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“You open the door and step through. There’s no code. Nothing dangerous out there. Just a field to give these factories some privacy. You only mentioned that you had to get over on Halstead Hill. What specific house are you going to? Might depend on which way Melbor takes you through the landfill. All those houses are hoity-toity and there’s a giant wall separating their road from the landfill. They don’t want to have to see it.”

“It’s the mansion. The one with a gate.”

He paled and for a ghost, that said a lot. “Uh.” His eyes darted behind my shoulders. “Maybe not mention that to Melbor. Just say you need to go to the east corner. Good luck.” He went back through the door.

Melbor talked a mile a minute, cheerfully telling me how his dad killed him, but it was okay because he got to haunt his dad until one of Melbor’s younger brothers killed their dad in return. There was a whole drama because his dad didn’t cross over and he became a ghost too. His dad wanted to have a forgiving reunion because now that he was a ghost, he could see he did his son wrong by murdering him. But Melbor wasn’t the forgiving type so he made up a lie that his mom was also a ghost. (She wasn’t.) But his dad murdered her too and got excited that he could get together with his ex on the other side, so Melbor made up a place where she was and he never saw his abusive dad again.

We were nearing a giant wall by the time he got to that part, and I was afraid he would launch into another story.

“And here we are.” He pointed to a door in the wall. “The door opens on this side. On the other side, you’ll need a code to get through.”

“What’s the code?”

“I could tell you, but it wouldn’t matter. You’d still need me to get you back, so I’ll just wait here.”

“Are you sure? It could be a while.”

He shrugged. “If there’s one thing about being a ghost, we got time.” He pointed upward. “I’ll be up there. It’s my routine. You have fun. Wait. What house are you going to again?”

I’d already been warned, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about Melbor. I didn’t know if I liked him and I didn’t want to disappoint him or if I was a little creeped out by all the murderers he was related to (though I had no place to judge) and I didn’t want to risk making him mad.

“Not the one with the gate.”

He relaxed at hearing the last part. “Oh. That’s good. You don’t want to go there.”

I waved at him, went through the door, and promptly turned up the hill because as soon as I saw the street, Cassian was right. At the far end, on the highest part of the hill was the only house that could be considered a mansion. They were all big houses where probably multi-millionaires lived, but none matched the size of the mansion that was lit up, with the gate wide open as cars were entering. Nice cars too.

Who was this Lee guy?

5

Dance music blared onto the street and got louder as I turned into the gate, entering a courtyard where all the cars were parked. People were getting out, wearing black and red. I was assuming they were colors for the neighboring school, along with a raven for the mascot judging by the letterman jacket on the guy in front of me.

“Yo, man. How's it going?” He slapped hands with a guy at the door, and once he and the girl with him stepped inside, it was me and the host. Or I was guessing since he was standing inside the door, greeting everyone with a cocky grin.

When he saw me, he went still. His eyes narrowed, just slightly, before they tracked down and up my body.

A wave of tingles? Nerves? Excitement? I wasn’t sure what those were, but they hit me from his appreciative look and he stepped closer, holding his hand out. “You must be Cassian’s girl. Cole?”

Cassian’s girl.

“Real name is Colette, but that’s the nickname I told Cass to call me.”

“Cole it is.”

I liked that. Maybe more than I should’ve, but I stomped it down. “You’re Lee?”

“I am.” He was still holding his hand out, so I shook it.

As soon as our hands touched, a wave of new sensations took over, sweeping through me and I almost gasped out loud. Holy wow. I wasn’t—what was that? His smirk was no longer cocky, just dark, enticing. Alluring. I found myself stepping closer to him, leaning toward him as if I needed…needed something. I didn’t know what. There was a pull in the middle of my gut and it kept wanting me to get as close to him as possible.

I liked Cassian.

I thought…?

What was going on with me?

Cassian was golden. Golden tan. Golden blond hair. Bright blue eyes. He had the pretty boy looks and this guy was almost the opposite in every way except he also had golden tan skin. Intense hazel eyes. Dark black hair, short on the sides and with a little curl on top. High cheekbones. A square jawline, that he was rubbing a hand over right now. He wasn’t dressed in any way different from the others. Trendy jeans. Sneakers. A hockey sweatshirt that said Ravens High Hockey on it. A raven emblem was on it, underneath two crisscrossing hockey sticks, a puck between them. A line of wings flew out from the top of the sticks. It was simple, but cool looking.