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“That’s not a bad idea.”
Then I felt the pull — almost physical, like I was being dragged.
“Bianca?” Raquel took a step forward. “You’re turning invisible.”
“Riverton! Don’t forget!” I called, before I lost the ability to make sound. ““ll make sure Lucas is there!”
“Bianca!” Raquel shouted again, but in an instant I was gone, somersaulting through the blue misty nothingness. I landed — or so it seemed, anyway. I looked down at soft green grass, then turned my face up to see Maxie standing above me. She wore a strange coat of some dark fur that looked more creepy than luxurious.
“What are you doing?” she demanded. “You’re siding with them against us now?”
“That thing had to be stopped.”
“That thing? Thing?’ Maxie looked like she might slap me. “I guess you might as well help Mrs. Bethany set the traps.”
A third voice interrupted our argument. “There’s a difference between what Bianca has done and Mrs. Bethany’s efforts.”
We turned to see Christopher. So I was in the land of lost things again — brought here, this time, against my will. Maxie had told me he was powerful, but this was my first evidence of exactly how much stronger Christopher was than the average wraith.
And yet it didn’t frighten me, because now I knew I had the power to defend myself. Any power Christopher now had, I might gain for myself in time — probably less time than it had taken him to learn.
The sunlight brightened Christopher’s dark brown hair, and his old — fashioned long coat was a deep bottle green. We were at the foot of a 161 building that looked like some sort of pagoda, except that a rattling elevate,d train straight out of the 191Os was rushing along behind it.
“I got her out of there before she could do anything worse,” Maxie said. So it was her, and not Christopher, who had intervened. “You shouldn’t have let her go back, anyway.”
“Maxine, calm yourself.” Christopher put his hands on her shoulders. “It is not my role to allow or disallow Bianca’s travels. She is freer than the rest of us. She does not share our limitations. l realize that is hard for you to accept, but you must.”
Maxie snapped, “I don’t see the difference between what Mrs. Bethany’s doing and what Bianca did. She’s turned against her fellow wraiths. That doesn’t matter?”
I said, “That thing — “
“Thing again!”
“It hurt people, Maxie,” I continued. “Nobody has the right to do that.”
Christopher nodded. “It is one matter to act in defense of others. Another to act from selfish desires — no matter how understandable those desires may be.”
He seemed so sad that I hated to ask more. And yet his sadness itself drew my attention more than anything else. It was like whatever Mrs. Bethany was doing wounded him personally, deeply. Did he care so deeply about the wraiths — all the wraiths? No, this was something that affected him, not as the leader of this ghostly world or whatever else he’d become, but as the man he had been.
A laughably bizarre idea occurred to me, and yet I couldn’t shake it. Christopher watched me closely, able to see that I was struggling with something. Even his smile was sad.
“You know. now.” he said. “Trust your insight. You will see many things here that would be hidden to you elsewhere.”
This world’s clarity had worked its magic on me again — or had it? Still, I couldn’t quite believe. I asked the less direct question, in case I was wrong: “Christopher … what anchors you to the world? Or .. . who?”
“My beloved wife, though I have not spoken to her in nearly two hundred years.·• Was he saying what I thought he was saying? “Then You’re — ”
“Christopher Bethany,” he said. “Of course, you already know my wife.”
Chapter Sixteen
“MRS. BETHANY IS YOUR WIFE,” I REPEATED. Although I’d guessed it myself, I couldn’t fully wrap my mind around the information. The leader of the wraiths, married to one of the most powerful, ruthless vampires in existence? “Then why does she hate the wraiths so much?” Surely if she was married to a wraith, she’d have to like them a little. But maybe not. Maybe they’d broken up or something. A divorce would probably be extra — nasty after two hundred years of marriage.
But Christopher shook his head. “I have not spoken to her since my death.”
“Why not? Is it because she became a vampire? Did she — was she the one who killed you?” I corrected myself. “No, of course not. You said she was the only person loyal to you.”
“This is my history, mine alone,” Christopher said, and his voice held a sharpness I hadn’t heard since his first frightening manifestations at Evernight. Sensing my tension, though, he visibly calmed himself. “And yet, it concerns you now, and those close to you. It is not wrong for you to ask.”
