Sisters of Salt and Iron

by Kady Cross

  I hung up and changed into some dark jeans and a black sweater. I grabbed a pair of Fluevog boots out of my closet and put them on. Nan was in the kitchen making tea when I came down.

  “I’m going out for a bit,” I told her. “Ghost stuff.”

  She nodded, dipping a tea ball in and out of her cup. “Should I be worried?”

  “No, and I won’t be gone long.”

  She nodded, still dipping. “Is your homework done?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Have you eaten?”

  “Yup.”

  She nodded. “Okay. Be careful.” She turned her gaze in my direction. “Call me if you’re not going to be home by ten, or I’ll start to worry.”

  I kissed her cheek. “It’s nothing big, I promise.”

  She looked around. “Where’s your sister?”

  “With a friend.” I did not want to get Nan’s hopes up about that relationship.

  “Hmm.” She shook her head. “It seems so strange for her not to be with you. But I suppose you’re getting older. It makes sense that she’d want a life of her own—no pun intended.”

  It did make sense. Perfect sense, but I didn’t like it. Noah was using her; I knew it even without having talked to Emily. I’d known it from the night she met him, and not because he was a ghost, but because every instinct I had screamed that he wasn’t to be trusted. I’d tried to like him, I really had. There’d even been a few moments when I thought I’d been wrong and that he really was a good guy. Not anymore.

  Kevin pulled into the drive a little while later, and I dashed out to meet him with my “ghost-fightin’” backpack slung over my shoulder.

  “Hey,” I said as I climbed in.

  “You’re sure this guy is bad news?”

  I buckled my seat belt as he backed out onto the street. “He’s got one of my ancestors locked up, her sister in the void, and I’m told he wants to destroy me and Wren. Is that bad enough for you?”

  His mouth tightened. “Yeah.”

  He drove quickly but not recklessly. The gates to the graveyard were closed, but no one ever locked them. I had to jump out and open them so he could drive through. Then I closed the gate, so no one passing by would be curious, and jumped back into the car.

  Of course we weren’t the only car there. It didn’t matter what day of the week it was; you were going to find people making out at the cemetery. I never got the appeal, and it seemed a little disrespectful to me. Normally ghosts avoided cemeteries, and they were considered “neutral” ground, but that wouldn’t stop some pervy dead guy from peeking in your windows as you and your partner fogged them up.

  Kevin parked the car and we got out. I slung my bag over my shoulder and followed after him down the gravel path. We had to walk by Wren’s grave, and I blew it a kiss as we passed.

  A few moments later we came up on a large stone crypt. The name McCrae was embossed into the heavy iron door. Kevin took a key from his coat and slipped it into the lock. The door creaked open.

  He’d brought a flashlight, which produced just enough light to make the crypt super creepy. I followed him inside. There were probably thirty graves in here that contained actual bodies, and another dozen that were mere urns upon a shelf.

  The beam of Kevin’s flashlight moved across the rows of dead McCraes.

  “There!” I pointed at one on the far wall. “That’s him.”

  Kevin shoved the flashlight under his arm and helped me pull off the front plate. Inside was an old, dusty coffin that we grabbed by the rails and slowly pulled from the cabinet. We didn’t take it out all the way, but just enough to open the top portion of the lid.

  Kevin pried open the casket as I got out my salt, lighter fluid and matches. I was really going to do this.

  Forgive me, Wren.

  “Um, Lark?”

  “What?” I glanced up at him as I organized my supplies.

  He pointed at the coffin. “Look.”

  Bracing myself for the sight of Noah’s dried-up corpse, I moved closer and peered inside.

  “Are you freaking serious?” I cried.

  The coffin was empty.

  LARK

  “I don’t believe it.”

  Kevin stood beside me, both of us staring into the empty casket. Well, it wasn’t entirely empty—there were some scraps of fabric, dust and some other stuff I didn’t care to try to identify.

