Betrayal Read online

  I frowned. “How could you not—”

  “This isn’t really how I imagined our reunion.” He half smiled.

  “Yeah.” I couldn’t believe he was here. That he had been the figure in my vision. He’d seemed so villainous. I’d thought he must be Neos.

  “Is that my sister’s jacket?” he asked.

  “Oh. Yeah, sorry. Natalie said I should get a new one, but—”

  “That’s okay,” he said, his gaze intent on my face, like he was trying to memorize me. “She’d want you to have it.”

  He looked like he’d lost weight, his cheekbones more defined and dark circles under his eyes. Still, those cobalt blue eyes—I could lose myself in them forever. Okay, so maybe I didn’t completely trust him; that didn’t mean I didn’t still need him. I stepped closer, wanting to throw my arms around him, bury my face in his neck, and smell his boy scent that was so familiar and foreign at the same time.

  I managed to restrain myself, and he brushed my hair back with his hand. I felt my heart hammering again—but no longer from fear.

  “That looks dangerous.” He nodded toward my dagger.

  I sheathed it. “It was Emma’s.”

  “Oh, right.” He nodded. “From the battle of the ghasts.”

  “Who reports to you?” I asked. “The Knell, or Natalie?”

  “Are they telling me anything you don’t want me to know?” His tone was teasing and unrepentant about spying on me.

  “No.” But I wasn’t telling the whole truth. I couldn’t get over my parents’ distrust of him. The little seed of doubt they’d planted.

  I started to say more, when the front door of the church opened. “That must be Natalie and the others,” I said.

  “Come here.” He took my hand and led me behind the curtain. “I’m not done with you yet.”

  I liked the sound of that. We climbed stairs that led to a galley overlooking the room below, and Bennett drew me into a secluded nook, hidden from anyone entering the building.

  I licked my lips as he pulled me closer, tracing my hair with his fingers. “I missed you,” he said. “Every day. Every night.”

  “Me, too.” I moved to kiss him, but up close he looked even more exhausted, his skin and his eyes ringed with red. I stopped. “Are you all right?”

  “I am now that you’re here.”

  “You look terrible, Bennett, you look—”

  He kissed me and I forgot everything but the touch of his lips and the feel of his hands. I stroked him with my eyes half closed … then noticed his fingers.

  His nails had turned purple. A chill spread in my chest. “What are you doing?”

  He saw me staring at his hands, and pulled them away. “It makes me stronger, Emma. It’s the only way to stop Neos. To be with you.”

  “Simon says Asarum is addictive. And deadly.”

  “Not as deadly as facing Neos without my full powers. I’m stronger than ever.” He loosed a glow of power. “I can help you bring him down.”

  I swallowed. “It’s you, isn’t it? You’re the one stealing powers from ghostkeepers. You went to Abby and … and that guy in Maine, and—”

  “I won’t let you face Neos alone,” he said.

  “You’re gonna kill yourself with this stuff. Look at you.”

  “I’d die for you.”

  I could see the truth in his eyes. “No, Bennett. I don’t want you to die for me! I want us to live for each other, I want—”

  Natalie’s voice called out from below. “Emma? Emma, where are you?”

  “We’re here!” I cried.

  “Don’t go,” Bennett begged, taking my arm.

  I couldn’t help staring at his hands. “I have to. They’re worried.”

  “Don’t be angry. There was no other way.”

  “I’m not angry. I just … you look like you’re dying and—will you stop? You’re strong enough.”

  “Not yet,” he said. “Not until he’s gone.”

  I shook my head, tears in my eyes, as Natalie and the others called my name below. “I can’t do this without you,” I said. “I need you, I need you with me.”

  His eyes held something suddenly fierce. “They expect you to do everything. Let Emma fight, let Emma die. I’m not just here to hold your hand, Emma, I’m here to fight beside you. And if this is what it takes—”

  “Where are you?” Natalie called.

  “I’m here,” I yelled, still looking at Bennett and blinking back tears. “Upstairs.”

  “I love you,” he said. “Never doubt that.”

