Emmeline considered him carefully,and he studied the wealth of emotions twisting behind her eyes like a bed ofsnakes. "Sometimes," she said, and he understood. She did hatehim. But she also loved him. He felt it, warming his heart and pushing hisspine straight and chin up. Her love made him proud. It had been his source ofcontentment for years now.
"You know then? That theykilled you for me? That it's because of me?" he continued, words almostpushing onto one another in the rush to be spoken. Think if he were to die inthe middle? Choked off mid-sentence by his owncracking back.
"Yes," sheanswered quickly. "Sometimes the details are foggy, but I always knewit was because of you."
"When the ghosts wouldattack me—when we would cleanse houses—was that because of you? Did you wantthem to kill me?"
"I didn't tell them to doit, but they could feel the part of me that wants you to pay and wants to befree."
"Andthe other part?"
She smiled suddenly, as thoughhe had told a joke and she couldn't help herself. She stepped closer to him,tears in her eyes. "The other part loves you too much to want you tohurt and knows you don't deserve to pay for what happened. I want to be free,Benedict. But I also want us to be free."
He thought of the way Elysiumhad described their souls—teeth with roots knotted together. Pull one, and theywould both go. What a bloody, painful analogy. "What do you want todo?" he asked, but he knew the answer, he felt it like it was his own andstared deep into the growing light behind her green eyes. "Okay," heagreed. "Okay."
His heart hammered in hischest, not from the fear of what they were going to do, but the very realdanger of what his family was trying to accomplish back at the house right now."Go. Save me. And I will save you."
Her smile warmed. Her armstretched toward him with fingers out, her body already moving away. He reachedout in return, the tips of their fingers close for a second before she movedaway, running off into the trees and vanishing before she was far enough forthe thick shadows of afternoon to swallow her.
Benedict started running, too.He couldn't disappear the way she could. He couldn't skip across stretches ofland in seconds. He had to run, jumping logs and ducking branches, his bootssinking in the wet soil and making everything harder. He ran back to the housein a broad arch, coming out of the trees much farther from the driveway thanwhere he had gone in. The long grass whipped at his already wet jeans, musclesburning and lungs sucking gulps of sticky air. He didn't go for the front ofthe house and the big doors. He went around the side, almost clipping hisshoulder on the wall when he turned around the back.
The drizzling rain grew intoanother shower, wet and heavy in his lungs, leaving him panting even when he stoppedat the back door. He waited there, catching his breath and listening to themayhem of muffled voices inside. The panicked feeling of pending dread hadeased back from his heart.
His family inside the housewere shouting—screaming even. The walls trembled, vibrating in a low, ceaselesshum. He toed off his muddy boots, turned the knob slowly, and slipped insideunder the umbrella of chaos down the dark hallways.
"Break it, Theo!"Hazel commanded, yelling over the moaning of the house. Music was playing,almost loud enough to smother them all and seeming to come from everydirection.
"You'll kill him!"Elysium roared.
They were in the séanceparlor.
Benedict moved from the backdoor into the kitchen, padding across the hardwood on bare feet. He plucked aparing knife from the stand, small and sharp. He wasn't looking to frighten orthreaten. He might have taken the cleaver or the chef's knife if that were thecase.
He walked down the long hall,closer and closer to the parlor.
"If her spirit is bound toBen, it could kill him!" Elysium shouted over the music.
Benedict pressed his shoulderto the doorframe, turning just enough to see into half the parlor. Elysium wason the far side of the room, his clothing rumpled and leaning his weight ontoone leg. The chair behind him had toppled over and the picture frames had beenknocked from the wall. Had he been thrown? Perhaps Emmeline had done it. OrMother.
Theodore shifted, catchingBenedict's eye. His cousin had his back to him, staring at Elysium and hugginghimself. He shook his head wildly. "We're going to die if we don't stopher..." he whined.
"This won't help!"Elysium yelled. That awful howl of music continued to batter eardrums, pouringout of the walls. It was too many songs at the same time, too many instrumentsand tempos in competition with one another, and Benedict was certain at leastone of the songs played backward, making that strange, warped sound. "Herspirit is too strong—like Mothers. It'll just set her spirit free and killBenedict!" Elysium continued.
Benedict felt the edges ofguilt creep into his heart. Elysium was still championing for his life, stilltrying to save his baby brother. But wasn't that what had started all of this?Mother and Uncle Vernon were ready to kill the failed Lyon all those years ago.But not Elysium. Not his brother.
"Do it!" Hazelraged. She was deeper in the room, around the corner and out of Benedict'ssightlines. "They're tangled up. Killing Benedict will kill her!"
She sounded truly mad now.Emmeline was already dead, and the Lyons never used the word "kill"for a spirit. It was laughable to think on it now, that it had been adistasteful word to people who had butchered a person in their basement.
Theodore trembled but startedto lift his arms from where he held them tight to his chest. That was whenBenedict saw it, the big white plate he clutched in both hands.
The poltergeist seemed to havestruck out at Hazel and Elysium but left Theodore untouched. Benedictunderstood, now that he could see the fragile talisman his cousin held—the onethat could end his life.
The music grew louder, makinghis eardrums
