Frank’s voice reached around the side of the house, so much more annoying when it wasn’t muffled through a door. “It’s Donovan with dinner. What is this situation with the weather? I can barely see out here.”

I relayed the message to Daisy, who bounded up out of the weeds and jogged around to the front of the house.

“I better go…” Mordecai was bounding after her a moment later, two savages.

I stared out at the swirling mists, barely able to see the neighbor’s house looming beyond the fence. Kieran had been in there for about fifteen minutes, and part of me dreaded what would come next. Breaking that trap and setting his mom free was a surefire way to get Valens riled up.

Then again, her trunk had been moved. That would probably be enough.

“Looks like burgers,” Frank called out. “I do miss the taste of burgers.”

I rolled my eyes, then jumped as Lyra drifted around the corner of the house. She was actually going through the motions of walking, but it still looked like she was drifting. I was ninety-five percent sure she’d walked like this in real life.

“You must do as he says.” Her voice was sad but firm. My back straightened in defiance. I really did hate being told what to do. “You must follow his guidance. It’s for the best.”

“Hmm.” I sucked in my lips, still not comfortable arguing with this lady. “Mhm.”

“I thank you, for all you have done.” She stood beside me, and I got the feeling she didn’t want to sit down because she’d dirty her dress. Or maybe sitting in weeds wasn’t her forte. “You have shown him there is a place in the world for compassion. You have reinforced that there are good people, and if he tries, he can be one of them.”

I pulled up my knees and draped my arms around them. I didn’t know what to say.

“But respect his wishes, and do as he says,” she continued, taking a step back. “It is for the best. For both of you.”

Something uncomfortable lodged in my middle. “Why? What is he going to—”

But then she was gone, blinked away into the fog.

“We can go in.” Daisy’s head appeared around the corner. “Donovan brought a feast. Thank god. I am so hungry I could eat a whole cow. Come on.”

Kieran stood at the kitchen sink, looking out the window at gray nothingness. Donovan was unpacking the bags of groceries he’d set down beside him.

“Everything…good?” I asked.

Kieran glanced back at me, a strange look in his eyes. He nodded and turned. “Yes. Do you need help to break the spirit trap? Should I bring in Bria?”

I squinted at him, because he sounded brusque and authoritative (in other words, normal), but his mother’s words were rattling around in my head.

“No, I can do it myself. I don’t need help.”

“Are you able to put the trap back on?”

I hesitated suspiciously. Was this what his mother had been referring to?

“So I can put the trunk back and hope it fools my father until we find the culprit,” he continued.

I had intended to think through his mother’s request, and the possible implications, but his words stole my focus. Could I do something like that? I could banish spirits beyond the line, or pull them back from it, but could I devise something to keep them here?

“I…don’t know,” I said, examining the trunk.

I heard Frank shout, “It’s that grim-faced one. He’s got more bags.”

“You’ve got more coming?” I asked.

Donovan glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah. Why?” His gaze hit the table. “Oh. We can figure out a place to sit, don’t worry.”

A knock sounded at the door.

“Another one!” Frank shouted. “They’re really starting to pile up, now. This one is in a van. What are you doing in there? Are you having a party? Why wasn’t I invited? Your mother always invited me to parties. Oh, the times we had. Why, one time, in the full moon, we decided we’d—”

“No, no, no,” I said hastily, running for the door. I yanked it open. “Frank, don’t you dare continue. Shut it down, right now. I don’t want to know what you and my mom did.”

Zorn stood on the porch. His eyes widened, and he looked around at the yard. Thane, just coming around a big white van, stopped like he’d done something wrong.

“We’d dance near a fire in the BBQ pit and share a bottle of wine,” Frank finished with a scowl. “Good gracious, young lady. You’d think I was talking about a pagan ritual or something.”

I sighed in relief, opening the door wider for Zorn. “I thought you were about to get lewd,” I told Frank, gesturing for Zorn and Thane to get a move on. Frank was in a weird mood—probably from seeing the beauty of Lyra. I was worried he’d start to reminisce about his conquests.

“I would never,” Frank said pompously. “My sex life with your mother was our business.”

“Gross!” I slammed the door. The guys would just have to forgive me.

“She was a feisty woman in her day,” I heard. “An independent, feisty woman. What she did behind closed doors was—”

I ripped the door open again, startling Zorn into stepping back. I allowed my magic to build and then pushed, forcing Frank off of my grass and out of my yard. Magic sang through me, but no breeze or pulsing Line materialized.

