Sisters of Salt and Iron

by Kady Cross

  And then she was gone.

  Lark took a step toward the mirror. It cracked, spider webbing out from the center with a violent crack!

  “Duck!” I shouted, flinging myself at her, forcing myself to manifest as I pushed her to the floor. The mirror exploded into tiny daggers that burst from the frame like shrapnel from a bomb. If Lark had still been standing, her face would have been destroyed.

  * * *

  I glanced up and saw mirror fragments embedded in the opposite wall—some were buried all the way into the plaster. Lark wouldn’t have just been wounded, she would have been killed.

  “What the hell, Wren?” Lark gasped, clutching me as tightly as I clung to her. She had glass dust and shards in her hair and on her shoulders, and a tiny cut on her cheek, but other than that, she looked unharmed. She stared at me for a moment.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Turn around.”

  I did as she asked. Lark gasped.

  I glanced over my shoulder and saw what made her go so pale.

  Shards of glass stuck out of my back like reflective spines.

  “Do they hurt?”

  “I don’t feel them at all.” That was interesting. I moved a little closer to the sink so my back was to the vanity, and willed myself to my usual form. The glass fell away as I lost tangibility and clinked against the porcelain. I could actually see myself in them—little fractured pieces of myself.

  “What just happened?” Lark asked. “Who grabbed her?”

  “I don’t know,” I replied, my jaw clenched. “But I’m going to find out.” Because whoever or whatever it was, it had tried to hurt my sister, and as far as I was concerned, that meant war.

  LARK

  I was late to school. There was no way I could leave the bathroom in that state, and it took forever to clean up the glass—it was in my robe, in my hair, in the canister for my makeup brushes, on my towels. It even created a sharp powder that dusted the top of the toilet bowl.

  Wren was able to generate enough of a breeze to knock all the fragments and dust—even the ones on me—to the floor so I could vacuum it up.

  Nan came up to see what was taking me so long. She took one look at the shattered mirror, and at the little cut on my face, and went pale. “What happened? I heard a noise.”

  “The mirror broke,” I said—as if that weren’t obvious. “Sorry, Nan. I’ll replace it.” And just how the heck I was going to do that was a mystery. I didn’t even have a part-time job.

  She shook her head. “Don’t worry about that, dear. Are you girls okay?” She was looking at Wren.

  “We’re good,” I replied.

  She was still looking at Wren. “It’s like looking at a reflection in a window. I can see you, Wrenleigh, but not clearly.”

  Wren waved, smiling happily. We had just been attacked, and she was grinning. Okay, so that was a little annoying, but whatever. If my twin was okay, then I could be okay. What had happened was freaking scary, but we’d survived. Or rather, I had survived. Survival was sort of moot with Wren.

  I texted Ben to tell him not to pick me up. So much for being worried about him seeing Mace here. Mace was the least of my worries. Something seriously effed up was going on with Emily and Alys—something I didn’t know if Wren and I could handle. I was scared—not that I would admit that to anyone else.

  “Nan,” I said, “could you call the school and let them know I’m going to miss first period, please?”

  “Of course. Come down when you’re ready.” She cast another worried glance in my direction. “You know, you don’t have to go to school at all. Is it safer for you here?”

  “I have no idea,” I replied, honestly. “Nan, there’s something going on with Emily and Alys, and I don’t know what it is.”

  “What can I do to help?”

  She was so freaking awesome. I went to the desk and opened the bottom drawer. Emily’s journal was there. I’d read through most of it when we’d tangled with Bent, but truth be told, I’d forgotten most of it, too. “Can you look through this and mark any references to Haven Crest? Or people and ghosts who caused trouble? I can’t explain it, but this feels personal.”

  “Of course.” She took the book from me.

  “Thanks.”

  “How did the mirror break?” she asked, holding the journal to her chest.

  “Emily,” I replied. I mean, it wasn’t a lie, but it was all the truth she needed to know at that moment.

  Her gaze held mine for a long moment. Just long enough for me to start squirming.

  “You girls know I’m here for you, don’t you? Not just to feed you and put a roof over your head, but to protect and help you, however I can.”

  She was such an awesome grandmother. My mother would have flipped out over the mirror and not have cared why it happened. And she wouldn’t have believed me that it had been broken by a ghost.

  “Have you ever seen Emily or Alys here?” I asked.

  “My grandmother and her sister? Oh, I don’t...” She frowned. “Yes. Actually, I have seen one of them, I think. My grandfather built this house shortly after my mother was born. My grandmother lived here until the day she died.”

  “How did she die?” I asked. I was half-afraid to ask.

  Nan smiled. “She was ninety-six and died in her sleep.” Something flickered in her eyes, and her smile faded.

  “What?” I asked. Wren moved closer to me and took my hand.

  “I remember going to see her in the hospital the day she died.” Nan frowned. “Your father wasn’t much younger than you are now, and he didn’t want to come with me that visit. It was hard on him to see her in the hospital. She told me not to be sad because she was finally going to find Alys. I just thought she meant she’d see her twin in Heaven. That wasn’t what she meant, was it?”

