“I told you to leave me alone.”

“And I do not now, nor will I ever, take instructions from you.” As Eli continued to walk forward, the dead white of his skin left traces of light in the darkness around him.

“Amelia, am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?” Joshua asked, frowning. “Is that . . . another ghost?”

Eli’s eyes darted to mine. “The boy—he can’t see me, can he?”

I shrugged angrily. “He’s a Seer, Eli. That’s what they do.”

“Well, make him stop.”

I couldn’t have been prouder when Joshua pulled back his shoulders and fixed Eli in a steely glare. “I can see you. But whoever or whatever you are, I don’t like how you’re talking to Amelia. So get off my property.”

Eli snorted. “Your property? How funny. Don’t you mean your parents’ property, boy?”

“Leave. Before I make you,” Joshua growled.

“And how do you propose to do that? I’m dead. You can’t even touch me.” Eli smirked, folding his arms behind his back.

“Do you see this beautiful girl in my arms?” Joshua threatened softly. “She’s dead, too. But I’m certainly touching her, aren’t I?”

For the first time, Eli’s expression actually scared me. Harsh lines crisscrossed his face, pulling his eyes into slits and tugging his lips up into a sort of rictus grin. In that moment, he truly looked dead. A malevolent dead thing that had suddenly locked his eyes on me.

“Amelia, I have to admit I’m impressed. You’ve been playing innocent, all the while trying to steal my things?”

“What are you talking about, Eli?”

Keeping that nasty smile, Eli jerked his head in Joshua’s direction. “I thought we were working as a team when he drove off the bridge. I thought our joint effort was the reason you finally woke up. But now the boy is here—alive—with you. So . . . you want to keep all of him for yourself, do you?”

Eli’s ability to think the worst never ceased to amaze me. Now he was implying that I intended to own Joshua, like Eli wanted to own me? Not likely. I sneered at the idea and opened my mouth to tell him so.

It was Joshua, however, who answered Eli first. “What Amelia wants is not your concern, because you’re going to leave. Now. I’m not going to say it again.”

“Please understand, boy,” Eli said without looking at Joshua, “that when I speak now, I’m not speaking to you. I’m not even going to acknowledge you from this moment forward.”

Eli’s voice dropped a low, chilling octave as he then addressed me. “Amelia, you know what I want. And you can only guess what I am capable of. Materialization isn’t my only trick. There are dark things in our nature, things you have yet to comprehend. I told you I control the dead, but I can do so much more than that. I have so many ways to . . . hurt . . . a living being, too.” His eyes flickered momentarily to Joshua and then back to me. “Especially one who can see the dead. I’m sure someone like that could be valuable. A nice addition to my little army.”

A guttural sound bubbled out of my throat. With a little more power behind it, the sound could easily become a snarl.

Joshua blinked at me, but Eli just chuckled.

“Amelia, Amelia. I was there at your second birth—how could any little noise you make frighten me?” He raised one eyebrow, and then his expression unexpectedly relaxed. The strange, feral creases around his mouth and eyes smoothed, and his lazy grin slipped back into place.

“So,” Eli drawled, slipping his hands into his pockets. “Think about what I’ve said. There’s only one way you’re fated to spend your future. That is, if you want the boy to have any future at all.”

I began to snarl, but Eli cut off the noise.

“Tomorrow, at dawn. Your graveyard.”

He gave me a final, hideous wink and then vanished, leaving nothing but the darkness of the night behind him.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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Chapter

Twenty-Two

Joshua hunched over his cup of coffee—the last remains of the pot he’d snuck inside to make several hours after his family had gone to bed. Neither of us felt comfortable falling asleep tonight, but unlike me, Joshua didn’t have the luxury of almost-permanent sleeplessness. He would have to make do with caffeine.

“No, Amelia,” he mumbled into his cup and then rubbed his tired eyes. He shook his head as adamantly as one could at four thirty in the morning. “I still think it’s a terrible idea.”

“Do you have a better one?” I snapped. I immediately regretted my tone, and I smoothed my hand down his arm in apology. “Sorry, Joshua, really. But I just don’t see any other options.”

If I spoke honestly, it seemed we were out of options in a lot of ways.

For starters, instead of lying curled up together on Joshua’s bed, we sat huddled on the bottom steps of the gazebo in the backyard. After Eli disappeared, Joshua and I had tried to enter his house, but something kept me from doing so every time I’d tried. A quick check of the ground revealed our culprit: a layer of chalky gray dust now bordered all the entrances into the Mayhew house, probably sprinkled there today by Ruth. The chalk barred my entry like some invisible wall; even when Joshua swept away the chalk, the magical barrier remained intact. As if I needed another reminder of the painful—and maybe permanent—exorcism that awaited me tonight.

Unfortunately, Eli currently took precedent over my Ruth problem since I didn’t doubt the sincerity of his threats against Joshua. I’d explained everything to Joshua: Eli’s mad need to own me, his staunch insistence that I was fated to turn evil and serve him, even his role in Joshua’s near-death.

Joshua, however, remained undeterred.

“How can meeting that guy—alone, in a graveyard—be our only option?” he demanded. “And how can you even think about giving in to what he wants?”

“How can I not?” I groaned as I flopped sideways onto the gazebo steps. I stared at Joshua, who had propped himself against a wooden post. “You know Eli’s not going to leave us alone until I talk to him again.”

“So? Just let him try and mess with us.”

“Joshua, that’s very brave of you and all, but could we please avoid pissing off a dead guy who can disappear at will? God knows what else he’s capable of.”

Joshua snorted. “Oh, disappearing. Real spooky.”

But even through Joshua’s sarcasm, I could hear a subtle hint of uncertainty. I pressed the point.

“Yeah, disappearing. At will. Something I can’t do yet. And I don’t think he was lying when he said he had even more tricks up his sleeve.”

Suddenly, Joshua was alert. He lurched forward and grabbed my hips, pulling me closer to him. When our knees almost touched, he stopped pulling but left his hands clasped around my waist.

“Exactly, Amelia!” he cried. “Don’t you see? That’s why you can’t go there by yourself to meet him. We have no idea what he’s going to be able to do to you. Like you said: even my grandmother and her friends haven’t been able to stop him from hurting people. So what makes you think you’d be safe?”

Joshua’s concern touched me, far more than I let him see. But no matter how Joshua felt, no matter that today was the deadline Ruth had set for my exorcism, I had to end this skirmish with Eli; I had to clear him from Joshua’s life before Joshua got hurt. I kept my expression rigid, firm.

“I’m not going to argue about this anymore. I’m going to the graveyard. That’s that.”

Joshua sighed heavily and closed his eyes.

“Amelia, Amelia, you are a stubborn girl.” He sighed once more. “If you’re going, then you’re not going alone.”

I opened my eyes and pulled myself from his arms. Joshua fell forward, too tired to react in time to my movement. He righted himself and gave me a baleful stare. I ignored him and shook my head forcefully.