Mom hesitated.
I nodded. “That was me.”
“And Galen, Booker, Aurora, and Lilac,” May said. “He hated you all.”
“He mentioned Lilac,” Mom said. “I had no idea who that was. He kept calling her a demon.”
“Lilac Meadows,” May volunteered. “She’s half-demon, and terrifying. She’s Hadley’s best friend.”
“And Aurora?” Mom asked.
“Aurora King,” I supplied. “A siren.”
“A mouthy one,” May said with a laugh. “I like her. She doesn’t fall in line with the other sirens and does her own thing.”
“Booker?” Mom was trying to line up all the players.
“Judy Pitman’s son.” May turned grim. “She helped lock away Declan. Booker is nothing like her.”
“These are the people you’ve surrounded yourself with?” Mom asked me. It was impossible to read her face for a change so I had no idea how she felt about it.
“They are,” I confirmed. “They’re good people.”
“Very good people,” May agreed.
Mom’s expression softened. “I wasn’t suggesting they weren’t,” she assured me. “I just … when I pictured you, you were always a child. I knew you were an adult but you were always little when I tried to imagine you. It’s weird thinking of you as engaged.”
“It’s not weird,” May countered. “It’s gross. They’re all over each other. Galen is handsy. It drives your father nuts.”
That made me smile. Now was not the time for these conversations, although I did have a question. “Why are you a ghost? Why are you here?”
“I don’t know,” Mom replied. “As for being a ghost, that was always my intention. I wanted to watch you grow up. I didn’t care if I delayed my respite. It would have been enough to see you. It didn’t really work out that way.
“There was darkness after I died and at some point I woke up, but I was here,” she continued. “I can’t leave. I’m stuck.”
“Have you tried to leave?” I asked.
“Through the doors. I can get close but not through.”
“But if we charge the doors you might be able to get through?”
Mom nodded. “But I can’t be your concern. We need to get you back across. And your grandmother,” she added as an afterthought.
“Absolutely not.” May vehemently shook her head. “I told you I’m not leaving you.”
“You can’t stay here for me.” Mom looked sad. “I won’t be able to live with that.”
She was already dead, so the statement was a little surreal. I stubbornly pushed it out of my head. “Why do you think she’s here?” I asked May.
“Something we did with the magic in the cemetery affected her soul, which was likely still attached to her body even more than two decades later,” she replied. “I don’t know the specifics. There are others here, souls from the cemetery. I’ve seen them.”
“Then if we can make the door strong enough she can go back when it’s time,” I pressed.
“I can’t guarantee it,” May replied.
I fell quiet, my mind whirling, then I focused on the door. “All we need are magical people to come through the door?” I asked.
“What are you planning?” May demanded, instantly suspicious.