  “I don’t think so,” I said. “I think Alys was in trouble. And I think Emily’s still trying to save her. That’s why she’s visiting us.” I didn’t add that Emily also seemed to be a prisoner of something powerful.

  My grandmother sat down on the bed. “She told me she was afraid that there wouldn’t be any more twins born into our family because she hadn’t produced any, and neither had my mother, my aunt, my brother or I.”

  Wren and I shared a glance.

  “Was Emily’s mother a twin?” I asked.

  Nan shrugged. “I don’t know. I never asked. I suppose I ought to have, now, looking back.” She sighed. “I suppose if I’d had a twin we would have been like the two of you, and she would have explained it all to me, so that I could explain it to you. I’m so sorry I can’t help you girls.”

  I watched, helpless as Nan swiped at her eye with the back of her hand. “Please, don’t cry. None of this is your fault.”

  Nan nodded and rose to her feet. “Maybe not, but I could do more to help you.”

  “Nan,” I said, incredulous. “You took us in. You’ve given me more love and understanding than my mother ever did. I don’t know what I—what we—would have done without you.” Tears burned my eyes. Damn PMS.

  She held out her arms, and I went into them, taking Wren with me. We hugged, and I pushed the tears away. I wasn’t going to cry, because my mother didn’t deserve it, and because my tears would set Nan off as well, and then Wren wouldn’t know what to do with either of us.

  Nan kissed my forehead, and Wren’s as well—though I thought she was just a little off. Not bad for interacting with someone she couldn’t see clearly. “You get ready. I’ll make breakfast.”

  When she left, Wren and I finished cleaning up, and I started getting ready. I had a text from Ben:

  U OK?

  YEAH. I’LL FILL YOU IN LATER. *SO* MUCH DRAMA.

  <3

  I smiled and sent three hearts back to him. Then I put o
n my face—doing what I could to minimize the cut from the mirror—dried my hair, got dressed and went downstairs to discover that Nan had made pumpkin-spice waffles.

  “Woman, you are a domestic goddess,” I told her as I sat down. “Wren, you have to try these.”

  “Really?” Normally Wren had to ask to inhabit my body. She’d done it without permission in the past, and it usually pissed me off. We’d had to have a discussion about boundaries. She could possess me if I was in danger without asking, but on any other occasion she had to ask, or wait until she was invited.

  Having Wren slip into me was a weird feeling that I never quite got used to. It was like walking into one of those big spider webs outside—the invisible kind you didn’t know were there until you walked through one and it was all over your face. Anyway, that was what it felt like—soft, gossamer threads settling over me, tickling my skin.

  I don’t know which of us enjoyed the waffles more, me or Wren, but I ate entirely too much. I was still really full when Nan dropped me off at school.

  I gave her a hug before getting out of her ugly little grape of a car, and watched as she drove away.

  “I’m going to Haven Crest,” Wren informed me. “I want to talk to Noah.”

  This wasn’t something I was thrilled to hear, because I still didn’t completely trust the guy, especially now that I knew Wren had some doubts about him. But maybe that ghost who had passed Wren a message from Emily would be there, and maybe she’d be helpful. It was worth a shot.

  “Sounds like a plan,” I said. “Tell him I said hi.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Seriously?”

  I shrugged. “Just trying to be nice to your boyfriend.”

  The suspicion on her face turned to a tiny smile. “Boyfriend. That sounds so strange. Hey, who’s that on the roof?”

  I turned and looked up. There, on the edge of the school roof, was a boy dressed in relaxed jeans, a white thermal shirt and a plaid shirt over that. Very grunge.

  “That’s Dan,” I said. “He committed suicide in 1998 by jumping off the roof into the path of a van. I met him in the library one day.” I waved, but Dan either didn’t see me or was caught up in being too tragic and misunderstood for this world to care.

  I wasn’t mocking him, I just had to make light a little. There were quite a few of them—suicides—loitering around the school. It was sad, really. And if I couldn’t treat them like every other ghost, I empathized too much.

  It was at that moment, when we were both watching, that Dan jumped. He looked right at us—so now he saw me—and stepped into thin air. I cringed when he “hit” the ground—turned my back as a ghostly van plowed into him.

  “What’s he looking at?” Wren asked.

  I turned my attention back to Dan—who had already reset and was back on the roof. He was a rapid cycler. He seemed to be watching something on the far side of the school, which was odd for him. Any other time I’d seen him, he was staring down at the driveway, trying to get his timing right.

  I looked in the direction he was staring. I thought I saw something, but then it was gone. I must have imagined it. The morning’s insanity with Emily had freaked me out—more than I would even admit to Wren. Maybe I was having paranoid hallucinations or something.

  Walking toward the school entrance, I shook my head. Of course I’d been wrong. I hadn’t seen a person standing on the grass staring at me, and the person certainly hadn’t been my old pal Woodstock, because he was gone. I’d burned him up myself. It was just my mind—and Dan—playing tricks on me.

  Even so, I stopped at the school door and took one last look over my shoulder to make sure I was alone before going inside.

