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They stepped off the escalator and out of the way of the commuters. It had been a long time since Augustus used magic to feel out the dead, but he remembered the form of it.
He focused his mind, and his magic spread out of him like smoke, hunting for the energy that didn't belong to living things. He stumbled as the feedback overwhelmed him. Mara's hand touched him lightly on the chest to steady him.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, just didn't realize there would be so many ghosts. There is something not quite dead coming from this way," he said, and she quickly removed her hand.
Augustus followed the greasy, clinging aura of violence down to platform three. A girl in a black hijab was leaning against a cream-tiled wall, smoking a cigarette and dressed in a dirty leather trench coat.
"That's her," he said, dispelling the tracking magic. He was about to summon the banishing spell when Mara stepped in front of him.
"You don't want to know why she's trying to convince people to kill themselves?" she asked.
"I don't need to. I only need to stop her."
Mara's frown was so full of judgment, he stepped back from her. "What?"
"Let me talk to her. I can feel heartache coming from her," she said and left him staring after her. Restless spirits could be dangerous, and he wasn't about to let Mara leap in front of a train because she had a tender spot for grieving creatures.
"Hello, I'm Mara," she said to the girl. She would barely have been eighteen years old when she died, and she gave Mara a sad-eyed glare.
"Do you want to know a secret, Mara?" she asked.
"Yes."
"You see that tunnel mouth? There is a portal to another world there if you have the courage to get to it," the ghost said.
"Really? How do you know?" Mara asked, studying the black open maw of the tunnel.
"Seen it for myself." The ghost stubbed out her cigarette on the wall beside her, flicked her butt down onto the tracks, and lit another one. "In the second before the train hits the platform, there is a flash of light. All you have to do is time your jump, and you can make it through."
"Is that what you did?" Mara asked softly.
"Yes, and it worked." The girl sucked on the cigarette and blew smoke at them.
"How did you know about the portal?" Augustus said, and the ghost girl glared at him.
"There was a man. He was wearing this jacket, smoking this cigarette. He saw me crying and told me about it," she said and shrugged.
"Why were you crying?" Mara asked as Augustus was about to demand to know where the man went.
The ghost's face crumpled. "I loved her so much. I only wanted to tell her. I knew it was impossible. She freaked out, and when the man said I could go to another world, I thought anything would be better than feeling this way."
Mara reached out and somehow took the ghost girl's hand. Augustus didn't know how she was doing it unless she was feeding it enough energy to become corporeal? There was too much about Mara that was impossible for Augustus's liking.
Mara gave the girl a kind smile. "I understand. Hearts can lie, but when they don't, and they get crushed all the same, there is no worse feeling. Do you want to go to your other world now?"
The ghost girl nodded. "I do, but I can't until I can convince someone else to jump and take my place. Will you do it?"
"Absolutely not," Augustus hissed.
"I don't need to. Give me your hand, sweetheart, and let's talk," Mara said to the girl. The ghost took it, and they walked to the very end of the platform.
Augustus had no idea what they were whispering about and thought it was probably for the best. The banishing spell was tangled around his fingertips, burning to be released.
Mara gave him a slight nod before she turned and kissed the ghost girl on the mouth. The banishment left his hand, hitting the ghost girl and sending her in front of the tunnel.
Augustus grabbed Mara's coat, pulling her back into him as the oncoming train roared in.
