She was on the bed, her pale skin completely crisscrossed with black. How did a ghost even have veins? Or was it just a manifestation of the infection? An easy way to make itself known? There was so much I didn’t understand about my sister and what she was. So much I didn’t understand about myself. I thought maybe the whole Melinoe thing would give us answers, and it did, but it brought more questions with it.
Nan would be home soon. I didn’t know if lifting the binding spell would help Wren or not. I didn’t know if my sister would try to hurt our grandmother, either. I really didn’t know much of anything, except that if Noah McCrae weren’t already dead I’d cheerfully kill him.
I sat down in front of my vanity mirror and tapped on the glass. “Hey, Emily? Are you there?”
Nothing.
The spirit board with the image of the red and white twins was in front of me. The last time I’d touched it Wren and I had ended up in the void, but what if I touched it by myself? Two days out from Halloween I probably shouldn’t even look at it, but what the hell.
My instinct told me to place my hand on the white-haired twin, which made sense since I was the white-haired twin attempting to contact another white-haired twin. Why hadn’t Emily told us what we were before this? How hard would it have been to tell us to research Melinoe?
We weren’t really aspects of a goddess, were we? That was a bit much, even for me. But...well, I wasn’t going to pretend it wouldn’t be awesomely cool. All my life I’d felt like a freak—or at least since I was old enough to be called one—and the idea that there was something bigger to it, something with meaning, was incredible.
Still, I didn’t know what would happen when I touched the board. Maybe nothing. I glanced at Wren. She looked to be asleep, but she didn’t sleep. I didn’t know what was wrong with her, and that was my biggest concern.
I put my hand on the board, directly on top of the white-haired twin. A jolt ran up my arm, like a little shock from a wall plug.
My reflection in the mirror swam, distorting my face, twisting it into something strange and gruesome, before putting it back together as someone else.
Emily.
My ancestor looked disoriented—probably the same way I appeared when she contacted me this way. Had I summoned her to a mirror, or was there one near her wherever she was?
She seemed startled to see me. “Lark. How did you do that?”
“There’s something wrong with Wren,” I told her. And then, “Are we really Melinoe?” tumbled from my mouth. So much for trying to be calm and focused. “I touched the spirit board, that’s how.”
Emily’s gaze didn’t quite meet mine but seemed to be fixed on a point above my left shoulder. I glanced up and saw Wren standing there, looking like a statue carved from black-and-white marble.
“He’s with her,” Wren said, tonelessly.
I heard a chuckle that sent a shiver down my spine. Noah. He stepped into the mirror, standing at Emily’s side. She moved her arm, as though trying to avoid touching him. I didn’t blame her.
God, I hated him and that smug smile of his.
“Miss Noble, so nice to see you again. Wren, darling, you look distressed. Come home, dearest, and all will be well.” He looked right at me. “Your sister’s condition will only worsen the longer she is away from me.”
“What did you do to her?” I demanded.
“Why on earth would I confess to you?” His tone dripped sarcasm. “You’d only try to fix her, and that’s not in my best interest at all. Give her back to me, and she’ll be as good as new. You want to come home, don’t you, darling?”
Wren’s fingers bit into my shoulder. I tried not to let the pain show. “I don’t want anything to do with you,” she rasped. The words were true, but his hold over her was stronger than her own will. The moment Nan lifted the spell, Wren would run back to him.
Noah leaned closer, his gaze intent. “Did that clever sister of yours place a bind on you? I’m impressed, Miss Noble. I thought you more ignorant than you obviously are, but not as much as my dear Emily, who has clearly filled your head with nonsense about the Melinoe.”
“You were the one who mentioned it first,” I told him. “When you tried to find out how much Wren and I knew about it. And Wren’s not coming back to you, so you can just get over it. As soon as I find your bones, you’re history.”
He laughed. It wasn’t contagious. “You stupid cow. Haven’t you figured out where I had my boy bring my bones?”
Bring. Not put, or hide, but bring. Oh, hell. Of course. If I were a powerful old ghost surrounded by dozens of other old, strong ghosts, where would I keep my bones? I’d keep them right freaking next to me, where any human would be stupid to go.
Haven Crest.
That’s where his remains were. I don’t know how he’d managed to do it, because he still would have had to use Kevin to bring them to the right spot on the property and risk getting caught, but he had managed it. I didn’t doubt for a moment that he was telling the truth.
I put my hand over Wren’s and pried her fingers open, then I wrapped mine tight around them. It was that or let her rip my arm out of its socket.