The ghost bared her teeth—a sudden, savage gesture. They were black, ragged stubs. “You can’t always be with her—”

Jesse moved lightning fast. He was no longer at the alley’s entrance; he was next to Martha, his hand closing on her shoulder. She gave a little shriek as if the touch had burned her, and pulled back—her body seemed to stretch out like taffy, strands of white ghost-matter clinging to Jesse’s hand as Martha twisted away. She gave a little hiss as she came apart in strings of ropy white stuff that drifted away like fog.

Lucie gasped. A moment later Jesse was beside her, leading her under the overhang of a market stall shuttered for the night.

“What—what was that?” she demanded, angling her hat to protect her from the dripping awning. “Is she—dead? I mean, more dead?”

“Not at all. She’ll re-form again somewhere tonight, just as bitter and vengeful as always. But she’ll stay away from you now.”

“Because she’s afraid of you?”

“As you’ve said before, ghosts gossip.” His tone was very flat. “I cannot harm them, not really, but I can make them uncomfortable. And they always worry if it might be more. Most ghosts are cowardly, afraid to lose the ragged little bits of life they have left. I am not one of them exactly, but I can see them, touch them. That makes them afraid. They know who I am—hopefully Martha will let them know to stay away from you unless they wish to deal with me.”

“They are not afraid of me,” Lucie said thoughtfully, “though I have always been able to see them—”

Though, she had to admit, that was not entirely true. She remembered the shade of Emmanuel Gast, the dead warlock, hissing at her—truly, you are monsters, despite your angel blood. But he had been a criminal, she reminded herself, and a liar.

“Oh, they likely are afraid,” Jesse said grimly. “But they are also greedy. The ghost who gave you the location of that factory—others are starting to hear what you did for him. That you made him forget what tormented him.”

Lucie clasped her gloved hands together. “He asked me to do it. I did not command him without his request—”

“And I’m sure he would not tell you where Filomena’s ghost was unless you helped him,” Jesse said. “Ghosts can be as unscrupulous as the living. But you didn’t tell me about it, did you—”

“Because I knew you would take on like this,” Lucie snapped—she was cold, worried for James, and most of all she could not bear the disappointed look on Jesse’s face. “This is my talent, my power, and I can decide when to utilize it.”