Queen of the Dead

13 Will

Alona Dare had stolen a body, and not just any body, though that would have been bad enough. No, she had topick Lily.

It really shouldn’t have surprised me. She always thoughtshe was entitled to take whatever she wanted, and damn the consequences. But my God, of all the selfish things to do.

She’d said it was an accident and maybe it had been, but that didn’t change the fact that she hadn’t considered anybody else in this mess except for herself. That was vintage Alona Dare, right there.

I stalked back through the hospital and out to my car, fury fueling my stride. I was half-tempted to call Mina, let her show up in the room with all of her clanking boxes, and maybe Alona would freaking learn something.

But that wasn’t my job. I wasn’t the one responsible for teaching her. The light had sent her back; the light would decide if that had been a mistake, not me.

However, that didn’t change the fact that I needed help.

I got to my car — it hadn’t been towed, thank God — and climbed inside. I needed privacy and a second to think before taking any kind of next step.

I was willing to bet someone within the Order knew more about what Alona had done, not specifically that she’d done it but how it had happened and maybe how to undo it. The trouble was what they’d do with Alona afterward. No matter what I’d let Alona think, I would not be calling Mina in on this. No way. Removing and boxing Alona would be too much of a trophy for her to resist.

But the Order was still my best option for information. The only trick was how to get it without them descending upon the hospital and Alona and Lily. Mina had claimed Mrs. Ruiz was a green-level ghost, whatever that meant, but it insinuated that there were levels higher than that. And if I had to guess, I would say they’d classify Alona as belonging to one of those more powerful categories. Which meant the Order wasn’t going to just let her walk away.

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t attempt a little subterfuge and see what I could learn. If I was careful, it would look like I was simply an eager student.

I reached into my pocket for the crumpled card with the 800 number on it.

Lucy seemed to be the most sympathetic among the Leadership and the most willing to overlook my dad’s peculiar concern with the dead instead of — or in addition to — the living. She might be more willing to give me answers the others would dismiss as information I didn’t need to know.

I pulled my mom’s cell phone from my pocket. She’d insisted that I take it so I could call her and give her an update after my visit with Lily, which I’d have to do immediately after calling the Order. Otherwise she might freak out and start trying to track me down.

I flipped the phone open and started dialing the number for the Order, trying to organize my thoughts into a coherent story that didn’t sound too suspicious.

It rang once and then a woman’s efficient but nasal voice said, “Answering service.”

I hadn’t been expecting that. Not that I thought the Order would be trumpeting their name and purpose, but this generic greeting made me wonder for a second if I’d misdialed. “Um, hey, can you connect me with Lucy?” I realized belatedly that I didn’t know Lucy’s last name.

But this didn’t seem to faze the operator. “One moment, please.”

The connection clicked in my ear and then it started ringing again, tinny and distant. Hopefully, the woman was transferring me to Lucy’s cell phone and not a desk phone out in California somewhere. I assumed that Lucy was still in town after last night, or maybe on her way back.

“Lucy Shepherd,” she answered, sounding more professional and crisp than she had at the theater.

“Hi Lucy, it’s Will…Killian,” I added quickly.

“Will!” she cried with delight, so much so that the phone vibrated against my ear with the reverberations of her voice. I winced.

“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” I asked. If she was in a meeting with John and Silas, I wanted to know. That might affect the answers she’d be willing to give me.

“Of course not, hon. I’m just packing up for my flight back this afternoon. What can I do for you?”

“I just had a couple of questions, if you don’t mind.”

“Oh, sure.” Her voice softened. “I understand.”

And I realized she thought I wanted to ask about my dad. I did — badly — but now was not the time. Except I couldn’t help but think, what if there wasn’t another time? Who was this Danny Killian that Lucy and the others knew? Like, asa person, not just the secretive and unhappy guy who was my dad?

“Will, are you still there?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry, just got distracted for a second.” I needed to keep my focus on the immediate problem. Getting Alona free. “Listen, I know this is going to sound strange, but I’m just trying to wrap my head around everything, and I’ve been hearing some things I wanted to run by you.”

“Okay,” she said cautiously.

“Is it possible for a ghost to possess a person? Not what they show in movies, where everything is all crazy and split pea soup, but like almost undetectable? The person might seem normal or close to it.”

She was quiet for a long moment, a silence that dragged out way too long. Shit, had I just given myself away? “Lucy?”

“You’ve been talking to Mina,” she said with a sigh.

“What?” I asked, confused. “I mean, yeah, but not…”

“She’s insisting that we take this priest’s call seriously, but what she’s forgetting is that red-level manifestations are very rare. I’ve never even seen one before and—”

“Wait, what priest?”

“The chaplain at St. Catherine’s.” Now she sounded confused. “Didn’t Mina tell you that?”

Despite the heat in the car, I felt a sudden chill. Alona had mentioned a priest.

“Apparently, a girl who was in a coma for months and months woke up early this morning, and she’s already talking and moving around.”

Oh, no. No, no, no.

“That can be one of the signs,” Lucy continued, oblivious to my distress. “Red-level echoes like that tend to go after weakened targets and make them their own. Like I said, though, they’re incredibly rare.”

“What is the Order doing about it?” I forced myself to ask in what I hoped was a normal voice or the closest thing to it that I could manage at this point.

“Do?” She laughed. “There’s nothing to do. This is just that poor girl’s attempt to win one more chance at full membership with a containment. But I doubt they’ll find anything.”

I froze. “They’re looking to find something?” Looking was bad. Looking meant members of the Order with disruptors and boxes would be in the vicinity of Alona.

“I thought you said you’d talked to Mina,” she said with a frown in her voice. “John took her to the hospital to check it out, even though—”

I snapped the phone shut, dropped it to the floor, and bolted from the car.