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“By killing me?” Charity’s voice had changed; real pain had slipped in. “Again?”
Balthazar didn’t answer. “You’re going to let Lucas go. You’re going to stop invading his dreams forever. If you ever break your word — ever — I promise you, I’ll know, and You’ll be sorry.”
Charity tried again to claw at him, but without the same strength. I could smell burning hair. “It hurts. Balthazar, it’s hot.”
“You’re going to let Lucas go.” Balthazar never flinched, but I saw the dampness shining in his eyes. Despite everything, he wanted to protect his little sister — and despite that, he was willing to do this, for Lucas and for me.
After a long moment, she whimpered, almost too quietly to hear, “Okay.”
“Swear it.”
“I swear! Now stop! Just stop!”
Balthazar pulled Charity away from the fire and shoved her toward the far corner. Soot had blackened her apron and her cheeks, where I could see the outlines of tears. “This is for her, isn’t it?” She pointed at me, her hand shaking. Her face was so terribly young. “Did you pick another girl to save because you can’t save me?”
“I can’t save you,” he repeated dully. “But I love you, Charity.”
She threw the fireplace brush at him and started to cry. That was probably Charity’s version of “I love you, too.”
As she wept brokenly beside the fireplace, Balthazar rose and walked out, past the now — mute, reactionless forms of his parents. I followed him, saying nothing at first. He paused by the dog for a few more seconds, watching it sleep.
When I dared to speak again, I said, “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Yeah. I did.” Balthazar pulled his fur — trimmed cloak more tightly around hims·elf. “Charity wouldn’t have stopped any other way.”
“Will she keep her word?”
“Yes. Strangely enough, when she actually makes a promise, she keeps it.”
We began walking farther away from the house into the woods. The air smelled so fresh and clean — there would have been no po!Jution yet, no 208 engines, no smog. “I know that was hard for you,” I said. “To violate the bond in that way. To hurt her.” Balthazar winced, but he said, “I did what I had to do. Maybe Lucas can find some peace now.”
“Do you think so?”
“Maybe,” he said again, and I knew that Balthazar had seen the same desperation in Lucas that I had.
Then he lifted his head, looking toward the distance, and a small smile flickered upon his face. I followed his gaze toward another cottage in the very far distance. “What’s that?”
“That’s where Jane lived.” It was the ·only time he’d ever openly acknowledged his long — lost love to me. I’d never learned what had gone wrong for them, but I knew that his passion for her had endured the four hundred years from then until now.
Greatly daring. I said, “Do you want to go see her? I could leave.”
“She would only be a dream.” Balthazar looked down at me sadly. “I’m done with dreams.”
We took hands for a moment, the briefest of touches. Then I willed myself up and out, toward waking.
When I appeared again in the dorm room, Balthazar remained asleep. Now, though, he wasn’t dreaming; he just rested. I brushed a hand against his dark curls in gratitude.
The next day, a cold hush had fallen over the school. Winter’s first hard frost had silvered the trees and the ground, but after last night. that seemed less like nature taking its course and more as though the wraiths had claimed the entire world for their own. The vampire students, mostly petrified of the wraiths, kept to their rooms; even the human students — usually calmer about these things, given that they came from haunted homes — seemed disquieted by the possessions. A few kids had already dropped out; we might not have to work too hard to get the rest of the humans to leave. As I zipped around the school. free at last to move around without fear. I saw almost no one in the hallways and heard no talking or laughter. Frozen, I thought. Frozen in place.
Mrs. Bethany remained in her carriage house. Once or twice I saw her silhouetted against her windows. Although I doubted she was scared of the wraiths. or of anything. she had apparently decided to remain in a structure that was completely safe from ghostly invasion.
Had she discovered that her traps were missing yet? If so, she gave no sign. In the meantime. her absence from the school building gave us a brief window to meet without worrying about being observed.
Everyone gathered in my parents’ apartments. Vic sprawled on the sofa, a slight fuzz on his cheeks from where he’d failed to shave. Next to him, Ranulf and Patrice drank cups of the coffee my mother had made for us. Lucas took the chair at the farthest end of the room, like he thought my parents might chuck him out at any second, but Mom brought him coffee, too. I stayed near him, and Maxie dared to materialize right at the doorway, where everybody could see her.
“Next weekend will be our best chance,” Mom said as she set the coffeepot down. “Mrs. Bethany sometimes takes advantage of Riverton trips to leave the school for a couple of days. We can encourage that.”
Vic brightened. “Yeah, and with the rest of the humans in town on the Friday trip, less chance of us getting found out, right? Oh, man, I just called people humans.”
