“There’s plenty of time for that,” I tell her, feelingall the moreconfident in the place my spirit chose to rest. “I want to hear about this bakery.”
Claudia grins and her toneregainsits levity. “Istarted bakingafter I stopped dancing.I needed something to fill my time, and it’s been really therapeutic for me.I find itcalms my mind and gives me something productive to do with my hands. Plus, I get to share it with others.” She smiles knowinglytoherself. “Seeing someone react to something I made gives me that same feeling I had when I was performing.I guess Ilike feeding people,” she says with a reserved shrug of her shoulders.
I love seeing my sister this sure of herself. Even when she was dancing, I remember her questioning herself over the smallest mistakes. She never thought she was good enough. Now I know why.
Claudia reaches for my hands and squeezes them lightly. “You saidyou’retethered to a house. Is that whereyou’restaying?”
I shuffle my shoes atop the tiled flooring.It’snot thatI’membarrassed by Theodore’s house—it’sa literal hauntedhouse,most people would expect there to be a few cobwebs—I justdon’tknow how my sister will react. Knowing her,she’lloffer her own home in an instant, but something about that feels wrong. It would mean leaving Theodore alone again.
I may not havewitnessedit, but if what Raegan told me is true, Theodore went decades without speaking to another soul. Thinking about that makes my heart sink. I struggled just a few days without anyone being able to see me. Ican’timagine what it must have felt liketo spendevery minute of every day alone in that house, never knowing ifhe’dtalk to anyone again.
“Yes,” I say, answering Claudia’s question. “I’mcurrently staying at the Vanderbilt house. Do you know it?”
She furrows herbrow. “The haunted house?”
A laugh bursts out of me. “Yes.That’sexactly it.”
“Are you okay out there? It’s so secluded. And that other ghost…I’ve heard he’s a real Boo Radley.”
Though the comparison isaccurate, I want to preserve just the smallest bit of Theo’s character. “He’s helped me,” Itellher. “I would still be floating through the void without him.”
The truth of that statement sinks in, and suddenly I feel the need to repay him somehow. It may have been Simone and Calliope that performed the spell, but without a place to tether me, it might not have worked. Theodore offered his home to me.There’sgot to be something I can do for him in return.
Another one of Raegan’s comments comes to mind: he could really use a friend.Maybe shewas on to something. Ifwe’regoing to be spending time together in that house anyway, why can’t that friend be me?
Chapter Seventeen
KENNEDY
After promising Claudia I’ll come back and see her again, I make my way back to Theodore’s house feeling lighter than ever, and not just because I’ve completely let go of my physical body.
Afterrealizing I was dead, the existential thought ofWhatdo I do now?plagued mymind. I have no doubtthat part of the reason I was brought to Shadow Hills was to reconnect with my sister, butwhy not take advantage ofanother opportunityI’vebeen given?Maybe being tethered to Theodore’s house was happenstance, but while I’m here, I can at least tryto make a difference.
As I float back through the forest, my mind wandering with a thousand possibilities, I hear snow crunch to my right. Instinctively, I shoot upward, hiding behind one of the lower hanging branches. I expect to see an animal, or even a stranger taking a stroll, butit’sneither.
Theodore appears below me, fully corporeal.He’swearing the same set of suspendersand peacoatas when I first met him in the void, and I wonder ifit’sthe outfit he died in.His scraggly dark hair blows wildly across his forehead and into his eyes.
He stops right under me and scans the area carefully before turning his gaze up. He must have sensed me somehow because he doesn’t look surprised.
“Have you been out here all morning?” he asks quietly. The sun is high in the sky which means it must be around noon. I didn’t realize I’d been gone for so long.
I lower myself back down to the snowy ground,landingless than a foot fromhischest.He gazes at me openly, waiting for my answer like he actually wants to know.
I didn’t think he’d notice I was gone.
“No, I went into town. I was just on my way back.”
The way he continues to hold my gaze is intense. Idon’tthinkhe’sblinked since he first spotted me.
“Did you chat with anyone while you were there?”heasks.
“I saw a few familiar faces,” I admit. “And I met the mayor.”
His eyebrows disappear beneath his bangs. “Really? On your first day?” He looks awayabashedly.“Youdon’twaste any time.”
I know there’s a joke in there somewhere, but I’m not sure what he’s implying. He almost looks ashamed. But not at me.
“I didn’t knowMusthavenwas still here,” I say. “I’m glad I found out.”
