then?”
He kissed me. “Just let me enjoy it.”
We repacked his suitcase together. I never liked packing, but folding Bennett’s worn shirts and fraying khakis felt intimate, meaningful. I promised myself I’d never start wearing an apron with heels and packing his lunch, but I wanted to help—to stay with him as long as I could.
“Where are you going?” I asked. “Back to your dorm?” I could live with that. His room at Harvard was only forty minutes away.
“No, I’m still on leave. You know they want Simon in charge of the Knell? Well, he asked me to go along, to protect him.”
“God knows he needs protecting.” Simon’s powers had never been strong, but what he lacked in strength, he made up for in knowledge. I couldn’t help thinking that Simon might persuade Bennett to kick the Asarum while they were both at the Knell—in fact, I wondered if that wasn’t part of his plan. I knew better than to mention it, though. “Who put Simon in charge?”
“The few ghostkeepers who survived Neos’s massacre.”
I paused, midfold. “How were all those deaths explained? Neos’s wraiths must have killed twenty people.”
“There are ghostkeepers everywhere, Emma. The Knell’s been sending low-powered ghostkeepers into police departments and the FBI for generations. The official report says that a gas line exploded.”
“They’ve got an answer for everything,” I said bitterly. “Maybe they should’ve come up with a way to stop Neos before any of this happened.”
I was devastated by the deaths of my aunt Rachel and all those other ghostkeepers, but I still wasn’t ready to forgive the way the Knell had treated me or my family. And it made me sick sometimes, how everyone who worked for them was so devoted. Including Bennett and Simon.
Bennett tossed a pair of socks into his suitcase and watched me silently. He’d grown up with the Knell; he’d always be loyal to them. It was an old argument he clearly didn’t want to reopen.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Everything will change with Simon in charge. He deserves your protection. I’m glad it’s you.”
I tucked the last T-shirt into his suitcase, and he flipped the lid closed, then rested one drug-stained hand on the back of my neck. “I don’t want to leave you,” he said.
I kissed his gaunt, beautiful face, not liking that I was getting used to the way his looks and scent had changed since he started taking Asarum. “I know,” I said. “But it’s not forever.”
“No,” he said, “it’s not forever.”
And I repeated it to myself: he wouldn’t have to be like this forever. But with Simon’s warnings about Asarum ringing in my head, I just hoped I was right.
Simon was waiting downstairs, his suitcase packed. He was dressed in the camel hair coat he’d first shown up in, and the sight of it made my heart break. I hadn’t known him long, but he’d been an amazing guardian. Like the nerdy but cool, young uncle you always wished you had. I couldn’t believe I was losing him along with Bennett. I threw myself at his chest, hugging him hard.
“I’m going to miss you so much. And I don’t think I’ve ever said thank you.”
“Bloody hell, Emma.” He grinned at me. “Stop before you make me cry.”
Natalie stormed into the foyer. “Bloody hell is right. What the fu—”
“Natalie!” I said, cutting her off. Not that I minded her swearing, but I knew the Sterns were around and didn’t want them thinking any worse of us.
She strode to the front door and leaned against it, crossing her arms. “You can’t go. Neither of you. I won’t let you.”
“Natalie—” Bennett started.
“We’re a team,” she interrupted. “We need to stay together. You’re letting them break us up.”
“I am them now,” Simon said. “I’m only doing—”
“Emma needs you both,” she said. “You know Neos is coming back, and every time he comes back, he comes back stronger. I can’t protect her—I can’t even protect myself!—and I’ll be damned if she gets hurt because she’s worried about me, so no, you’re not leaving. You’re not going anywhere.”
“Come here, my little Fury,” Simon said.
Natalie crossed the hall to him, a stubborn glint in her eyes, and he spoke quietly to her. I wanted to go comfort her, but Bennett stopped me. “Let them talk.”
“She is kind of like one of the Furies,” I said; I knew from Latin classes they were goddesses of revenge.
“If anyone’s a Fury, it’s you,” Bennett murmured back.
Before I could respond, I noticed the Sterns in the hallway that