Queen of the Dead

“Seriously, do you really think if I set this up to gloat, I’d be in a hospital gown?” I plucked at the loose pale blue fabric at my neck. “Things just got out of control.”

“I can see that,” he said tightly.

“Hey, this is your fault, too,” I snapped.

“This ought to be good,” he muttered, which kind of ticked me off. He really didn’t see his role in all of this?

“If you hadn’t gotten all caught up in G.I. Jane’s propaganda about the living being more important than the dead, and just delivered my message like I’d asked, I wouldn’t have been forced to go to these extreme measures,” I argued.

“So, I tell you no and that’s, what, a green light for you to start body-snatching my friends?” He scrubbed his hands over his face, and I noticed deep and angry-looking scrapes and cuts on the inside of his wrists and forearms. A twinge of concern made my chest tighten. When had that happened? Now was probably not the time to ask.

“First of all, it’s one friend, and it’s called body- borrowing.” I sniffed. “I was only using her hand. You know, like when I SAVED YOUR LIFE?”

He rolled his eyes.

“Except…” I bit my lip. “Something different happened this time.” I folded my arms across my chest, a gesture that felt both familiar and wrong at the same time. In keeping with her other curves, Lily’s chest was noticeably bigger than mine. No wonder Will had liked her. Yeah, okay, he was a leg guy — trust me, it was obvious — but boobs were still boobs.

“Clearly something very different,” Will said.

“Shut up,” I snapped. “You weren’t there. You don’t know what it was like.” I paused, shuddering at the memory of that complete and utter darkness I’d woken to. “Once it started pulling me in, I couldn’t stop it. It didn’t want to let go of me.”

“You ever notice how this is everybody’s fault but yours?” he asked.

I scowled at him. “Whatever. Just call me out of here, and then you can yell at me as much as you want, okay?” Well, not really, but whatever would get him to stop bitching and start summoning was a lie I could live with.

He hesitated and then shook his head slowly. “I don’t think that’s going to work.”

I felt the first pulse of true panic. “Why not?”

“Because if you were still my spirit guide, you would have shown up this morning in my room, like usual,” he pointed out. “Whatever you did…it changed things.”

I shook my head. “You don’t know that.” I refused to accept that idea or the growing fear in my gut that he might be right. “Besides,” I argued, “I didn’t do anything. It just happened.”

“You didn’t stick your hand in hers?”

“Okay, fine, yes,” I said with exasperation. “I did that, but I certainly didn’t set out to take her entire body.”

“No, that was just lucky,” he said.

“Do you think I want to be in here?” I shouted. “This is the last body I would have picked for myself. It’s short and fat and weak and—”

“I know at least one person who was pretty happy with it and might have enjoyed the opportunity to have it again,” he said quietly.

I remembered belatedly that this was his friend. Good, Alona. Piss him off further. That’ll help. “Look, I didn’t mean…” I gritted my teeth. “Can we please just stop arguing long enough to try to get me out of here?”

This had to work. It was my one and only plan. I didn’t have other ideas, which was not like me, but this wasn’t exactly a standard situation in which one could develop a backup plan or two, like what to do if you accidentally sit in spaghetti sauce in the caf.

Will’s mouth tightened, but he moved around the bed and sat down in the visitor’s chair that Mrs. Turner normally occupied. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

I waited a beat or two, but he didn’t say anything. “Are you trying?” I asked.

“I’m trying to concentrate, yeah,” he said, sounding annoyed.

I shut up.

A minute ticked by, and then another. I concentrated, willing the sensation of being pulled free to wash over me. I wasn’t quite sure what that would feel like, so I envisioned the resistance inside Lily’s body, the force that had drawn me in, clinging to me like black mud even as Will yanked me out with a loud suction-releasing pop.

But the trouble was, I didn’t actually feel anything, not pulled or tugged in any way. Not even a vaguely mystical tingle. Just the same tired, achy feeling that had been there since I’d woken up in charge of this body. Crap.

Will opened his eyes and met my gaze, though I thoughthe might have flinched a little in doing so. “It’s not working,” he said.

“Yeah, I noticed. Maybe you’re not trying hard enough.” I could hear the shrill edge of panic in my voice. “Can you try, like, reaching in and pulling me out?”

In answer, he reached over and looped his hand around my wrist, his touch warm and comfortingly familiar even though he was angry. “I’m not the one who could reach through people, places, and things, remember?” He waggled my captured arm at me.

“I can’t stay in here,” I whispered.

“You were certainly eager enough to get in,” he said.

Tears filled my eyes and slipped down my cheeks with virtually no resistance. Crap, Lily was a crier. “You were leaving me behind, just like everyone else!” Damn it, Alona, keep it together. “What was I supposed to do?”

He raked his hands through his hair. “I don’t know, but hijacking someone wouldn’t have been on the top of my list.”

“It wasn’t on mine, either!” I wiped my face, the back of my hand jolting and bumping over the unfamiliar terrain.

He let out a slow breath. “And I wasn’t leaving you behind. I hadn’t made any decisions about—”

“The fact there’s suddenly a decision that needs to be made kind of says it all, don’t you think?” I asked.

“That doesn’t justify—”

“I never said it did,” I said quietly.

His expression softened a little bit, but that was it. Hedidn’t hug me, didn’t make a move to comfort me. Not that I expected that exactly. I’d known he wouldn’t be in the forgiving mood anytime soon, if ever, but it didn’t stop me from wishing that he would be. I could have used just a little sympathy, even if I didn’t entirely deserve it. It wasn’t like this was easy for me, either. But he was cold and distant, maybe even more than he’d been the first time we’d ever talked.

“We just need to figure this out,” he said, rubbing his forehead like it hurt. “If you got in, there has to be a way to get you out.”

“What about your books?” I asked.

He looked at me blankly.

“You have all those books at home about ghosts and the afterlife and—”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I didn’t miss all the chapters on body-borrowing. And before you ask, I doubt there’s an instructional video on YouTube.” He shook his head. “I didn’t even know this was possible.” He frowned at me. “It must be something different about you. Or Lily, maybe. Or some combination. If ghosts could take bodies all the time, people would be nothing but a revolving door of spirits. We need more information on how this works.”

I bit my lip, and then stopped, feeling horribly self-aware. That was not my nervous habit. When had I started doing that? My go-to fidget was to bite my thumbnail, though I’d spent years breaking myself of the habit.

“There was a priest here earlier,” I offered finally. “He seemed to know something wasn’t right. Like maybe he thought I was…well, Lily…was possessed.”

He jerked back, as if considering this idea for the first time. “Possession.”

I knew what he meant. This wasn’t like any depiction of possession I’d ever seen, though Will had probably