Betrayal - By Lee Nichols Page 0,9

Emma from Echo Point. This tapestry is centuries older than her, probably medieval European.”

My Emma lived in the late 1700s, which meant that this tapestry was almost five hundred years old. “But—”

“She’s a mirror image of you,” a woman’s voice said behind us.

I turned too quickly and caught a glimpse of the woman before the world started tilting. I stumbled, and Bennett took my arm and helped me to the settee. He crouched in front of me, holding my hands in his, his eyes concerned.

“Take a deep breath,” the woman told me. “You’ve had a shock.”

“I’ve got it,” Bennett snapped at her. “I’m sorry, Emma. I should’ve told you. But we don’t really know what it is or what it means. And I didn’t want you to … to take it too seriously.”

I touched his shoulder briefly. “It’s okay. I’m not sure knowing it was here would’ve prepared me, anyway. It’s not every day you discover you’re the reincarnation of Emma the Ghostslayer.”

“It’s striking, isn’t it?” the woman said to Bennett. “Yoshiro says that Emma is the only ghostkeeper who can stop Neos—which is odd, given she’s so new to her powers. But when you see her resemblance to the lady in the tapestry, all that power, distilled through the ages, leaping from bloodline to bloodline.” She turned to me. “Until finally settling in you. I begin to think Yoshiro’s right.”

“Who are you?” I asked, eying the woman. She looked about my parents’ age, tall and dark haired with hazel eyes. And vaguely familiar. “Do I know you?”

She smiled in surprise. “Actually, yes—though we haven’t met since you were a little girl. Or maybe it’s simply innate recognition.”

“Because we’re both ghostkeepers?”

“No,” she said, “because we’re family.”

“I don’t have family,” I told her. “Only my parents and brother. My grandparents died before I was born, my mom’s an only child, and my dad’s not in touch with—”

“His sister,” she finished.

“Wait,” I said. “You’re my dad’s sister?”

Bennett glared at her. “You never told me this.”

She nodded. “I’m your aunt.”

“Rachel?” I asked, astonished. She looked a little like my father around the eyes and in the way she smiled.

Her face glowed with pleasure, and she stepped forward like she wanted to hug me. I would’ve let her, except Bennett was glowering—and I was trying to remember why she and my father weren’t in touch anymore.

Instead of the hug, she sat beside me and squeezed my arm. “I’m so pleased to finally meet you—again.” She laughed. “The last time I saw you, you were still in diapers.”

Great. Just how I wanted Bennett picturing me: in princess-themed Pampers. At least he hadn’t kept this from me. The tapestry paled in comparison. Rachel seemed okay and all, but did I really need an unexpected aunt cluttering up my life? I had enough going on with dead friends, ghostly vendettas, and an untouchable boyfriend.

“Do my parents know you’re in the Knell?” I asked. “Where are they? Does my brother, Max, know about you?”

“Wait, wait—one question at a time,” she said.

“I’ve got one,” Bennett said, his face hard. “Do the others know you’re her aunt? I don’t like this, Rachel—springing this on Emma without any warning. She’s been through enough surprises already.”

“This is a family matter.”

“It’s a Knell matter,” he said. “Let’s bring this to Yoshiro and William and Gabriel, then we’ll all hear you answer Emma’s questions.”

“They know. I wanted a moment to speak with her privately,” she said.

“Emma doesn’t need—”

I cut him off. “I’m good, Bennett. I want to talk to her. She’s family and the only one who hasn’t run out on me. Well, if you don’t count when I was a baby.” Plus, for all I knew she was the key to Max’s and my parents’ disappearance. “You go ahead; tell them we’ll be there soon.”

“You sure?”

I gave him a look. I liked how protective he was, but I needed to do this on my own, and I sensed Rachel wouldn’t talk with him around.

He smiled wryly, reading my expression. “Okay,” he said. “Back in five minutes.”

After he left, I turned to Rachel and waited for her to begin, conscious of a vague feeling of disquiet. Maybe due to the tapestry or the proximity of so many ghostkeepers. Or maybe I was just picking up on Rachel’s anxiety.

She licked her lips and looked from the tapestry back to me. “Your father didn’t take your mother’s powers, Emma. Neos did. They—we were all working for the Knell, the four of us as a team. Nobody