She saw every conversation she’d had with Norma in a new light now. Norma had isolated Harriet, making her dependent on their home life, telling her to stay away from other people, who would use her for their own interests.
Her gran abused her. She’d been denying it for years. Harriet had been fixated on her gran, not because she loved her, but because she was afraid of her – and even more terrified of ending up like her.
If her life didn’t revolve around constantly negotiating her gran’s feelings, then who was she? She’d never even had the chance to find out.
Leah, Rima, Felix and Kasper were lucky to be together. That was what she wanted now, more than anything. Friends. People she could trust to guide her into doing what was right. To back her up when she couldn’t manage on her own.
“Where are they, then?” Vini asked Rufus. “We’ve looked everywhere.”
“Who are you looking for?” Harriet asked.
“Someone important. Someone we’ve been waiting to see for a long time.”
Harriet guessed that they wanted to see Leah, if they’d told Harriet not to kill her. What could possibly be so urgent that they needed to see her as soon as they left the basement?
Rufus tilted his head and sniffed the air. “Do you know, Harriet – I think that someone might be here now.”
He gestured behind her. A figure was striding across the rooftop, glowing bright with energy, white hair blowing in the wind.
It was her grandmother.
“That’s my gran!” Harriet hissed, skittering back behind Vini. “She’s dangerous. You can’t let her get near! Do something, please!” Her heart was going to beat out of her chest. But Rufus and Vini could take her on. They were both bright with energy, too. It would be easy, for the two of them.
Rufus surged forwards towards Norma, arms outstretched to seize her and tear her apart. Harriet gasped, bracing for the sight of her gran being torn limb from limb.
Instead, Rufus brought his arms around Norma and … hugged her.
Chapter 24
HARRIET
“Brother!” Norma said, and kissed Rufus on the cheeks, one after the other. He beamed so widely that he developed dimples.
Harriet was too stunned to even react. Brother?
Vini wrapped his arm around Norma’s shoulders, laughing out loud in joy. “Oh, it’s good to see you!” He giggled – actually, full-on giggled.
Norma rubbed his hair, clapping Rufus on the back. “You’ve both been keeping well without me, I see!”
She seemed to be completely ignoring Harriet, who was standing behind the Tricksters.
“It hasn’t been the same,” Rufus said. “But you’re here again now. That’s all behind us.”
“It is. I want this place back under control as soon as possible, do you understand? After we’ve dealt with the child.”
“We haven’t seen them yet!” Vini said. “We thought you’d want us to wait for you, anyway.”
Harriet gaped at them, her deep fear replaced by pure curiosity.
“You did well, brothers,” Norma said. “Rufus, do you have anything to report?”
“A few things.” Rufus fell into step beside Norma like an obedient servant. He updated her on the number of ghosts in the building, as well as the last place that Leah and Claudia had been seen.
Harriet had never imagined he would give up control. Why was he treating her grandmother like his long-lost leader, totally calm and submissive?
“Vini, what’s going on?” she whispered.
Vini wrapped an arm around Harriet’s shoulders. He was gazing at Norma in worship. “That’s our brother, Fabian! We’ve been waiting for him. He promised he’d be back, and I didn’t believe him. But here he is, after all this time!”
“No, that’s my grandmother,” Harriet hissed. “Not a man. How can she be your brother?”
“He brought himself back. He made sure he was reborn after he disintegrated. He’s home, at last! After eighty years!”
Her grandmother had been here with the Tricksters before? She’d been a ghost before? It must be a trick. But it made sense, in a way that Harriet couldn’t explain. Norma had known an impossible amount about ghost powers from the very moment she’d died. Was that because she had been doing this for a long time, as one of the Tricksters?
Harriet froze under Vini’s touch, unable to process what this meant. Was this why her gran had attacked her, and taken all her powers? Had she been trying to grow strong enough to rejoin her old brothers?
“Does this mean we’re…?”
“Related!” Vini said. “Didn’t you wonder why we’ve been helping you so much? You’re family!”
Harriet grimaced, feeling a twinge in the remains of her eyelid. Rufus had said the same thing to her earlier, but she’d thought he was joking. If this was how they treated family, she didn’t want to see how they dealt with everyone else. Her eyes latched on to Vini’s torn earlobe.
“I see you’ve met your great-uncles,” Norma said, and held out her arms to Harriet. “Come here, dear. Let’s make up, shall we? Family needs to stick together. And there’s a lot we need to do to get this place shipshape again. It’s become very disorganized in my absence.”
“What?” Harriet spluttered.
“Join us,” Norma said. “Together, the four of us can take control of this building. All the other ghosts will be our servants, if they want to survive. We’ll have a huge supply of batteries to feed on whenever our energy runs low. We’d never become Shells or disintegrate. With the four of us ruling, we’ll live for ever in total domination. Together.”
Vini started clapping. Rufus was crying.
Norma smiled lovingly at them. “Harriet, you’ve been leading a very reckless afterlife so far, but you’re going to behave yourself from now on. Aren’t you?”
“I don’t understand who you are. Are you Norma? Or are you…?”
“Fabian,” Norma finished. “I’m both. I didn’t remember any of my time as Fabian. Not until we came to the university for an open day last spring, do you
