Betrayal - By Lee Nichols Page 0,18

soothed me like a lullaby, or the refrain of a favorite song, sweet and familiar and rhythmic.

“Who are you?” I asked in my dream.

A sense of warmth and security spread through me as she continued to hum. I didn’t need ghostkeepers or my ring, or my powers. I didn’t need Bennett—

I jerked in bed and woke, like being surprised by a dream of falling. That last part had startled my conscious mind, forcing me to wake. Because it wasn’t true. I needed him. And no crazy dream was going to change that. Now, if only I could trust him.

I lay in bed until I heard footsteps in the hall, and Natalie burst into the room. “You’re not out of bed yet?”

“Yes, I am,” I said, from under the comforter.

“It’s time for school.”

“I’m not going,” I mumbled.

She stripped the covers from the bed. “Yes, you are.”

“Natalie!” I tried to wrestle the covers back, but she pulled them out of reach.

“Enough’s enough. Get in the shower. Right now, young lady.”

I curled into a fetal position. “You’re mean.”

“It’s for your own good,” she said, tossing me my bathrobe. “I know you’re upset, but you’re not a wallower, Em.”

“What am I, then?” I seriously didn’t know sometimes.

“Really? I need to go into how you’ve killed wraiths and fought off Neos, the most powerful ghost anyone has ever seen? Yeah, your heart is broken, but when you get hit, you’re the girl who gets back up again.”

We were both silent a moment as I digested this. I grumbled at her, but took a quick shower and got dressed. Natalie helped me accessorize—a major art form at Thatcher—and we headed outside in record time to walk the three blocks to school.

I bit into the toast with peanut butter that Anatole had handed me on the way out the door.

“One hundred sixty calories,” Natalie said.

“What? My toast?” I shook my head. “Don’t do that. You’re going to give me a complex.”

“I can’t help it—I was a fat twelve-year-old. The Kingdomers frowned on gluttony, and I was a rebel.”

The Kingdomers were a religious sect that Natalie’s parents belonged to. They hated ghostkeepers—her mother had been one—and basically tried to waterboard Natalie’s summoning abilities out of her. I hated to think what kind of diet they’d put her on.

“Well, it’s safe to eat now,” I said, handing her half my toast. She could stand to gain a few pounds.

She looked at me hesitantly, then bit into the toast. “Yummy,” she said, through a mouthful of peanut butter.

“The devil’s work always tastes delicious,” I said.

As we approached the gates to Thatcher, my trepidation returned. There was Coby, sitting on the surrounding stone wall, staring morosely at the other kids as they passed by. Coby was the first person I’d met when I transferred here, and had quickly become the one friend I could always rely on. Whenever I needed him, he’d been there. We always met at these gates in the morning and walked in together. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get through school without him. Yeah, he was still here for me. But as a ghost. And no matter how much I wanted things to be the same, they weren’t.

Natalie noticed him and smiled.

How come she can see me? he asked.

She’s a ghostkeeper.

But he wasn’t paying attention. His eyes were on Sara, who was walking with Harry from the parking lot. Harry staggered on the flagstone path and Sara caught his arm. They both looked worn and tired, as though all the life had gone out of them.

Look at Harry, Coby said. Drunk already. And Sara’s not much better. They need your help, Emma.

“Let’s go,” I said to Natalie, ignoring Coby. I dragged her through the gates.

“Did you talk to him?” she asked. She couldn’t hear me communicate with Coby. “Stop yanking me.”

“Yes, I talked to him.”

“What’d he say?”

“Not much,” I answered.

Emma, Coby scolded from behind me.

They don’t want my help, I said. And I wasn’t ready to talk to them. I couldn’t be brave all the time. Hey, at least I’d shown up at school. I couldn’t confront Harry about his drinking or beg Sara for forgiveness—it was too soon; the wounds were still raw. So I turned my back to them and kept walking.

I tried to avoid Harry, but he cornered me and Natalie in a crowd of other girls in the hallway outside of Latin.

“Good morning, ladies,” he said, with a vulpine smile. Then added, “And Emma.”

“Ha-ha,” Natalie said.

“Oh, I’m extremely witty,” Harry