Ashes to Ashes (27 page)

The next morning, Dad comes bright and early, newspaper in hand.

“How are you feeling?” he asks.

“Stronger. I think they're releasing me today.”

“That's the word.” He hands me a bag with some clothes in it. Then he sits in the chair in the corner and unfolds his newspaper. Some habits are hard to break. Reading the news is one of them. I take some comfort in the familiarity of it. Not everything has changed.

Slipping out of bed, I'm grateful that Dad brought me my pajama shorts and tank top a couple of days ago. The hospital gown had serious fashion issues. I walk slowly to the window, holding on to surfaces along the way to steady my still-weak legs, and I study the prism that Nick brought me, the way the morning sun hits it directly and casts a rainbow of colors on my wall. Did he want to break up with me? Or was that just my imagination, too? I can't escape my own confusion. Staring at the pastel shades, I desperately wish for a sign from Thatcher.

They start to shimmer and waver.

I jerk my gaze back to the prism. It's rocking back and forth slightly as though someone blew on it. My breath catches. Dad's too far away to have had any influence on it. Did my movements stir the air and set it in motion? If so, why didn't it move right away? Why was there a delay, giving me time to study the colors before they wavered?

“Thatcher?” I whisper low, so low my dad can't hear me.

“Pretty.”

I spin around. My physical therapist is standing near me, with her clipboard clutched at her side. I didn't hear her come in. I give her a soft smile. “My boyfriend brought it for me.”

“I've never been a fan of prisms.”

I almost ask her to repeat herself, because it sounded like she said
prisons
.

“I'm going to sign you out today,” she says, handing my father a discharge slip. “I'll see you again for a couple of appointments, though. You're still not fully recovered. We've got to get you back up to full energy.”

My heart stutters to a stop for a second as her gaze locks with mine. Her eyes flash gold. She smiles a familiar smile, and suddenly I'm convinced that everything I saw, everything I knew in the Prism, was very, very real.

Acknowledgments

My profound thanks to everyone who helped this book take shape: Morgan Baden, Claudia Gabel, Sara Lyle, Sarah MacLean, Melissa Miller, Jan Nowasky, Micol Ostow, Doug Stewart, and the entire team at Katherine Tegen Books!

About the Author

MELISSA WALKER
is the author of
Unbreak My Heart, Small Town Sinners, Lovestruck Summer
, and the Violet on the Runway series. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter. You can find her online at www.melissacwalker.com.

 

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Credits

Cover art © 2014 by Terry Bidgood / Trevillion Images

Cover design by Erin Fitzsimmons

Copyright

Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

 

Ashes to Ashes

Copyright © 2014 by HarperCollins Publishers

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Walker, Melissa (Melissa Carol), 1977–

    Ashes to ashes / Melissa Walker. — First edition.

        pages    cm

    Summary: Sixteen-year-old Callie McPhee, a ghost existing in the Prism between Earth and the next dimension, is torn between Nick, the boyfriend she left behind when she died, and Thatcher, the spirit who is teaching her how to haunt.

    ISBN 978-0-06-207734-9 (hardcover)

    EPUB Edition NOVEMBER 2013 ISBN 9780062077363

    [1. Ghosts—Fiction. 2. Love—Fiction. 3. Future life—Fiction. 4. Supernatural—Fiction. 5. Charleston (S.C.)—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.W153625Ash    2014

2013005069

[Fic]—dc23

CIP

AC

13    14    15    16    17        LP/RRDH        10    9    8    7    6    5    4    3    2    1

FIRST EDITION