  WREN

  I arrived at Haven Crest to find Noah with his arms around Miss April, who was very, very upset. So much so that even to me—another ghost—her manifestation had taken on a hideous appearance. Her face was moldy and battered, her lips blue. Her form was skeletal, her hair peeling away from her scalp. Her dress was more moth-chewed rags than expensive silk. She looked nothing like the sweet young woman I knew her to be. If this was how humans sometimes saw her, it was no wonder they ran screaming from this place.

  There was a crowd gathered around them. Several of the residents nodded at me when they saw me. They looked somber. And angry.

  I obviously wasn’t going to get to talk to her in private anytime soon. That was annoying enough that I didn’t even feel guilty for it.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. I wasn’t too crazy about the death grip she had on Noah, either.

  Noah looked up at the sound of my voice. There was a wildness to his expression that spoke to something inside me. A darkness to his eyes that made me think of dangerous things. At that moment, I knew that if I showed Noah my collection of treasures he would appreciate it.

  That he would understand it.

  “Vandals defaced the walls in Miss April’s room,” he told me.

  The young woman pulled from his embrace and whirled around to face me. “They painted the walls and smoked vile, pungent cigarettes. They left refuse on the floor. They...fornicated in the corner!”

  Had Miss April not looked so completely monstrous I might have laughed, but I couldn’t do that to her, not when she was so obviously upset.

  “Are they still here?” I asked.

  “No.” She grinned, revealing brown and chipped teeth. “I finally summoned the strength to manifest and scare them off.”

  Noah smiled slightly. “Scared is far too gentle a term, Miss April. You terrified those children. They will never set foot on these grounds again.”

  After what Bent and his disciples had done to Lark and our friends, I probably shouldn’t have smiled, but I did. The situation was totally different, and people who trespassed on Haven Crest property, knowing all the stories, deserved whatever they got. The spirits of this building kept to themselves and were peaceful—except for Robert, but he was gone now.

  Miss April preened under his praise, but her gaze was unsure. “But why can’t I stop?”

  Noah’s smiled faded. “I don’t know.” He looked to me. “Miss April can’t seem to revert to her natural state.”

  “Oh.” I’d never experienced a lingering manifestation myself, but then I’d always had Lark to calm and ground me.

  I reached out and put my hands on either side of Miss April’s terrible face and stroked the parchment-dry flesh of her cheeks. She looked surprised, but she didn’t pull away as I willed some of my aura—my energy—to mix with hers. I could feel her anger, her distress.

  “It’s over now,” I murmured, pulling some of that negative energy from her and replacing it with my own calm. “They’re gone, and they won’t ever come back. We’ll get rid of the garbage in your room and see if we can remove the graffiti. Would that make you happy, Miss April?”

  She nodded. Her hair was thicker now and shinier. Her skin seemed brighter and softer.

  “Just let it go,” I told her. “Give it all to me and let me put it away for you.” I continued the gentle exchange of energy. Too much and I might take her aggression for my own, but if I kept it slow and steady, all would be well.

  Finally, after what felt like a long time, Miss April looked as she normally did. She threw her slender arms around me. “Thank you so much!” she cried, and then pulled away from me, whirling and twirling in her gown. “I haven’t felt so delightful in an age!”

  The gathered ghosts were all staring at me. It wasn’t a hostile situation, but it felt strange all the same. Noah looked especially impressed.

  “Well done,” he said. “Your talents and abilities continue to amaze me.”

  I shrugged. I had never done that before, but somehow I knew what to do and how to do it. “I’m nothing if not surprising,” I said with a slight smile. Miss April’s manifestation and the denial
of my own agenda had me feeling a little petulant. I hoped it would go away soon.

  Noah offered me his arm. I didn’t hesitate to take it. We began walking away from the crowd, toward the back of the foyer. “I was worried you might not come back after the unfortunate events with Robert,” he said to me.

  “I didn’t want to intrude on your grief.”

  Noah shook his head. “We don’t grieve creatures like Robert. He proved himself unworthy with his actions. I hope your sister doesn’t hold his behavior against the rest of us.”

  “No, of course not.” I was sure there were plenty of other things Lark would hold against them, given enough time. Why was it that I felt so bitter toward her at times? I’d been so frightened for her at the house, but at that moment, the thought of her annoyed me. That was so very, very wrong.

  “That’s good to hear.” He stopped walking. “You didn’t come here to discuss Robert or your sister, did you?”

  “Not entirely.” I turned toward him. We were standing in front of a window that overlooked the back lawn. “Noah, why didn’t you tell me you are related to Kevin McCrae, the boy Robert attacked?”

  He glanced away. “I wasn’t certain I was when you asked. How did you find out?”

  “I saw your photograph and patient information. I didn’t read all of it, but I know why you were admitted, and that convinced me you were related to Kevin. You were a medium, weren’t you?”

  He nodded. “I was, yes. And if your friend is as well, then we are most certainly related as I supposed. That particular ability is passed on by blood.”

  “But why hide the connection?”

  His bright gaze locked with mine, and he smiled sheepishly. That expression was all the proof I needed that he and Kevin were related. Of all the ghosts for me to have feelings for, why—why—did he have to be related to the living boy I wanted to forget?

  “I thought if I told you I was related to your friend that you wouldn’t want to see me anymore.”