“As helpful as that is, I need you to find Greta,” I repeated. This was the third time I’d asked him now. Miller and I had made it back to the main island and rushed to the doctor’s office to find Jeff, Effie, Kate and Brielle. Fitz had been chasing dry leaves in the wind behind the building.
Miller was inside pulling a plan together and I was crouching on the sidewalk talking to a cat. This was not how I expected this week to turn out, but I could hardly be surprised. Among the many things that was currently concerning me, the fact that I hadn’t seen Greta recently was a big one. Her ghost showed up all the time, I spoke to her most days. Where was she now?
I also would have expected to see Robert’s ghost on Green Holt, but I hadn’t seen a single spirit over there. Something about it hadn’t felt right. Anytime I thought about it, the peridot stone gave off a dull glow. I figured the ring was trying to play a game of ‘hotter-colder’ with me, giving me small signals when I was getting closer to a clue.
The wind had picked up a little and more dry leaves started to spiral upward, catching Fitz’s eye and making it hard to keep him on task. Considering that my cat familiar was a shifter, so could also be in a human body, would it be weird to pick him up? I needed him to focus, I wasn’t left with many options. I scooped him up with my hands around his chest, my thumbs hooked under his arms, and looked him in the eye.
His back legs were now dangling five feet off the ground and he looked alarmed to say the least.
“All right! Okay, I’ll go look,” he protested, squirming wildly against my grasp. “Ghosts only tend to stay away if there is some other big, bad force in the area. Greta was probably just staying away for her own safety.”
“What do you mean? What kind of force?” I asked. I felt as though I had his attention now, so lowered him back onto the sidewalk.
“Ghosts are a fragile thing, in their own way,” Fitz explained. “It’s a very delicate balance to keep the dead among us in a form that can disappear, travel through walls, talk… If something starts to mess with the energy, then ghosts might not be able to appear in an area. If Greta sensed that something weird was going on around Green Holt then she wouldn’t have been able to go over there even if she wanted to.”
“This sounds ominous, Fitz,” I sighed.
“Yeah, ominous is kind of the vibe around here 24/7,” he said. “But hey, the Shell’s Day stuff will be a welcome break from the harrowing reality of life in Hallow Haven. We’re here for a good time, not a long time, baby!” What?
Fitz was already bounding away from the building in the direction of the forest that covered much of the main island. I watched him disappear into the trees, then a swarm of birds race skyward in his wake. It seemed that he was helping, but with a little bird-chasing detour en route.
“Are you ready?” Miller asked, leaning out of the doctor’s office to see what was taking me so long.
“Yeah, I’ll just be a second,” I replied. The ring on my finger was glowing and I could see little bursts of blue lightning across my hands again. This had only been happening when I had been in physical contact with Miller, so I wasn’t sure why it was happening now. I figured I should give myself a minute to take a few breaths before launching into the next phase of our crime-busting mission.
“Okay,” Miller smiled. He stepped back inside, and I clenched both fists to hide my view of the electricity fizzling on my palms.
“Sadie? Are you okay?” I turned to see the source of the concern. It was Ryder. I hadn’t realized how close we were to his hiking store, but he had likely seen Miller and I walking past it on our way to find the rest of our group.
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine,” I answered. It was a lie. The peridot stone was now producing a green light so bright it was casting a shadow behind Ryder’s body. He reached out to grab my hand and I saw the blue lightning surge towards the ring, the energy it was sapping from me was making me feel weak and I staggered backwards.
It was a dizziness I had experienced before. I’d spent many a lazy summer’s day as a teenager waiting in long lines at Kings Dominion in Virginia, the blazing heat beating down on us as we watched the rollercoasters race around the tracks. You could be waiting for up to an hour before it was your turn to ride, so much so that they had a procedure for fainters.
I found this out on a day when the thermometers were reading 110 degrees and I had neglected to pack a water bottle. I passed out and was dragged out of the way by a staff member that couldn’t have been more than three years older than me. Things have probably changed now, but I was given a fast pass for the rest of the day as compensation.
In hindsight, I probably should have just gone home and lay down, but teenagers don’t always make wise choices. I used that fast pass on every ride in the park and then went home with a sunburn that forever changed the skin on my shoulders. As Ryder caught me and lowered me to the ground, I thought about fainting at the park and considered that this was filling me with more adrenaline than any rollercoaster ever could.
“Sadie,” he said again. It
