Page 42 of Abducting Sarah

A literal ghost peeked from behind one of the tall trees. She was faint, at first, but soon became solid as she approached us. As solid as a ghost ever got, anyway. There was always a slight transparency to them when I saw them on Earth, and that held true, seeing them here, too. She was near the same height as Silence, but with tan skin and blue hair. Her sheen was hard to see or gone—I wasn’t sure which.

I gripped Deacon’s hand, adrenaline rushing through me. “Do…do you need me to speak to her?”Was that now my job as this conduit he’d insisted I was?

But he gently squeezed mine back and shook his head. “No. Not yet.” Then he addressed the apparition. “Greetings, Predict. Is my father nearby?”

My mouth dropped in shock. “You can really see her? And talk to her?”

Deacon gave me a quick, puzzled look. “Of course I can. It is as I said before. I do not understand why you doubt everything I have told you.” He sounded affronted.

“Humans like to say, trust, but verify,” Predict said, while she looked me over and I did not like her expression. It was filled with disdain, for me. “Do not take it personally, Deacon. They have weak faith. Your father is inside.”

But the door to the hobbit house swung open wide and a male ghost sprang forward. I knew in an instant he was Valor Ladrang. He looked just like Deacon, but older. Same tan skin, lustrous gray hair, brown eyes, and still so very handsome, despite the difference in their age. But more than that, it was thelook of love the older Ladrian had for Deacon when he saw him there.

Deacon’s eyes welled at the sight of his father. As the pair came close, I realized a terrible, heartbreaking thing. Their arms went out to each other, but they could not hug or connect in any way physically, and their arms slowly drooped to their sides.

An initial, joyful instinct gone awry. It made me cry, too, while the hole in my heart begged to be filled. I felt the frustration for wanting to hold your parent and not being able to—I had felt that way every single day since my mother had died, and I had never been able to hold my own father since I hadn’t known him at all.

Clearly, the ache of familial love and the grief that came with death still haunted Ladrians, even with their living ghosts.

Is it worse to be able to see them and not be able to hold them?I wasn’t sure. I had never been able to see my mother’s ghost. But my heart broke so devastatingly for Deacon that I knew I was never leaving this hallucination.

CHAPTER 13

Jacaranda

It was hard to watch Valor try to hug his son. It was worse to see the sadness in Sarah’s eyes for the pair of them.

She is falling for Deacon.

I cleared my throat to shake myself free of the sticky emotion around me and told Silence, “I have business elsewhere. If anyone asks, I will be back in an hour, give or take.”

Deacon glanced my way. “Where are you going?”

But I walked to the rear ofSovereignand hit the lift button. It lowered and there was my onworlder. The crusty vehicle was an ancient ATV from Earth that I had swiped from a junkyard—I couldn’t afford a real Ladrian onworlder and it worked just as well as any of them. Most of the time.

I hopped on and drove down the path into the forest. Bushes and trees closed around the path—the ghosts weren’t sticklers for maintaining wide open trails. On Halla, some ghosts couldsolidify small parts of their bodies at will to touch things, but only momentarily and it took a lot of strength to do it. Not all ghosts could do it. Since there was almost no point in solidifying their legs, they never noticed if a path was clear until it wasn’t.

The air smelled cleaner on Halla. It hadn’t been as clear-cut as Orhon. Many Ladrians thought of the microplanet as overgrown and wild, but I liked it that way. Every inch of Halla smelled fresh and felt alive. I loved it. Nothing like riding through the forest to forget my troubles.

Fuck my troubles.

It wasn’t long before I parked outside my contact’s hovel. His roof was unlike the newer buildings on Halla—Gram Skir wanted his home to blend into the trees, so it would never be seen from overhead. The top was covered in branches he changed frequently. Tall bushes snuggled around the walls. If I hadn’t been there before, I would have ridden past it. There were no flowers, like at Valor’s home. Even the front door was a series of woven vines. It was well-hidden by nature. Almost like no one lived there anymore.

It made me worry for him. “Gram, you here?”

“Jac, thank the gods it’s you.”

When I turned around, there was movement in the bushes. He stood up and emerged with branches attached to his green clothes. Gram was short, being a Skir, but far more muscular than Drift. Gram and I looked more alike than he and his cousin—we had the same taupe skin and blue hair. But gray eyes, unlike most in his family. He smiled before he hugged me.

“Good to see you, Gram,” I greeted him. “How have you been?”

He laughed. “What is it that you want?”

“Protection.”

That caught his attention. “Youneed protection?”

“Not me. Protection for Deacon’s new consort, Sarah. She will be living on Halla, and I have a bad feeling about this situation. How have things been here?”

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