All the Pretty Ghosts (The Never Alone Series Book 1)
Page 22
“He’s a friend,” I stated. It was the only piece of information he was ever going to get out of me about him. Oliver was mine, I wasn’t going to share him with the likes of Jet.
Jet took a deep breath, almost like he was preparing himself for something. I hoped it wasn’t a fight. “I guess everyone’s entitled to their secrets, princess.”
For just a moment, I thought Jet was showing me his true self and the façade he kept up for everyone else was just a show. In that one sentence, I knew I was wrong.
I put up all my defenses again, determined to never let him break through them. “You’d know all about secrets, wouldn’t you? You’re the master at keeping them.”
“And what secrets would that be?”
“Why the adults you keep hidden away are still alive.”
“I told you, that isn’t my secret.” I was getting really tired of hearing the same thing escape his mouth over and over again. Jet was the master of speaking in riddles and it drove me crazy. Once again, he was just playing the game he enjoyed so much.
“So tell me your secret then,” I started. “Tell me whose secret it is that you’re holding onto so desperately tight.”
Jet’s eyes grazed my skin as he studied every inch of my face. I refused to look away or show him any signs of how uncomfortable I was. I would pick him up and throw him out before that happened.
I raised an eyebrow in question, silently asking him if he dared being honest with me for once in his life. Jet owed me nothing, I knew this. But he could still be a decent human being and share the information he held.
It wasn’t like I was asking for myself. If I was saving all the dead people, I may as well save all the living ones too.
Finally, Jet replied. “The secret belongs to someone a thousand times more powerful than you and I. If I told you, he wouldn’t let you live.”
“You really think I’m scared of the bogey man? I see ghosts, death itself every single day. Nothing scares me anymore.”
“This one would scare you, princess. He would make your insides turn to mush and your toes curl.”
All the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. It wasn’t the threat so much as the way Jet said it. For the second time that afternoon, I actually believed him.
And it terrified me.
Jet continued while my mind started to whirl. “You should leave the city. Either that or stay here and never leave this house.”
I thought about my earlier promise to Oliver and the one he had given me in return. It was no longer an option for me to stay hidden away from the world. I needed to go out and fight, work out why the spirits couldn’t leave and do something about it.
Ignorance wasn’t in my future.
“I can’t do that,” I replied.
“You have to. Things in the city… they’re only going to get worse. You’ve already been hurt enough.” His eyes wandered down to my leg and the burn. My physical injuries were the least of my problems, my heart had suffered a lot more damage.
“What I do isn’t any concern of yours.” I still wasn’t entirely sure why he was here. He’d never had that much thought for me before, he had to have some hidden agenda he wasn’t planning on sharing with me.
“No?” Jet asked, like it was some foreign concept to him. “I thought we’d become friends.”
I laughed. It probably wasn’t appropriate but I couldn’t stop it. “Friends don’t have their friends try to kill them.”
“I explained that. And apologized.”
“And it doesn’t change the fact that it happened,” I said. “I don’t want to keep having this conversation. Maybe you should go.” I stood, indicating an end to the discussion.
Jet stood too, but much slower, almost reluctantly. “Why can’t you just listen to me, princess?”
“Because you keep calling me princess.”
He tried to smile but it hurt with the split in his lip and it turned into a wince. “What about if I stop?”
“I don’t think you can.” I meant it, too. Jet did whatever he wanted, regardless of what others thought about his actions. Talk was cheap and Jet was a miser.
“Fine. Will you please stay away from the city? Not for me, but for your own good?” Jet’s eyes met mine. I saw only seriousness there.
I shook my head. “I can’t do that. I’ve… got things to do.”
“Like what?”
“You expect me to share all my secrets when you won’t? No way.”
Jet’s gaze went to the ceiling as he sighed. “You don’t want to know who he is.”
My arms crossed over my chest. “You do not get to make decisions for me. I’m a big girl, I can look after myself.” If his skin wasn’t still blackened from rescuing me from the fire, my statement might have had more impact.
Now, it just made me sound like a two year old having a tantrum.
“You really want to know?” Jet asked. There was a challenge in his voice, like he was already putting his case together for an ‘I told you so’.
Perhaps I didn’t want to know. Perhaps my life would be better if I didn’t.
But my promise meant I didn’t have a choice anymore. I was in this up to my eyeballs.
“Tell me,” I ordered.
Jet licked his lips, buying himself a few more seconds to change his mind. He studied me but I refused to look away. I would listen to what he said, I would hear it, and I wouldn’t let it scare me away.
That was my promise.
Jet took a breath. “They call him Kostucha, it translates to Death. He is death.”
A collective gasp sounded from the door from the spirits eavesdropping on our conversation. They had largely been quiet while we spoke, just as curious about what Jet had to say as I was.
It only took that one word to rile them all up again.
“Death? What does he mean?”
“He’s just kidding.”
“I don’t think he is. He looks so serious.”
“Kids these days, they’re all too serious.”
“He knows what he’s talking about, you don’t joke about death.”
“What would he know? He’s just a kid.”
“She believes him, it’s written all over her face.”
“So he’s death? So what? We’re already all dead anyway. It doesn’t affect us.”
“What about if it has something to do with what the other boy said before? Maybe it does affect us?”
“I don’t need all this drama, I’m too old.”
“She’s not saying anything.”
“That’s not a good sign.”
No, it wasn’t a good sign. It felt like my world was crumbling apart and no matter how much I grappled to hold onto the edge, my fingers weren’t going to hold.
I stole a glance at Oliver. His clenched jaw and sympathetic eyes told me he was equally as troubled about the news as I was. The realization that whatever secrets Jet held were most likely entwined with whatever was keeping the spirits existing as ghosts was starting to unravel within my thoughts.
The things that affected the dead, affected the living.
One could not exist without the other. For the dead all had to be living once. And all the living would be dead one day.
There was so much I didn’t understand and the task ahead already seemed overwhelming. But I had to do it. Walking away wasn’t an option and that wasn’t going to change.
My future was clear for the first time in a very long time.
I had to deal with Death.
Coming Soon
I am
Never
Alone
Dealing with Death is not child’s play
About the Author
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Jamie Campbell grew up in the New South Wales town of Port Macquarie as the youngest of six children. She now resides on the Gold Coast in
Queensland, Australia.
Writing since she could hold a pencil, Jamie’s passion for storytelling and wild imagination were often a cause for concern with her school teachers. Now that imagination is used for good instead of mischief.
Visit www.jamiecampbell.com.au now for exclusive website only content.
Also by theAuthor:
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The Fairy Tales Retold Series
The Star Kissed Series
Ashes to Ashes
A World Without Angels
Angel’s Uprising
Gifted
The Project Integrate Series
The Fashion Series
Liar
Love Songs
Dark Eyes: Cursed
Celestial
Through a Tangled Woods
Trouble