“Noted.” I lifted up and kissed him. “And I’m sorry. Mostly. But I’m going to give you the chance to tell me off, as loudly as you can, and then I’m going to run away, and you’re going to storm back inside and pretend you’ve left me to chase a figment of my imagination. In three, two, one… Go.”

While I’ve never dreamed of being an actor—I’d rather be behind the camera—years of drama class means I’m pretty good at it. Six months on the run, playing roles every day, had helped. Derek has zero natural talent and almost as little inclination to learn, but he did a good job of it that night, probably because he really did think I was making a big mistake, so chewing me out for it came easily.

After our fake fight, I raced down the street and ducked around a building, “hiding” in case Derek came after me. Then, I called Liz. I didn’t need a cell phone for that. My former roommate from Lyle House, Liz died a day after I arrived. When I contact her, I’m summoning her spirit.

In the beginning, ghost-Liz was like a friend who lived next door. Give her a shout and there she was. Now it’s as if she’s in another country, and sometimes I just can’t get in touch with her. We haven’t grown apart—the distance is actually a good thing, because it means she’s crossed over into the afterlife. That’s what I had wanted for her. It just took her a long time to want the same thing, to accept she couldn’t hang out in our world and pretend nothing had happened. My necromancer powers are strong enough that I can pull her back, but it’s like making an overseas call on a bad phone line. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t. Tonight, when I hoped for her help scouting, no one answered.

After about five minutes, I saw Rae walking along the road, as if there were nothing odd about a sixteen-year-old girl aimlessly wandering an empty street on a Friday night. I backed down the side street. Then, I came running out onto the main one, panting as hard as Rae would remember me panting when we’d escaped Lyle House together. I won’t say I’m in amazing shape now, but between playing fetch with Derek and keeping up with Maya, I get a lot more physical activity than I used to. I faked it for Rae, though, heaving like I was about to hack up a lung.

“Rae?”