Theo huffed. “Don’t be such a drag, Craig. This place is like…notorious.” He turned to me and Jetty. “Did you guys know that in one of the newest editions of those spooky places in New Jersey, they listed Beckoning Pond?”
The older, sometimes cranky, ghost, Norman, who lived out there appeared next to him. “Is this young man correct?”
Since I couldn’t answer him directly, I said to Theo, “I saw that. Even bought a copy.”
He nodded. “Me, too. Did you know people used to come out here to swim and drown? It all went back to…”
As he trailed on, telling me a story I knew so well—both the parts the author had somehow gotten right and the parts that were bullshit—I watched Norman out of the corner of my eye. “Drat and good riddance. We’re going to get overrun by those paranormally types again. They have no respect. None of them. They’ll tromp around out here, ruining the grass and leaving their trash. We don’t need that, Jetty.” He held a fist up in the air like he was giving a war cry. “You need to tell Chance to put upNo Trespassingsigns. Nip it in the bud before it starts.”
Jetty hummed in agreement, fitting in perfectly to Theo’s tale, even though he was responding to Norman. Okay, maybe inviting the boys hadn’t been my best idea. I wanted to feed Theo’s inner paranormal geeky side because I understood it to my bones, but trying to hold this many conversations at once—without acknowledging one of them—was bound to get awkward.
Bessie and her brother, Beau, along with several of the other spirits started appearing around us, trying to figure out Norman’s latest rant. Theo stopped mid-sentence and shivered. “Brr. Did you guys feel that breeze? It was so cold.”
“Oh! I know! Pick me,” Craig said. Then, in a sarcastic, spooky voice, he continued, “It’s the dead. They’re amongst us.”
Bessie cackled. Jetty snickered. Norman glared. Trixie’s face fell with heartbreak, and Stevie wrapped an arm around her. Buck stared at them, for some reason. And Theo’s gaze fell to the ground as his face went cherry red, making his freckles standout, and my thoughts went to Sky. I scrubbed a hand down my face. Why did everything remind me of my new boyfriend?
Needing to get control of the situation, I smacked my hands together in one giant clap. Everyone looked at me. And I mean, every. single. body. Whether they still had a heartbeat or not. “Why don’t Theo and I go sit in the firepit area and talk all things paranormal? Just the two of us,” I said pointedly, for the spirits’ benefit. “Craig, Jetty loves to fish, too, and rarely gets a chance lately, so why don’t you two do that?”
Theo gave me a tentative smile. “You sure you don’t mind? I’m sure you have better things to do than entertain me.”
Jetty smiled at him. “Kid, I promise you, he wouldn’t have invited you out here if he didn’t want someone to geek out with. Better you than me. I was never really into that stuff, but…” He trailed off and gestured toward me.
A genuine smile lit Craig’s face up for the first time since he’d arrived. “Yes. Exactly. Like, I think the podcasts and movies and shit are cool, but not because I believe any of that crap. But Theo’s into it, so what can you do?” He shrugged.
Jetty tipped his chin at me, chatting up Craig while he directed him toward the edge of the pond. I pointed over at the firepit area near the Hollowed Tree, and Theo smiled happily, ready to hear a ghost story or two, I imagined. And I had them. I just had to figure out what to say and what to leave out. This wasn’t about actually revealing the truth of the other side to him, but feeding his curiosity and fueling his desire to look deeper into the world around him.
Once he was in front of me, and Craig’s and Jetty’s backs were to me, I flicked my fingers at the still hovering ghosts. It would’ve been nice to have Buck or Stevie—or even both—stay out here with me, but not if that meant it was going to be all of them—a whole spooktacular party. They were too much and too overwhelming with Theo with me.
“Come on, y’all,” Bessie said.
“Why should we leave? This is our home,” Norman argued.
Buck shook his head at Norman, then said with the patience of a saint, “You don’t have to actually go anywhere. Just disappear and quit yapping so Kingston can mentor that boy.”
“Why do I—” He cut off and disappeared when Bessie grabbed his hand and…what the hell did she do? Could they make each other—no. I didn’t even want to know.
Trixie looked to the side like she was listening to someone, then waved at me, and then they were all gone with one easy poof.Phew.
Theo stood in the middle of the log bench seating and spun in a slow circle. “This place feels…different.”
My focus snapped completely onto him. I’d always felt that way, too, even as a young child when my gran used to bring me out here with her. Not everyone picked up on that, though. On the energy and the vibrations that were amplified here unlike anywhere else I’d ever been.
When Buck and Harry had made things right with the spirit in the Hollowed Tree, I’d expected to stop being pulled to this place. I thought it had been over. But up until Sky first met me in the Dream-veil, I’d continued to visit this exact spot. Not the tree itself, but this spot where the ancestors had convened to express gratitude for all they’d been given.
“Let’s sit down,” I told him.
We picked logs next to each other, and as I sat, I noticed a tattoo—that of a snake wrapped around a crow—the same emblem that I’d seen on the grimoire earlier. The Crowley Family Grimoire. “Where did you get that?” I asked, staring intently at the symbol right above his wrist.
He looked down. “What?”
“The tattoo,” I said, laughing uncomfortably. I couldn’t believe I’d missed the thick, black tattoo on his skin. I couldn’tbelieve that he was attached to magic, and I’d never realized it. I’d known both boys most of their lives, and Craig was more the type that struck me as a tattoo kinda guy.
Theo’s nose scrunched adorably. Damn, he reminded me so much of Sky. I missed him already. “Kingston, I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
He held up his hand, turning it over like he wanted to prove there was nothing there. But I saw it. The exact symbol, emblem…no—it was the family crest. Their magical signature.
Maybe his parents didn’t know he had it, so he was trying to play it off. As I reached out to poke it, it shimmered on his skin. From dark black to blue-black with glitter to effervescent before it was just…gone. Uhhh…
