That night, when Mom and Dad are asleep, and the lights are out, and Lara’s backpack is safely stored in the bathroom with the door closed to protect it from the cat, she and Jacob and I make a tent under the covers of my bed, and talk.

We sit, knees close and heads together, our faces lit by the flashlight on Lara’s phone.

In this jagged light, we’re all washed out, and it’s easy to forget that Jacob’s a ghost. I can barely see through him, and I swear, if Mom and Dad were to look over now, they might see three figures in the tent instead of two.

Thankfully, they’re fast asleep.

“You’re breathing on me,” mutters Lara, leaning away from Jacob. “It’s … cold. I don’t like it.”

“What am I supposed to do?” mutters Jacob. “Hold my breath?”

“Do you even need air?” she snaps back.

“Focus,” I hiss.

We’d been discussing the steps for the banishing ritual.

“So what do we do tomorrow?” Jacob asks. “We just wait for the Emissary to show back up?”

“That,” I say, “or we go looking for it.”

Jacob stares at me like I’ve lost my mind. I get it. When I think of running toward the Emissary, my legs feel like jelly. But the idea of getting caught off guard might be worse.

In the end, we take a vote. Jacob is solidly in the “don’t go looking for Death” camp, and to my surprise, so is Lara.

“I think we should be prepared,” she says. “But if we go after it, the Emissary might sense a trap.”

I take a deep breath. “So we let it find me.”

And take you back into the dark.

Jacob’s the one who can read my mind, but Lara’s the one who squeezes my hand. “We’re in this together. And you’re not going anywhere.”

She pulls her hand away to cover a yawn, and it’s contagious, bouncing from her to me to Jacob.

“We should sleep,” I say, even though I don’t know if I can.

We discuss taking shifts, then realize it’s pointless, since Jacob is the only one who doesn’t need sleep. Lara mumbles something about not trusting a ghost and a lazy cat to keep us safe all night, but she’s too tired to do more than protest.

We collapse our makeshift tent, and Jacob goes to the foot of the bed and sits there, back to us, staring into the dark. “Night, Cass,” he whispers.

“Night, Jacob,” I whisper, my head on my pillow.

“Mnmnghost,” whispers Lara, already half asleep next to me.

I don’t know what’ll happen tomorrow.

I don’t know if I’ll be able to banish the Emissary.

I don’t know if we can win.

But right now, tucked between my family and my friends, I feel almost safe.