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“The distance has weakened what you can do,” Miss Veda said after giving me a moment, “but it has not erased what exists between the three of you. Kaidence will always be your son. Death cannot remove your blood from him. And what you shared with Lakelyn did not simply disappear because your life ended. Whether those bonds eventually lead them back here is something neither you nor I can force.”

I blew out a breath I technically didn’t need. “So basically my whole afterlife depends on my stubborn-ass girlfriend eventually deciding to bring herself and my son back to the one city she just ran away from.”

Miss Veda’s mouth curved faintly. “When you put it that way, your circumstances do sound rather unfortunate.”

I cut my eyes at her. “You enjoying this shit a little too much.”

“Perhaps a little.”

“Says the woman who supposed to be helping me.”

“I am helping you, Caspian. I simply never promised you would enjoy the answers.”

I stood there absorbing everything she had told me, and for the first time since I died, the rules of this shit actually made some kind of sense.

Halloween was my opening… not some automatic free pass where midnight hit and suddenly I became Casper with a fucking gym membership. Lakelyn and my son had to come home and the people responsible for murdering me had to face what they did. Only then could Miss Veda return what was left of my physical body to a world that had spent all this time searching for it.

It was a whole lot of conditions riding on people I couldn’t call, couldn’t reach, and couldn’t force to do a damn thing.

I still had a hundred questions, but one about her had moved pretty high on the list.

Miss Veda had pulled that damn nail file back out at some point and was shaping another nail like we had all the time in the world.

“How long you been doing this shit anyway?”

“Long enough.”

“Long enough for what?”

“To know that spirits rarely appreciate the answers they insist they want.”

I frowned. “That still ain’t answer my question. Shit, how long you been dead?”

The nail file paused for half a second.

That was the first real reaction I had gotten out of her.

Then she went right back to what she was doing.

“Long enough that counting the years stopped being important.”

“Damn. That old?”

Her eyes lifted to mine. “Careful.”

I almost laughed. “I’m just trying to figure out who the hell I’m dealing with.”

“And you will.” She gave her nail one final pass. “In time.”

That told me everything I needed to know about that conversation.

Miss Veda was perfectly comfortable explaining my dead ass from top to bottom, but when the subject switched to her, suddenly everything was classified.

“Aight. Keep your secrets.”

“I intend to. Now, do you have any more questions? Preferably ones that don’t concern my age, my death, or require me to hand over my entire afterlife résumé?”

“I got more… a lot more. But first I need a favor.”