Betrayal - By Lee Nichols Page 0,55

“We couldn’t trust the Knell—we knew he’d corrupt them. We needed to keep you away from ghostkeeping until we figured out how to stop him.”

“But you put me in a psych ward. How could you do that?”

For a moment, neither of them spoke. Then my father said, “We panicked. We didn’t know—”

My mother laid a hand on my shoulder. “We were wrong. Does it help if we say that? We only wanted to keep you safe.”

I took a deep breath, unsure whether I was ready to forgive them. At least they admitted they’d made a mistake.

“Do you know about our history with Neos?” Dad asked.

I nodded. “You were a team with him and Rachel.” I blinked away sudden tears. “Daddy, when I met her, she was possessed by a wraith, and I—I—”

“We know,” my mom said gently. “You didn’t kill her; Neos did. Never forget that. In fact, you saved her, Emma, from doing even more damage to the Knell—and the Knell was her life.”

I nodded and reached to put my bandaged hand onto hers, and saw her fingers were tinged with purple, fuzzy streaks outlining her fingernails, like some strange bruise.

Simon’s voice replayed in my head: Asarum stains. It changes the pigmentation.

“Oh my God,” I said, falling back onto my pillow. “You’re taking that drug.”

“It’s only an herb.” She moved her hands away. “And I’m trying to save you.”

“That’s why you’re hiding—because you know the Knell disapproves.”

“The Knell’s not in a position to disapprove,” my father said.

“You don’t understand,” my mother told me. “We’re trying to help you fight Neos. He’s linked to me; he’s using my powers. If I regain them, maybe he’ll lose them. I’ve got nothing without this, Emma.”

I turned to my father, a little dizzy from the painkillers. “And you let her? Look at her—I thought she was sick, Dad!”

He swallowed. “I know—I told her not to, but she insisted and—”

“Get the amulet, Emma,” she interrupted. “You need to take the amulet from Neos.”

“Why? How?” I yawned, the drugs catching up with me. “I don’t even know—”

“We don’t know, either. Neos needs to perform some final rite with it—we don’t know what, exactly. But if you take the amulet, maybe he won’t get any more powerful.”

“He’s bad enough already,” my father said. “We need to—”

“Someone’s coming,” my mother whispered.

“Wait! Why did you send me that note, telling me not to trust Bennett?”

“We knew Neos would try to infiltrate the Knell, and we thought he’d target Bennett,” my dad said.

“But he’s not—” I stopped midsentence. Was I sure that I was in love with Bennett? Yes. Sure that he loved me? Yes. Positive I could trust him? No. Maybe if he’d been here, but I had no idea where he was or what he was doing. Could he defend himself against Neos? Rachel hadn’t been able to.

“Plus he’s too old for you,” Mom added. “You need someone your own age. Isn’t there a boy at school, who—”

“Mom!” God, how could she annoy me already? We’d only been together like ten minutes.

They both stepped away from the bed. “We love you.”

“Don’t go! I need—” But with a swish of the curtain walls, they were gone.

The nurse checked on me as I lay there in a daze. My first thought when I saw my parents was that they’d finally come for me. I could forget all about ghostkeeping and go back to my old life in San Francisco.

But what was there to go back to?

I didn’t want to be three thousand miles from Bennett, wherever he was. Or Natalie or Lukas and Simon. Or Harry and Sara. And would Coby be able to find his way through the Beyond that far? What about the house ghosts? I wasn’t sure—even when this was all over—how a life with my parents fit into all that.

My friends needed me. They needed me more than I needed my parents. Which worried me. But there was strength in it, too.

“Oh my God!” Natalie shrieked, waking me from a dreamless sleep in my hospital bed. “Emma, what happened?”

“I thought I made it clear that you were to venture nowhere without us,” Simon barked. He never sounded so stuck up as when he was worried about one of us.

I forced my eyelids open and found them surrounding the bed, worry etched into their features.

“Dude, killer war wounds.” Lukas eyed my bandages. “Are you going to be all scarred and everything?”

I smiled, tears in my eyes. “I’m so glad to see you guys.” I eyed the