Page 70 of With All My Haunted Heart

I nod. God, Dea knows me so well. This business would never survive without her. “I’ll be in next Tuesday. I can’t wait to hear about all the projects you’ve done while I was gone.”

Dea smiles. “Protocols and automations galore. You’ll love it.”

“I’m sure I will.” I hook the bag of crystals over my shoulder. “I should…” I gesture for the door, and the moment she nods, I push out into the chilly afternoon.

There’s a lot to do before I can return to the manor.

A lot to do before I can return to my real life, back here in the city. Working with Dea. Trying to rebuild my business back to what it was before C3 weaseled their way into my turf.

I shake the thought away. I have four ghosts to select and transport, and only until Thursday morning—at the latest—to do it.

Everything else will have to wait.

“Let me get this straight.” Exhaustion clings to my limbs as Monday night tips into early Tuesday morning. I trace a vitality sigil along my chest, and the corresponding jolt of energy is better than a cup of coffee injected straight into my veins. “You got run over by a reindeer on Christmas Eve? Like the song?”

Betty, a grandmotherly white woman with thin curls piled on top of her head, shoots me a mischievous grin. “Well, it wasn’t a reindeer, exactly. Just a regular ol’ buck. And I ran into it on December twenty-third, but those details ruin the fun. It counts.”

Her humor about her death is weirdly endearing. She’s the first ghost tonight who’s passed the initial parameters for Midnight Manor. The recently abandoned hotel is crawling with ghosts. I’ve talked to a dozen before Betty.

I give her the rundown on the B&B, and when she seems interested, I shift to the Willa of it all. “One of the ghost residents is a ten-year-old girl.”

“Poor thing.” Betty tsks. “So young. What happened?”

“Brain cancer.” My chest feels tight, a mixture of the late night and the memory of the hospital. “How do you feel about sharing your afterlife with a child?”

Betty sighs, but it’s a warm thing. “It’s been decades since my grandkids have all grown and moved away. It would be nice to have a little one to fuss over again.”

I pull the first orb of lepidolite from the bag. “Well then, Betty, it’s my pleasure to offer you a home at Midnight Manor.”

I manage a few hours of sleep in my car before continuing on to a cemetery that’s rumored to be more haunted than average. With every ghost I interview, I hear Elle’s voice in my head. The way she questioned those first few spirits. The way she talked to Willa after the hospital, trying to include her even though her niece couldn’t respond with her voice. The love Elle has for her family.

The trust she’s placed in me.

All the worried texts she’s sent that I’ve ignored.

I think of Xander and dance parties with the ghosts after a tough day.

Of Laney and the friendships they made with Colton and the Jennifers, which I ruined. I’m doing my best to find people who they’ll click with. But not replacements. There’s no replacing someone, not even a ghost.

Three locations end with no suitable manor residents.

The sun is setting on Wednesday before I meet Noah, a Korean American trans man who died a few years ago, with a wife and kids he wants me to invite to Midnight Manor for a visit if he agrees to move there. His warm demeanor and ease around kids make him an obvious yes.

Two down…two to go, but not a long time to find them.

I can’t stop. Not yet. I won’t go back to Xander and Elle without everything I’ve promised them.

Even if it takes all night.

Chapter

Twenty-One

My back is screaming.

I haven’t slept more than a handful of hours in the last two days.

But I did it. I fucking did it.