Page 65 of Veil of Death and Shadow

They were both seated at the table, and while Claudine’s position was mostly normal, practiced, Greta’s leg had sunken into the booth, like there was a hole it’d passed through.

Catching my stare, she shifted, her leg reappearing as it hovered above the floor.

Then, my focus latched onto the now-empty table, where the tea had been.

She’d never taken a sip. In all her visits, never once had I seen her touch something. Now that I thought about it, I’d never actually even seen her come through the door.

She was always just seated in the booth.

I’d assumed it was because she had a knack for arriving when I was busy or distracted, only half paying attention to the dining room, but maybe it was something else.

Sora hadn’t noticed her, and looking back now, whenever Claudine prattled on about the few customers who’d come in during her visits, they’d always ignored her. I’d assumed it was because she was being nosy, poking into their lives, making observations and offering unsolicited advice.

But maybe they hadn’t seen her.

“You’re ghosts?” The word felt strange on my tongue. “Dead?”

Claudine shrank into the booth, her face contorted into an exaggerated guilt, the way a child might be when their parents caught them lying. “Sorry, dearie.” The guilt morphed into a wince. “But oh, I do hate that word.”

“Technically,” Kieran crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall, “they’re phantoms. Ghosts aren’t real. At least not as far as I’m aware.”

“Phantoms?”

“Kind of like shadows of their former selves, captured and stuck in the Between. Most will slip away slowly, disappearing altogether within a few years,” he said, his tone nonchalant as if he was simply explaining how two plus two equals four, and not cracking my entire ontology at the seams. “Almost like a polaroid image in reverse. Happens most commonly with demons who’ve met a particularly violent death. Though, in very rare circumstances, I’ve encountered humans who’ve experienced it, too. The Undoing changed the game a bit, with humans absorbing the shadow magic. The specifics of it are a bit blurry now.” He shrugged. “Those of stronger resolve occasionally stick around a bit longer. It’s rare for them to make it to this realm, to interact with the living.” He shrugged. “Like I said, you’re an unusual girl, Mareena.”

Claudine stood up and walked over to me.

Well,walkedmight be a poor way to describe it. It was more like she floated, shifting through air, her feet hovering above the ground.

Eyes soft with concern, she pressed her hand to my cheek—only I didn’t feel it, I didn’t feel anything except a soft, breathy chill.

“You’re dead,” I said, the words stiff. My brain felt numb.

Claudine nodded. “I’m dead.”

Figured, finally had free access to a therapist and she was dead. Sora would at least get a kick out of that. “And ghosts are real?”

“Phantoms,” Kieran clarified.

I shifted my focus to him, stepping away from Claudine’s chilly not-touch. “But you can see them, too?”

I wasn’t sure whether this made me feel better or worse.

“Yes,” he said, his expression unreadable, “I can.”

“And you?” I let the question drift off for a moment.

His stare snagged on mine, holding me in those eyes until time seemed to stop. “I’m dead, too, yes.”

My breath caught as the different pieces of a puzzle I couldn’t yet identify started to shift into place.

The fact that, like Claudine and Greta, he didn’t seem bothered by doors or locks.

Did that mean he could shift through walls too?

I don’t feel warm.

Wasn’t that what he’d said earlier? I’d been struck by the odd phrasing at the time, but there’d been more pressing issues.

---