“I’m dreaming.” He laughed and it echoed around the little area like they were in an empty room. “You’re not real.”
“Not so much anymore. But I was at one time.” He shimmered into view, then faded again. “I need you to summon me if you don’t mind. I’ve a hankering to speak to you. So does little Aster.”
“Aster?” She looked over at the newest headstone and shivered. “What does she want with me? I don’t even know her.”
“I guess you’ll have to call her and find out.” His laughter again, and she smiled. “Ah, I’ve not lost the charming ability that set me here in the first place.”
“Why are you here? I mean, no one seems to know you. And I’m pretty sure that one of the guys has checked.” He shimmered in and out twice more. “Do you have to keep doing that? It’s kind of weird to have you fading in and out like a…like a ghost, I guess.”
“I am a ghost, dearie, and I will do it until you let me come out to play. Just say my name. All of it. And no cheating either. You know it as well as you do your own.” She had no idea what he meant and said as much to him. “Yes, you do, Kari March Briggs.”
Kari staggered back and fell against the iron fencing. She felt it bite into her back, but was focused on the two people suddenly in front of her. One she knew…there was no mistaking the lovely young woman as anyone but Steele’s sister. The other person, a woman who looked like she could command armies, stood beside her.
“You’re much prettier than I thought.” Kari looked behind her to see who Aster was talking to. “You, Kari. I mean you. Oh my, Steele must be all hot and bothered all the time with you around.”
“Hello? Did anyone think to bring me out? I’m still waiting.” Kari was dreaming. That had to be the only reason she was seeing and hearing these people. “You’re not dreaming. Open your eyes and summon me.”
“William June Pike.” The man shimmered into view and she stared at him. “How did I know who you were?”
“Why, because we know each other.” She shook her head. “We do. We never met, but I’ve been watching you for a long time.”
“No. You’re dead.” He nodded and moved closer. Her cat moved along her skin…not in a way that made her think she was going to lose her, but in a soft, comforting kind of way. “I’m not sure—”
“You’re always sure. Now listen to us. We have a lot to tell you.” Mrs. Aster sat down on her headstone and smiled as she continued. “You really are quite lovely, aren’t you? Has Steele asked you to marry him yet?”
“We’ve…we’re not seeing each other anymore.” Why she was even talking to these people she had no idea, but she wasn’t going to lie to them if they were real. “It was a mistake. We’ve both agreed on that, and I was just leaving now.”
“It was no such thing.” Aster came closer to her. “Do you wonder why you were drawn here? Why you kept coming back time and time again? Even in your dreams? We brought you here. We wanted to explain. But leaving my brother is going to hurt you both. You know that as well as we do.”
Kari started to stand, but her legs felt weighted. She wondered if either of them were doing it, but they were still in the same place. Billy laughed loudly before he soared upward.
“He’ll be back. He doesn’t get out that often.” Aster sat down beside her. “This thing with you and Steele, it can’t be over. You know that, right? Is he really going to let you leave him?”
“I’m not going to discuss this with his sister.” She laughed. “Please just tell me what you think I need to know and I have to get going. I need to find me a place to stay, and I work tomorrow. I really should have been gone by now.”
“I’m here because you summoned me.” Kari shook her head. “Not with words, but your love for Steele. I tried to tell him I’d come back someday, to make sure that the woman he found to take his heart was good enough, but he was in so much pain. I wish that I hadn’t left him like I had. I know that he still blames himself for my death.”
“Why?” Aster moved to the headstone again and that’s when Kari realized she wasn’t walking but moving through the air. “You really are here and you’re talking to me. Aren’t you?”
“Yes. You’re here because we need to talk to you.” Kari sat down. Her back pulled hard and it hurt, but she was in a surreal place and was afraid to let it end. “The day I was killed, I came back to Steele. I admitted to him that I could see, that I had the same abilities he had. I just…I never did what the others wanted of me because I saw the way that Father and Mother treated him. Mother had this grand idea that I was going to be like her. And all I wanted to do was be what I needed to be. I was going to be a simple housewife to a simple man. Have tons of children and have Steele over every week for dinner.”