by Lauren James
“We’re skipping the trivialities, are we? Very well. That barrier of yours isn’t going to last for ever, and when it falls, I am going to kill you and our daughter. Your time is coming to an end.”
Leah met Harriet’s eye again. Harriet nodded once, trying to convey to her that the shield was strong, and that it wouldn’t break. She thought that she could keep it running forever if she wanted to. It wasn’t like those stolen powers, weak because they hadn’t been designed for her. This was made to fit her. It took barely any of her energy to keep it going.
“You can’t kill me,” Leah said. “Not in any way that matters. You’ve proven that. I will come back again even if you destroy me now.”
“I can make sure I never have to see your face ever again,” Norma spat out. “Or that child’s.”
Norma looked at Claudia in pure hatred. Harriet remembered how her gran had taken the baby away from Leah. It was one of the first things that she’d done when she’d become a ghost. Harriet had thought that Norma had been using the baby as a distraction. But even then, Norma had been planning to kill Claudia. She’d just needed to get her brothers out of the basement first.
Harriet shivered, and the shield tightened, growing a little stronger and a little thicker. Norma wasn’t going to do this. Not again. Not to anyone else. Harriet would make sure that she was Norma’s last victim.
Norma said, “I should have wrung that baby’s neck the moment she was born. She’s been nothing but trouble, watching and judging me with those beady little eyes. For centuries, she’s sneered at everything I do. She thinks she is so much better than the rest of us. It makes my skin crawl.”
Leah said, very quietly, “She’s just a baby. And you have no right to talk about her like that. Not after everything you’ve done to us.”
Norma rolled her eyes.
“You know I was the one who killed you, don’t you?” Leah said.
“It was the child, not you,” Norma said dismissively. “Don’t bother trying to protect her now. It won’t make any difference.”
“Not then.” Leah smiled. “Not your disintegration. Your death, the first time. Two thousand years ago.”
Norma actually took a step back, her shock throwing her off her stride. “What? No. What are you talking about? That was poison. An attack from the Celtic tribe.”
Leah shook her head. “It was me. I overheard you discussing the rebellion in the Celtic tribe with Rufus and Vini. You were planning to kill my father, their leader. Or had you forgotten that I was taken from the Celtic tribe when I was young? That night, I took your poisons from under the floors. I used them to stop you hurting my real family. And I don’t regret a thing.”
“You poisoned yourself, too? Your baby?” Norma said, blinking. She didn’t seem to believe her yet.
Leah shuffled Claudia onto her hip and untied her shift dress, revealing deep scars running down her chest. They were stab wounds, gouged through her stomach. “After you died, I tried to get away, but I was caught by the general. When he saw your corpses, he killed me and Claudia. He called me a barbarian.”
Norma stared at the stab wounds. It was clearly undeniable evidence – Leah hadn’t been poisoned like Fabian. The story she had thought she’d known was wrong.
Norma’s lip curled over her teeth, but she still looked disconcerted. “Well. Thank you for telling me. That’s going to make your death all the sweeter.”
My father – Norma, Fabian, the Trickster, whatever you want to call him – is right to hate me. I really was judging him for all those years and if I could, I’d kill him too. I don’t blame him for disliking me.
I can recognize so many of my father’s tactics and methods in how Norma chooses to do things. The manipulation, the poison, the control, even the knitting needles – that’s all Fabian.
I only found out the truth about Norma recently. A few weeks before Harriet’s death, I saw a vision of Norma hugging Vini. It baffled me. I had no idea who this old woman was, or why Vini was treating her with such tenderness. It took me a long time to scan the past and future for enough information to work it out. Finally, it was the vision of Harriet and Norma on a campus tour that helped me connect the dots.
Since then, Harriet’s behaviour has made a lot more sense. She was raised by a monster. Not the horrifying kind, but the human one. Whether man, woman or ghost, Fabian is always the same: swollen with self-interest, but without human decency.
