Betrayal (14 page)

From the corner of my eye, I saw Natalie approaching. “Emma?” she said, slightly breathless. “Are you okay?”

“I'm great.”

“Do you feel that? There's a wraith nearby.”

“That's no wraith.” I smiled.

Save him!
the ghost woman said.
Harry's in trouble.

“We need to save Harry.” I stared into the waves and didn't see him. “Oh God—where is he?”

He's drowning, Emma
—
he's sinking under the waves.

“Harry's fine,” Natalie said. “He's back at the bonfire. It's you I'm worried about.”

She's lying. She tempted Harry into the water. She won't let you save him; she's drowning him. It's
her
fault Coby's dead. She's trying to kill Harry, too. Stop her, Emma
—
stop her!

Omigod, she was right. Simon had warned me about a traitor—how could I have been so blind? It was Natalie. I'd thought she was my friend in California, but it was all just a setup to lure me to Echo Point. She betrayed me once. How could I not think she'd do it again? Was she still working with Bennett? Were they in this together?

“I was so stupid. I never should have trusted you. You set that trap with Neos,” I snarled at her. “You're the one who called the wraiths to the mausoleum. I tried to stop you, but … what else have you done? Betrayed Martha and Coby? How could you?”

“Emma!” She reached for my arm.

I grabbed her wrist and flipped her onto her back in the sand. She gasped as the fall knocked the wind out of her, and tried to push me away.

Get her
, I told the ghost woman.

She clamped her hand on Natalie's shoulder and dragged her into the oncoming waves. Natalie struggled as the cold water touched her. Her eyes widened as the ghost woman made herself visible to her.

“Hey!” Lukas yelled, sprinting closer. “Stop her.”

With his fists balled, he summoned his compelling powers—and if he'd been a ghost, he would've been dead, because I would've shot him with the worst dispelling energy I had. Anything to stop him from hurting that ghost and ending her soothing voice.

Instead, I flung myself at him and knocked him to the ground.

“Emma! What the hell? What are you doing? She's killing Natalie.”

“Natalie's the traitor. The ghost woman's saving us.”

He twisted roughly and I caught a glimpse of the ocean. The ghost stood barefoot in the tide, wearing a short-sleeve black dress that came to her knees, impervious to the cold. She had Natalie by the shoulders and was forcing her head underwater. Natalie struggled, but was no match for the ghost's strength.

“Emma, snap out of it. She's drowning her!” Lukas shouted.

“Natalie betrayed us,” I snarled, and punched him.

He drew more energy into himself, and I punched him again. Then he loosed a stream of power that caught the ghost behind her knees and flipped her into the water.

Natalie rose coughing from the waves, and Lukas, now lying on his side, compelled the ghost with a desperate barrage of force. When Lukas's blast hit, the ghost shimmered, and I pinned him to the ground, but he kept pouring his energy into the ghost until she faltered.

I get stronger every time they beat me
, the ghost said into my mind.
Next time, I will save you. Once and for all.

Then she escaped into the Beyond. And even as my mind returned to my own control, I felt her calling for me, so loving and intense that I regretted seeing her go.

Lukas shoved me off him, and I lay in the sand stunned by what had happened. What had I done?

Lukas helped Natalie from the water. He didn't bother waiting for me, but threw her over his shoulder and carried her toward the car. I trudged through the wet sand after them.

“Is she all right?” I asked, when I caught up with them at the car.

“Still breathing,” he said. “No thanks to you.”

14

Simon met us at the emergency room. They'd checked Natalie's heart and lungs and treated her for hypothermia. They wouldn't let us see her, but Simon had guardianship papers and they allowed him in.

He'd brought fresh clothes for all of us, and Lukas and I changed in the bathrooms. When I returned to the corridor, I found Simon pacing, looking overwhelmed.

“Is she okay?” My stomach tightened. “Tell me she's okay.”

“She's fine—she's spending the night and we'll collect her in the morning.”

“Can I see her? I want to tell her I'm sorry.”

“She
knows
,” Lukas said, stepping from the men's bathroom, drying his hair with a handful of paper towels. “You didn't stop saying it the whole drive here.”

“I want one of you to tell me what happened,” Simon said.

“She freaked,” Lukas said.

“Natalie?” Simon asked.

“No, me,” I said. “It was the siren. It was more than a hum this time. We could see her. And she spoke to me.”

