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Cole turned back around.

I reached for her hand, lacing our fingers as she went down the rest of the stairs and crossed Lee’s little courtyard. I might not have the abilities of those two, but in my mind, that made me the most important one in this trio relationship. I was the normal one. The human one.

I anchored their shit back to Earth.

Lee said, “It’s Ethan.”

Cole almost stumbled in her next step.

I caught her, righting her without missing a beat, and frowned. That didn’t sound good.

Also, who was Ethan again?

40

COLE

Melbor was standing just outside the gate with Ethan beside him, a blank stare on his face. I slowed, taking in the scene. “What… What is going on here?”

Melbor cleared his throat and jerked his thumb in Ethan’s direction. “I went for my nightly stroll through the landfill, and when I got to my perch on the wall, guess who I saw wandering on the street. This one here.”

This was all sorts of odd.

“Melbor, you’re a ghost.” I was stating the obvious, but I felt it needed to be said.

“You’re telling me.” He leaned back. “He’s looking all stoned and high, but when he saw me coming down the street toward him, well, he saw me coming down the street toward him.”

Lee and I shared a look.

Melbor noticed, clearing his throat. “Listen, normally I wouldn’t ever be one to come up and ringing the doorbell for the Underground Reaper Man, but I figured since I know you that you might keep your fella from not sending me to the after-afterlife, if you get what I’m talking about. I don’t actually know which way I’d be heading and I’m not minding my life right here in the now. I feel a certain way about protecting the landfill. It’s my job, is how I see it.” He was eyeing Lee warily.

Oh, good God. “Lee’s not going to kill you, or kill you again, just because you rang his doorbell.”

Lee looked away.

Melbor made sure to turn almost all the way away.

“Are you serious? You killed someone because they rang your doorbell, and for fuck’s sake, how did you ring the bell? Or get Ethan here?” Did I need to state the obvious again? “Ethan is alive. And last I checked, could not see ghosts.”

“Eh.” Melbor’s face suddenly puffed up, like he was on the toilet and having a hard time about it. “I heard about that fire.”

Lee cursed. “I swear that the ghost gossip channel is faster than our phones. What do you know about the fire?”

“Just that,” Melbor jerked his head in Ethan’s direction, who to Melbor’s credit did look stoned. He was staring at us, but he was not present at all. He was blinking and standing, and that was it. “Look at him. Smell him. He wreaks of gas and fire.”

He was covered in soot. His hands had ash on them too.

“It wouldn’t be the first time she did this.”

Lee and I shared a look.

My voice went up a notch. “She? She who?”

“Your librarian. She’s done it before.”

My heart dropped. “What are you talking about?”

“Red. I mean, it’s not the first library she’s torched. It’s her thing, I guess. Every Halloween, she goes a little nutso, and well, kaboom.”