Her eyes were very clear, Ree remembered. She’d thought them blue at first, but as the girl came toward her, she realized they were gray. Or were they green?
“Where did you come from?” Amelia had asked in a feather-soft voice.
Finding herself unaccustomedly tongue-tied, Ree pointed toward the gate.
Amelia bit her lip. “I must have forgotten to shut it. I’d better go lock it before Papa finds out. Come on. I’ll walk you back.”
But Ree held her ground, her curious gaze taking in all the stone angels. She’d never seen so many. It was like a silent, weeping army.
“They’re magic,” Amelia said. Her eyes took on a dreamy, faraway look. “Sometimes just before dusk, when the light hits them just right, they come to life.”
Ree finally found her voice, and much to her chagrin, her practical side emerged. “There’s no such thing as magic.”
“Of course there is. There’s magic all around us. You just can’t see it.”
“Can you?”
“Sometimes.” Amelia’s smile disappeared and she glanced away. “But I’m safe here.”
“Why?”
She waved an arm, encompassing the crumbling angels and the surrounding cemetery. “Because these are my guardians,” she said. “And this is my kingdom….”
The memory faded as Ree rounded a corner and almost skidded into Trudy McIntyre. She was escorting Alice Canton, a young woman with paranoid schizophrenic tendencies, back to her room. Alice was pale and fragile with an emaciated body and wide, tragic eyes.
She stopped dead in her tracks to gape at Ree as they passed in the hallway.
“Come along, Alice,” Trudy coaxed. “Let’s get you settled in for the night.”
But Alice refused to budge even when Trudy urged her forward. “Who’s she?”
“That’s Ree,” Trudy said. “Don’t you remember? She brought you a new book last week.”
“Not her,” Alice insisted. “The other one.”
And then Ree noticed that she was looking—not directly at her—but at a point just beyond her shoulder.
A chill shot through Ree as she resisted the urge to glance back.
“There’s no one else here,” Trudy said. “Just us three girls.”
Ree smiled reassuringly and took a step forward so that Alice could see her better in the dimmed lighting. Alice flinched away, bunching her shoulders and drawing her fists up to her face as if trying to protect herself. Or hide herself. “Don’t look at her,” she whispered.
Trudy patted her arm as Alice peered over her fists. “Can you see her?” Her voice rose in agitation. “Why can’t you see her? Why can’t you see any of them? They’re everywhere!”
There’s magic all around us. You just can’t see it.
Ree shivered again though she tried to put on a good face for Alice.
“This one’s angry,” Alice warned. “She scares me.”
“You’ll be safe in your room,” Trudy soothed as she took Alice firmly by the arm and pulled her down the hall.
Alice went reluctantly, muttering under her breath, “That poor girl. That poor, poor girl…”
Ree had the discomforting notion that Alice was talking about her.
Abruptly, she turned and made her way up to the front desk. A couple of orderlies milled about in the lobby, but other than a quick nod, they paid Ree little attention. She didn’t know how long Trudy would be busy with Alice, but she was tempted to slip behind the desk and access the computer. If she could locate Violet’s file, she might be able to figure out why Dr. Farrante felt so threatened. What kind of power could Ilsa Tisdale—long dead, no doubt—still have over the living?
Wisely, Ree tempered the impulse. Not only was the blackmail scheme none of her business, but also hacking into patient records could earn her jail time. She pacified herself by returning to Miss Violet’s suite. Not to snoop, she told herself firmly, but to pay her final respects.
No one had been in yet to collect the body, and as Ree stood at Miss Violet’s bedside, the strangest feeling came over her. The old woman looked peaceful in repose, but Ree found no comfort in the viewing. She wasn’t squeamish about death and she didn’t believe in ghosts. But as she gazed down at the corpse, she felt the chill of something unnatural in that room.
Which was crazy. She was just letting her imagination get the better of her.
Ree tried to shake off the sensation as she picked up the book from the nightstand where she’d left it earlier. Flipping the cover open, she ran her thumb over the inscription. And the hair at the back of her neck lifted.
She wouldn’t look behind her. She wouldn’t. No one was there. She