I wanted more.
“You were brilliant!” Noah enthused, sweeping me up and twirling me around. The building sparkled with spectral energy, appearing as it had a hundred years ago, gleaming and beautiful. The lot of us practically glowed with it. If someone were to look at this building, they would surely see rays of light pouring out of the battered and broken windows.
“I’ve never done that before,” I confessed. “Not on that sort of scale. It was amazing!”
He laughed and twirled me again before finally setting me down. Both of us floated almost a full foot above the floor, we were so empowered.
My hair puffed out around me like a bloodred lion’s mane. I could only imagine how terrifying I’d looked to the intruders, who had screamed themselves hoarse when I’d rushed toward them, my mouth a foot-long gaping black void, eyes burning like coals. I’d made people wet themselves before, but I’d never brought anyone so close to dying of sheer terror as I had that day.
“You should join us on All Hallows’ Eve,” Noah said.
“I’ll be here for the concert,” I told him. “What do you have planned?”
He grinned. “To walk among the humans, scaring them as we wish. It’s always so much fun to make them wonder if we’re people in costumes or actual spirits.”
Miss April skipped by us. “It’s our favorite night of the year! We get to walk among the living! And this year they’re coming to us!”
I laughed at the joy on her face.
Noah pulled me close again, his eyes a bright blue as he stared down at me. “Say you’ll come with us, Wren. Walk among the living with me.”
I should spend that night with Lark. I should take the time to hug my friends and let them see me as I truly am. And I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a part of me that wanted to see Kevin, but more than any of those things, or all of them put together, I wanted to be with Noah. I wanted to feel like I did right at that very moment.
“Yes,” I whispered. “Yes.”
He grinned, and then he kissed me—right there in front of everyone. They hooted and hollered, clapping and stomping their feet until the very timbers of the building—each brick—vibrated.
Lark would understand. She’d be there with Ben, and she’d never begrudge me the one night of the year where I could appreciate what it was like to be in her world—and not have to possess her to feel it.
“Do you sense that?” Noah asked when he lifted his head. I went still. A second later I felt what he meant. It was energy, flowing around us and through us. Before me, Noah took on an almost luminescent light that seemed to come from within him.
“What is it?” I asked, both mystified and excited.
“It’s Haven Crest,” he replied. Then, over his shoulder, he shouted, “Do you all feel it?”
Miss April twirled around in a perfect pirouette as Johnny, an older man who Noah said was “feeble-minded,” clapped and laughed in delight. “It’s our guardian spirit!” And she laughed.
“Guardian spirit?” I asked.
Noah took my face in his hands and kissed me again—as though he couldn’t seem to help himself. It was obvious the inhabitants of this place were buoyed not just by the thrill of scaring, but also by this energy coursing through and around us.
“The spirit of Haven Crest,” he explained. “The combined spectral energy of this place.”
That was a lot of energy. “You mean, every ghost here can feel that?”
He nodded. “Every ghost in every building, lane or shrubbery.” He laughed, and I had to smile at the thought of ghosts popping out of trees. “It’s what unites us.”
Like the Borg, I thought. That’s what Lark called anything that seemed to have a unified mind or connection. I didn’t know what the Borg were, exactly, except that they were keen on assimilation and had an “awesome kick-ass queen.” Since I felt pretty queenly after our little performance, it seemed appropriate.
Lark and I had theorized that Haven Crest had an energy of its own, but to feel it like this—so strong—was something else altogether. I didn’t know whether to be awed or frightened—maybe both. I knew I ought to tell Lark about it, but she would want me to stay away in case something bad happened.
In case I was overwhelmed by the amount of energy present and went completely insane. I couldn’t blame her for worrying. I worried about it, too, and that was why Lark could never know about my “collection”—because her idea of sanity and my idea of sanity were two completely different things.