“Apparently.” Zayne’s hands rested on my shoulders. “Messed up, right?”

“More than messed up,” Roth replied. “That’s downright—”

“Smart?” Cayman said, and I was beginning to wonder if he had a death wish today. “What? It makes sense. Love can be a weakness or it can be a strength, but no matter what, love is always the priority. You both would put each other first, before your duty, and the ones in charge would see that as a weakness. Something they’d want to prevent.”

“Well, thanks for your input,” Zayne said, sighing. “That makes us both feel better about everything.”

Somehow, and I couldn’t follow how, Roth decided that Layla should remain outside as well, which caused Zayne to announce he didn’t need a babysitter. Then Layla and Roth started arguing, but in the end, she agreed to wait with Zayne until the three of us—Roth, Cayman and I—knew what we were dealing with.

Finally, we headed to the school, and as we got close, I could see a few windows were lit from within. As we rounded one side, making our way to where the trucks had been parked last time, my gaze flicked to the second level. The vibe was still there, as if hundreds of unseen eyes were tracking our moves.

Skirting the temporary fencing, we neared the door, and I turned toward Zayne, admitting to myself that it did feel wrong to leave him out here.

Sometimes what feels wrong is right. That’s what I told myself as I suddenly wanted to take back what I’d said. He was safer out here. This was smart and logical.

Zayne caught my hand as Cayman fiddled with the padlock, breaking it. “Be careful.”

“I will.” I squeezed his hand in return, those three words I hadn’t said yet dancing to the tip of my tongue, but feeling too dangerous to speak. Which was dumb, since the damage was already done. Speaking them aloud didn’t give them any more power than the emotion attached to them already had.

“You be careful, too,” I said instead.

“Always,” he replied.

39

The wide first-floor hallway was suprisingly lit with obnoxiously bright track lighting, something that we hadn’t been able to see from outside since most of the classroom doors were closed. The light did very little to cast back the shadows clinging to the lockers and closed doors. I let Cayman and Roth lead the way, since this was the first time I’d been in a public school.

It smelled weird, like must and leftover cologne and perfume, along with the faint smell of sawdust and construction.

A flicker of movement caught my attention. A gray form darted into one of the closed classrooms.

“You think what’s going on with Zayne is permanent?” Roth asked, voice low.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. A shadow appeared at the end of the row of lockers and quickly seeped back into its surroundings. “I hope it’s temporary, but...”

“But you’d have to stop loving him,” he finished. “Or he’d have to stopping loving you.”

“Yeah,” I whispered, looking around. Every couple of feet, there was a glimpse of something that didn’t seem right, but it was gone before I could focus and decipher what I was seeing. However, I could feel them. There were so many ghosts in this building, it was almost suffocating.

“Do you think that’s possible?”

I thought about how I’d prayed to my father, desperate, promising to do just that. “I... I don’t know how you even fall in love, so I don’t know how to fall out of it.”

“You don’t,” he said. “At least, you can’t make yourself fall out of love.”

“You sound like you’ve tried.”

“I did.”

“You could get yourself a spell. There are some out there, but I’m sure they come with nasty side effects,” Cayman replied, looking over his shoulder at me. “Or you could barter, if you knew where to find a demon with a certain skill set...”

I lifted my brows. “Are you offering to barter?”

“I’m a businessman to the heart, little Trueborn. Well, a business demon, but whatever.” He faced straight ahead. “You know where to find me if it comes to that.”

Roth frowned at Cayman’s back. Barter my soul? Or parts of it? That wasn’t something I’d considered.

“You see any ghosts yet?” Roth asked as we passed an empty glass case.

“I’m catching a lot of quick glimpses of movement. It could be nothing, or it could be shy ghosts.”

“Or Shadow People?”

I nodded.

Cayman stopped, and I realized we were at the entrance to the gym. The doors were open, and a void of darkness waited for us.

Oh dear.

I could see literally nothing. Not even Cayman as he walked in and was swallowed up by the nothingness. Tiny hairs lifted all over my body. The vibe I’d had earlier increased as I stared into the darkness.

My feet were rooted where I stood. I, who was not afraid of ghosts, was a wee bit scared of the prospect of entering that gym.

