“What?” I gasped.

“Ruth says it’s my heritage. My destiny, whatever that means. I come from a long line of ‘Seers,’ and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Seers?”

“Yeah. People who can see the supernatural. Unclaimed ghosts, mainly. Ruth says I’ve probably always been able to sense them without really knowing what I was sensing. That’s why she told me those ghost stories when I was a kid—as some sort of training. The only way to see ghosts outright, though, is to go through some sort of ‘triggering event.’ Something that forces you into an awareness of the spirit world.”

“Like meeting a dead girl right after your heart stops?”

“Exactly like meeting a dead girl right after your heart stops.” He sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Ruth says the only reason I’m even drawn to you is . . . I don’t know . . . my genetic predisposition to exorcise you. Her version of a Seer is someone who does something with their ‘gift,’ not just enjoy its benefits like I’ve been doing. In other words, Seers use the gift of sight against ghosts. Apparently, this is what I’m supposed to do when it comes to you.”

A heavy silence fell over the car. Inexplicably, my eyes glued themselves onto the dashboard. After a few seconds of searching for invisible patterns in the leather dash, I stirred. When I finally looked back at Joshua, his eyes were still closed, his body still motionless.

“So,” I whispered, “does this mean you don’t want my help in Calculus anymore?”

Joshua’s eyes shot open and locked onto mine. I felt a little dizzy staring into all that dark blue, even when he didn’t laugh at my lame joke.

“That’s point number four,” he said. “You see, my grandmother makes a pretty hard sell about me not hanging out with you.”

Although he kept his voice soft, I flinched. I didn’t want to hear what was coming; I really didn’t.

Joshua surprised me, however, by smiling as he went on. “But I’ve got to tell you, Amelia, I really don’t want to add a coven to my list of extracurriculars.”

I parsed through his words slowly and felt myself start to smile. “And here I thought you were such a joiner.”

Joshua merely laughed, but I wanted to push the issue further. “Just so we’re clear: you’re not going to become a Seer and hunt me down for exorcism?”

“I don’t think I can stop being a Seer,” he said. “It’s just part of who I am now, I guess. But as for all the stuff about the banishment of ghosts . . . thanks but no thanks.”

The little ache in my chest unfurled for the first time in hours. Before I got too far ahead of myself, however, I had to be sure of one more thing.

“Just so we’re, you know, even clearer,” I pressed. “You’re not going to embrace your heritage because . . . ?”

Joshua grinned, wry and sweet like the first time he smiled at me on High Bridge. “Because I can’t hunt you and be with you at the same time, can I?”

“‘Be’ with me?” I whispered.

Joshua didn’t answer. Instead, he held out his hand.

I stared at his outstretched arm for a moment, unsure of what to do. What a scary, thrilling idea—holding his hand, touching him for more than a few brief seconds. Shaking a bit, I tentatively stretched out my hand and let it fold into his.

Once again pulsing fire shot through my veins. Joshua and I responded as we had the first time we touched: gasping, smiling, reactively trying to recoil from the shock of it. But we both fought the impulse to jerk away and instead held on to each other’s hand tightly.

Initially his hand cupped mine, holding it in a formal, almost businesslike way. Then, very slowly, he rotated our hands upward until they were perpendicular, palm to palm. With the slightest turn of his wrist, Joshua wove his fingers between mine and clasped my hand. I let my fingers glide down to clasp back.

Once our hands intertwined, the current over my skin began to change itself subtly. Now, instead of flaming out from my hand and into the rest of my body, the slow burn engulfed me everywhere but the hand I’d interlocked with his. That hand was covered with strange little stabs all over the side of my palm that touched Joshua’s—like the pins-and-needles feel of a limb after it’s been held in one position for too long. Like my hand was waking up.

The analogy fit even better when the stabbing sensation faded and was replaced by something else entirely.

Suddenly, I felt him. Not the numb pressure, not even the thrilling current, but him. I felt the warmth of his hand and the texture of his skin pressed to mine. I felt him, just as I had in the river, when he was temporarily made of the same otherwordly matter as me.

Joshua must have sensed this change too, because his eyes flitted from our hands to my face.

“Do you feel that?”

He sounded awed, and uncertain. I nodded, my eyes locked onto his. When I spoke, it was haltingly.

“Joshua, I . . . I told you I hadn’t felt anything since I died. Not like this. The first time I felt something was when you were in the river. And since we met, I’ve started to feel little things, little sensations. But those sensations disappeared, fast. This isn’t . . . this doesn’t seem to be going away.”

I lifted our woven hands to emphasize my point. Doing so, I could feel the weight of his arm and the rough skin of his palm as it shifted against mine.

Keeping his hand firmly wrapped in mine, Joshua leaned closer to me.

“Then maybe I’m making the right decision after all,” he murmured.

Impulsively, acting as one might during an involuntary reaction, I arched my body toward him, curving myself until our faces were only inches apart. Our closeness sent a different set of tingles through me, tingles I was certain weren’t entirely inspired by the supernatural. More like the most natural thing in the world: simple, human attraction.

Despite our proximity, or perhaps because of it, Joshua’s expression became serious, his voice fervent.

“I could get used to this,” he whispered, nodding toward our clasped hands.

“What, the high voltage or touching me in general?”

“Both.” With his free hand, he gestured back and forth in what little space was left between us. “Whatever is happening, it means something. Something more than just us being dead at the same time, in the same place. Something more than you being a ghost and me being a Seer. Don’t you think so?”

My brain buzzed so loudly, I almost couldn’t answer. “I think . . . maybe.”

He grinned, moving in so close that our lips would touch with just the slightest twitch from either of us.

“Maybe what?” he prompted.

“Maybe yes?” I gasped, imagining the feel of his lips on mine. How hot would they burn me? How quickly would I feel his real lips beneath the fire? I tried to steady my breath and prepare myself for the moment I wanted so much.

Of course, I wasn’t exactly prepared for that moment to be interrupted by a sharp, rapping knock on Joshua’s car window.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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Chapter

Thirteen

At the sound of the knock on the window, we froze, our lips only a breath apart.

“Who is it?” Joshua asked me through clenched teeth. Without moving my head, I strained to peek around him.

“A girl,” I whispered.

Joshua pulled his hand from mine, giving my fingers a gentle squeeze before turning to face our intruder. He rolled down the driver’s side window and then laughed.

“What can I do for you, sister of mine?” he asked the intruder.

“You could stop embarrassing me, for one,” the girl snarled.