Charlotte and I take chairs across the table from others, not wanting to disturb them. She leans in and says in a hushed voice, “I’m so glad you’re here. I feel like I already know you. Kate told me how you helped her escape the houseboat where Violette imprisoned her, and I saw your courage when you turned your back on the numa and joined us. I just want you to know how brave I think you are.”

I can tell my face is flushing. I’m not used to this sort of sincerity, and definitely not this type of praise.

“I can see I’m embarrassing you, so I’ll stop,” she says, leaning back in her chair. “But, you know, I suffered a traumatic childhood like you did. Most of us have some sort of damage in our past. So even though you’re new here, and you may not feel you fit in, just know there are things we all share that makes you one of us.”

Luckily for my tear ducts, Ambrose takes that moment to burst into the room like the door’s too small for him. “Mission accomplished.” he announces to Gaspard. “They’re on their way.” He plops down into the chair next to Charlotte and rubs his hands together in anticipation of the meeting.

Hey kid. I hear the words in my mind and look around in surprise.

Ambrose leans back in his chair to peer at me from behind Charlotte. “Arthur says to say hi. He’s flying around here somewhere.” He twirls his finger toward the ceiling.

I had almost forgotten about being “volant” since I don’t have that ability yet. Most revenants, bardia and numa alike, have two stages of dormancy each month. The first day, they’re “mind and body dead.” Then, the second and third day, their mind wakes up, and they’re “volant,” which basically means a ghost. Their body lies there, skin cold, heart stopped, but their spirit can travel, speak telepathically to other revenants, see a few seconds into the future, and (in cases of extreme need) possess the body of another revenant, or even a human, although that’s not the best idea. Makes the human go crazy, thus inadvisable.

You can’t even imagine how many revenant rules there are. After five years of studying, I still don’t know some of them. So yeah, today Arthur’s a ghost. “Hi,” I say out loud, because, except for with Kate, who has some kind of Champion ESP, the telepathy doesn’t go both ways. (That would be Revenant Rules #3,641 and #3,642. Kidding. Kind of.)

You’re looking good, he replies. Seems this afterlife’s treating you well.