  But the majority of Noah’s remains were gone. I could burn what was in front of me, but it wouldn’t be enough to get rid of him.

  “Now what do I do?” I demanded of the corpse-leavings. I wouldn’t have to deal with Wren discovering I’d torched her boyfriend, which was good, but the realization that Noah had prepared for this weighed heavy on my shoulders. My sister was falling for a douche-bag ghost who knew I wanted to kill him. And who now had just sent me a big “F-You.”

  “How could this happen?” Kevin asked, his voice hoarse. “You have to have a key to get in here. Only my father and my uncle have a key.”

  “Someone could have picked the lock,” I offered. I didn’t know why I made the suggestion until I saw the look on his face. He looked panicked.

  “Kevin,” I began cautiously. “Why do you look like you’re going to puke?”

  He turned his head to meet my gaze. He was so freaking pale that his eyes were unnaturally bright against the white of his skin. “I’ve been losing time lately.”

  I stared at him. This entire fiasco just kept getting better and better. Noah had me by the short-and-curlies at every freaking turn. “You mean, like, getting-possessed-by-my-asshole-dead-relative losing time?”

  “I don’t know.” He ran a hand through his hair. “But there have been a couple of times I’ve been somewhere and not known how I got there.”

  “Did you happen to have a dusty old corpse in your hands one of those times?”

  He hesitated, as though he were actually trying to remember. I didn’t know whether to smack him or feel sorry for him. “No, but once I came out of it in the woods behind my grandmother’s house, and another time I was in Paugussett.”

  “The state forest?”

  “Yeah.”

  I stared at him. “Dude, that place is huge. It’s like a thousand acres.”

  “More like eight hundred, and that’s only on one side of the river. I came to in my car, so I don’t even know what I was doing there.”

  I stared at the stained satin lining of Noah’s casket. Douche-bag ooze, yummy.

  Suddenly, the coffin lid slammed shut, and Kevin brought both of his fists down hard upon the aged wood. “Son of a bitch!”

  I flinched as grave dust flew, but I let him get his aggression out. I knew how it felt, and I wasn’t going to get in the way of that. I mean, if I’d found out some ghost had been using me as its personal meat suit, I’d be pissed, too. Wren had taken me over once without my knowledge—I’d been unconscious at the time—and that was enough of a pisser, even though she’d done it for good reason.

  By the time Kevin had gotten his rage out, he was sweating and dirty, and the casket was still pretty much intact—they made those things sturdy.

  “So,” I began, keeping my voice as neutral as possible. “You know anyone who does hypnosis?”

  He had his hands braced on the coffin. His knuckles were bloody, and when he turned his face toward me, he stared at me through a mess of curls. You know, he was kinda cute when he was mad. I could see why Wren had a crush.

  And right now I’d so prefer her pining over Kevin than dating a seemingly brilliant, villainous dead guy powerful enough to possess his descendants to the point of complete takeover.

  “No. Well, maybe Chuck.”

  Chuck was a weird guy who sold us iron rings and could see Wren but couldn’t talk with he
r. He seemed a little too...stoned to be of much help. But we were in a tight spot. “Call him.”

  Kevin took out his cell and swiped his finger across the screen. A few seconds later he spoke. “Hey, Chuck. It’s Kevin McCrae. Give me a call. I need to ask you a question.”

  “Of course you got voice mail,” I moaned. “I’m losing more ground than I’m making. Come Halloween night I’m just going to be ripped apart by ghosts and not be able to do a single thing about it.”

  “Wren wouldn’t let that happen.”

  I shook my head at the certainty in his voice. “She’s not herself lately.”

  “She likes him.”

  “Yeah, well, she has rotten taste in guys—except for you, of course.”

  He actually smiled at me. “Flatterer.” His smile faded. “I won’t let him rip you apart.”

  Now I was the one who smiled. “Thanks. I guess we should get out of here before any of your other ancestors get curious and want to try you on.”

