Lily made a little choked sound but didn’t say anything, and Dad just waited, so Toby rushed ahead. “See, Justin’s got a cell phone, but I don’t, so I bought one of those phones where you buy minutes? So Justin could call me sometimes. And he called tonight and it was sort of an emergency, so I made a judgment to come like he asked. Only you can’t tell if it was a good judgment or a bad one unless they say I can tell the secret, or if they tell you themselves. Which they ought to.” He bent a frown on Justin and Talia.
Lily spoke in that quiet way she had that wasn’t like Dad’s quiet voice, but still made you want to listen, like what she said was probably important. “Maybe you could start by introducing us to your friends.”
Toby flushed. Proper introductions were one thing lupi and Grammy agreed about, and he’d completely forgotten. “Oh, yeah. Dad, Lily, this is Justin and Talia Appleton. Justin and Talia, this is my dad, Rule Turner, and his mate, Lily Yu.” Wait—was he supposed to say mate?
Toby frowned unhappily. He wasn’t.
“Pleased to meet you, Talia, Justin.” Dad glanced at Lily. “Perhaps we should sit down and discuss the situation.”
Justin and his sister exchanged a disbelieving look. They weren’t used to adults wanting to have a discussion when rules were broken. Mostly the adults they knew just ganged up together, and kids were not allowed to have secrets. “Okay. C’mon, sit down. He’ll listen to you,” Toby encouraged his friends.
“Does that mean you aren’t going to tell my folks?” Talia said.
“I don’t know yet. That’s one of the things we must discuss.”
So everyone sat in a circle on the grass, which was cool and damp and smelled great. There was plenty of light from the moon, almost overhead now and three-quarters full.
“First,” Dad said, looking at Justin, “will your parents be upset if they find Toby here?”
Justin grimaced. “They’ll be mad we were outside without permission. And that I called him. They . . .” He gave Toby a look, apologizing. “They’re bent out of shape that he’s, you know, lupus. They didn’t know until it was on the news.”
Dad nodded. “I assume they’d be even more upset if they found me here, so if they should come out, I’ll leave before they see me. Now, Talia. You have a secret you’re afraid to entrust to your parents.”
She nodded warily.
“This secret made you want Toby to come over tonight without permission.”
Another nod.
“Toby, does Talia’s secret involve anything criminal or dangerous to herself or others?”
“Not criminal! But . . . well, there’s a danger, but it isn’t a life-and-death thing. It’s . . .” He spread his hands. “It’s about her.”
Lily spoke quietly. “Talia has a Gift, doesn’t she? One you believe your parents would disapprove of.”
No one said anything for a minute. Then Talia sighed real big. “I guess I’d better tell you. They want me to, anyway.”
“They?”
“The ghosts.” Talia’s long face seemed paler than normal in the moonlight, and tight, as if her muscles were trying to close her up. “They won’t leave me alone lately. They keep after me and after me, and the newest ones . . .” She stopped, gulped.
“I see. You’re a medium.” Lily didn’t look shocked, but Toby hadn’t figured she would be. “That’s a tricky Gift. And your parents don’t approve?”
Justin broke in. “They don’t know, and they’re not going to! They’ve always been down on magic, see, but ever since the Turning . . . that Reverend Barnes is all the time preaching against it now. He says anyone who consorts with spirits is dealing with the devil, but it isn’t like that! Talia can’t help it!”
“No, she can’t, not at her age and without any training. Talia, are these ghosts trying to, ah—to speak through you?”
“I don’t want them to.” Talia was near tears, which made her sound mad. She hated to cry. “There’s always been some of them around. I’d see them, or I’d hear them whispering in my mind, but it wasn’t a big deal. But ever since the Turning there’s been more, and now there’s these new ones, and they’re awful. They scream inside my mind and they won’t go away. And I can’t fix things for them, I can’t! That’s why I needed Toby to come over. They stay away when he’s around.”
Lily gave Dad a surprised look, her eyebrows lifted like “What?” Dad shook his head. “I don’t know. I never heard of ghosts having an aversion for us.”
“Hmm.” Lily turned back to Talia. “I suspect you’re seeing more ghosts since the Turning because your Gift is stronger now. That happened to some people once there was more magic around. Will you let me take your hand?” She smiled. “I’m a sensitive. I can make a guess about how strong your Gift is.”
Talia scowled and looked down at her feet. She picked at one toenail, then another. At last she shrugged. “I guess it won’t hurt.” She held out her hand.
Lily clasped it. “Oh, yes, you have quite a strong Gift. No wonder those ghosts are driving you crazy. Are there any around now?”
“I told you—they don’t show up when Toby’s here. I guess Mr. Turner would keep them away, too.”
“Okay.” Lily released her hand. “But Toby can’t be with you all the time, can he?”
“Maybe if I tell you what they want me to, they’ll go away.”
“They want you to tell me something? Me, specifically?”
“Well . . . he didn’t describe you very politely, but I’m pretty sure he meant you. The tall man, I mean. He’s the oldest ghost and he usually makes more sense than the others, but I think people talked a lot different back when he was alive.” Her face tightened in a scowl. “At first he called me ‘little darkie,’ but I made him quit. I don’t care if that’s what everyone said back then. People kept slaves then, too, and that was wrong. Though he says he didn’t have any slaves, but I think that’s because he was poor, not because he knew it was wrong.”
“He’s been a ghost a long time,” Lily murmured.
“Uh-huh. Now he calls me ‘little ’un.’ He can’t say my name. I don’t know if that’s a rule or if they can’t remember names, not even for a minute, but none of the ghosts ever say names. Anyway, he’s the one who said I was to tell you.”
“Okay. What do they want you to tell me?”
“About him. The one who . . . I guess he’s the one killing people. They said he’s making ghosts, and that’s what they call him—the ghost-maker. So I guess they mean he’s killing people. Only there’s more than one killer, isn’t there? So that doesn’t make sense. Ghosts usually don’t.”
“Is that exactly what they said?” Lily’s voice was soft, like Grammy’s was when Toby had had a bad dream. “That this ‘he’ is making ghosts, not that he killed them?”
“Ghosts won’t talk about death. Sometimes they’ll say what happened to make them ghosts, sometimes they won’t, but they won’t ever say they died. They want you to stop him. The little girl says he’s real cold, always cold. Her brother doesn’t talk—he’s really fuzzy—and she mostly cries, but she did say that. And their mom keeps saying, ‘He doesn’t know,’ over and over, looking at me like it’s important. I think I was supposed to tell you that. And the tall man . . . he said they’re scared. They’re all scared, not just the new ones.”
“They?”
“The ghosts. They’re scared of him, whoever he is.”
“I understand that they can’t or won’t use names, but did they describe him in any way?”
Talia’s mouth twisted. “I asked and asked, but ghosts are pretty stupid. They just keep telling me the same stuff again and again. And ‘help me.’” Her eyes glistened, but her jaw set stubbornly. “They say that, too, and sometimes they cry. Not the tall man, but some of them cry a lot. I hate that. But the new ones . . . they’re the worst. They started screaming in my head tonight, and it’s like . . . like they’re ripping at my brain. It’s horrible.”