Queen of the Dead

frankly, I wasn’t sure that he was wrong. Except that I’d been in the light once and then I’d been sent back here, not wiped out of existence. So, I couldn’t be so bad, right?

In any case, nothing happened, which seemed to confuse him. And it was probably a good thing I didn’t have more control over Lily’s body because I might have been tempted to throw myself around a bit on the bed, just to mess with him.

Mrs. Turner stood up. “Thank you so much, Father. We certainly appreciate your time.”

He nodded again and slowly backed toward the door until he’d gotten some distance from me. Then and only then did he turn and leave the room, rather abruptly and without another word.

She sighed and sank back down into her chair. “Sometimes I just don’t know where they find these people who work for the church.”

I waited until I was pretty sure the priest was gone. “Call Will’s house,” I said, carefully enunciating, but even still, the Ss dragged out too long.

Mrs. Turner tipped her head at me. “You’re a regular chatterbox now, Lils.”

“Call.”

“Lily, it is four in the morning,” she said with exasperation. “I’m not going to call their house and wake everyone up.”

Except I happened to know that Julia worked the early morning shift at the diner most days and was likely already up anyway. “Please. Need Will.”

She softened. “I’ll call when it’s reasonable, after eight at the earliest.” She reached out and squeezed my hand with a reassuring smile. “But, honey, what you need to tell him, I’m sure he already knows.”

I seriously doubted that.

11 Will

“Where is she?” A loud female voice demanded, and for a second, I thought Alona had somehow found out about Mina already and was preparing to do some damage to one or both of us.

But when I forced my sleep-gritty eyes open, it wasn’t Alona, but Liesel standing in my bedroom just in front of my door. My closed door. You’d think she’d have taken that as a hint, but I’d long ago learned ghosts weren’t much on subtlety.

I groaned. It was early — the sky outside my windows still a predawn gray — and two nights of little or no sleep was beginning to wear on me and my patience. “What do you want, Liesel?”

She folded her arms over her chest and stalked to the foot of my bed, her dress rustling loudly. “She didn’t even talk to you about us, did she?”

I struggled to focus and sit up. “Who?”

“Alona!”

Something about this was ringing a bell, dimly. Alona had mentioned something about Liesel yesterday morning, but nothing specific. I shook my head.

“I knew it,” she spat. “She’s always sabotaging me. I bet she didn’t even tell you about Claire and Todd.”

Todd? Who was Todd? No, I did not care. I wasn’t awake enough yet to care. I rubbed my hands over my face. “Where’s Eric?” I asked, realizing suddenly that he wasn’t with her. No one has ever accused me of being my best in the morning.

She looked away with a sniff. “He couldn’t be bothered. I don’t know why; it’s only our whole afterlife at stake.”

Or maybe he knew something she didn’t, which I suspected to be the case. Eric and I had had a couple of conversations over the last few weeks — usually while Liesel and Alona were sniping at each other — which had led me to believe that Mrs. Pederson and her love life (or lack thereof) might not be Liesel and Eric’s biggest obstacle.

“You need to talk to Eric,” I said wearily, “and you need to not be here when Alona shows up.” Because I seriously did not want to witness the inevitable fallout when Alona discovered Liesel had come here without permission.

I glanced at my clock to see how much time was left, and stopped dead. It was 7:58 a.m.

I felt a surge of alarm and leaned closer to make sure I was reading it correctly. I was. Another check of the window revealed rain on the glass. What I’d taken for early morning was, in fact, just the start to an overcast day.

“What’s wrong with you?” Liesel asked with great disdain.

“Did you see Alona?” I demanded. “Was she here?”

“This morning?” she asked.

I nodded, feeling like my head might bobble off in my anxiousness to answer and get her response.

“I just walked in a few minutes ago. Nobody was here but you,” she said, staring at me as if I was crazy.

But I wasn’t. Alona was late, fifty-five minutes to be exact, and that never happened. It couldn’t. She showed up here every morning at precisely 7:03 a.m., the time ofher death. It was a function of our ghost-talker/spirit guide bond.

Something was wrong. Fighting a feeling of panic, I stood up, snatched my jeans from the floor, pulled them on, and started tearing through the laundry on the floor, looking for my shoes. They seemed to have disappeared into one pile or another last night when I’d kicked them off.

“What is going on?” Liesel asked.

“Alona’s missing,” I said grimly. She’d left here yesterday all full of fire and some kind of plan for vengeance (against me, of course). Something must have happened. I envisioned her seeking out Mina to tell her exactly what she thought about Mina’s hair, among other things.

Oh, God. That would probably get her boxed for sure. But Mina would have mentioned an event like that last night, wouldn’t she have? Or maybe not — considering all that had happened. I could easily see Mina waiting to drop that little tidbit of information at exactly the time that would benefit her the most.

“How do you know she didn’t just quit?” Liesel asked.

I stopped my frantic search for footwear and looked up at her. “What do you mean?”

She shrugged. “Alona shows up here every morning because she’s your spirit guide, right?

“Yeah, so?”

“So, maybe she’s not here because she quit.” Liesel sounded a little too self-satisfied.

“And why would she do that?” I asked through gritted teeth.

“Because I told her one day you were going to toss her over for someone who was alive, that she was just convenient for now,” Liesel said.

“Damn it, Liesel!” I couldn’t believe this.

“What? That’s not true?” She eyed me shrewdly. “You know it is. You aren’t going to spend the rest of your life—”

“My life is none of your business,” I snapped. “When did this happen?

“Two nights ago.”

No wonder she’d reacted so badly yesterday morning, with Liesel filling her head with all this crap. Not that Alona ever would have been happy that I’d been out with Mina or that I was turning down her request about her parents, but she might not have been quite as apoplectic about it.

“This is your fault,” I said to Liesel, pointing the one Chuck I’d managed to find, so far, at her.

“Me?” she asked, laying an offended hand on her chest. “What did I do?”

A knock sounded at the door. “Will, is everything okay in there?” my mom asked. “I heard shouting.”

I grimaced. Of course; the one morning she didn’t have the early shift at the diner. “I’m fine. I’ll be right out,” I called, and then stepped closer to Liesel. “You haven’t seen Alona since?” I asked in a quieter voice.

“Would I be here looking for her if I had?” she asked in a rather snotty tone.