“Stick close,” she said. “I’m serious about there being things out there you don’t want to meet.”
I looked around and shook my head. “So all the cities are gone in the ghost world?”
“Nah. Miami’s special.”
“What are the other cities like? Do they look like ours?”
“Kind of. That’s the cool thing. They look like the real ones, but they’re stuck in the past, at some important point in their history, their heyday or whatever.”
I looked around. “So Miami’s heyday was back when it was a primeval swamp?”
Eve grinned. “All downhill from there, huh? Or maybe it’s a metaphorical thing.”
“You said ghosts live in the other cities. What if you lived in Miami while you were alive? Would you have to relocate?”
“Mostly, yes. But those things I was mentioning, the ones that live here? Rumor has it that they used to be—”She grimaced and made a zipping motion over her mouth. “No more questions, Paige.”
“But shouldn’t I know—”
“No, you shouldn’t. You don’t need to. You just want to. God, I’d forgotten how curious you are. When you were little, I swore your first word wasn’t ‘Momma,’ it was ‘why.’”
“Just one last—”
“One last question? Ha! Do you have any idea how many times I fell for that one?” She started walking. “One last question. One last game. One last song.”
“I just—”
“Stop talking and get moving or you’ll learn more about this swamp than you ever cared to know.”
Blindsided
EVE KNEW HER WAY AROUND THE GHOST-WORLD MIAMI from her frequent visits over the last two weeks. What had lured her to this hell swamp? Us. She’d been keeping tabs on Lucas and me since we’d arrived in Miami, as she’d been periodically checking in on Savannah while she was under Elena’s care. Apparently, she’d been doing this since her death, reassuring herself that her daughter was safe, and now keeping track of her guardians as well. It was a strictly visual supervision, but only because she hadn’t figured out a way to extend her protectorship to a more active form. Not surprisingly, the Fates frowned on the whole guardian-angel routine. Interfering with the living was forbidden. Even checking in on loved ones, as Eve was doing, was discouraged. To make the full transition to ghost life, you had to break all ties with the living world. Eve was having some difficulty with the concept.
We had to walk two miles to get to where our hotel would be in the living world. I hoped Jaime was there. Otherwise, we were in for a long hunt.
Two miles wasn’t relatively far, given the size of Miami, but when you were walking through a swamp, up to your ankles in muck, blazing a trail through the vegetation with fire spells, every few yards seemed like miles. Fortunately, Eve had forged some paths earlier, including one to our hotel. Otherwise the vegetation would have been impassable. Already, in the half day she’d been gone, the vines had wound over her trail, the lush vegetation filling in so fast you could almost see it growing.
As we hacked through a particularly overgrown area, I thought I did see the vegetation growing, as ferns a few yards ahead swished in the still, fetid air. Then I saw a shape move behind the fronds.
“Shit!” Eve said.
The figure shambled forward, taking shape in the dim light. I made out a vaguely humanoid form, then everything went dark. I bit back a yelp, and started casting a light spell. Eve grasped my forearm and leaned down to my ear.
“It’s me, Paige. I did it.”
Did what? Before I could ask, I remembered that Eve was also a half-demon, having been sired by an Aspicio. An Aspicio’s power is sight, and its progeny can inflict temporary blindness.
“What?” I hissed. “Don’t—I can’t see!”
“That’s the idea.”
Mud squelched as the thing moved through the swamp, coming closer with each step. I blinked hard, but saw only darkness.
“Eve!” I whispered. “Stop this. I’m not a little girl anymore. I’ve seen things, lots of things. Demons, corpses, reanimated corpses—multiple reanimated corpses. Whatever’s out there, I can handle—”
I stopped mid-sentence, mouth open, frozen, not in fear, but in a binding spell. Eve’s hair tickled my ear as she leaned down over me.
“Maybe you can handle it, Paige, but you don’t need to.”
I glared at her—or in the direction I assumed she was.
“Don’t worry,” she whispered. “I’ve dealt with these things before. Most times if you just stand still, they’ll go away.”