This time, her voice comes from above us. All three of us look at the ceiling, but nothing is there.
“Who were you going to see the night you died?” Irina asks.
The room goes completely quiet.
So quiet I can hear Nils swallow, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he stares at the ceiling. I listen to Irina’s unsteady breaths, my pulse pounding too loud in my ears. We wait, but there’s no response—
Thunder blasts outside, splitting the silence, making us all jump.
Irina shudders. “Maybe we should stop.”
Suddenly her bun starts to twitch. Then her head jerks back violently like someone yanked her hair. “Ow, what the fuck?”
I stare at her in horror.What the fuckis right.
Irina instinctively starts to pull away from Nils, but he holds on to her.
“You can’t let go,” he says. “You said it yourself, remember?”
We can’t stop yet either. Not until we get some answers. I glance around the room, not knowing where to look. “Emilía, who were you seeing?”
“No,” she says.
“We have to stop,” Irina begs. “I never should’ve—”
“Was he the one who hurt you?” I ask.
Emilía doesn’t answer—shescreams. All the candles sputter out at once. Smoke chokes the air, and I’m about to throw my hands over my ears, but Nils tightens his grip on me.
“Don’t let go,” he urges.
In the sudden darkness, I can no longer see him or Irina, only feel their hands in mine. Lightning flashes outside. Looks like the storm has reached its height.
“Who attacked you?” I try again.
“You,” Emilía wails.
My stomach bottoms out. “Me?”
Emilía gives an awful, earsplitting screech.
The window shatters, shards of glass flying toward us.
Irina screams. Nils leans closer, shielding me. Freezing wind whips into the room like a wailing scream. The pages of the book beside Irina flutter like wings. The overhead light flares on, blindingly bright, before flickering off and on again. In the strobe-like flashes, I can see Nils’s and Irina’s wide-eyed, terrified expressions.
Finally, the light stops blinking.
The wind dies.
We all still hold on to each other. As rain gusts in through the shattered window, I look around the room, staring in disbelief at the toppled chairs, the books thrown from their shelves, and the gleaming wet glass strewn all over the floor.
“Holy shit,” I manage to get out.
“What the hell just happened?” Nils sputters.
Irina is taking gasping breaths. “I-I don’t know. Something must have gone wrong. That shouldn’t have happened… it’s not possible. Spirits aren’t supposed to have that kind of power here, especially not outside of the seer campus.”
“Why is that?”
