“Revenge.” And she did look pretty vengeful then, standing tall at the prow of the ship, staring into the middle distance, her mouth set firmly.

Sanjiv nodded slowly. “So what was your plan? For me to ask Addy out and just . . . ?”

She cut her eyes at Sanjiv. “I had a very long list of possibilities. Get her to fall in love with you and then you disappear with all her money. Get her to fall in love with you and then you break her heart into sixty-seven thousand pieces. Get her to fall in love with you and then you throw a burrito at her—”

“All right, all right, I got it,” Sanjiv interrupted.

“Hurts more if they love you first,” Ching said, which was her usual recommendation for getting back at enemies.

“The pattern’s pretty clear.”

Ching deigned to give him a half smile at that.

Sanjiv didn’t return it. “So . . . revenge. Using my childhood crush. New low.”

“Oh, whatever.” The smile turned into a scowl. “You’re never any fun.”

“Well. Maybe you’ll manifest for someone more fun next time.” The anger that had been simmering down bubbled back over. Freaking vengeful Ching, who couldn’t just be on his side and help him out. Always had to be something else going on.

She turned to face him, arms crossed, a curl of dark hair covering one of her eyes. “So you’re really still thinking about it?”

“I don’t even know why you want to stick around. You’ve made it pretty clear you think I’m a loser.”

Ching snorted. “And I’m trying to give you ways to not be a loser.”

“And I always think they are terrible ideas,” Sanjiv said. “We’re too different.”

“Superficial differences.” Ching waved him away. “It was the same with my ghost. We fought all the time. He’d always be like, ‘Stop pillaging’ and ‘Please, truly, stop pillaging.’”

“That . . . is not superficial.”

“Having a ghost that’s similar to you isn’t the most important thing.”

“Then what is?”

Ching frowned at him, but then just sighed. “So you’re fine never learning where the treasure is?”

“Just stop with this treasure bullshit,” he said. “I’m not ten anymore. I know you don’t have any.”

“I have my secrets.”

Sanjiv steered the boat through the wind. “Well, even if you did have buried treasure, I’m sure you would have given it to one of your previous humans who were so much cooler and anti-authority. Like that motorcycle gang guy.”

“Ah yes, Chen Wentong,” Ching said, looking out at the sunset. “You burned too bright.”

Sanjiv rolled his eyes and maneuvered the sail around. “How are we even related?”

“I don’t know. But I’m just trying to make sure you don’t end the line.”