Page 24 of One Last Touch

“What?”

“Ghosts are not infinite. I don’t know how you can see what nobody else can, but to interact with your world it costs us energy. To hold your hand, to brush a leaf out of your hair… it uses up a little more of my soul until eventually there’ll be nothing left.”

I stilled, biting my lip and focusing on the pain to stop my tears from flowing. “Then why do it,” I whispered, scared to know the answer, and he laughed brokenly.

“Because I do care, even though I shouldn’t. It hurts far more to see you and be unable to touch you than to die a true death with my hand in yours.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing, tilting my face up to the sky and letting the rain blend with the tears I couldn’t hold back any longer.

“You’re dead.”

“Yes.”

“Ms Weathers too.”

“Yes.”

“Who killed you?”

“Georgina…”

“Who did this to you? Tell me.”

It felt like every element of the storm turned its ear to us at that moment. Like it was waiting, daring, Sage to say the words, to name his murderer.

“If I tell you, he’ll kill you.”

“Did he kill my mother too?”

Sage hesitated, his eyes soft and apologetic on mine as he nodded.

“You knew this whole time?” I wasn’t sure how to feel. Betrayed, yes. But also, how could he have told me? I know who killed your mum, because they killed me too sounded insane.

“Yes. I’m sorry, we’ve been trying to protect you—drawing him away from your room every night and keeping him distracted until I could convince you to get out of here.”

I smiled wryly as I blinked back more tears. “And I have been making it so easy on you.”

He laughed shakily, placing his hand next to mine in the dirt.. “Yes. You’ve been a royal pain in my arse.”

“Is that why you’re fading?”

“Partially,” he admitted and a stab of guilt sliced through me so cleanly I felt nauseous. “Whenever I’ve been unlucky enough for him to catch up to me, he takes my energy. It makes him stronger, increases his ability to cross the divide between the living and the dead even when the sun is up. It also makes me weaker.”

“I never asked you to do that.”

“I know.” He shrugged. “I wanted to.”

“Do you still think I should leave?”

He looked away from me, back out at the manor waiting for us to come home. “It’s the thing that I want the most and am terrified of at the same time.”

“I don’t want to go.” He wouldn’t ask me to stay, I understood that now, but he couldn’t force me to leave either. “You need to tell me everything.”

“It’s dangerous,” he warned.

“It’s dangerous for me here anyway,” I insisted.

He nodded slowly before standing up and offering me his hand. I frowned down at it.

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