CHAPTER 31

Anderson’s car was parked outside of the cave when we pulled up. Leaning over the steering wheel, Maya whistled low. “Well, if this isn’t the perfect setting for a ghost face-off, I don’t know what is.”

I looked into the mouth of the cave, but everything was dark. Still, they were in there, I was sure of it.

Getting out of the car, I walked to the trunk. Maya and I were just hefting out our bag of supplies when a splash of headlights lit up the gloom. “Who on earth—” Maya started, but I recognized the burgundy town car immediately.

Even though I should have been horrified, I couldn’t stop the giddy leap of my heart or the sudden smile that wanted to break out over my face. The car stopped, and Dex loped out of the passenger side.

“I told you not to come,” I said, walking over to him.

He threw up his hands. “And yet. Now what are we doing here?”

He squinted past me at Maya, who was already toting the bag into the cave.

“Dex,” I said, pushing my hands into my back pockets so I wouldn’t do something stupid like hug him. “This could get—Wait, you didn’t drive.”

Running a hand up and down the back of his neck, Dex sighed. “Yes, my Nana had to drive me. You see, apparently, nearly being blown up at school was somehow my fault, so now I’m grounded. But when I explained that my Fair Isolde had need of me…”

I looked up into his blue eyes, taking in tonight’s scarf, which was a riot of turquoise and purple. His curly black hair was sticking up, and oh man, he was right. I did need him. Kind of a lot.

Which was just so, so unfortunate.

“Dexter!” Nana called, rolling down her window.

“Ah, yes.” He jogged back to the car, resting his hand on her windowsill and ducking his head inside. “Nana, Izzy needs me to go into this cave to get our friends. I’m going to help her with that, while you wait right here.”

Nana smiled at me. “Hello, Izzy. Dexter, you know I always appreciate your being helpful, but this seems…”

She looked past us toward the cave, and Dex craned his head over his shoulder, following her gaze. “I know it looks vaguely unsanitary and potentially scandalous, Nana, but I promise that Izzy and I are only pursuing noble…pursuits. We’ve even got a chaperone! Izzy, who was that woman who went into the cave?”

I blanked, not sure how to describe Maya. I settled on, “My…also my Nana.”

“See?” Dex said brightly, ducking his head in to kiss his Nana’s cheek. “Izzy’s Nana! We are totally safe and appropriate.”

I wasn’t sure Nana was convinced, but she pursed her lips and said, “No longer than ten minutes, Dexter.”

He gave her a jaunty salute, and we turned and walked into the mouth of the cave.

Maya was in the first chamber, spreading salt. It was to Dex’s credit that he just took her in with a “Huh,” and followed me deeper into the cave.

“Okay, so—” I started, but then his hand grasped my shoulders, turning me so that my back was against the cavern wall.

“I like you.”

Bewildered, I blinked at him. “What?”

“I. Like. You,” Dex repeated, and for once there was no glimmer in his eyes, no smile lurking on his lips. “I have since that morning on the track, and I should’ve made that clearer by now.”

Somewhere in this cave, Romy and Anderson were very possibly in danger. “Dex, seriously, now is not the—”

“No,” he said, giving me a little shake. “There is never going to be the right time, Izzy. I’ve figured that out by now. Every time I try to tell you this, you brush it off or don’t let me finish, or someone tries to blow up the gym. So I’m telling you now. I like you. And it has nothing to do with spells or near-death excitement or any of the other BS excuses you like to come up with.”

“Dex,” I said again, helplessly.

“And you like me, too,” he went on, and there, at last, was the smile. “That’s not just me being arrogant, by the way. Although I understand that that’s sometimes a problem. But”—he hurried on when I opened my mouth to reply—“I can work on that. If you want. Even though I think you secretly like that, too.”

Maybe it was knowing that we were about to walk into something really scary. Maybe I was afraid that, even if I didn’t get killed tonight, Dex might. Or maybe I just really wanted to kiss him. In any case, I fisted my hands in the front of his shirt and jerked him to me. Our lips met, and if this kiss wasn’t as…thorough as the first one, it felt bigger somehow. More important.

“You’re right,” I panted, once I’d wrenched my mouth from his. “I like you. A lot. And I just wanted you to know that, too. But—”

Dex just kissed me again, a quick peck on the lips, really. “No,” he whispered. “No buts. Now. Let’s go get Romy and Anderson.”

Almost as though his words had summoned it, there was a sudden flare of blue light from farther back in the cave system. “Crap,” I muttered, tugging Dex’s hand.

We followed a twisting, narrow path that finally opened up onto a bigger chamber. Keeping Dex behind me, I walked in, not sure what I was going to see.

But it was just Anderson, his back to us. Dex blew out a relieved breath. “Oh, there you are, man. We were—”

But then Anderson began backing up slowly, his hands held out at his sides. As he turned, we could see Romy standing in front of him. Blue light pulsed all around her, and Mary Evans suddenly appeared, standing just in front of Romy, almost like she was superimposed over her. She wore a long white dress, and her blond hair was plastered to her face.

