“You’ll see.”
I shake my head. “Aidan is expecting me,” I protest, trying to pull my hand out from his, but his grip is firm. No matter how many muscles I may have built up here in Mexico, I’m definitely not as strong as this guy.
“You need a day off from the lab. Yesterday you looked like you didn’t know how much more of this you could take.”
“That was before . . .” I begin, trailing off.
“Before what?”
I bite my lip. “Before I realized just how important this work was.”
“You mean before you realized my parents died to protect you,” Lucio counters bluntly. I don’t know what to say, so I just look down. My newly muscled legs are tan, popping out from beneath my homemade denim cut-offs.
“I told you it wasn’t your fault.”
I shake my head. “It’s not that simple.”
“Yes,” Lucio says firmly. “It is that simple. Besides, if you keep going like this, you’re not going to be strong enough to make any progress in Aidan’s lab anyway.”
Lucio leads the way to the playground. I finally understand why it’s called that. My lessons may have been hard, but when they were actually successful, they were also kind of fun. At least, they were certainly more fun than anything I’ve been doing since.
“Today you’re going to help me do some real luiseach work.”
“What’s that?”
“You know I’ve been tracking the spirit that escaped.” I nod. “I still haven’t found him. But I figure between the two of us, we might be able to get him.”
“Between the two of us?” I echo.
“Our combined strength,” Lucio explains. “You and Aidan hadn’t gotten to this lesson—it’s a little advanced, but . . .”
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” I suggest.
“Something like that,” Lucio agrees. “Remember when Aidan held your hands and watched you work?”
“Of course,” I answer. I also remember the name of the spirit I helped move on that day: Eddie Denfield. The girl he loved was Meghan Waters.
“Well, today we’re going to take that one step further.”
I raise my eyebrow.
“There’s strength in numbers,” Lucio explains.
It’s worth a try. If it fails, then at this point, really, what’s one more failure? But if we succeed . . . then maybe together we’ll find not only this one missing spirit but eventually Anna too.
“Okay,” I say finally. “Tell me what to do.”
Lucio holds his arms out. “Take my hands.” His hands are warm in mine. I can feel the calluses on his palms from where he grips Clementine’s handles. “Close your eyes,” Lucio instructs, and I do. “His name was Michael Weir. He lived in San Antonio, Texas, and taught algebra at the local high school.” Lucio adjusts his grip on my hands, and for just a second I see a flash of a man’s face.
I gasp, opening my eyes and dropping Lucio’s hands. I’m able to see my fellow luiseach standing across from me, and there is no chill, no quickening pulse—nothing to indicate that a spirit is near. “How could I see him?” I ask breathlessly.
“You were seeing what I’ve seen,” Lucio explains. “I’ve been close to his spirit before, close enough to see the details of his life. Now you need to know exactly what we’re looking for so we can combine our powers.”
“Does that mean you could see what I was thinking of?” Lucio nods.
“A little girl with dark hair and black eyes.”
“Her name was Anna,” I supply. “She was Victoria’s daughter. I’ve been trying to get her to move on, but I can’t seem to reach her.”
“I know about Anna,” Lucio says. “And the time isn’t right for her yet.”
“What do you mean the time isn’t right?” I argue. “If we wait too long—”
“This won’t work if you’re thinking about Anna!” Lucio practically shouts. Even when he told me about his parents, he didn’t look this distressed. “We need to think of Michael Weir and only Michael Weir.”
“I can’t just abandon—”
“This is one of the most important lessons you’ll learn. This is an enormous part of how we protect humans—finding spirits before they turn dark. Time is running out for Michael Weir. Do you understand?”
I’ve never heard Lucio so worked up. Not when he was arguing with Aidan on my first night here, not even when he was worried I might go into hypothermic shock. So I nod. “The best defense is a good offense,” I say drily.
Lucio nods. “Exactly.”