The way he words sounds lascivious, like I’m giving out handjobs for news about the vamps. It doesn’t help that he accompanies his words with a leer which has my lip curling in disgust.
“Uh, no. You must have the wrong gal.” I continue walking, not letting up our fast pace. It’s now been at least half an hour since I last heard from Ember and my anxiety is ratcheting higher with every minute that passes without hearing from him.
Maybe he’s fallen asleep and I’m worrying for nothing. But something tells me that’s not the case.
“Fine,” the ghost continues. “Youarethe witch who’s looking for information, though, right? You’re kind of hard to miss sinceyou have a weird energy to you. Not sure if anyone’s ever told you that before.”
“It’s not something I’ve heard before,” I reply, eyeing him. He looks in his early twenties, kind of scruffy in a hoodie and jeans that look at least two sizes too big. I wonder if they’re constantly falling down and he’s cursed with being unable to wear a belt. That must suck.
“We all saw the video of you as well, fighting off those weird bone men. I know it was only a big thing for all of ten minutes, but none of us have forgotten.”
“Ghosts have cell phones?”
Maybe it’s the fact we’re still walking and I’m distracted by my worry for Ember, but I don’t realize how dumb a question that is until it’s out of my mouth.
He gives me a pitying look. “No. But people have these things called shoulders, which we can look over. You were pretty famous there for about a minute.”
Well, he’s certainly the snarkiest of the ghosts I’ve spoken to recently. And I’ve spoken toa lotof them. Now that I’m not tamping down my powers so much, it’s like they keep popping up wherever I go.
“A few of us were wondering what else you might be able to do. You were likepow-pownow you’re dust, bone boy. We figured maybe you might have other powers that could apply to other unalive residents of the city.”
“Oh.” I have actually been thinking about this a lot recently, although I don’t exactly want to test things out and assume I can send ghosts on to the next place without knowing what I’m doing.
That could spell disaster.
“I’m looking into it,” I tell him.
“Well,” he replies. “When you can fit it in between dyeing your roots and plucking your nose hairs, give me a call.”
Okay, that was rude.
And I don’t haverootsto dye, or nose hairs.
I don’t think so, anyway.
“Anyway, I figured you might want to know there’s a bunch of living sculptures downtown that appeared overnight. Thought that might be some of the weird shit you’re interested in hearing about.”
From all this buildup, I kind of was expecting more. “Okay and—”
“A few of them were... kind of screaming earlier. They’re not anymore, though.”
I grind to a halt, nearly causing Hanna to plow right into my back.
“Show me.”
I charge off after the ghost as he leads the way downtown, toward the riverside. We come to a stop only a few hundred feet from where Hanna used to do her busking every week.
The ghost wasn’t exaggerating. Down here, there are at least fifty sculptures standing in various poses. All of them have their eyes open wide. All of them have faces contorted into expressions of horror.
“Holy shit.”
“Pretty sure I went to school with this one’s sister,” Hanna says, peering at the nearest one.
Looking closer, I can see that I recognize a few of them. There’s a man I remember from Arcanum Heights, one of the Archarcans who used to live on the next street to me. There’s a witch I recognize from one of the downtown pubs and a guy dressed in a local pizza place’s uniform.
“Uh, Silver,” Hanna says, tapping me on the shoulder.
I spin around, my stomach clenching at what’s got her sounding like she’s gritting her teeth.