I understand Harriet better than anyone. She was abused and made to feel like nothing, just like my mother and me. I don’t blame her for basing her behaviour on her grandmother’s. Being a good person isn’t an option when someone so strong-willed tells you that you’re weak, makes you feel helpless and spends all their time chipping away at you. Just being functional is hard enough.
Chapter 26
KASPER
Kasper ran over to Felix, who was slumped on the ground, totally limp. “Felix, are you all right?”
Kasper’s finger had been torn away by a shapeshifting ghost and the wound was leaking blood down his wrist.
Felix groaned, squeezing his eyes tightly shut. “I can’t do this. Please, go away.”
“You have to get up, Felix. We need your help.”
“You don’t need me. I’m weak, I can’t do any more.”
Kasper grimaced. “Rima has lost her fox. She’s no help. It’s just us, buddy.”
Felix groaned. “Please, don’t make me.”
Kasper hooked his arms under Felix’s armpits and dragged him to his feet. “Tell me what we’re going to do,” he demanded, pointing at where Norma was interrogating Leah. “We can’t leave them there.”
Felix slumped. “I have no idea.” A tear rolled down his cheek. He looked completely broken, like his spirit had been destroyed. He seemed ready to let himself disintegrate.
Kasper didn’t know how to behave around him, after what had happened in the tunnels. He was desperate to curl his fingers around Felix’s, but now wasn’t the time to try to fix what was broken between them.
As Felix staggered to his feet, the Tricksters seemed to be at an impasse now. None of them could get past the mysterious shield that had sprung up between Leah and the Tricksters. Kasper wasn’t even sure who had made it.
“How have you been, sis?” Vini said to Leah.
“Not too bad, Vini,” Leah said, eyes fixed on Norma. “How’s the ear?”
“Still aches.” Vini touched his earlobe, which was torn away.
“I’m sorry about that,” Leah said. “I don’t know if I ever said.”
Kasper coughed. Leah had done that to him?
“Seeing as we haven’t seen you in four score decades, I’d say you haven’t apologized for anything,” Rufus said.
Moving away from the Tricksters, Rima came up to Kasper and Felix, with Cody cradled in her arms. Tears were streaming down her face. “She went straight for Cody, like she knew I would stop fighting immediately to save her.”
“Cody is going to survive,” Kasper said. “Look at her, she’s getting better already!”
The fox wasn’t a Shell yet. She was taking in the energy dissolved in the air from all the destroyed ghosts. The Tricksters’ army were still fighting the other students all over the roof, leaving a wide circle around Leah’s bubble. Motionless, Harriet watched them, too.
Rima spat something bloody into her palm. It was a chunk of hair and skin. She held it out, looking proud. “I got this from Norma. We can use it to destroy her using Leah’s ritual, like we were going to do with Harriet’s eyelid. We need to get rid of the other Tricksters and their army first, though. We can’t do anything if the three of them have Leah trapped like this.”
“I can attack Vini first?” If Kasper could get Vini out of the way, that would make it easier for Felix and Rima to destroy Rufus. Leah had said they were strongest as a trio, and Vini was the weakest link.
Rima shook her head. “I have a plan for him. But you two need to be ready to finish him off. Then
we’ll go after Rufus. OK?”
Kasper nodded. It was something to do, at least. Better than standing here, watching. “Yeah, Felix? That sounds good, right?” He nudged his arm.
Felix was grinding the base of his palms into his eyes blearily, glasses askew. “Whatever,” he mumbled. “It’s not like we’re going to win, anyway.”
“That’s the spirit!” Kasper said under his breath. “Go, team!”
If they didn’t start this fight now, Felix would probably decide to have a nap instead. Whatever they’d done inside his head, the Tricksters had wiped him out.
Rima laid Cody on the ground, kissing the top of her head. She handed the disgusting lump of hair and skin to Kasper. “Hang on to that. Wait here.”
Then she disintegrated into atoms. No – not atoms – but a cloud of tiny gnats.
One of the flies headed straight for Vini, a little speck that he wouldn’t even notice. He was glowing with a golden light that kept getting brighter. He must be feeding off the fear of every ghost on the rooftop.