“That's a siren?” Lukas asked.

“She got into my head. She told me … she convinced me that Natalie …” I choked back a sob. “If Lukas hadn't stopped her, I don't know what would've happened. Face-to-face, the siren's too strong for me. I lose all control. She plays on my worst fears.”

“That's why we're a team,” Simon said. “What else happened?”

We went out to the car, and on the drive home we told him the rest. “Neos sent her to weaken me,” I said. “And it's working.”

“We'll stop him,” Lukas said. “We'll stop them both.”

“How?” I asked.

We both looked at Simon in the light of the dash, but he didn't answer.

Natalie returned home the next morning, plotting to become a candy striper in order to flirt with one of the doctors. In other words, she was fine. In fact, she was worried about
me
, so we spent the day lounging together with a tray of Anatole's goodies.

As we lay on her bed, downloading free games onto my iPhone, I apologized again.

“Would you stop already?” She quickly ran her finger over the surface of the phone, killing zombies on the screen.

“I just— Ooh, get that one!” I advised over her shoulder. “You know I don't want you to die, right?”

“You mean, in this game or in real life?” Natalie asked.

“Real life,” I said. “You could die in the game, so I can have a turn.”

The game switched screens to a new level and she grinned at me. “Too bad, sucker.”

I smiled back, relieved she didn't blame me for the siren, happily helping her move to the next level.

That night, I slept the dreamless sleep of the glutton … until I woke with a start, frightened by the proximity of a ghost. I knew it wasn't Nicholas or Celeste, because they came and went without me noticing.

I pulled my dagger and Coby drifted forward.
It's me.

Oh, thank God!
I pressed my hand to my heart.
Are you okay? I haven't seen you since the wraiths. You look all right. Are you? I was gonna summon you, but
—

Settle down
, he said, his ghostly face amused.
I'm fine.

God, I just wanna hug you. Where've you been?

Licking my wounds. Those wraiths are nasty.

You saved us. I don't know what we would've done without you.

You would've lost
, he said, with a hint of his old smile.
But that's me, Coby the Friendly Ghost. I searched the Beyond, finding out about Neos.

Don't do that! That's what got Martha killed.

He gave me a look.
In case you hadn't noticed, I'm already dead.

Well, but you could be deader. I don't want you any deader.

I'm not staying forever, you know.
His voice was soft and gentle.
Once we get Neos, you're going to dispel me.

I can't do that.
Which was a lie.
I
won't
do that.

Yes, you will. You owe me.

I swallowed and changed the subject.
What's the Beyond like? I've always wanted to know
.

Like a … a bad dream. Not a nightmare
—
one of those dreams where nothing makes sense. You ask for help, but your words come out wrong and the answers don't make sense. You forget who you are and what you're looking for. I can sense Neos, but I can never locate him
—
he hides himself somewhere.

We'll find him
, I said, but my voice lacked conviction. I was still freaked out about the siren.

And what about Harry and Sara?
he asked.

They're okay
, I lied.

I've seen them. They're not okay.

So I bowed my head and told him everything.

You have to tell them the truth
, he said.

That a ghost killed you? Sure, that'll work.

If that won't work, figure out what will. They're hurting, Emma, and they need you.
His voice was cold and rough, lacking any trace of the sweet guy I used to trust more than anyone else.

I nodded, knowing I'd run out of excuses. And that I needed to face up to the fact that Coby would never be the same.

He looked like he was about to say something more, but instead drifted to the window and
through
it, floating over the maple tree outside and twisting in the air before landing with his feet on the ground. I watched through the pane of glass as he vanished into the night.

The next few days passed uneventfully. A sad medley of school, training, and missing Bennett. Yeah, I had his playlists, but they weren't enough.

Then Simon took a break from investigating Neos's final resting place to give us a lecture about the principles of the Beyond, but we were more interested in hearing how the search was going. Apparently William and Gabriel had come to the same conclusion as Max, and everyone in the Knell was trying to pinpoint the grave.

Well, everyone but us; we were training to stop Neos once they found his single weakness. If he had one.

“How hard can it be to find the grave?” Natalie asked. “Aren't there burial records?”

“They've all been expunged,” Simon told her.

“So the body just disappeared?” Lukas shook his head. “They knew he committed suicide; they must've taken him to the morgue.”

“I'm sure they did,” Simon said, and his lips narrowed.

“What was that?” Lukas said.

