“I’m not sure-”

“Is she catatonic?”

“Umm, no, not exactly…”

“That’s okay. I’m sure I could get her to talk. Faye-that’s Lucas’s friend-her nurses say no one can get through to her like I can.”

Beside me, Clay shrugged and said, “Can’t hurt.” I wasn’t so sure.

“She’s pretty far gone, Jaime,” I said. “It’s not…it’s not something-”

“Too much for the celeb necro to handle?” She laughed, but an edge crept into her voice. “I know, you guys are looking out for me. And I appreciate that. Really I do. Been a long time since anyone didn’t just want to get whatever they could…” The sentence slid off into silence.

“Here’s Jeremy,” Jaime said. “Let me run it by him, and I’ll phone you back.”

Twenty minutes later, we were back at the hatch, with Jaime. Zoe had gone ahead to check on Tee.

Jaime stepped into the basement. “Dark, huh? And it smells…kind of like my apartment when I run off for a week and forget to clean first. Only this place is cleaner than mine, which is pretty sad. We should speak to this Tee about relocating. I’m sure that Dr. Tolliver has some connections. He could probably get her into a decent nursing home.”

“Um, maybe,” I said.

At Tee’s door, I paused. This wasn’t right. I had to warn her.

“About this-” I began.

Jaime jumped and clutched my arm. A small laugh, and she released her grip, and patted my arm in apology. “A little tense, I guess. Seems there are a few spooks here. Old houses. Always a few, it seems.”

“Oh? Maybe you shouldn’t go in then-”

“It’s okay. Oddly, they don’t seem to be interested in me.”

She reached around me and opened the door.

I led her through the maze of books, with Clay once again bringing up the rear. Jaime took in her surroundings with the occasional “hmm,” but didn’t comment.

Finally we found Zoe, talking to Tee, who was still hunched in her corner, enshrouded in shadow.

“Zoe,” I said as I walked in. “Here’s-”

But Zoe’s gaze was fixed behind me, brow furrowed in concern. I turned. Jaime was still in the mouth of the maze, with Clay barely visible behind her. She was rigid and pale, her gaze flitting about the room. Then she flinched, as if a bird had swooped toward her.

“Jaime?” I said.

“Sh-she’s not a clairvoyant,” Jaime whispered.

As she spoke, her eyes never stopped moving, landing and focusing on one thing, then another, then another. Ghosts. A room filled with ghosts.

“Shit,” I murmured as I swung around. “Let’s get you out-”

“N-no. They aren’t interested in me. Not while there’s a stronger necromancer around.”

Stronger? Oh, God. I hadn’t broughtJaime to see a mad clairvoyant; I’d brought her to a mad necromancer.

I frantically motioned for Clay to grab Jaime’s arm, yank her out if necessary. As he reached for her, though, she darted out of his reach and around me.

At a rustling from the corner, Jaime stopped dead.

“Yes, yes, I see,” Tee’s voice rasped out, barely above a whisper. “A timid thing, isn’t she? Afraid of ghosts perhaps?” A cackle of a laugh. “Come in, sister. They won’t bother you.”

Tee’s face moved forward, but it was too dark for Jaime, who kept squinting. I moved up beside her, blocking her from getting a closer look.

“Who are your people, sister?”

“P-people?” Jaime said.

An exasperated growl. “Your kin. Your family. What line are you?”

She stopped, the pale oval of her face tilting up as she listened to what I’d thought were voices in her head, and now realized were ghosts. “Really? Don’t tease. It cannot be.”

Her face swiveled back to us and craned forward, her body still wrapped in her long limbs. “Oh, yes, yes, I see it. I do see it. Molly O’Casey’s granddaughter. Poor Molly. What must she think, having such a timid girl?”

Some of Jaime’s fear fell away and she edged closer.

“You knew Jaime’s grandmother?” I said quickly.

“Knew? Yes, yes. I haven’t seen her in-” A pause, as she looked to her right. Then a sharp hiss that sent Zoe, Jaime and me all jumping backward. “Gone? Gone? You lie. Molly O’Casey is not-”

She stopped, face swinging in the other direction. Then she started to keen, a razor-edged howl that had all three of us backing up again, until Jaime and I both bumped into Clay.

“Lost,” Tee wailed. “Oh, the fool. I tried to warn her. Tried. And now she’s lost. A slave for eternity.”

Tee reared up then, limbs unwrapping, as she moved out of the shadows. Jaime got her first real look at the necromancer, and let out a whimper, stifled fast, but her face white with horror and disbelief that this…thing had been human, let alone one of her own kind.

“You’ll listen to me, won’t you, girl? You won’t stop up your ears to the truth.”

Tatters of clothing hung off her larvae-pale body, limbs so thin and white they seemed bone not flesh.

“They tell us we’ll be free after they die,” she whispered, “but it’s a trick. The great lie. We think we are slaves in life-bending to the will of others, hounded by the living, hounded by the dead? It’s nothing compared to what happens when we pass over.” She waved her spindly arms over her head, as if shooing off flies, lips twisting in a guttural snarl. “No, I won’t listen. You lie. I know you lie. You want to trap me. Trick me into your world. But I know the secret. I know how to stay alive until I’ve found the answer.”