19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

J avier is very upset when Caroline pulls in. I can tell by the way his brow is furrowed and how, even when he pulls his and Caroline’s overnight bags out of the trunk, the movement is jerky. Considering how excessively relaxed he generally is, it’s a strange sight—although predictable.

After all, his fiancée did just tell him that her cousin was turning into a ghost.

“Hey Javi,” I say, approaching the SUV. “How are you doing?”

He ignores me.

“He’s upset,” Caroline explains. “I told you he was going to think I had a screw loose.”

I wince. “Sorry about that.” I turn to Javi, who has just hit the button to close the back hatch with a bit more aggression than needed. “I know it’s a lot to take in, Javi, but—”

“Caro, cut it out,” Javi says, cutting me off. “Don’t just talk to thin air. It’s not funny. It’s not a good prank, and it’s insulting to joke about Rency dying . She’s my friend too, you know, so I’m not all that keen on the idea of her dead, okay?”

Uh-oh. Caroline and I exchange looks.

“I take it I’m less body and more spirit at the moment?” I say.

Caro shrugs but doesn’t say anything.

“Why are you shrugging? Caroline, I swear, this isn’t funny.” Javi’s voice is raised, which is startling because, since Caro and I met him at a university event back when we were both twenty-one years old, I haven’t heard him ever yell. Not even once.

“I’m not making a joke, Javi. Look, behind you. Rency is there.”

“Caro,” he says, palms out in frustration. “She’s not.”

“Can you hear me now?” I joke. “How ’bout now?”

“I… Just turn around, would you?”

Javi’s shoulders rise and fall in a deep sigh, a frustrated resignation. “Fine, Caro. But this is the worst joke you’ve ever—” He’s turning, facing me but not seeing me. I must flicker back into form though because one second, he is looking right through me, and the next his jaw has dropped and he looks like he’s about to have a heart attack.

“Boo, I’m a ghost?” I say, again trying to lighten things up with a little humor. Usually it’s Caro who cracks the jokes, but she’s clearly not in the best position to do so. Javi curses, drops both of the bags, and lunges for me.

“What the heck was that?” he says, patting me down, waving his hand around me. “What— Caro this really isn’t funny.”

“Are you checking me for fly wires or something?” I ask.

“Or something. I—this is—what?”

“Maybe we should go inside?” Caroline suggests. She picks up the bags Javi dropped and starts walking to the house. Even though Javi seems determined to find my secret string or optical illusion, I follow Caroline into the house. He’ll accept that it’s real in time, no matter how long we stand in the summer heat.

“I don’t understand,” he says. “What’s going on here?”

Caro drops the bags near the stairs before going into the kitchen. “I told you. Rency signed a marriage license, the guy she married is a ghost who is cursed, so now Rency is cursed and she’s turning into a ghost. She and her ghost groom are going to break the spell so that she can be a living person here, and we are here to be back up.”

“And to hang out with me when… while Grandma Lydia is gone,” I chime in. I almost say When Henry is gone , but I hate thinking about it, refuse to say the words aloud.

“Okay, okay,” Javi says, pacing around the living room. “Okay, so….”

Caro and I exchange glances, eyebrows raised. Javier is the opposite of inarticulate, so seeing him absolutely flummoxed is both comical and disconcerting.

“Have a seat, Javi,” I suggest. “Please, before you hurt yourself.”

He doesn’t protest, flopping onto the sofa. After a moment, he kicks off his shoes and sprawls across it, looking like a movie version of a man on a therapy couch.

“Just give me a minute to process this,” he says, draping an arm over his eyes. “I—yeah, I just need a minute.”

“Take your time,” I say. I make no noise as I walk away, and I wonder if he heard me or if I’ve winked out of physicality again.

Caroline lingers by the doorway, looking far more frazzled than she usually does. Even her curls look frizzy compared to their typical smooth auburn perfection. Tilting my head towards the kitchen, we move away from where Javi is having his crisis so that we can talk.

