“SPREAD THE LIGHT,” SHE MUTTERED.
And a fusion bomb of energy went off below, followed by the unnatural hisses and groans of dozens of Lost Souls—the newer, weaker ones being eviscerated, and the older, stronger ones fleeing. Moments later the mist dissipated, the helicopter stopped sputtering, and the path to rescuing Helena was clear.
Kristina looked pleased but she wasn’t smiling. “I hope any that got away slowly and painfully decompose into nothing.”
The colonel looked at her somberly. “Charlie will be remembered for all eternity for his bravery.”
“We have visuals on the boat,” Brickson said, shaking his head. “Unbelievable. All the data, for nothing. You ready to go down, Monty?”
As Monty was lowered down on a line to rescue Helena, Archie went back down to be with her too. He seemed to regret his choice with the spotlight shining over his body, though.
“Yikes,” he said materializing next to us. “I look rough.”
“Yeah,” Kristina said, “ghosts don’t normally like to hang out near their bodies for a reason.”
“Because the body starts to look like a blistered toe?”
“Something like that,” she said.
We watched in silence as the rescuer secured Helena and was lifted back up to the helicopter. She was unconscious, and Brickson went to work on her, taking her vitals, hooking her up to an IV, and assessing her body for injuries. Meanwhile, the rescuer went down again to collect Archie’s body. It was an eerie scene as the helicopter hovered over his body, the rotor’s force creating a small storm in the waters below, the powerful spray hitting my face.
“What do you remember about the day you went missing?” Kristina asked Archie, trying to distract him from the retrieval.
“Feeling totally out of control,” he said. “We weren’t supposed to take the boat out—I’d actually promised my dad I wouldn’t—but Helena really wanted to go for a cruise, so I agreed, thinking it would only be for thirty minutes or so.”
“Oh no,” Kristina said, grimacing. “Breaking a promise is the textbook example of bad karma. It makes people extremely vulnerable to dark influences, and your situation was that much worse being on open water with some Lost Souls lurking nearby. I’m guessing you lost control of the boat pretty quickly?”
“It was like we got caught in a tornado or something,” he said, his eyes wide. “Everything went topsy-turvy, we were flailing all over the place, and next thing we know, we’re stranded in the middle of nowhere. I honestly thought we would be rescued in just a few hours. We hadn’t gone that far from shore.”
“And then no one came for you?”
“Yep. And hours turned to days, except I had no concept of day or night because I felt like I began to lose my mind.”
She nodded. “I think you did a little bit. The dreams of the dying are said to have special properties; I think that’s one reason you were able to communicate with Baylor.”
“You knew I was dying?”
She looked embarrassed. “I suspected it.”
“Is that why you looked so sad when we first met?”
She frowned. “I didn’t mean to look sad. I just couldn’t help but feel like I knew what was going to happen to you, and I didn’t think it was fair.”
“Well, you turned out to be right.”
“Unfortunately.”
* * *
Helena was shocked for a number of reasons when she finally came to.
First, the confirmation that Archie was dead.
Second, the mere fact she was alive at all—she’d been convinced she was going to die on that boat.
Third, the news that a boy medium named Baylor Bosco had aided in her search-and-rescue. She had no memory of me. My conversations with her had only been part of Archie’s dreams.
Her parents were equally shocked to discover that it was their darling daughter who’d been the one to want to take the boat out. They’d been so convinced it was Archie; the thought it may have been Helena had never crossed their minds.
I wasn’t there for any of these revelations, though. I found out the personal stuff from a few phone calls with Helena and her parents in the days that followed, and many other details I’d learned on the news. My face was, once again, plastered across the news stations; this time I was being touted as a national hero.
That title was ridiculous, but it did help me out with Jack.
His friends, though still scarred from the experience at the house, seemed to think it was cool that I’d helped find those two lost kids that had been all over the news.
Jack had invited them over again, and they’d agreed—but not at night. They’d stick to hanging out at the Bosco residence during the daytime. I thought that was a fair compromise.
* * *
I no longer had the amulet, which Kristina didn’t see as a problem at all.
“It was never meant to be permanent, anyway,” she said as we walked home from school, “and I can’t help but think it did more harm than good.”
“But we were able to save Helena with it and destroy those demons.”
“That’s true,” she said, “but I can’t shake a feeling.” She furrowed her brows. “I’ve been thinking so much about it. Archie’s dying dreams were one reason why you might have connected with him, but that can’t be the only reason. There are a lot of dying people in the world, and you don’t talk to all of them in your dreams.” She looked at me side-eyed. “At least, not that you tell me about.”
“I don’t!”
“It might sound crazy, but what if the stone retained some of the Bruton’s negative energy, and that’s what connected us to Archie, Helena, and the Lost Souls?”
“Could that be true?” Something tickled my hair, and I looked up. A light flurry of snow was dropping from the sky. The first of the season. “Are you sure?”
“I don’t think so,” she said, her voice ominous. “But it’s a much better option than the alternatives.”
“It is?” I said, semihorrified. “What else do you suspect?”
She shook her head. “I need to do some more investigating before I worry you.”
“Let it go,” I said, putting my hoodie up.
“No point in fussing over it,” Archie said. He’d been joining us over the last week as he got his bearings on the other side. “What’s done is done. And regardless, you’re not responsible for what those bad spirits do.”
“I know that,” she said. “I’m just still think about the visit from Adam and Minh’s relatives. I can’t help but feel like things are changing, Baylor. For both of us.”
* * *
With the amulet gone, I couldn’t walk around dreams as easily anymore, which Kristina didn’t think was such a bad thing. I didn’t disagree with her, but I still wanted to be able to check in on people; which is to say, I wanted to be able to spy on Aiden and see how he was doing.
However, it didn’t seem too necessary. Ever since he recovered J’s purse from the mysterious masked bandit—and heard J fawn about it anyone who’d listen—he’d been acting with more confidence. I like to think the new dream catcher also had something to do with it—perhaps it actually catch those bad feelings, in addition to nosy friends. He still couldn’t look J in the eye without experiencing a momentary full-body panic, but even baby steps were still steps in the right direction.
Kristina also explained I could still technically dreamwalk even without the amulet. “The trick is recognizing you’re in the dream,” she said. “It might take some practice, but you’ll get there. It took forever to learn how to tune out spirits, but you managed to do that.”
I groaned thinking of the effort that took. Years and years of work. I didn’t want to repeat it. “Can’t we just make a new amulet? Maybe something a bit more subtle this time?”
“We’re discussing it,” she said. “Luckily the holidays are approaching, and all the light and positivity will act as natural protections for you.”
“A demon-free Christmas,” I said. “What more could I ask for?”
“I don’t know,” she said, lightly, “maybe a girlfriend?”
“Ouch,” said Archie.