I didn’t move toward him. I just stood there. But there was: Sebastian Albert Pearce, the boy I had failed to save. He was hitting the walls, shaking the iron bars of the room. Outside the bars was the endless darkness of æther. His face was bloody, contorted with rage, and his hair was black with ash.

Last time I’d encountered a poltergeist I’d been in a physical form, but Seb could still do some injury to my spirit. I would have to stop him.

“Seb,” I said, as softly as I could.

It didn’t take long for him to see the invasion. He rounded on me, ran at me. I grabbed him by the wrists.

“Seb, it’s me!”

“You didn’t save me.” He was snarling, rabid. “You didn’t save me and now I’m dead. I’m dead, Paige! And I can’t”—he hit the wall—“get out”—again—“of this room!”

His narrow form shook in my arms. His ribs and bones jutted, like they had before. I forced down my fear and held his filthy face between my hands. The sight of his broken neck made me flinch.

I had to do this. I had to quell the wrath of the spirit he’d become, or he would live in this state forever. This wasn’t Seb. This was Seb’s bitterness and pain and hatred. “Seb, listen to me. I’m so, so sorry. You didn’t deserve this.” His eyes were black. “I can help you. Do you want to see your mother again?”

“Mother hates me.”

“No. Listen, Seb, listen. I didn’t free you, and—and I’m sorry.” My voice was about to crack. “But we can free each other now. If you leave this room, I can leave the city.”

“Nobody leaves. She said ‘nobody leaves.’ ” He gripped my arm, and his head shook so fast it blurred. “Not even you. Not even me.”

“I can make you leave.”

“I don’t want to leave. Why should I leave? She killed me. I should have had longer!”

“You’re right. You should have had longer. But do you really want to live in this cage for the rest of forever?”

Seb began to tremble again.

“Forever?”

“Yes, forever. You don’t want that.”

His neck healed.

“Paige,” he whispered, “do I have to leave forever? I can’t come back?”

I was shaking now. Why couldn’t I have saved him? Why couldn’t I have stopped her?

“For now.” Slowly, carefully, I placed my hands on his shoulders. “I can’t send you all the way to the last light. You know, that white light people say they see at the end. I can’t send you there. But I can send you a long way away, to the outer darkness, so nobody can ever trap you again. And then, if you really want, then you can come back.”

“If I want.”