn’t leave Martha unavenged.

And I knew how to save myself: by slipping the ring onto my finger.

Only one problem
—
I couldn’t get the ring. The straps around my wrists were too strong.

“Tell me, Emma. Now …”
—
he kissed my cheek and traced a wavy cut across my sternum and my blood dripped onto the dress
—
“ … or later.”

As he cut me, he exposed the wedding band on my necklace, and I panicked. If he realized what it was, I was dead. I needed to distract him, to goad him into dropping me into the pond, to get one last chance to break free and slip on the ring.

Tears welled in my eyes, because I knew I’d fail. I’d tried compelling him and dispelling him, but he was too strong. And I was just a girl. A girl with a dysfunctional family, torn between two boys, and about to lose everything else.

But I was also the girl who could keep ghosts and I had no choice.

So I thought of Martha and the Rake and the original Emma. Of my parents and my brother
—
and of Bennett.

And I found the sparks inside me. Martha had told me, when I most needed it, my power would be there. I gathered the sparks into a bright ball radiating out from my chest and launched the light at Neos. He wasn’t expecting it and I slipped under his protection and battered him with an onslaught of brilliance that made him take a step back.

He winced and shoved at the chair and swung me out over the pond. “Try that again, underwater.”

And the chair plunged again into the freezing pond.

Exactly what I’d wanted, to be hidden under the water to get the ring. Except I was so cold I couldn’t move my arms, and so tired I couldn’t summon more power.

I surrendered. I had nothing left, except desperate pleading.
Please,
I implored.
Please help me.

I’m not sure if God heard me. But someone did.

Ghosts.

As my body went limp and my brain started to misfire from lack of oxygen, amorphous figures floated in the water in front of me. They glowed in the murky darkness, not looking like regular ghosts. They were less solid, less defined and they drifted through the water like patches of luminous fog. I thought I was hallucinating
—
until I felt a tingle in my spine.

And in a rush, I knew who they were. The spirits of women drowned as witches. They’d heard my call for help.

They didn’t take human form, but a strong current rose in the still pond, and the necklace drifted upward, the ring illuminated in the dark water. The chain slipped over my head and the ring drifted down, spinning and twisting until it landed firmly on my finger and
—

A new rush of energy pulsed through me. I turned translucent and felt the water crashing though the place I’d been. I still couldn’t breathe, but I no longer needed to. My wrists lifted free of the leather straps as the spirits swirled and faded, and I said,
Thank you.

I streamed upward toward the surface, and noticed the chair rising behind me. Neos was trying to lift me into the air, for the pleasure of plunging me under again.

Well, he was in for a surprise.

“Are you finished?” he asked, as the chair broke the surface. “Or will you answer me now?”

Yes, I’d answer him. I knew things now that I’d never imagined. I wasn’t just Emma Vaile, the girl with boy troubles, SAT-phobia, and poorly fitting uniforms. I was Emma Vaile, who lived and died over two hundred years ago, the most powerful ghostkeeper of her
—
or any
—
time.

In my ghostly form I couldn’t dispel or compel, so I flew from the chair and flashed past Neos, hearing his cry of surprise and anger behind me.

I flew faster than I thought possible and felt a wave of evil swooping behind me. He’d summoned a wraith to follow me. It crashed heedlessly after me. Neos thought I was running away
—
and he was right.

But only as far as the trees. I tore a long thin branch from one and spun into fighting stance. The wraith came flying and skewered itself on the point. I shot bolts of my dispelling power into the branch. Blackness spewed and heaved around me, and I shoved the wood jacked up with dispelling energy further into the thing as the shadow howled and faded. Easy enough, even if it was the first time I’d imbued an object with dispelling power.

One down
, I told Neos.

And I flew at him with the branch, freed from the weight and sluggishness of my mortal form, I swirled around him feinting and jabbing. He parried with his knife, but not quickly enough.

I stabbed him in the chest, but the voice that cried out wasn’t Neos’s but Coby’s. I froze. Was I going to win this fight over Coby’s dead body?

I couldn’t.

I faltered, and Neos attacked. He knocked my branch aside and backhanded me across the face. My body was still that of a ghost, but not to Neos. He could still hurt me while wearing Coby’s body. I sprawled to the ground, my vision blurred.

“Now you die,” he said.

You’ll never learn my secret,
I told him.

“Instead, I’ll take your death.”

He twirled his knife in his right hand, scattering droplets of rain, then grabbed my arm to lift me into his thrust.

And he screamed in pain. Welts rose on his hands where he’d grabbed me
—
vicious frostbite. Neos was so powerful that ghosts burned him even more than they did me. He’d become a human ghostkeeper in Coby’s body and I’d become a ghost. Maybe I could burn his spirit from Coby. The ache would be so great, he’d have to leave. Coby would probably end up scarred, but alive.

I grabbed his arms and pressed myself into him
—
he bellowed in pain and fury, but remained firmly entrenched inside Coby. He hit me hard, in the ribs and kidneys, but I clung to him, hugged him tighter.