  I pressed my lips against his, trying to compress all my love and worries and desires into one little kiss. We lingered a moment, cheeks pressed together, skin to skin, my hand pressed against his beating heart, neither of us wanting to let go.

  “Emma!” Simon yelled. “Report in now!”

  I buried my face in his neck one last time, then stepped from the nook and leaned against the railing of the galley, where I saw the team spread out among the pews in the room. Simon’s training was evident in how they kept their backs to each other, prepared for any attack.

  “Up here,” I said. “I’m okay. I’m coming down.”

  I heard the galley door close behind me and didn’t even turn around. I knew he was gone.

  19

  We sat on the cold stone stairs in front of the church and I told them everything—almost.

  I’d never been one of those girls who obsessed about guys, who made drama over every imagined slight and inconsiderate remark. Or the kind of girl who totally changed herself to make a boy happy. And I certainly didn’t fall apart without a boyfriend, turning into some empty shell.

  But at that moment, I would’ve done anything to see Bennett again. To hold him and heal him. To turn back time and keep him from resorting to Asarum—he’d only taken it to help me. I would’ve done anything to lose the curse of my powers and live a normal life. With him.

  I told them everything except how much I was willing to sacrifice to be with Bennett.

  “So your boyfriend is a junkie?” Lukas asked.

  Natalie elbowed him. “Not helping.”

  “What’ll happen to him?” I asked Simon.

  “I’ve heard cases of ghostkeepers kicking the habit—if they stop soon enough. Before they …” He trailed off.

  “Before they what?”

  “Gain too much power. Which Bennett already has. He’s turning himself into something terrible, Emma. We thought he was Neos.”

  “But he wasn’t,” Natalie said. “Let’s think about this a minute.” She tapped a fingernail against the steps a few times, then asked me, “What did Bennett say about that disk that led us here?”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t ask.”

  “So are we sure that was him, standing outside the fence, watching your room?”

  “Nicholas would’ve recognized him,” I said.

  “And Emma said she felt Neos on the disk,” Lukas posed. “And where’d the fog come from?”

  We sat in a stupefied silence for a minute, then Simon said, “The timing is odd. Finding that disk the morning we planned to head to the Knell.”

  “And the fact that Bennett—or whoever—just dropped it there is pretty convenient,” Natalie said. “What if … what if it was a distraction?”

  “To get us away from the museum,” Simon mused.

  “What would Neos want with the museum?” Lukas asked.

  “The Knell thinks he needs some final rite. Could it have something to do with that?” I wondered.

  “Or maybe he’s after my books?” Simon said.

  “Yeah, that’s Neos’s big secret.” Lukas lowered his voice. “He doesn’t have a library card.”

  “Some of those books are extremely rare,” Simon said stiffly.

  “What else is at the museum that he can use against Emma?” Natalie asked.

  “Hostages,” I said, suddenly realizing. “Nicholas and Celeste and Anatole.”

  We all stood abrup
tly and ran toward the car. This time, none of us complained about Simon’s driving.

  We spent an hour stuck in traffic, even though I urged Simon to drive in the breakdown lane. Then I barely waited for the wheels to stop in the gravel drive before sprinting into the museum. I stood in the foyer calling for each of them. When nobody answered, I closed my eyes and summoned them. Celeste shimmered into existence first, quickly followed by Anatole, both of them looking terrified.

  Natalie entered behind me. “Where’s Nicholas?” she asked.

  Celeste’s eyes were wide, having understood Natalie. He’s gone.

  Where? I asked. How?

  We do not know. We felt a … a rip in the Beyond.

  He took him, Anatole said. He took him from ze house. I thought we were bound to stay inside ze gate, but he took him. He reached and poof. No more Nicholas.

  Celeste wrung her hands. Ze poor boy.

  Who took him? Neos?

  Oui, Celeste said. Nobody else haz this much power.

  There was nothing we could do, Anatole added. We didn’t want him to take us, too—to use us against you. We fled.

  I’m glad you did, I said, then turned to the others. “Neos grabbed him. He’s gone.”