  “Good idea.” We shoved the empty casket back into its notch and shut the door.

  As we walked out into the darkening day, I said, “You know, it’s funny. Wren and I have been back in town since the end of August. We grew up here, and this is the first time I’ve even heard of Noah.”

  “So?” Kevin pushed hair out of his eyes and slipped the lock into place. “I’ve been here my whole life and never heard of Josiah Bent.”

  “Yes, but you knew about Wren. And we’ve been to Haven Crest a few times now. I guess I just think it’s weird that Noah chose the week of Halloween to suddenly appear and sweep my sister off her feet—and try walking in yours.”

  Behind his glasses, Kevin’s bright blue eyes narrowed. “You think he planned it?”

  I realized that it made me sound paranoid, but, hey, my paranoia had served me well in the past. “He’s had his remains moved. That’s a pretty good indication that he’s up to no good. And, yeah, I think he did plan it. He didn’t even let on he knew who you were when he asked Wren about you. I think knowing you’re our friend gave him a little extra thrill when he possessed you and made you work against us.”

  “Bastard.”

  “Exactly. He needs Wren to take his revenge against Emily—our ancestor who was like me. She told me that Noah has her imprisoned somehow. He blames her for sending his sister’s spirit on. She says he committed suicide so that he could become a vengeful spirit and get a little payback. He was like you—a medium. Apparently you guys can get really bitchy after you die.”

  Kevin shoved his hands in his pockets as we walked along the gravel path. “So, what you’re saying is that our ancestors have bad blood between them.”

  “Yup. You and Wren are a regular Romeo and Juliet, except that she’s already dead.”

  “I don’t like to think of her as dead.”

  I couldn’t help but notice the direction in which he glanced. He knew exactly where Wren’s grave was located. “No, you don’t. I appreciate that.”

  “Careful, Lark. Keep going like this and I’m going to think you like me or something.”

  I smiled, but I was only partly amused. “It’s on us to stop this. We have to find his remains. And we have to keep him from possessing you again.”

  “I’ve been read—” Kevin suddenly stopped.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  He pointed, and I followed the line of his finger. Wren’s grave. “I don’t see anything,” I whispered.

  He lowered his hand and wrapped it around mine. It was like tuning a radio station. One moment there was nothing, and then I saw what he did.

  It was Wren and Noah. They were faint—just a shadow of how I normally saw them. Was this how ghosts looked to normal people? Maybe Kevin wasn’t a great example of normal.

  I watched them talk. Wren looked so happy, but she also looked...weird.

  “Does she look different to you?” I asked. It wasn’t like they could hear me—we were seeing something from the recent past, not really them. That was why I hadn’t been able to see it without his help. Leftover spirit energy wasn’t my thing—but mediums loved that stuff.

  Kevin nodded. “She looks ghoulish. I don’t like it.”

  It was true. Wren looked paper-white, with dark smudges around her eyes and mouth, like what I’d seen on Noah in Roxi’s photo. Even her expression was wrong. She looked less like my sister and more like something you’d see in a Japanese horror movie.

  “What’s he done to her?” The back of my eyes burned with hot tears, and suddenly I was struck by a paralyzing fear.

  What if he’d already ruined her? What if I was never going to get my sister back? What if I couldn’t stop him?

  Shitshitshitshit. I was going to hyperventilate.

  I watched, lungs straining for breath, as Noah and Wren kissed. Kevin dropped my hand like it burned him. I hunched over, sucking in air in greedy gulps.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  I held up a finger—not the one I normally would have used, but a polite one to tell him to give me a minute. Slowly, I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth. Once I was certain I wasn’t going to drop, I straightened.

  Head rush. I grabbed Kevin’s arm to steady myself until the world stopped spinning.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know it would do that to you.”

  “That makes two of us.”

  “You really couldn’t see them?”

