“I need help over here!”
That sounded like … Apollo?
“Is Apollo down there?” I ask.
Levi’s entire body turns rigid as his eyes find mine in the dark, his oval face bearing the horrors of trauma. “I’m sorry.”
My heart slows its pace, a faint flutter replacing the drumming behind my rib cage, as though my body is preparing for theshock it’s about to endure. Because when I step closer under Levi’s watch and peer into the deep end, the same horror that cracked his face rattles my bones.
Down there … on the hard rocks between the edge and the ocean lies the splattered, bloodied body of Mavis Rivera.
My half sister.
Dead.
CHAPTER 2
Aspen
Yearsago
“Boo!”
Mavis’s face, appearing underneath a flashlight in the dark, makes me jolt up and down in my seat.
“Ha ha! Gotcha!” She points and laughs like it’s funny I got scared.
We’re not supposed to stay up this late, but our parents are already fast asleep, so there’s no one to check on us. And Mavis sure loves playing games in the middle of the night.
“My turn,” I say, snatching the flashlight away from her.
Darkness surrounds us, with only the glow-in-the-dark stars on the door lighting her bedroom. I get up and roam about, hiding behind my chair while I wait for her to settle in fear. Then I pop up and say, “Boo!”
But she just laughs. “Good one.”
“Aren’t you ever scared?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Never.”
I roll my eyes. “No fair.”
She shrugs. “I can’t help it. There are far scarier things than your face.”
I snort and smile. “Thanks for the compliment.”
“I mean, I see floaty heads in Mom’s bedroom all the time.”
I grimace. “Floaty heads? What? Like actual ghosts?”
When she nods, my stomach almost turns over, and I lean in to whisper, “Youseeactual ghosts? Since when?”
“I don’t know. Forever, I guess.”
“That’s insane,” I say.
She shrugs. “You get used to it after a while.”
“Do they talk?”