“What was what?”

“That thing you did with your mouth.” He looked at Natalie. “Did you see that?”

“Yeah,” Natalie said. “There's something he doesn't want to tell us.”

“I want to tell you what you need to know,” Simon said. “If you want to defeat Neos, you need to understand the principles of the Beyond.”

“I'll tell you what we need to know, Simon,” I said. “If we're going to face Neos together, we need to know everything. Either we're a team, or we're not.”

He didn't say anything for a minute, then nodded. “The Knell found where Neos had been buried—in California. They sent two teams. Two of the top teams.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“The grave was empty,” he said. “The body had been exhumed and moved.”

But there was more. I could hear it in his voice. “And?”

“Neos was expecting them.” Simon pinched the bridge of his nose. “They walked into an ambush. Wraiths, just like at the mausoleum—except they didn't have Emma.”

“What happened?” Lukas asked, quieter than usual.

Simon shook his head. “We lost two teams.”

He told us about the teams, the members he'd known, and though his face remained expressionless, it was clear he was grief stricken. He'd been holding himself together for us.

The Knell was falling apart. Yoshiro's death had staggered them, and losing two of the best teams felt like a killing blow. William and Gabriel were desperately trying to keep everyone together, trying to stem the tide of panic. They'd even suggested that our team move into the Knell building, but Simon refused.

“We need to continue training without distraction. I don't want to lose anyone in this team.” Then he told us about the principles of the Beyond, which wasn't much more than Coby had told me. I tried to figure out how I could use any of it to fight off the siren. In the end, I decided to up my blocking skills. Martha had taught me how to shut down the voices in my head, but I worried the siren wasn't communicating with me in the same way, and that putting up walls would have no effect. Simon agreed to help me figure something out.

During the next week, our training gained a sense of urgency. We pushed ourselves harder than ever. Even the Rake noticed, after I slipped past his guard and slashed his arm. He told me I'd become a “tolerable” knife-fighter, which from him was high praise. Maybe I'd actually be okay.

We were dedicated, but it was impossible to maintain the pace, training three extra hours a day. Lukas finally snapped, and disappeared for an evening of Wii with some kids from school. Then Natalie insisted that she needed a shopping spree.

I finally broke down, too, but in a nerdy way. I stayed late after school one day, in an attempt to catch up on homework. I settled into the library, stuck in my earbuds, and cued one of Bennett's playlists, only engaging in a brief fantasy about what it would be like to study together. I bet he looked cute with a book.

At the other end of my table, some boys from my Trig class were discussing where they were headed for winter break. The Bahamas sounded good this time of year. Maybe the thing with Neos would all be over by then, and Bennett would be home for Christmas. I briefly obsessed about the perfect gift for him and came up with nothing. So I finally cracked my biology text and got to work.

At six, I walked back to the museum, only slightly freaked by the pitch-black sky. I was relieved to see the house lit up, and rushed into the warm foyer, ready to explain my absence, but it was eerily quiet. I'd expected Simon to come stomping in, demanding to know where I'd been. I hadn't told Natalie and Lukas about my study plan, because they would've joined me, and we'd have gossiped all afternoon and accomplished nothing.

In the kitchen I found Anatole stirring rice into soup, and asked him where everyone was.

Je ne sais pas
, he said with a shrug.
That's why I make ze soup. So they may eat whenever zhey return.

Weird. I checked my phone for messages, and found three from Natalie.

Hey, it's me
, she said.
We're on the way to Maine. A ghostkeeper says he's been stripped of his powers. He doesn't know what happened. The Knell's sending us to investigate. Where are you? Call me.

Her second message said,
Simon is so pissed at you. He says we'll be back by dinner. I'll bring you a moose.

The third message, which she left twenty seconds after the second one:
Simon wanted me to tell you
— Indecipherable conversation in the background.
Oh, just tell her yourself.
Then Simon's voice came:
Don't go anywhere! Stay home. Stay out of trouble.
In the background I heard Natalie say,
Don't be so dramatic. You'll scare her.
And Lukas said,
You can't scare Emma. She does the scaring.
Then Natalie again.
Wait, did you hang up?
And the line went dead.

I looked at my phone. Another ghostkeeper had lost his powers? Just like Abby. The idea turned my stomach, because it meant there was another force in the world that we didn't understand. Possession, wraith-making, the siren, and now someone was stealing powers.