Then Mary vanished, and Romy was there again, holding a long silver knife to Anderson’s chest.

Dex hissed a four-letter word under his breath, and I held my arm out, keeping him behind me.

Romy glanced over at me, her face briefly becoming Mary’s again. The effect was unsettling and awful. “I wanted you,” she said, two voices coming out of Romy’s mouth. “You felt strong and…different. I thought if I could get inside of you, I could burn the world.”

I stepped back slightly, pushing Dex. “I’m actually not much of a fan of world burning, so…”

Romy laughed, and it echoed eerily in the cavern. “It doesn’t matter. I can make this one pay.” She jabbed at Anderson with the knife, and he gave a startled sound of pain.

“Anderson didn’t do anything to you,” I said, but she laughed again, shaking her head, her features flipping between Romy’s and Mary’s so quickly they blurred.

“No, but the men who did are dead.”

“No one hurt you,” Anderson said, his voice wavering. “Y-you died of exposure.”

Grinning, Mary/Romy flicked the knife. One of the buttons on Anderson’s shirt went flying off into the darkness.

“That’s what they say, isn’t it? That I froze, all alone, waiting for my child’s father. A tragic fate, but not a cruel one. Freezing to death is supposed to be peaceful. Like slipping into a warm bath and then a long sleep.” She stepped closer, and I saw the very tip of the knife pierce Anderson’s chest. “But burning to death? That is very. Far. From. PEACEFUL.”

She screamed the last word, and all of us cringed as it bounced off the rock walls. “That’s what they did, you know,” Mary said. She was completely Mary now, even though it was Romy’s face and Romy’s body. Romy’s eyes had never radiated that much hate. “My father and his friends. When they found me playing at spells. Nothing dangerous, nothing harmful. Just a love charm to make the man I wanted mine.”

Smiling, Mary kept advancing on Anderson even as he backed up. A thin trickle of blood ran down his shirt. “And do you know what these good, righteous men of Ideal, Mississippi, did? They dragged me to this cave, saying ‘thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,’ and they set me on fire.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said, and I was. I thought of that sweet, shy, smiling girl in the picture. She hadn’t deserved to die like that. No one did. But that didn’t mean I could let her hurt innocent people.

“And now,” Mary continued, “I will make everyone suffer.”

She lunged forward, but I was ready. Grabbing Anderson’s arm, I spun him away from Mary, shoving him toward Dex and the passageway. Mary’s blade sunk into my arm, the pain somehow icy cold and burning at the same time, but I gritted my teeth and struck out with my other hand. The blow sent her reeling backward. “That’s the thing with possessing people,” I said, pushing the boys out of the cavern. “People have bodies, which makes them a lot easier to beat up than a ghost.”

Mary screamed in rage, but I kept pushing Dex and Anderson, praying I’d given Maya the time she needed to set everything up.

We came tearing into the main cavern, our feet skidding on the salt covering the floor. Maya stood at the ready, and when Mary ran in, Maya shouted a word.

The effect was instant and painful. The whole cavern seemed to ring like a bell, and Mary shrieked, falling to her knees.

Once again, she started to flicker, part Mary, part Romy. Maya watched her, eyes wide.

“Where’s the witch?”

“That’s her,” I said, breathing hard and pointing at Romy where she knelt on the ground. “The ghost is in her, it…it possessed her.”

Maya was holding some kind of herbs in one hand and an ancient-looking book in the other. She let both drop to the ground. “Oh, hon,” she said, so sad. “Then there’s nothing I can do. The witch and the ghost, they have to be separate for this ritual to work.”

Romy was writhing on the floor as though the salt was burning her. There was nothing of the girl I knew in her face, but I couldn’t bear the thought of having to kill her. Not when she’d painted my toenails and made me laugh and been the first person I’d ever called friend.

Maya came to my side, holding out the small silver dagger she’d brought, Just in case.

Automatically, I tried to shove the dagger back toward her, but Maya gently pressed the hilt into my palm. “Sweetheart, she’s in pain. A lot of it. If this doesn’t work, you need to set her free.”

Bile rose in my throat.

“Do you want me to do it?” Maya asked, and next to me, both Dex and Anderson stared.

“Do what?” Anderson asked just as Dex said, “I know you’re not suggesting what—”

But I ignored them both. This was my fault. If I’d done something the instant I’d found out Romy had summoned Mary, maybe there would have been enough time. Maybe we could’ve fixed it before Mary got so strong. And if this didn’t stop now, every person in Ideal would be in danger. Mary’s rage would get stronger and stronger, her desire to hurt even more intense. This had to end.

And I had to be the one to end it.

My hand closed around the hilt of the dagger, but before I could take it from Maya, a voice rang out in the cave. “Dexter?”

The four of us turned slowly to see Dexter’s Nana. She was wearing a sweatshirt embroidered with kittens, and the firelight turned her glasses into glowing orbs.

“Nana, I can explain,” Dex said, as his gaze swung from me and the dagger back to Romy, crumpled on the floor, and back again.

“Oh, dear,” Nana said, stepping forward. “I believe this may be all my fault.”