Page 61 of Ghostly

“Okay, okay.” Gabriel lifted his hands to the level of his shoulders. “Look, Perry. There isn’t a collection of items your ancestor left you. But I didn’t lie about the ancestor part. This was your family’s house, a long time ago.”

“Then what do you want?”

“It’s a bit complicated to explain.”

“Then you better make it uncomplicated, real quick, ‘cuz I’m about to get the hell outta here.”

Gabriel would make a horrible actor. Like Ida’s former tenant Martha would say, he made the most amateurish mistake—couldn’t stop looking at the camera.

Or, in this case, Ida.

“What?” she spread her arms. “I can’t tell him anything, can I? Maybe if you told me beforehand what you planned—”

“Well, sorry, I wanted it to be a surprise!”

Perry slowly turned his head, keeping track of Gabriel at the corner of his vision, as if he wanted to make sure they were both looking at the same spot. “Dude, you’re on some serious shrooms, aren’t you?”

“This is about your great-great-great-grandaunt,” Gabriel said to Perry. “Her name was Ida Huxley, and her family lived here throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, until your great-great-grandfather, James, sold the house.”

Gabriel explained more about the family connections, but for Ida, it all blurred into background noise. This was Jamie’s great-great-grandson. Her blood. Perhaps all that was left of her family.

The family she’d mistreated, haunted, chased away. Harry and Jacinda may have deserved her revenge, but Jamie was innocent. And yet, she’d made his childhood miserable, and she was glad when he walked away from the house—glad, because he made Harry and Jacinda suffer more, by leaving and never coming back.

This man wasn’t Jamie; couldn’t look more different from Jamie; but still, Ida felt the overwhelming need to hug him and apologize. If only that wouldn’t make him feel like he got showered with ice-cold water… on top of not hearing her apology, either.

“So you know a lot about my family, and I’ll pretend that isn’t creepy as hell. Why’d you call me here, though?” Perry looked toward Ida again. “Wait, is this a hidden camera? You pulling some kinda joke?”

“Your great-great-great-grandaunt is not entirely gone,” Gabriel said.

Well. He sure got right down to the point.

“She’s trapped in this house as a ghost. Only you can… release her, in a way.”

“Oh, yes. Smart. The ‘bring her back to life’ part would’ve been too much,” Ida said.

Gabriel gave her a sarcastic,you-think-you-could-do-better?look.

“Yeah, definitely a hidden camera.” Perry started to retreat toward the hallway.

“She’s real. And she needs you.”

“Need me—what, like my blood? Is this some cult thing? Human sacrifice?” Perry’s gaze flicked to the half-drunk glass of soda. “You drugged me, I’m gonna wake up on the table with you ripping my heart out and offering it to the gods?”

Gabriel facepalmed, then looked at Ida. “I can see how you two are related.”

“Stop talking to the air, man!” Perry hesitated for a second more, then ran for the door.

He’s my only chance.Ida didn’t deliberate; she zoomed through the wall, clenched her fists, and felt the lock snap shut.

Perry nearly collided with the door, then rattled it as it wouldn’t open.

“Let me out!” He knocked on the door. “Help!”

“Ida…” Gabriel started.

“You said he’s my only chance! If he leaves now, we’ll never see him again.”

“And locking him in, making him think I’m some perverted kidnapper, will help?”