Something was wrong.
I sat up, gasping for air. The ring burned hot in my hand, and I dropped it in the dew-dampened grass beside me. I felt stiff and sore, like someone had jumbled all of my bones around under my skin before setting them back where they belonged.
Something was very, very wrong.
I shook my head, trying to remember something, anything. But the last thing I could remember was curling up on the sofa in my basement, clutching one of the worn pillows to my stomach before drifting off to sleep. And then I’d started dreaming so vividly…
Around me, the trees rose like dark sentinels, stretching into an endless sky, keeping me trapped. The forest was unnaturally silent around me—not a cricket chirped, and no branches creaked in the light breeze. I shivered. My knit shorts and tank top didn’t offer me much protection from the cool night air.
I was alone.
I drew my legs up to my chest and buried my face in my knees, forcing myself to think. Panicking wouldn’t help.
Think.
Somehow, I had ended up in the woods, alone and in my pajamas. Barefoot.
Think.
It was still the middle of the night, meaning no one would be looking for me for hours yet.
Think.
I had no idea where I was, what direction home was from here. If I started walking, not only would I probably end up deeper in the forest, I might fall in a hole and break my leg and be left unable to move. No one would know where I was, so I’d probably end up starving to death, unless a bear came along and ate me first. Either way, I was going to die out here. Alone.
My heart skittered in my chest. Alone, like Brit and Yvette and Erin.
So much for not panicking.
I forced a breath in and out. All I had to do was wait here until it was light enough to walk home.
In my bare feet.
I wiggled my toes against the grass, wondering how. I must have walked—barefoot—all the way out here in my sleep, which was so unsettling I couldn’t even follow that train of thought, considering I didn’t even know where here was.
“Amelia…” It was as soft as a whisper.
The hair on the back of my neck stood at attention.
Maybe I wasn’t alone.
No. No. I was just imagining things.
I thought of Erin, face down in the water.
“Amelia…”
It came from behind me. I jumped to my feet and whipped around, not knowing what to expect.
I didn’t expect to see her.
She floated a few feet away from me, her bare feet hovering inches above the grass. She didn’t flicker, didn’t flit from place to place. She didn’t even glow as brightly as she had before—she was just bright enough for me to see her clearly in the dark forest. A pale pearly sheen seemed to come from under her skin.
Marin stood before me, almost as real and solid as myself. She was still as young and beautiful as she’d been in my dreams, with black hair hanging nearly to her waist and bright red lips curved into a small smile. Her long white dress still twisted around her, like she was standing in a wind that only she could feel. Her blue eyes glittered in the darkness, like two frozen sapphires staring back at me.
Impossible.
“Amelia,” she said again. Her voice sounded like it was coming from far away. She lifted her arm, and I had a sudden flash of the dream, of a beating heart on the ground and hot blood on my face.
Fear spiked in my chest. I stepped back, away from her, right onto something hard and sharp. The ring. I picked it up, clutching it until the edges dug into my palm. If need be, I could throw it at her. It wasn’t much in the way of protection, but it was all I had.
Her face twisted, and she drew her hand back like I’d slapped her. “Amelia,” she said again, her words dripping with pain. “Help me. Please.”
“What happened to you? Why are you different?”
“Help me,” she repeated.
“This was yours,” I said, holding the ring out on my palm. I took a step closer to her. “Wasn’t it?”
Her smile turned cold, and she turned her palms to face me.
“What happened to you?” I asked again.
Bright blue-white light erupted from within her, filling the clearing and blinding me. I threw my arm up over my eyes, and then I was the one screaming, screaming until I dropped to my knees and realized that she was gone.
And I was alone.
“Amelia!”
I jerked my head up. This voice was deep and desperate and familiar. Charlie.
Off in the distance, a single beam of light bobbed through the trees, moving quickly toward me. I scrambled to my feet and waved my arms, even though it was so dark that I doubted he could see me. Relief flooded me as he crashed closer. The light grew brighter as he moved, bright blue against the inky black forest. It wasn’t a flashlight after all, I realized, but the same blue-white light he’d used in the tunnel under the ruins, a brilliant sphere floating just ahead of him. The same blue-white light that had erupted from Marin.
His magic.
I moved towards him, and before I knew it, he had his arms wrapped around me, his face buried in my hair. I pressed my face against his chest, and his heartbeat echoed through me as he struggled to catch his breath. I let the sobs burst lose from my chest. “She was here,” I cried. “She was here.”
“Who was?” he asked against my hair. “Who was here?”
“The ghost. Marin. Whoever she is,” I said through my tears. “I think—I think—”
He kissed me, stopping the words at my lips. When we parted, I stepped back and stared up at him. “I’m so happy to see you,” I said.
“You’re okay?” he asked. He moved his hands from my waist to my chin, tilting my face up to his. He looked even worse than he had earlier at the vigil, the blue-white of his witch light leeching all of the color from his face.
I nodded. “I’m fine,” I said. “How did you know where to find me?”
“Your mom called me panicking. She couldn’t find you. I’ve been looking for you for an hour. Your uncle has half the town out looking for you.” His voice was hoarse, like he’d been shouting for me that entire time. He leaned closer. “What are you doing out here?”
“I don’t know,” I said, and I didn’t. The last thing I remembered was falling asleep on the couch. “I just woke up, and I was out here.”
“You’re still sleepwalking?” His fingers traced my jaw, and I leaned closer to him. I was so tired. So, so tired.
“No. Yes. I don’t know,” I replied, my voice barely a whisper. “I’ve been having the strangest dreams.” I pressed the ring into his hand. “I think the ring is doing something to me.”
He frowned at me. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But just—take it. Please.”
He nodded and closed his fingers around it. He tucked it into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “I have to call your mom,” he said. “She’s been worried sick.” He redialed his most recent call and pressed the phone to his ear. “I found her. We’re about a half-mile from the house. We’ll be back in about twenty minutes.” He gave me a faint smile and said, “Yeah. I will.” He hung up the phone and wrapped his arms around me, like he couldn’t quite believe I was there.
“You’re shaking,” he said. He shrugged out of his sweatshirt and handed it to me. I tugged it over my head and let myself be wrapped in the soft fabric, still warm from his skin. It smelled like spice and pine and Charlie. “You’re okay,” he said. “You’re going to be okay.”
It was too dark to see his face, to see what he was thinking. Did he think I was crazy?
Was I crazy?
“You’re okay,” he said again, capturing my lips with his own. The light around us burned even brighter as he crushed me to him, his hands slipping under the sweatshirt and resting on the skin of my back. “You scared the crap out of me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s not your fault,” he said. He pushed my hair back from my face. “I just realized how easily I could lose you. And I don’t know if I could survive that.”
“Charlie—”
“Just let me finish,” he said. “I think—I think I’m falling in love with you, Amelia.”
I think I’m falling in love with you.
I tugged his head down to me and kissed him with everything I had.
I didn’t think. I knew.
I was in love with Charlie Blue too.