  I shook my head. “I see them on this plane. I think you must see them on a different channel or something. Weird.”

  “They were at her grave.”

  “Yeah.” The ghost who had hidden his remains knew where my sister was buried. My sister, who was descended from a woman against whom he’d sworn revenge.

  Fucknuts.

  “Kevin,” I asked, turning toward him with a new determination. Noah was not going to have my sister, the Mr. Darcy Casper-ass douche bag.

  His gaze widened as it met mine. I guess he saw that I meant business. His jaw clenched. I guess he meant business, too. “What do you need?” he asked.

  I looked back at the little square of land that held all of what was left on this earth of my twin. The spot where my parents had put her just a few days after we were born, the only evidence that’d she’d ever truly existed. If I were Noah, I’d have my human meat suit come back here as soon as I could swing it.

  “A shovel.”

  WREN

  I didn’t know how long I’d been at Haven Crest, but when I glanced out the window and saw it was dark, I knew it had been too long. And not long enough.

  Noah and I had spent most of the day and evening dancing, merging, dancing some more and talking. He told the most amazing stories of what life had been like when he lived, of the ghosts who had come and gone from this building and Haven Crest in general. He knew so much about life—and death.

  “I should probably go,” I said. “You must be sick of me.”

  Noah ran his finger down my cheek. We were reclining on a chaise in his room. “I could never be sick of you. You are far too extraordinary.”

  I preened at his praise.

  “Besides,” he continued, “where are you going to go? Your sister is probably with her living friends, and those woeful souls in the Shadow Lands are far too dreary for someone like you. You may as well stay here. With me.”

  He had a point. A very good one. Part of me insisted that I should go to Lark, if for no other reason but to check in with her, but why disrupt her? This close to Halloween I didn’t know if someone might see me. I didn’t want to get Lark in any trouble.

  And really, I didn’t want to go anywhere. I was happy at Haven Crest.

  “I have an appointment in the Shadow Lands on Wednesday.”

  “An appointment?” He
seemed amused by the idea. “What manner of appointment could you possibly have in the Shadow Lands?”

  “The book on Emily and Alys is in the Special Collections department. I had to make an appointment to look at it.”

  He frowned. “Why do you need a book? They were your ancestors, weren’t they? Don’t you already know all there is to know about them?”

  “We know practically nothing about them. That’s why I need to see the book. Emily’s been trying to make contact with us—she completely ruined the bathroom mirror. We think that the book might be able to help us.”

  “You said she’s been ‘trying’ to contact you. You’ve seen her?”

  “Yes. We think she might be in trouble, and she’s the only person who can tell Lark and me what we are.”

  “Then you had better keep that appointment.” He smiled. “I want to tell you how honored I was that you took me to your place of rest. My own remains are in that very same graveyard. I should have shown you.”

  “Why don’t we go now?” I suggested.

  He pulled back, brows raised. “Really?”

  “Why not? Do you have something else to do?”

  “All right.” He stood up and offered me his hand. “Let’s go.”

  Instead of interdimensional travel as I’d used the night before, I pulled him along with me outside, so that we could drift over the grounds of Haven Crest. Even though it was dark, I saw the place as it was, regardless of time of day. The grass was still a rich green, and the trees were a riot of greens, golds and reds. Even some of the vines clinging to the brick buildings were shot with crimson. It was beautiful—despite the ugly stage the construction crew had almost completed. They’d put up some temporary fencing around the area as well, I supposed in an effort to keep people from sneaking in.

  Was that Officer Olgilvie I saw, standing in the grass beyond the stage? What was he doing here?

  “I will be so glad when that bloody concert is over and done with,” Noah remarked. “It’s such a nuisance.”

  I turned to him, the policeman forgotten. “There will be so many people here.” I thought about them, all those living, breathing souls ignorantly trespassing on spirit territory. All those wide, gleaming eyes watching Dead Babies perform, catching glimpses of ghosts, glistening in my hand...