Kasper strained his eyes to watch as the gnat hovered by Vini’s ear, then darted inside, quick as a flash. Vini rubbed his earlobe absently, but nothing happened for a long moment.
Then Vini brought his hand up to his ear again, rubbing it hard. He shuddered, and crumpled to the ground. Rima must have done something deep inside his ear.
Kasper lunged forward, grabbing Vini’s head and twisting hard while Felix pinned him down. A ghost from the basement yelled out, turning away from her fight with a second-floor girl to run at Kasper. She engulfed Kasper in crackling flames.
Kasper gritted his teeth and kept pulling at Vini’s head, until the skull came free of the spine with a crisp pop. Rufus ran at Felix, tearing him away from Vini as he disintegrated into atoms. Rima flew at Norma’s face, covering her skin in gnats.
The flames were burning his skin, so Kasper threw himself at the floor, rolling until the searing pain disappeared. He climbed to his feet, smoke oozing from his skin. When he looked up, Felix was dragging Leah away. Kasper gaped at them, confused. How had Felix got all the way over to her while Kasper was on fire? The protective barrier around her and Claudia must have broken during the fight.
Norma swatted the flies away, her face swelling up from bites. She peered out through half-closed eyelids, and her eyes widened when she saw that Leah was free of the bubble shield.
Norma ran towards Felix, knocking him around the head and tearing Leah away. Felix crumpled to the ground and didn’t move.
Norma held Leah by the back of her neck and shook her hard. Something like surprise crossed Leah’s face, like she’d realized what a mistake she’d made. And then Norma took her energy, making Leah and the baby in her arms dissolve into dust.
Rima re-formed, crying out, “Leah, no!”
She jumped forwards, trying to stop them. Kasper grabbed her arms and held her back.
“Let me go.” Rima turned into a bird and slipped free.
By the time she’d reached Norma, it was too late. There was nothing left of Leah except a shred of energy drifting on the floor. Norma tilted her head back in ecstasy as she absorbed it.
Rima cawed, circling the room in long flaps of her wings, screaming as loudly as her raven throat would let her. Felix rolled over, grimacing and climbing to his feet.
“Rima!” Felix said, holding out his hand. She flew to him, curling into his chest as a mouse. He cupped her in his hands as she whined desperately against him.
Kasper wanted to do something for her, but he couldn’t. He stood and watched Felix comfort her in the middle of the battle.
“Rima!” a voice said. “I’m right here!”
Kasper spun around to see Leah was standing in the middle of the roof. She was still trapped with Claudia inside that glowing shield.
Rima stopped sobbing and morphed back into human form. Felix staggered, letting her go.
“What?” She wiped her face. “What?”
Kasper looked around. Rufus was missing.
FELIX
When they had finally defeated Vini, Felix had known that he needed to think fast. The three of them weren’t going to be able to overpower Norma and Rufus together. The only way Felix could think of getting rid of them was to use trickery.
When Rufus had run at him, while Kasper was covered in flames, there had been a moment when Rima covered Norma’s eyes in flies. While she couldn’t see, Felix broadcast a subtle command to everyone on the roof, making them see Rufus as Leah. It looked like Felix was fighting her instead of Rufus. He’d hidden the real Leah and Claudia out of sight, hoping that Norma would assume Leah had escaped while Norma couldn’t see.
He’d maintained the hypnotism as Norma swatted away the flies and saw Leah grabbing at Felix. Rufus had kept fighting him, with no idea what Felix was doing. He’d dragged Rufus away, trying to make it look like Leah was escaping.
Norma had attacked them, picking Rufus up by the collar. He’d stared at her in surprise – using Leah’s face. Then Norma shook her brother and took all his energy, until there was nothing left but dust.
Exhausted, Felix let the hypnotism drop. Leah and Claudia flickered back into visibility, still safely hidden in their bubble. He’d never used such a huge command before, and he would have lost control if he’d needed to hold it for any longer. But it had worked.
Rima stared at Leah, joy transforming her features. There wasn’t time for Felix to explain what had happened. Instead, he gestured at Norma, who was still enjoying her new rush of energy. “Rufus is gone. What are we going to do about her?”
