Kasper raised an eyebrow. “Great. Glad to be of service.”
Rufus had taken enough of his spirit from him that he was weaker than he’d ever been. And he had no back-up now, with Felix and Rima waiting in the corridor.
None of that stopped him from pushing Rufus so that he tripped backwards, falling into his brother.
“Now, get the eyelid, yeah?” Kasper said, hard.
Rufus licked his lips. “I suggest that you call your friends back in, before you embarrass yourself.”
Chapter 19
FELIX
Felix was trying to listen through the basement door when Kasper stepped out, grinning. “Guys, the eyelid is so gross and gooey! You have to see it!”
Felix blinked at him. “What?”
Kasper rolled his eyes, bouncing up and down on his heels. “Come see!”
Throwing a bemused glance at Rima, Felix followed Kasper back into the basement. The lightning barrier glowed and then turned into darkness.
Rufus and Vini were leaning back against the pool table, smirking. Felix looked at Kasper, who was arranging his hair in the reflection of the door handle. What was happening?
“It’s all yours,” Rufus said, gesturing to an eyelid on the pool table. Behind it, some ghosts were having a wrestling match that seemed to involve tentacles of some kind. Or, rather, Felix hoped that it was a wrestling match. He grimaced and looked away.
“Thanks?” Felix said, looking searchingly at Kasper. Was this a trick? Were they going to get eaten if they went close enough to pick it up?
Rima was staring fixedly at the leering Tricksters.
“So why does Harriet have white hair like yours?” Kasper said, wandering over to Rufus. He hopped up onto the pool table to sit next to the Trickster.
Kasper had been so terrified he was almost frothing at the mouth earlier. Why was he engaging the Tricksters in casual conversation now?
Rufus looked at Kasper out of the corner of his eye. “Harriet’s hair is white from energy overload.”
“What, because she took energy from all those Shells?” Kasper leant forward and picked a stray thread off the shirt Rufus was wearing. It was like he was drunk.
Felix’s heart rate tripled. What was Kasper playing at? He was going to get himself destroyed.
“It happens when there’s too much energy for one spirit to contain,” Rufus explained.
“That’s horrifying!” Kasper said, sounding delighted. “Please continue.”
“That’s really the whole explanation,” Rufus said.
Kasper nodded. “Well, it suits you guys, and I honestly can’t imagine you without white hair, but Harriet looked better before. What colour was your hair before, by the way?”
“It was brown!” Vini said. “Mine was kind of light brown, like honey, and Rufus had chocolate-coloured hair, and Fabian had—”
“Vini,” Rufus said, in a “that’s enough” kind of way.
Felix should probably do something about this conversation, but he could only gape at them. Rima wrinkled her nose at him in confusion. At least she agreed that none of this was normal.
“So you can taste fear, right?” Kasper asked next. “Can you tell what people are most afraid of?”
Rufus nodded. He seemed amused, in a patient sort of way. Felix didn’t want his patience to run out. “I suppose. Fear has a different taste depending on what type it is – success, romance, obligation, spiders, you know. For most people, the thing they’re most afraid of is themselves. Like you, for instance.”
Kasper grinned. “Well, I knew that already. What is Harriet afraid of?”
Vini made a cut-off noise of delight.
Rufus tilted his head, then turned to meet Vini’s gaze. “You can tell him.”
Vini looked flattered. “Her grandmother.”
Felix blinked, interested despite himself. Harriet loved her gran. Hadn’t she been trying desperately to leave the building so that she could get back to her?
Kasper pushed on. “Boring. I was hoping it would be snakes. Hey, is Leah really your sister-in-law?”
Felix cast a desperate look at Rima, begging her to do something.
“Indeed,” Rufus said. Strangely, he was humouring Kasper’s endless questions. Felix hoped that his entertainment value lasted long enough for them to leave the basement.
“Man, that’s wild. What was she like when she was alive?”
Felix frowned, but Kasper ignored him.
“Aeliana has always been completely herself.”
“Legit! She’s the best.”
Rufus raised his eyebrows.
In desperation, Felix leant over the pool table and scraped the eyelid into his palm. It was slightly warm and sticky, leaking a clear, viscous substance. It might have been his imagination, but it wiggled slightly when he curled his fingers over it.
“Kasper, come on! Let’s go, now, now, now!” He dragged Kasper off the pool table and away from Rufus, ushering him through the door.
“What the hell was that?!” Felix hissed at Kasper when they were safely outside.
“What? I was just chatting!” Kasper shrugged.
Felix rolled his eyes. “Rufus was probably seconds away from strangling you.”
Kasper examined his cuticles. “It wouldn’t have made any difference if he had.”
Felix gave up. Whatever was going on with him, it could wait. “Let’s get the eyelid up to Leah.”
“What do we do if Harriet comes after us on the way?” Rima asked.
It was disconcerting to think that Harriet could be here, right now, maybe metres away, invisible and waiting in the shadows for them to leave. They couldn’t fight her until they were ready. Who knew how many other ghosts she was preying on? She could be growing stronger by the day, gathering powers all the time.
There was a beat of silence.
“Cross that bridge when we get to it?” Felix suggested, voice tight with stress.
Kasper started, inexplicably, to chuckle. What had he done when he was alone in the basement? What if he’d given them his power after all? Felix brushed away the thought. Whatever he’d given the Tricksters, they would deal with it later, once Harriet was out of the way.
RIMA
“It’s all going to be fine,” Rima said, for the third time, sitting cross-legged on the floor while Leah examined the eyelid.
“Relax,” Kasper told Felix, who was pacing back and forth across the room.
Rima was intensely curious about what kind of deal Kasper had struck with Rufus. She really, really hoped that Kasper hadn’t done anything stupid just because he felt guilty
