The Kingdom

“Too close,” Sidra said. “We should probably get out of here. It’ll be dusk soon.”

Dusk. My scalp was already tingling as I followed her into Luna’s office. She locked the door, returned the key to the ivory box, then took my arm. “Hurry!”

But it was too late. As we passed from Luna’s office into the library, I felt the all too familiar chill of a ghostly presence.

Thirty

Her grip tightened on my arm as she pulled me through the library, the wooden floorboards moaning beneath our feet. I felt a chill breath at my neck, the brush of something cold against my arm, and I tried not to shiver.

We went through the front door, and Sidra locked it behind us, then turned toward the street. I went very still as I heard her draw a shaky breath.

Twilight was upon us.

“They’re coming,” she whispered.

I understood then her urgency, the fear that shadowed her crystalline eyes and trembled at the corner of her lips. I felt her nails dig into my arm as I looked up and down the street. Pale faces appeared in every window. Diaphanous silhouettes drifted through doorways. Everywhere I looked, ghosts.

And with them came the mist, chilled from the murky depths of Bell Lake.

“Don’t look at them,” Sidra warned.

I couldn’t move. I stood there bracing myself against the death-frost as the entities hovered all around us. A frigid hand sifted through my hair, another slid up my spine. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a ghost child clutch Sidra’s hand as another hovered behind her and a third stared down at us from where he perched on a tree limb. The poor little Moultrie boys that Tilly had mentioned on the pier that day.

Clasping Sidra’s other hand, I pulled her with me into the street.

“You feel them?” she whispered. “You see them?”

“Yes.”

“It’s not just me, then.”

“It’s not just you.”

Her voice quivered. “We should go.”

“Where?”

“To the clock tower. It’s hallowed ground.”

We crossed the square among those floating phantoms, that endless parade of grasping souls.

Sidra gripped my hand, and I was glad for the warmth, glad not to have been alone when I made this discovery. Asher Falls no longer belonged to the world of the living. It was a ghost town, just as Sidra had warned me on that first day in Luna’s office.

The chill faded as we entered the clock tower. There was very little light, but I had the impression of iron grillwork and tiled floors as we made our way up the spiral staircases. The higher we climbed, the tighter the passageway until we reached the very top where long narrow windows gave us a 360-degree view of the town.

I stood at one of those windows gazing down. The pavement glistened beneath street lamps as the mist moved through town. Moonlight shimmered through the live oaks, silvering the Spanish moss that streamed like an old woman’s hair in the breeze. The town was very quiet, the sidewalks empty of the living.

“Where is everyone?”

“No one comes out after dark.”

I turned anxiously. “Why? They can’t see the ghosts, can they?”

“It’s not the ghosts. They’re afraid of each other.” Her back was to one of the windows, and the spill of moonlight washed out her face and darkened her eyes. She looked ethereal, otherworldly. Almost…ghostly.

And I was suddenly very frightened as the chill of her words and Tilly’s seeped through me. Those who could left this place. Those who stayed learned to watch their backs.

I took a step toward Sidra, searching that pale profile. “You didn’t just want to show me the hex sign, did you? You wanted me to see the ghosts.”

She turned. “I had to know you could see them, too,” she said desperately.

“Why?”

“Because I’ve never met anyone like me.” Her eyes fluttered closed. “You can’t imagine how lonely I’ve been.”

Oh, I could.

“How long have you had this…gift?”

Her wan smile struck a chord. “Since I was five. That’s my earliest recollection. I went into cardiac arrest. When they brought me back, I saw a ghost in my room. He stood at the side of my bed gazing down at me. I think he was waiting for me to die so that he could take me back.”

Goose pimples prickled. “How did you know about me?”

“The same way you knew about me,” she said. “There’s a look in your eyes, a certain way you carry yourself. As if you’re constantly on guard.”

Because I was. “Why did you deny seeing Freya’s ghost in that photograph?”

“That’s what we do, isn’t it? We deny it even to ourselves.”

I moved up beside her at the window, staring down at that pale, writhing legion. “Have they always been here?”

“No. Not like this. I think some must have come through when the cemetery flooded. Maybe it opened a doorway. Every time I get sick, more gather around my bed. But there were never this many…” Her gaze dropped to the street. “They try to talk to me sometimes, especially the children. I think they want to tell me that my time is near.”

“Don’t say that.”

“I’ve already been to the other side,” she said. “I think you have, too.”

“I’ve never had a near-death experience.”

“Maybe you have and you just don’t know it. Maybe you belong to the other side as much as you belong here. Maybe you’re an in-between just like me,” she said.

“An in-between?”

“A living ghost.”

I shuddered violently. “There isn’t such a thing.” But even as I denied it, Tilly’s words were already clawing at me. You walk both sides of the veil, so that makes you dangerous.

“Why do you think there are so many of them now?” Sidra demanded.

“You said a door had been opened when the lake flooded.”

I saw a flash of pity in her eyes. It reminded me of the look on Papa’s face the first time I saw the old man’s specter in Rosehill. Her voice lowered to a whisper. “They’re here because of you, Amelia. They came when you came.”

Everything inside me went very still. With a trembling hand, I clasped the stone at my neck.

“You know it’s true, don’t you?” she said. “You’ve always known. You belong to them.”

Thirty-One

I left Sidra in the clock tower and drove home to Angus. He had to go out, and I stood shivering on the steps, encouraging him to hurry. Mist swirled over the lake, but the bells beneath were silent. I wondered if the ghosts had already returned to their graves.

Dark thoughts plagued me. You belong to them.