level.
That night, I slept the dreamless sleep of the glutton … until I woke with a start, frightened by the proximity of a ghost. I knew it wasn’t Nicholas or Celeste, because they came and went without me noticing.
I pulled my dagger and Coby drifted forward. It’s me.
Oh, thank God! I pressed my hand to my heart. Are you okay? I haven’t seen you since the wraiths. You look all right. Are you? I was gonna summon you, but—
Settle down, he said, his ghostly face amused. I’m fine.
God, I just wanna hug you. Where’ve you been?
Licking my wounds. Those wraiths are nasty.
You saved us. I don’t know what we would’ve done without you.
You would’ve lost, he said, with a hint of his old smile. But that’s me, Coby the Friendly Ghost. I searched the Beyond, finding out about Neos.
Don’t do that! That’s what got Martha killed.
He gave me a look. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m already dead.
Well, but you could be deader. I don’t want you any deader.
I’m not staying forever, you know. His voice was soft and gentle. Once we get Neos, you’re going to dispel me.
I can’t do that. Which was a lie. I won’t do that.
Yes, you will. You owe me.
I swallowed and changed the subject. What’s the Beyond like? I’ve always wanted to know.
Like a … a bad dream. Not a nightmare—one of those dreams where nothing makes sense. You ask for help, but your words come out wrong and the answers don’t make sense. You forget who you are and what you’re looking for. I can sense Neos, but I can never locate him—he hides himself somewhere.
We’ll find him, I said, but my voice lacked conviction. I was still freaked out about the siren.
And what about Harry and Sara? he asked.
They’re okay, I lied.
I’ve seen them. They’re not okay.
So I bowed my head and told him everything.
You have to tell them the truth, he said.
That a ghost killed you? Sure, that’ll work.
If that won’t work, figure out what will. They’re hurting, Emma, and they need you. His voice was cold and rough, lacking any trace of the sweet guy I used to trust more than anyone else.
I nodded, knowing I’d run out of excuses. And that I needed to face up to the fact that Coby would never be the same.
He looked like he was about to say something more, but instead drifted to the window and through it, floating over the maple tree outside and twisting in the air before landing with his feet on the ground. I watched through the pane of glass as he vanished into the night.
The next few days passed uneventfully. A sad medley of school, training, and missing Bennett. Yeah, I had his playlists, but they weren’t enough.
Then Simon took a break from investigating Neos’s final resting place to give us a lecture about the principles of the Beyond, but we were more interested in hearing how the search was going. Apparently William and Gabriel had come to the same conclusion as Max, and everyone in the Knell was trying to pinpoint the grave.
Well, everyone but us; we were training to stop Neos once they found his single weakness. If he had one.
“How hard can it be to find the grave?” Natalie asked. “Aren’t there burial records?”
“They’ve all been expunged,” Simon told her.
“So the body just disappeared?” Lukas shook his head. “They knew he committed suicide; they must’ve taken him to the morgue.”
“I’m sure they did,” Simon said, and his lips narrowed.
“What was that?” Lukas said.
“What was what?”
“That thing you did with your mouth.” He looked at Natalie. “Did you see that?”
“Yeah,” Natalie said. “There’s something he doesn’t want to tell us.”
“I want to tell you what you need to know,” Simon said. “If you want to defeat Neos, you need to understand the principles of the Beyond.”
“I’ll tell you what we need to know, Simon,” I said. “If we’re going to face Neos together, we need to know everything. Either we’re a team, or we’re not.”
He didn’t say anything for a minute, then nodded. “The Knell found where Neos had been buried—in California. They sent two teams. Two of the top teams.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“The grave was empty,” he said. “The body had been exhumed and moved.”
But there was more. I could hear it in his voice. “And?”
“Neos was expecting them.” Simon pinched the bridge of his nose. “They walked into an ambush. Wraiths, just like at the mausoleum—except they didn’t have Emma.”
“What happened?” Lukas asked, quieter