Page 27 of Tall, Dark and Haunted

“Are you sure you want to give up, Rhi?” Davy asks. “You weren’t even a ghost for a day. It gets pretty tedious after a while.”

“That’s an understatement,” Topher mutters.

“But at least this time we’ll all be together,” Red says soothingly.

“And I won’t be naked,” I add.

“Unfortunately,” Topher growls in my ear, his fingers brushing along the hem of my t-shirt. “Although, we can fix that.”

It’s hard to think straight when I’m sitting in Topher’s lap. The feel of his body against mine is really distracting.

Shivering, I try to tell myself that one night will be enough. But I know that I’m wrong. One night will never be enough. A whole lifetime with Topher, Davy, and Red couldn’t possibly be enough. So how can one night be anything but torture?

“What other choice do we have?” I ask, my voice coming out a little bit breathy.

“Choice?” Red and Davy ask in unison, looking at me, confused.

“Nudity would be my choice,” Topher says.

I actually giggle in response. Giggle! Our lives are about to end and I’m giggling because Topher is flirting with me. “There isn’t anything we can do to stay alive,” I finally say. “I guess we should just accept it.”

Two teenage heads pop out from around a book stack. They don’t even try to hide the fact that they’ve been spying on us.

“You can’t give up!” The girl comes and sits at the table while the dark-haired boy leans against the bookshelf they were hiding behind only a moment ago. “You can’t just let them kill you.”

“Er… Sorry. But who are you?” Red asks.

“I’m Castalia and this is Amon.” She waves her hand towards the older teenager behind her. “We accidentally overheard your conversation.”

Her tone is almost business-like, and yet I don’t believe for one second that they ‘accidentally’ overheard us. They were spying on us. There’s a naughty gleam in their eyes that tells me they regularly get up to mischief.

“You won’t find anything useful in these books,” Castalia says. “Lupine is always trying to make us read them, and I know for a fact that they’re full of utter codswallop.”

“Codswallop?” I ask with a grin.

“Did I say it wrong?” Castalia returns my grin with a much more sinister one of her own. “I was trying to make you feel at home with some British slang.”

“No. You got it right. It was just a surprise. Who is Lupine?” I ask, curious about the woman who helped find my outfit in the lost and found.

“Lupine runs the orphanage where we live. She’s really bossy.”

“So, what do you suggest we do instead?”

“Oh, nothing really…” Castalia leans back in her chair, pulling out her phone.

“Nothing?” Davy asks. “You’re the one who said we shouldn’t give up!”

“I did.” Castalia doesn’t even look up from her phone as she types something into it. “I just don’t think you can do anything about it.”

“What does that mean?” Topher asks, impatiently.

“Well, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think any of you are witches.”

With a sigh, my shoulders slump back against Topher’s chest. “You’re right. And the town’s coven is trying to make us into ghosts again, so I doubt there’s going to be a witch in this town willing to help us.”

“Who says?” Castalia asks. “Not all the witches in town belong to the coven.”

“Do you know a witch who might help us?”