“Just give it a sec. It’s almost over. Is Savannah—?”

“Outside,” he said, dropping beside Jaime. He checked her pulse, then turned to me. “She’s fading. I need to start—”

“Wait. Just a few more seconds.” I cast a quick look around. “Damn it, Trsiel. Where are you?”

“So that’s the Nix?” Lucas said, one hand still monitoring Jaime’s pulse, the other gesturing at the Nix’s spirit.

I started to nod, then stopped. “You can see her? Oh, shit! We shouldn’t be able to see her. She should be on the other side. That means Trsiel can’t—”

“Eve! We’re losing—”

His lips parted in a silent oath, and his head whipped down to Jaime’s and started CPR. The Nix’s spirit writhed and twisted. For a second, I saw her face clearly in the fog. I grabbed at her, but my hands went right through her form. She threw back her head and laughed. Then, with one last twist, she tore herself free, shot up to the ceiling, and disappeared.

“Goddamn it!”

I drove my fist into the wall. Then I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath. Okay, so it hadn’t worked. The kids were still safe. As for the Nix, I’d catch her again, this time in the ghost world, where she couldn’t escape so easily.

I knelt beside Jaime.

“Is she okay?” I asked. “What can I do?”

He pulled back and began chest compressions. “We lost her for a second, but I think she’s coming back. Can you take over the—?”

“Lucas?”

Savannah’s voice drifted out from the back of the house. Her footsteps clomped across the kitchen floor.

“Mom?”

“In here, baby. Come—”

A bone-chilling scream cut me short. I sprang to my feet and raced for the kitchen.

Chapter 50

50

THE KITCHEN WAS EMPTY.

“She must still be outside,” I said as I jogged to the back door. “Go back to Jaime. Make sure she’s okay.”

“If you need me—” Lucas began.

“I’ll call.”

I ran out the back door. Though the sun had fallen, the floodlights from the neighbor’s yard lit the lawn to near-daylight, and I only needed a single sweep to know Savannah wasn’t there. As I turned toward the drive, I glimpsed rheumy eyes glaring through the side fence. Lucas and Paige had erected a privacy fence around their yard, but there was just enough space between the slats for a determined neighbor to peer through.

“You!” I said, wheeling.

The old man wobbled back. I strode to the fence.

“Did you see a—Savannah, my ward—did you see her out here?”

“Watch your tone, girl,” he snapped, coming back to the fence. “You—”

“Did you see her?”