“Idon’t know if I want you to confirm or deny what I’m
seeing,” Zayne said.

“You really are seeing him,” I whispered, still a bit shocked that he could.

“Do they always look like that?”

“Some do, unfortunately.” I moved around Zayne. “Senator Fisher.”

The ghost didn’t move, but he did that bad reception on an old TV thing, scrambling in and out. “I’ve been trying to find you,” he said, his voice sounding like he was in a long tunnel, standing at the other end. “But I keep ending up here, over and over.”

Zayne twisted at the waist, and let out a low whistle. “The hotel is right across the street. I didn’t even realize it.”

“Serendipity?” I mused, crossing my arms as I focused on the senator. “You keep ending up here because this is where you died.”

The ghost drifted forward. “It’s also where I first met him.”

“Bael?”

The ghost shook his head, and the sight turned my stomach. “No. Him. The Harbinger.”

“I thought you said you only spoke with Bael,” Zayne said.

“He said that he came to him,” I reminded Zayne.

“I saw the Harbinger only once and then Bael,” the senator said, coming even closer. I sort of wished he wouldn’t. “I thought he was an angel answering my prayers. He is an angel. I thought he would help me. That he would bring back Natashya.”

I’d felt pity for the man before, but there’d been mostly anger. But now? Now that I knew how he felt? There was more pity than anything else. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry that he lied to you. I’m sorry that you believed him.”

One eye focused on me. The other eye...well, I didn’t even want to know where that ended up. “She was everything—my strength, my courage. My backbone and the voice of reason. I would’ve never made it to where I did if she hadn’t chosen me—”

A young man walked through the senator, causing the ghost to scatter. I tensed, holding my breath until the senator reappeared.

Zayne was staring at the young man’s back. “He didn’t even know he walked through him.” He looked down at me. “How many times have I walked through ghosts?”

“You probably don’t want me to answer that,” I told him, and then refocused on Fisher.

“I’m never going to see her again, am I?” he asked, flickering. “I realized that when you all left. I had nothing left.”

My heart squeezed. “Did you—?”

“It was the one like you. Sulien. He’d been watching. He was always watching.” His voice faded out and came back. “I was going to find you—find you both and tell you what I knew, but Sulien was there...and now there’s this thing that keeps following me. It’s a light.”