I shrieked with the effort and pain. How much longer? I was weakening. Though he was weakening, too. We fell to the ground, me still clutching him, he still trying to beat me off.

Then I felt his blade cutting into my chest, closer and closer to my throat. I didn’t have the strength to resist. Between the torture and the fight, I’d reached my end. I had to get away. I couldn’t let him have my powers or he’d be indestructible.

With a tug of will, I wrenched the blade from my chest and threw my spectral body into the air. I hovered over Neos, as he nestled in Coby’s body in a heap below. He looked depleted and spent
—
still I knew I couldn’t finish him.

I will kill more of you,
he said, his voice weak but clear.
And I will grow stronger.

Like a coward, I fled.

29

I didn’t fly away
—
I disappeared.

I felt a longing for safety, for warmth. For Bennett. And I felt myself
shift
, and found Bennett in his bedroom in the attic, poring through an overstuffed notebook.

Bennett
, I said.

He didn’t hear me
—
he couldn’t communicate with ghosts
—
but he must’ve felt me. He glanced up from his notebook and his face lost all color, his eyes were wide with shock and grief.

“Emma!” he cried. “No.
No
.”

He stood and reached a hand toward me, touched the blood that dripped from my chest wound. He pulled back as it burned him. “How could this happen? I don’t understand.”

I removed the ring. “I’m alive.”

“Oh God.” He wrapped me in his arms. “Emma, I
—
”

Dripping with pond water, my ghost gown torn and bloodied, my heart still thundering with fear, I kissed him. He stroked my neck and back, as if reassuring himself I was real, and I clung to him until my knees gave way from exhaustion and relief.

He laid me gently on the bed, and I was smiling and crying at the same time. “I’m sorry,” I said, though I didn’t know what for. “I’m so sorry.”

“I thought you were dead.”

“I almost was.” I showed him the ring. “This belonged to the first Emma
—
it turns me into a ghost.”

“That’s impossible.”

I slid the ring back on, watching Bennett marvel at my spectral form. He moved to touch me, but I pulled the ring off before he could, not wanting to burn him more.

“You’re impossible,” he said, and before I could respond, he kissed me again.

Then I told him everything.

He dialed 911, as I changed from the tattered ghost dress into a pair of Bennett’s black long johns and a gray wool sweater. Then we raced downstairs and scrambled into his Land Rover and went back to Redd’s Pond.

I prayed Coby was okay. He’d taken a lot of punishment from me, let alone Neos. But he was healthy and strong and deserved to live. I hoped that I’d left Neos too weak to take revenge.

I shifted in my seat. “I shouldn’t have left him.”

“Emma, there was nothing you could do.”

“I could’ve fought harder.”

“Nobody else
—
nobody
—
could’ve even gotten away alive. And you kept the ring from him.”

But was it enough? I bit my lip and remained silent on the drive through town. As we turned onto the road to the pond, the rain turned into a downpour, diffusing the blue and red lights flashing through the woods.

“They’re already here,” I said. “The cops.”

“Let me do the talking,” Bennett told me, as we parked.

“What will you tell them?”

His face was grim. “I don’t know yet.”

The path was dark and muddy, and I felt the same touch of fear as when I’d realized Neos had possessed Coby. I grabbed Bennett’s hand and held tight.

“You’re safe now, Emma,” he said.

I nodded, unsure, and followed him closer. I expected yellow police tape blocking the scene, but we made it to the water’s edge without being stopped.

A flurry of activity. Police cars, an ambulance
—
even a fire engine, despite the rain. And then I looked closer at the men in hip-boots wading in the shallow edge of the pond.

“Oh, no,” I said, tearing away from Bennett. “No.”

They were dragging Coby’s lifeless body from the water.

I darted through the men and threw myself at him. “Coby, no, I’m so sorry
—
”

“Miss!” The cops dragged me off him. “Who are you?”

“His friend. Oh, God, I should never have
—
”

Bennett appeared at my elbow. “Emma, I’ll explain.”

“What does it matter?” I started bawling. “He’s dead.”

“Give her a sedative,” one of the cops muttered to an EMT. “Teenage girls …”

The EMT fed me some pill and I pretended to be calm so she’d leave me alone. I never should have left him. Maybe if I’d given Neos the ring, he’d still be alive. I was the one who should be dead, not Coby
—
sweet, gorgeous, trusting Coby.

“Emma, there was nothing you could do,” Bennett said, putting an arm around me. “It’s not your fault.”

He shepherded me toward the car, my feet slipping in the mud, tears streaming down my face. Halfway there, we met Sara rushing toward the pond with Coby’s mom and dad right behind her.

“His parents got a call at Harry’s,” she started.

Then she saw my face, and hers crumpled. She groped blindly for support, then fell to her knees, making keening noise of heartbreak and grief.

“You promised you wouldn’t hurt him,” she finally whispered to me.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m so sorry.”

“You’ll never be sorry enough,” she said.

And she was right. Because being sorry wouldn’t bring him back.