“What is it?” Roth asked.

“Ghosts. There are a lot of ghosts in there. I can feel them,” I said, looking at him. “I can’t see them, though. I can’t...”

Roth understood, nodding. “Give me your hand. I’ll get you where we need to go.”

I stared at his hand. “You told Zayne what I did to Faye after you told me not to say anything.”

“I was wondering when you were going to bring that up,” he replied. “I changed my mind after I dropped you off. My bad.”

I frowned at him.

“You guys coming?” Cayman called out. “Because it’s kind of weird in here. Like, I don’t think I’m alone kind of weird.”

“Maybe talk about this later?” Roth suggested.

“Definitely later.” I put my hand in his. There was a strange burst of energy from where his skin made contact with mine, but I couldn’t really focus on it.

Roth led me into the void, and it was like walking through soup. The air was thick, and it moved, as if it was curling around us. The legs of my pants tugged as if tiny hands were grabbing them. I kept walking. A few more steps, and I felt them, pressing in, crowding us. What felt like a hand glanced off my hip and then my rear.

I was starting to get a really bad feeling about the kind of ghosts that were in here.

“You really can see?” I asked, nervous.

“Enough.”

“That’s reassuring—” A finger glided off my cheek.

“Don’t,” I snapped at the darkness to my right. “Touch me.”

“I didn’t,” Roth replied.

“It wasn’t you.”

“Oh.” His grip tightened on my hand. “Would you think less of me if I admitted I’m kind of creeped out?”

“Yes.”

“Wow.”

“I’m kidding.” The edge of my braid lifted. I snatched it free with my other hand. “If any more of you pervy ghosts lay a hand on me, I will end your existence.”

“Do I want to know what’s happening?” Cayman’s voice came from somewhere.

A high-pitched giggle that sounded neither male nor female answered, and then the air around Roth and I shifted again, as if it were parting as we crossed the gym.

“None of them are approaching me for help,” I said after a moment. “Which I would think they would do if they wanted out of here.”

“One would think,” Roth murmured, coming to a stop. “Cayman?”

“Working on the door now. It’s sealed—” Metal ground together and then gave way. “There we go.”

Dim light poured in, thank baby llamas everywhere—oh, no. This had nope written all over it.

A narrow ledge and a set of steps were in front of us, but they weren’t unoccupied.

Dead people.

There were dead people lining the steps, pressed to the wall. Dozens of them. I’d never seen anything like it. They stared at us as we came in, their faces all wrong. Some showed whatever had killed them. Bullet wounds. Missing cheeks. Skulls. Bruises and bloat. Deformities. Others showed no visible sign of injury, but they smiled at us, reeking of pure evil. I looked up, and my heart nearly stopped.

They swarmed the ceiling like cockroaches, clamoring and crawling over one another. There wasn’t a bare space.

“Can you see?” Roth asked.

“Unfortunately.” I pulled my hand free. “You don’t want to know.”

“I do.” Cayman walked through a ghost that didn’t have much left of its head. It spun, hissing at him before it rose to the ceiling, crawling over the others crowded there.

“No. You do not.” I stepped around one who blew a kiss in my direction. “We should hurry.”

And that’s what we did.

Racing down the steps, I tried not to look at them, but some stepped out, whispering too low and fast for me to catch what they were saying. Others reached for me.

Halfway down, I recognized one of the ghosts. It was the woman in the dark service uniform, but she looked...different. Color had leached from her skin, the shadows on her face making her eyes seem like black empty sockets. Her jaw extended, gaping opening into something inhuman and twisted.

She howled.

Roth whipped around. “What the Hell?”

“You heard that?” I eased around the woman, whose face was stretched beyond human possibility.

“Pretty sure everyone in a one-mile radius heard that,” Cayman commented. “And I got to say, I am feeling some wicked bad vibes.”

“I don’t understand. They’re all... I don’t know. They’re all bad.” My heart thumped. “Sam said they were trapped, but...”

“Shadow People.” Roth jerked his hand around his face like he’d walked into a cobweb. It wasn’t. It was the hair from a young woman hanging upside down from the ceiling. “Could’ve got to them. Corrupted them.”