  “How long ago?” Simon asked. “Can you summon him?”

  “I don’t know.” I asked the ghosts if they thought there was time to find Nicholas before Neos took him too far into the Beyond.

  Perhapz, if you press on the mushroom, Celeste said.

  What?

  It iz expression français, Anatole said. She means hurry.

  Natalie and I decided to hold hands, to see if we could combine our strength, but it was clear we approached summoning completely differently. When I pushed, she pulled, and when I listened, she spoke. We looked at each other oddly, then I dropped her hand and said, “I’ll be over there,” before moving to the other side of the room.

  “Yeah,” she said, then got back to work.

  I closed my eyes and tuned my energy toward summoning. It didn’t feel like lightning, the way compelling and dispelling did, more like listening to the hum of the world, focusing on a familiar voice in a crowd.

  I threw myself further into the power than ever, but didn’t hear a whisper of Nicholas. I did feel a comfortable presence, though, and Coby materialized beside me.

  Hey, Coby said, give a ghost a break. I was just haunting a DVD in Sara’s history class.

  You can do that? Celeste said. Haunt ze television?

  We cannot, Anatole said sadly, like all he ever wanted was to appear in an episode of Law & Order.

  Well, I’m an Emma Vaile production, Coby explained. What you do is, you focus on the—

  Coby! I interrupted. Neos kidnapped Nicholas.

  The little waif guy?

  Yeah—can you help us find him?

  Gimme a second. He vanished, and I explained to Simon and the others that he was searching. He reappeared a moment later.

  Nicholas isn’t in the Beyond, he said. And I can’t even feel Neos. I can always feel Neos, because he’s so powerful, but suddenly he’s just … gone.

  “Okay,” I said. “Nicholas isn’t in the Beyond, and he’s not here. Neos must be holding him somewhere.”

  “He’ll contact us soon,” Simon said. “There’s no reason to kidnap Nicholas unless he issues demands.”

  “He’s going to want Emma,” Natalie said. “And she’ll agree to meet him alone.”

  “We’ll lock you in the basement before we let that happen,” Lukas told me.

  Clearly this was something they’d discussed. “That’s not what concerns me,” Simon said. “I’m worried about the timing. The morning we’re going to head to the Knell, we’re blindsided by all of this. Neos knew our plans when we did.”

  “How?” Natalie asked.

  Simon didn’t mention his fear of a traitor. He just said, “If he knew we were going to the Knell, this is all a distraction.”

  “To keep us away from the museum while he snatched Nicholas,” Natalie said. “Or to keep us away from the Knell?”

  “Perhaps both,” Simon said.

  Then it hit me. “I know where Neos is. I know why he kept us away from the Knell. That’s the only place he can hide completely. They told me the building is shielded—so protected that even ghostkeepers can’t tell what’s going on inside.”

  “He’s there already?” Lukas asked.

  “Yeah, that’s why he sent us to Cambridge—and lost us in that fog, hoping we’d fight Bennett. He must’ve planted the coin that Nicholas found—that’s why I felt him. He knew we were heading to the Knell, and he needed to get there first.”

  “To do what?” Natalie asked.

  “Nothing pleasant,” Simon said. “Let’s go.”

  I noticed Natalie biting her lip, suddenly looking young and unsure. “Maybe you should stay here, in case Nicholas makes it back,” I told her.

  “No,” she answered in a small voice. “I’m staying with you.”

  “Lukas?” I asked.

  “My policy is, stick with the hot chicks.” Then he fiddled with the stair railing and added, “And you guys are my family now—I’m not letting you down.”

  “If I could,” Simon said, “I’d make you all stay. But we’re a team. None of us can do this alone, not even Emma.”

  I glanced at Coby. Can you get to New York?

  He nodded. This is it, huh? After this it’ll all be over.

  I hope so. And then I’ll … do what you want. Even if that meant dispelling him.

  I know you will, Emma, he said, relief in his eyes.

  “We are so going to blow Neos’s mind,” Natalie said, her cockiness back, “when we show up in the electric blue tin can. Now that is a threat.”

