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But nobody had any better ideas, so we got going again.

Chapter Nine

Alphonse took point since he was the only one with a convincingly masculine voice in case we were questioned.Zara and I brought up the rear because I was the weak link here, and she was in the cloak that hadn’t cured properly and had to stay in the shadows.Not that that was hard, with the entire open area near the river splashed with light and dark.

That was partly because of the torches in half of the hands here, streaming red-gold banners behind the mages as they ran through the magic-distorted haze, and partly from the explosions of spell-fire that those without guns kept setting off.It was starting to look like New Year’s Eve, with pinwheels of white sparks here and shooting stars in every color imaginable over there.Which was why it took me a little while to notice that other things were moving in the air.

At first, it was merely a few scattered shadows almost lost among the rest.Just odd in that they weren’t going in the same direction as those near them and seemed to have no obvious source.I tried to follow them with my eyes, but they slipped away before I could focus properly, skittering outside the edge of my vision.

But as we moved further into the center of the action, the strange shadows became thicker, and while I still couldn’t catch them visually, I couldfeelthem, brushing against me like the tattered edges of my cloak.Some were almost human-warm, like the brief touch of a hand; others were as cold as ice, like the slap of winter rain.But all of them, every single one, was familiar.

And unwanted, especially now.

“What is wrong with you?”Alphonse hissed when I flinched for maybe the fifth time.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?Then why are you acting like you have ants in your pants?”

I didn’t answer because we’d just broken through a mass of partying mages and entered what I guessed was the heart of the celebration, since there were a lot more people here.Not to mention a lot more light, not that I needed it.I knew what I’d been feeling and what I was now seeing; I just didn’t believe it.

“Cassie?”Alphonse stopped, his borrowed face looking worried.I didn’t know what was on mine, but I was suddenly grateful for my complete lack of control.Because if my avatar’s face had been linked to my expression, it would have given the game away.

I just stood there, but I wasn’t staring at the fireworks or the mass of torches or what looked like a giant Guy Fawkes celebration.The furniture that remained in the burnt-out houses was being dragged out and piled into what would be a hell of a celebratory bonfire whenever the mages finished it.I didn’t care; I’d seen bonfires before.

I hadn’t seen this.

Ghosts, I thought blankly.So, so many ghosts.Some were pale and low enough on power to be mere suggestions on the wind, impossible to see as distinct shapes and only discerned as ripples across the night; others were huge, powerful, and scary, with glowing eyes and amorphous forms that hadn’t bothered to take on human shapes because why would they?

There was no one to see.

No one except me, and I didn’t understand it, not any of it!Ghosts were usually solitary creatures and fiercely territorial, jealously guarding whatever house they haunted or graveyard they’d ended up in, and the scraps of living energy shed by human visitors there.They didn’t mingle much, even with others of their kind, who might as soon cannibalize them for whatever power they had left as look at them.They definitely didn’t party, and they didn’t do whatever that was, I thought, looking up.

Flock, my numb brain finally kicked up the right word.

They didn’t flock.

Only they did here, with a mass of what had to be several hundred ghosts screaming by on the wind so close that I staggered back abruptly.

Alphonse grabbed my arm even though we weren’t supposed to do that, but he didn’t look much like he cared.“Tell me,” he whispered, “right now, or I swear—”

“Tell you what?”Gray Curls demanded.

“What’s going on?”Topknot added.“Why’d we stop?”

“’Cause she sensed something.Didn’t you?”Alphonse shook my arm a little.

“Sensed what?What happened?”Butch Cut asked.

“A ghost goosed me,” I didn’t say because I couldn’t seem to speak.There was something wrong with these ghosts.

There was something very wrong.

“Cassie?”Zara said, looking from me to what probably seemed like just a raucous party to her.

“Ghosts,” I finally managed to get out.

Alphonse swore.