“She was a student teacher,” Austin said. “They say she was acting really weird—talking to people who weren’t there, stuff like that. Then she jumped out a window on the fourth floor. The one at the top of the stairs.”

Lily’s breath hitched. That was the window Delilah had jumped from.

“What happened to her?” Lily asked.

Austin drew a flat hand across his throat in a slicing motion. Lily shivered.

“There are a ton of others. Stories about what happened to the old plantation owners before the Siwards, and to their slaves. That’s why I wear this goth crap.” Austin tugged on the front of his black T-shirt. “I figure they go after people who’re scared of them. If I act like I’m into all this prince-of-darkness stuff, maybe they’ll leave me alone.”

Felicia laughed. “Yeah. That’ll totally work.”

“That’s ridiculous.” Lily tried to smile at Felicia in agreement, but Felicia was back to ignoring her again.

Austin shrugged. “Yeah, well, I never want to see that chick on the lake for the rest of my life. I don’t care what I’ve gotta do.”

Lily wondered about those voices she’d heard, telling her to come for a swim. She didn’t want to hear them again either.

Well, maybe she did. Just a little bit.

Austin peered at Lily. “So now it’s your turn. What really happened in that ballroom?”

“I, um—”

Lily couldn’t tell them. She couldn’t trust anyone except Maria.

If she could still trust Maria.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t—I only—look, you guys, I just want everything to get back to normal.”

Austin laughed. “Normal?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Well, I hate to break it to you, but that’s not how it works.” Austin put out his cigarette on the damp stone wall with a low sizzle. “Whatever’s down the hill—they’re the ones pulling the strings, not us. Which means there isn’t any such thing as ‘normal’ around here.”

17

COME LIKE SHADOWS, SO DEPART

Maria could feel them all around her now.

Altagracia. The others, too.

The one at the top of the stairs. The one on the lake. The one who whispered through the mirrors. They were all different. They were all powerful.

Acheron seeped with it. The stench of death, and rot, and power. How had she never noticed before?

When the spirits were present, it was little more than a feeling. She couldn’t have explained it. It wasn’t anything you could see or smell or touch. It was like . . . falling but never hitting the ground. That glorious sensation, of nothing beneath you but empty air.

Maria understood the spirits now.

Altagracia wanted to help her. She already had. She’d do whatever Maria asked.

The other spirits were darker. Their intentions weren’t so clear.