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I pursed my lips, trying to come up with a solution to the very question I had been thinking. ‘I don’t know. I don’t think she’ll get out of this alive if I can’t find some way to help her. I need to figure out a way to get her something to eat. Or at least some water.’

We devolved into silence, stuck in our heads, while our minds whirred with potential solutions to this new problem. I had never had to worry about the welfare of his victims before. I knew they were going to die, and that they would suffer immense pain beforehand, and there wasn’t anything I could do to help.

But now, Icouldhelp. I could touch things. Move things. I just needed to gather enough strength to sustain the ability without it costing me so much energy. But how?

I knew how, but I didn’t like the answer.

‘You said Morty was killing people, right?’ I asked Chance.

He grimaced. ‘Shit. I forgot about that…’ He tucked me in tighter against his body, like he could shield me from the danger Morty posed. Except, I didn’t think he posed any danger to me. Not physically, anyway. Emotionally, I had a feeling that man was going to wreck me. I could only hope it was in a way I could appreciate.

‘Don’t worry about him. That’s not why I asked.’

‘Then why?’

‘I think that might be how he’s so powerful. He can do things that are so far out of my ballpark, and I’m sure he has even more tricks hidden up his sleeves, but absorbing souls seems to be the way to get access to more power.’

‘You think he’s killing people to what…eattheir souls?’ he asked, completely aghast.

I tried not to bristle, the sensation of Bianca’s energy like a warm hug inside me. But was it the same for Morty?

‘It’s how I broke free from my grave’s pull,’ I admitted. ‘His last victim, Bianca. She could see me. I tried to help ease her passing, but she sort of just… fell into me. I don’t know how to describe it. She’s not gone, and I can feel her inside me, but she seems content to just… I don’t know, buzz around in the shadows. Her energy gave me the boost I needed to break thetether holding me here. Maybe the only way to get stronger is to take in more energy the same way?’

Chance was looking at me with a strange expression I struggled to decipher, and I worried he would think poorly of me with that information, so I hurried to explain.

‘I think she wanted it, Chance. I didn’t eat her or whatever. I don’t know, I can’t describe it, other than she was happy to let me take over. Shewantedthis. I didn’t force her to disappear, and she’s still here, just in a different way.’

The elaboration seemed to relax him, and he accepted my story with a thoughtful hum.

‘Is that the only way I’m going to get unstuck? I have to…absorbanother spirit?’

‘I think so.’

‘How?’ he asked, a new frustration making him tense up again. ‘There aren’t any close enough for me to absorb, and I’m not comfortable doing that without consent.’

‘I don’t think you can take the energy of a ghost unless they’re fresh,’ I mused out loud. ‘It’s why I didn’t touch you after you died. I had to let you settle into your new reality, and that somehow made you too… I don’t know,tangible?’

‘Huh.’

‘Yeah.’

‘But that still doesn’t help us. There are no newly dead people around,’ he pointed out.

‘That’s what I’m here for.’

We both spun at the sound of Morty’s voice behind us. He had snuck up on usagain, and it was really starting to chafe. I should have been paying closer attention, but I’d let my thoughts take precedence yet again.

‘You need a collar or something. With a bell,’ I sniped, but he only smirked in response.

‘I’ve brought gifts.’

It was only then that I noticed the two spirits cowering behind him. They were bound and gagged in his shadows, and he dragged them forward for us to see, presenting them like the most precious gifts he could have offered.

It was a sickening realisation that that’s exactly what they were. They were power. They were freedom.

They were crying.

‘What did you do?’ I demanded accusingly.