When the Twisted Ghost neither advances nor retreats, I ask, “You need help?”
That spinning, whirring shadow cringes away again, but then wails with such ferocity my shield shatters. I crash onto my backside, clinging to Rafe with both arms now as the branch tumbles away from us. He scrambles out of my grip and shifts back into human form. His hands hook around my waist, trying to pull me out of the way.
The Twisted Ghost charges toward us again. Inches before it sweeps over me and Rafe, Kaz jumps between us, wielding his staff. Its light overtakes everything around us, blinding me completely and totally. A gust of what feels like a hurricane force wind rushes from where Kaz stands, forcing Rafe and me to the ground.
When it fades out and I blink, the Twisted Ghost is gone, leaving Kaz alone in the clearing in front of us, chest heaving, staff now dim in his hand.
With a sigh, I completely deflate into Rafe’s arms, gasping and shaking. All of that just happened. Like, really happened. I used another spell I knew innately, held a Twisted Ghost at bay and spoke to it. I’d also put Rafe in danger, but he didn’t run.
Kaz whips around to face us. “What in the realm of the dead were you thinking? You saw what happens to anyone who gets near one of the Twisted. If you’d been sucked in—”
“It was asking for help,” I say, cutting him off. “I couldn’t ignore that.”
“Asking for help?” Kaz wrinkles his brow.
I stand on shaky legs, leaning on Rafe for support. “In its screams. I heard it asking for help. And since I figured out a spell to hold it off, I thought, I don’t know, that I might be able to talk to it.”
Eyes narrowed, Kaz looks at Rafe. “Did you hear it ask for help?”
“No.” Rafe rubs the back of his neck. “But I’m also not a medium, or a witch with medium powers. Isn’t it possible Billie could have heard what it was saying when I couldn’t?”
Kaz waves his hand. “It doesn’t matter either way. That thing could have sucked you both inside and then what? You can’t help them, they’re beyond help.”
I dig my nails into my palms. “Are we sure about that? What do we even know about them apart from the noise they make? I don’t remember much about being alive, but I do know that it’s the kids in the worst pain who lash out the most.”
It’s someone else’s voice in my head feeding me these words, the same voice I heard in the life flash I had in the Healing Ward. Hailey. I’m hearing my sister Hailey. She worked, or maybe still works, with children who’ve had one or both of their parents die.
I press my palms against my throbbing temples, shutting my eyes to try and dig out more information, but Rafe speaks and distracts me.
“You’re a medium, right Kaz? Have you ever heard one talk?”
Kaz’s face sags and he traces the end of his staff with a thumb. “No. But...I guess I’ve never listened. We were taught not to.”
He sinks into a squatted position. Sadness radiates off of him. I glance up at Rafe, then risk taking a few steps toward the Ghost Guide. Sitting cross-legged in front of him, I lean forward to try and catch his eyes.
“I mean, it’s kind of hard to make sense of anything over all that shouting and the whole sucking you into their orbit thing. I probably heard it on a fluke.”
Kaz shakes his head. “I thought I’d left behind all of my Xer assumptions when I died, but I guess I’ve still got some blinders on.” He meets my gaze. “We have a lot to talk about, especially with that shield you just conjured up. Let’s get inside.”
The three of us head to the combat room where we can talk without getting interrupted. Rafe and I sit on the bottom step of the risers near the practice weapons, my mind pulled in multiple directions. My body, or spirit rather, tries to take over the whole show. The memory of Rafe’s warm lips lingers on mine, the feel of our chests pressed together, of our hips meeting...
Heat flushes my face. As much as I would love to revisit our make out session, now is not the time. I shake my head and focus on Kaz pacing the mat in front of us. His face is tight and he keeps spinning the staff between his fingers. Its smooth motion is oddly mesmerizing. Even when he stops to face us his hands continue to move.
“As you know, I used to be an Xer.” Kaz lets the staff tap the ground lightly before flipping it around again. “Like many extremists, Xers are generational. My family has been in the business of torching bones and attachment objects for a very long time. Usually, we dealt with local hauntings, but right before I died, we heard a rumor that there was a large concentration of ghosts close by. So my brother, Zen, and I came to check it out.”
Rafe lifts his brows. “You’d found Locklear?”
“Exactly.” Kaz scratches the back of his head. “When we got here, we used a spell to see the school. This was the first moment I started to realize we might have been wrong about the way we thought about ghosts in general. My brother wanted to call the others and launch an attack, but I wanted to know more, so I convinced him to do a little recon.”
I cross my legs and rest my elbows on my knees. “So your family knows about Locklear?”
“No.” Kaz paces again. “We checked in, but I didn’t give them any details, not even a general location. Then, while we were searching the grounds, Mr. Qureshi confronted me when I was alone. Even though
