She furrowed her brow then shook her head. “Hear what?” She had the awareness to speak in a voice just as quiet as his.

“I swear I heard someone say—”

“Hey.”

No mistake this time. Isaac jumped to his feet and leaned into the palm tree, using it as a shield as he searched the area on the other side. Sadina scrambled behind him, pressing against his back. The house in front of them had been a two-story home once, but the roof and most of the upper floor were missing, replaced by the dark remains of a fire that appeared somewhat recent. With the sun sinking ever closer to the horizon, the ruins of the structure and the wilderness of the yard were a grand festival of shadows. Whoever had spoken could be hiding anywhere.

“It couldn’t have been a ghost,” Sadina whispered directly into his ear. “Ghosts don’t say, ‘Hey.’”

He closed his eyes and reopened them in a long blink. “You think this is a joke?”

“Tell your people you want to explore the house,” a disembodied voice said from somewhere in the yard, just loud enough to decipher. “I’ll meet you inside. You need to hear what I have to say.” There was a rustle of movement in the weeds and the dart of a shadow. The measured flurry of words from the intruder, the avuncular sound of them, made Isaac think it was an older man.

He turned and looked at the others. No one had heard. No one but Sadina.

“There’s no way we go in that house,” she said.

Isaac couldn’t have agreed more. “So much for what Kletter told us. That guy might not be a Crank, but he’s definitely a human!”

“Your ability to figure things out always amazes me. Come on, let’s tell the others.”

He grabbed her arm before she could move away from him. “Wait. Just . . . wait.”

“Wait? We have to tell them.”

Isaac had a burrowing rat of suspicion in his gut, and the worst part was that he didn’t know its source. Kletter was a weirdo, no doubt, but they’d all thrown their lot in with her and traveled across the ocean itself to show their trust. But . . .

“I don’t know,” he whispered. “Just . . . this person appears out of nowhere and wants to meet us secretly? Suddenly I’m doubting everything.”

“You’ve lost your mind. Because of some dude in the weeds.”

He knew she was right—knew it before she’d even responded to what he’d said. He wanted to get as far away from that house as poss—