I stood there for a moment, thinking through what I’d just done. In effect, I’d manipulated a spirit. To do that, I’d had to lock on to him. To do that…I’d had to pick him out of the line-up of all the spirits I could feel.

I could feel souls. I’d been able to all along, without the extra power of the Line. I’d just never thought about it that way. My preference for visual learning, combined with my ignorance of how I was making things happen, had definitely hindered my growth. And now I knew.

“Is everything…all right?” Thane asked, stopping on the walkway with a wary expression. He held a black, circular grill.

“Yeah. A ghost was talking about his time with my mom.” I shivered. “I’d suspected, but…it’s gross when you find out that stuff about your parent, know what I mean?”

“Yes.” He took a hesitant step forward. “Is it…still here?”

I laughed and gestured for him to come closer. “No, I just banished him from my yard. What’s going on? Are we having a party?”

“You found Mrs. Drusus.” Zorn entered the house, and I almost didn’t notice him furtively glancing back at the fog-shrouded yard. It made me laugh that even Zorn was weirded out by ghosts. “We weren’t sure it could be done.”

“Ah. Well. You didn’t have a couple of crazy girls on the case.”

Thane jerked his head to the side. “I’ll set up in the backyard.”

I nodded and shut the door, turning back toward the kitchen.

“I hear you also discovered hidden hallways in Demigod Valens’s house,” Zorn said as he stalled at the edge of the kitchen.

Daisy barely glanced at Zorn before going back to slicing tomatoes at the table. Mordecai yanked leaves off of a head of lettuce. It looked like Frank had been right—burgers.

“Yeah. Valens has a really old spirit living in his house,” I said, sitting down at the dining table in the chair nearest the trunk. “And the spirit’s mistress lives in the hallways. Those two would drive you to drink.”

“Were there any others in there?” Kieran asked, his gaze roaming my face, his expression stone-like.

I shrugged. “Not that I saw, but it’s a big house. You never know.”

“Do you think you could figure out all of the entrances to the hallways?” he asked.

I shrugged again. “If the old guy will cooperate, sure. But I’d probably have to talk to him outside of the actual hallways. Once that Marlene gets after him, things start to deteriorate real fast. He’s totally at fault, though. I mean, she’s no picnic, but blaming his infidelity on everyone but himself? What a dick. I bet he doesn’t want to cross the Line because he’s afraid of what his wife will do. I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Donovan’s hands slowed in packing ground meat into patties. “Can…exes find you across the Line?”

I leaned closer to the trunk and closed my eyes, feeling out the magic. “I don’t know. I’ve never asked,” I answered distractedly. “Kieran, maybe you should get Bria after all. Letting her spirit out should be easy, but without seeing what I’m working with, I don’t know that I’ll be able to put the spirit trap back on.”

Zorn disappeared from my peripheral vision, clearly having gotten a silent command.

I put my hand on the trunk and closed my eyes, allowing the Line to materialize. Following my intuition, I pulled the Line and its power closer as I gathered my magic, intending to use the lighting of the spirit world as a guide the way I had in Valens’s hidden hallways. That had been a handy trick.

A gale-force wind ripped through the kitchen, making my soul flap within my body. Power and electricity surged through my middle and then out through my limbs. The protective cocoon around the trunk pulsed and moved, inviting me to open my eyes and see it.

Like I’d expected, the magic surrounding the trunk moved like oil on water, sliding over the wood in an intricate dance. I pulled more power and heard a groan. A chair fell over. The table shoved to the side. A door jiggled.

Yanked out of the moment, I was just in time to see the whole room fleeing except for Kieran, who was backed up against the corner of the counter with a grim face and hard eyes.

“Oh.” I waved my hand at the newly evacuated kitchen. “You all felt that, huh?”

He didn’t open his mouth. Just nodded.

“My bad. Why don’t I…go into the bedroom.” I rose. “Oh. But good news—I don’t need Bria. I figured out how to see the magic without the necromancer aids.”

“You just have to clear the room to do it.”

“It isn’t totally practical yet, but…baby steps.”

“That felt like baby steps, yes.” He was laying on the sarcasm a little thick.

“You’re the one who wanted to do this now…”

He started forward. “Let’s move this to your bedroom.”

Butterflies filled my stomach and I tried desperately not to read into that comment.