“Whatever we do, we’re going to need Harriet’s help,” Rima said. “I’ve got a plan.”
HARRIET
Harriet had seen everything, and thought Felix was unbelievably clever. Norma was swaying on her feet, stoned out of her mind with all the new energy she’d taken from Rufus. In a few seconds, she’d open her eyes and the fight would continue. Harriet had to act now. She could use this.
If she could convince Norma that she was on her side, and would help her fight, then maybe Harriet could keep her distracted while the others came up with a plan.
She tightened the scarf holding her neck in place, and pushed away all her fear. She had to act like Rufus – as confident and relaxed as him. Norma would respect that. There was nothing she hated more than cowardice.
Harriet was just bracing herself to go over to her gran when a bird landed on her shoulder.
“Harriet, it’s me!” Rima said. “Listen, we need your help. We have a plan. We’re going to take away Norma’s powers, so she’ll disintegrate. But we need time. Can you distract her?”
Harriet didn’t hesitate. “Yes. I promise.”
Rima whispered, “Thank you, Harriet.” She flew off back to the others, her tiny wings working hard as she darted between the fighting ghosts.
Harriet watched her go, and then turned to Norma, who was just coming out of her energy high.
In a drawl, Harriet said, “Congratulations! It must be thrilling to get rid of her at last.”
Norma grunted. “Where are my brothers?”
Harriet winced. “We lost them. I’m sorry.”
Norma’s expression went blank and taut. She seemed taken aback for a moment, like the possibility of their disintegration had never even occurred to her. “I see. Well, there’s a lot for us to do without them. Time to tidy up the rest of this mess.”
Harriet’s heart jumped. She had started to relax, but this wasn’t over yet. Just because Rufus and Vini were gone didn’t mean that Norma was harmless.
Harriet tried to steer her away from Leah, expanding the protective shield to include Rima, Felix and Kasper, too. She made it as solid as possible, so that there were only blurred shapes visible inside, with indistinct features. As long as Norma didn’t look closely, they were hidden. Harriet was going to protect them until her dying breath.
LEAH
Leah cradled Claudia close to her chest, unable to believ
e they’d faced down Fabian and survived. For now, at least.
But there wasn’t time to comfort each other. Rima flew back from where she’d been talking to Harriet, and immediately launched into business. “She agreed. Let’s do the ritual!”
Harriet was talking to Norma, who kept playing with her empty eye socket, touching the edges with her fingers.
They would have to work fast. Harriet wouldn’t be able to keep her distracted for long.
Leah had tested this with Harriet’s eyelid, working out how to isolate the frequency her spirit vibrated at, then amplifying it. She would be able to use the small piece of Norma’s spirit as a connection to draw the excess energy out of her. They could make her weak enough to destroy, hopefully. Leah would die trying in any case.
“Form a circle,” she told them, taking Rima’s hands.
Rima held Kasper’s wounded hand as he winced. Felix finished the circle, looping his hand around Leah’s arm where she held Claudia. Claudia gripped on to his thumb tightly.
Leah took some strength from Rima and Felix’s warmth. Whatever happened with Norma, she couldn’t lose her friends. Not if there was a chance they might survive this.
She tuned into the hair, searching out the specific wavelength of Norma’s power. It tasted so similar to Fabian’s that it almost repulsed her, but she swallowed down her bile and focused on making a connection.
There was a click, and she connected. She could feel every movement Norma made. If this worked, Leah would be able to drain away Norma’s powers by pulling them out of her, through the hair and skin.
“Got it! Now, give me your energy. As much as you can spare. I need it all.”
A pulse of energy came immediately from Rima and Felix, pushed from their hands into Leah’s.
Norma must have felt something strange because she spun around, searching for the source. When she spotted Leah, her expression changed to absolute fury.
HARRIET
Harriet was still doing her best to distract Norma, watching over her shoulder as Leah and the others formed a circle. She didn’t know how that would help them weaken Norma, but she trusted Rima.