Craaaaaaacccck!
I jump, my eyes shooting open.
Lily lets out a terrified, muffled squeal, her head hidden beneath a quilt.
“What the fuck was that?” Ryke asks. He glances out the floor-length window, maybe worried the lake house took damage from the storm.
“It’s electrostatic discharge,” Connor tells him. “Also known as lightning.”
Lights flicker on and off until a bulb cracks and they all blink out. I think we might have just lost power. A chill snakes down my spine. Could this maybe not have happened during a séance? Coincidence, right?
“Ohmygod,” Lily slurs in a panicked whisper.
“Old Aunt Margot?” Daisy calls out, the only one with her eyes still shut. “Can you hear us?” If I was just listening to her, I’d think she was having fun. Zero percent fear. But it’s hard not to notice how her collarbones protrude like she’s holding in a breath. Her knuckles whiten, gripped to her knees.
Whhhaaaaap!
Lily screams at the new noise, the one coming from upstairs.Oh God, no.
I shoot to my feet, my focus drilling on the staircase. I swear the sound originated from my bedroom, and maybe I’m just being overly paranoid, here, but Garrison is alone and there’s a vicious thunderstorm outside.
Horrible images of tree limbs skewering windows and impalinghisbody ravage my mind. GruesomeFinal Destinationworthy fears that most likely aren’t coming true, but it takes all of my energy not to run upstairs right now.
“What was that noise?” Lily asks. “Connor?”
Connor Cobalt stares at the ceiling. “An object fell.”
“By a ghost?”
Unless the ghost’s name is Garrison Abbey…it’s no ghost.
Thuuuump!is accompanied by a long, sharp groan.
Garrison.
I don’t even take account of the shocked, horrified faces around me. My ears ring, my focus tunneling as footsteps pad along the floorboards upstairs.
“Moffy.” Lily bolts towards the staircase, towards her son’s room, baby monitor in her clutch.
They think there’s an intruder. Oh God. I mobilize, springing into action.
“Lily wait—” Lo runs after his wife, just as I sprint in the opposite direction. Footsteps gather behind me.
I’m being followed by RoseandConnor, but I don’t stop. Not even as I hurriedly ascend another staircase on the west side of the lake house. Racing towardsmybedroom and the source of the noise.
Without power, the second-floor hallway is encased in darkness. But even in the pitch-black, I know where I’m going. My pulse hammers in my ears.Please be okay.
Please be okay.
I land at my bedroom and turn the knob. Locked.
A glow from a cellphone flashlight abruptly illuminates the door—and me.
I squint from the sudden brightness. Connor holds up his cell from his six-foot-four height, and the glow bears down on me like I’m under the brightest spotlight.
Cover blown.
I don’t care.
