“It’s only perception,” I offer and sip my tea.
“What—the ghost part or the crazy part?”
“Both?” I grin wickedly and then sip again.
“Will you stop sipping like that! You drink like you’ve never sipped tea civilly in your life! How am I, the American girl, schooling you in proper tea etiquette?” She darts her little pinkie finger in the air and sips so softly I can hardly hear it.
“Did you even taste anything?” I sip my own, trying and failing to sip as quietly as she did.
“You’re an animal, Alder Maclean.”
I shrug, realizing just how much I’ve missed her gentle goading in all the moments she’s been gone. “It’d be no surprise to anyone to hear you say that Leith has ghosts. There’s nothing to be afraid of anyway—it’s fear that the supernatural feeds off. Your imagination creates the experience, fills it in nicely with every terror that resides in your subconscious. Spirits only mirror you. Scare you into inward reflection, make you fear the physical world a little more, and hopefully drive you into another level of awareness and ascension. Stay calm, relax, don’t forget to breathe, and then ask a question. Just like any other stranger you meet, it’s all about the tender mercies.”
“Tender mercies?” Fable shakes her head, clearly baffled by what I’ve just revealed.
“The spirits left behind are the broken ones, Fable, just like life.”
Alder
“So, what are you thinking?”
“You don’t want to know.” She huffs at my side.
“You couldn’t be more wrong.” I want to know every thought in her head.
“I’m wondering if I’m tripping on some bad haggis, or if you low-keyjust confessed to being a ghost.”
“Uh…I don’t think that’s exactly what happened.” I laugh.
“Call me crazy, but I did some reading between the lines.” Her tone is snarky, and I can’t help but smile.
“Indeed.”
“Am I wrong, then?” She crosses her arms and waits for my reply.
“You’re not right.”
“Explain. Please. I’m losing my mind over here.”
I let her words hang in the space between, thinking how right she is and how unfair this has all been from her perspective.
“The world around you isn’t always exactly what you see. Some of our senses perceive the world through drunk glasses, but there’s much left uncovered.”
“And…you have heightened senses?”
“Something like that. You have them too.”
Her face falls. “Right,” she whispers to herself. “Because I can see you. More than that, I can sense you. I feel you even when you’re not around. It’s like being haunted by my own shadow.”
My eyebrows jump up as I consider that a pretty good description of what’s been going on. “I feel it too.”
Her eyes dart to mine, something warm softening them. I want to go to her, give her a hug, but instead, I clench my fists and restrain my urges. She’s still not ready; I can feel it. If her senses are triggered too soon… Well, I don’t know what might happen, and that scares me.
“It’s as if there are two worlds running side by side with each other.”
“There are many more than two.”
“Like alternate universes?” she rushes to ask.