  “I was thinking about that,” Simon said, and pushed into Mr. Stern’s office. He reappeared a moment later dangling keys from one finger. “I found these. A Porsche, I believe.”

  “How are we all going to fit in a Porsche?” Lukas asked.

  “It’s a Cayenne,” Simon said. “The SUV.”

  Natalie grinned. “Now, that’s more like it.”

  We were ready for battle. We were eager, we were angry, we were trained.

  Then we were bored. Three hours in the car kind of takes the edge off.

  Simon insisted on listening to the Bach CD that was already in the Porsche’s player, so Natalie and Lukas immediately wired up and stared out the windows, listening to their own music. Me, I kind of liked classical music, which reminded me of my dad, but I liked Bennett’s playlist more.

  I cued up a song, then texted my mom and Max, though I wasn’t even sure my mom knew how to get her texts. I didn’t expect my family to help, but I wanted them to know what I was facing. And I wanted them to know that I cared. Even though they completely sucked as a family.

  Then I texted Bennett. I didn’t know what to say. He already knew everything that mattered—but I guess I wasn’t trying to tell him something he didn’t know, just something true. After half a dozen false starts, I wrote: I love you. Which felt trite, but nothing else mattered.

  My hands ached when I finished, the skin still tender from ghostburns. I put the window down and cooled them in the breeze until Natalie yelled at me to shut the window; then we ate trail mix and apples in silence.

  I couldn’t bear for a single one of them to get hurt. And I knew they’d do as much as they could, but I kept thinking of that tapestry hanging at the Knell. It all came down to me. This was my fight. Was I strong and brave enough to defeat him?

  In the front seat, Lukas said, “Get off here.”

  We spent twenty minutes lost in the city, then finally found the right neighborhood. I recognized the narrow streets and quaint shops.

  “Have you guys been here before?” I asked.

  “Only once,” Natalie said. “I never knew there was a real headquarters until Bennett finally brought me.”

  “Once for me, too,” Lukas said. “This street is serious
ly old.”

  Simon smiled. “You ought to visit Europe. Our ghosts go way back.”

  “I’ve never been to Europe.” Natalie’s voice was wistful, probably wondering if she’d ever have the chance.

  “I always wanted to go to Amsterdam,” Lukas said.

  Natalie and I shared a look. Every teenage boy’s fantasy. Legal weed and the red-light district.

  “To see the Van Gogh museum, right?” Simon said, only he pronounced it “Van Goff.”

  “Uh …”

  “He means Van Gogh,” I said.

  “Oh, right,” Lukas said. “Yeah, I want to see the paintings.”

  We all smiled knowingly. Then we were there. We rounded the corner and the Knell fortress glared at us from the end of the block.

  Lukas stared at the shuttered houses and empty park. “Dude, last time I was here—”

  “There were ghosts,” I finished. “Ghosts everywhere. And ghostkeepers.”

  “What happened to them?” Natalie asked.

  “They’re hiding from Neos,” I said. “He’s here.”

  Simon parked in front of the Knell and turned off the engine. None of us opened a door. We just sat there quietly, looking at the house.

  Natalie finally broke the silence. “I really like this car.”

  It was enough to spur me into action. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s go slay a ghost.”

  20

  We crept past the ornate iron gates into the shadow of the looming trees, then stopped short. One step onto the grounds, and the impact of Neos’s cruel power hit us like a rock, his darkness seeping through every brick and blade of grass.

  Lukas swore, and I nodded in agreement. Neos was strong—much stronger than when I’d faced him the last time.

  Simon said, “Remember your training. Our job is to get Emma close enough to Neos to end him.”

  “Oh, is that all?” Lukas said.

  “Lukas, you take the siren when she attacks Emma. Natalie, you summon our allies—and keep an eye on Emma; you know her best. We’ve got to keep her from getting drawn into other fights. I’ll dispel any immediate threat.”

  I drew my dagger as we approached the front doors. No ghostly servants this time, no sign of any activity.