“That looked… rough,” I say, hugging her. I’m glad when my arms don’t slip right through her and I can feel the comfort of her hug.

“I told you he was going to think I was crazy. But I couldn’t keep it from him anymore. The fact that I saw a ghost? Well, I can take that to the grave. I wouldn’t have been able to show him or explain it to him, anyway. The fact that my cousin turned into a ghost? No way. And if you…. Well, no matter what happens, I’m going to need his support, and I knew that if he didn’t see it for himself, he would never, ever believe me.”

“Well, he believes you now.”

Caroline snorts. “Sure does.”

We linger in the kitchen a while longer, Caroline getting herself a glass of water and me letting my mind wander .

Time is ticking.

Once Javi has gotten himself together enough to hear about the plan Henry and I made, we’re going to have to start preparing.

Preparing to do the ritual again.

Preparing to see Mallory.

To live a version of the dream I’ve seen, over and over again, but in an offbeat sort of reverse: one where Henry’s curse is broken instead of created.

Earlier today, legs tangled together on the sofa, Henry told me the details of the plan he’d already started to execute. Mallory is motivated by power and money. Henry has something she wants: land. He also has the book, which, regardless of whether she wanted to be released from the space between or if she had found a purpose in the high of manipulation, she clearly wants back. He doesn’t want to tell her about it unless it was necessary to lure her in which, it turned out, wasn’t. This morning, he’d emailed Nathan about selling the land, making it clear that he wanted to talk to Mallory—alone. Minutes after he sent the email, he got a text from an unknown number—

From his aunt.

And she was ready to make a deal. Henry would sell her the land, make sure it was signed over to her, so long as she stopped bothering Grandma Lydia about her own land.

“It’s a win-win,” he had explained. “Even if somehow the curse doesn’t get broken and you are trapped in the veil, your grandma will be left alone. And if it works, and I am gone and she is gone too… well, then the whole thing is moot, isn’t it?”

It was a good plan.

The biggest problem I had with it was that Mallory had agreed to meet at his little house in the woods—tonight. Which was so, so soon.

“It’s for the best,” Henry had reminded me, noticing my silence. “We don’t want to risk you being trapped in the veil.”

So that was that: tonight, we will do the ritual again, only this time with all the players in one place.

Tonight, I’ll push both of them out of this half-world and into the next.

I’m spiraling, thinking about death and life and cycles and love, when Javi walks in the kitchen. His typically warm skin has a bit of a pale undertone, and his hair is so disheveled that he looks more like a mad scientist than a future doctor.

“Caroline,” he says, stepping up to her. “I’m sorry I freaked out.”

“It’s okay,” she rushes to say. “I knew… well, I wasn’t sure exactly how you’d react, but I knew it would probably be a lot.”

“Still, I shouldn’t have yelled.”

“You barely did,” she reassures him, patting his arm.

He takes her hand, holds it tightly. “Forgive me?”

“Of course.”

Javi presses a kiss to her forehead and pulls her in for a hug and I nearly roll my eyes. The two of them are just too cute. I have to squash thoughts about whether Henry and I would be that adorable after spending years together too. The scene is so touching… but maybe a bit too intimate for me to witness.

I clear my throat, but only Caro looks over at me.

Oh.

No wonder Javi is being so touchy-feely: I must be flickering. Careful not to give Javi another startle, I creep out of the kitchen and back into the hall.

“Hello hello hellooo,” I say, repeating the word over and over again until Javi lifts his head.

“Hello?” he repeats, confused.

“I was… ghosting around for a second there,” I explain. “Didn’t want to freak you out. Well, freak you out again .”

“I’m definitely freaked out,” he agrees, stepping away from Caroline to take a seat at the counter. “But… well, I don’t know what else to say except that I’m ready to hear more.”

“What do you want to know?” I ask.

There is a determined glint in Javi’s eye. “Everything,” he says.

Caroline and I exchange another look.

“Well,” I start. “It all began at the beginning of the summer, when you were waiting for our reservation at the restaurant in town, and Caroline and I decided to tour the funeral house museum…”