“I was worried about how you would react.”
“Why?”
She waved her hand at me. “Maybe this is why.”
My anger faded and my shoulders slumped.
“Ellie, talk to me. Why are you freaking out?”
“I’m scared, Claire. I’m scared for you. If something happens to you—”
“Nothing’s going to happen to me.”
I shook my head, my anger resurfacing. “You don’t know that! The more involved you are, the more at risk you are.”
Claire closed the distance between us and grabbed my arms. “Ellie, I’m not going anywhere.” Her eyebrows rose in mock surprise when I gasped. “What? You don’t think I can see what you’re doing? First sending Myra to Durham—”
“Myra wanted to go to Durham!”
“Don’t tell me that you weren’t happy to send her off.”
Tears stung my eyes. “How can you say that? I love Myra.”
“I know you do! And the way I said it came out wrong. I know you were trying to protect her, but I also know you’ve been trying to figure out how to distance yourself from me too.”
“I love you, Claire. I have to protect you.”
She shook her head. “Maybe I’m supposed to protect you. Just like David’s trying to do. We’re not Curse Keepers, but we have other ways of helping. And don’t get it into your head that we’re not meant to be involved. What do you think, that the professor whose help you were seeking just happened to show up in Manteo to work at the colony site? That I just happened to hear ghosts who know about you and your role as Curse Keeper?”
My mouth moved like a fish trying to breathe as I struggled with what to say.
“Things happen for a reason, Ellie. Yeah, Collin-fucking-Dailey won’t help you, but that doesn’t mean you have to be alone. Maybe we’re meant to help you.”
I shook my head, trying to make sense of her words. “How?”
“You need to listen to me. I’m telling you that you shouldn’t be living in that house. There’s a darkness there.”
Sweat prickled the back of my neck. “I thought you just heard voices?”
Her face softened. “That was when I was little . . . now I can see things too. Like that ghost. Something changed after we got home from Charleston. Whenever I look at the house, it’s covered in a hazy darkness.”
“You’re scaring me, Claire.”
“Good. You should be scared. There’s something dark in that house. Maybe that’s why you’ve felt uncomfortable there since the curse broke. It’s because you shouldn’t be there at all.”
I knew there was some truth to what she said. Ever since the curse broke, I’d felt something bad in the house, mostly in my bedroom. But over the last week, I had felt something ominous in both houses. As long as David or someone else was with me, I could handle it. But I couldn’t bear to be there alone. “What am I supposed to do? I gave up my apartment. I have nowhere else to go.”
“Ellie, you’re about to lose the house anyway. Find somewhere else to live. And whatever you do, don’t stay there without David.” Claire hesitated. “She says you need him.”
“Who says I need him?”
She sucked in her top lip. “I see ghosts all the time now. When you asked me what I saw outside that other apartment just now, it was a ghost. An old guy wandering around in his bathrobe, holding a newspaper and a cup of coffee.”
My eyes widened. “Mr. Murphy. He liked to walk around in his robe. He died about two weeks after I moved in here. That was four years ago.” I took a deep breath. Why was this freaking me out? After everything else I’d seen, ghosts should have been nothing.
“He’s pissed that someone is living in his apartment. He says she doesn’t keep it clean enough.”
I stared at Claire, wide-eyed. “How many do you see?”
“Some days one or two. Yesterday I saw ten.”
“And you’re not scared?”
“No. Unlike your demons, the ghosts seem harmless. But not all of them are fully formed. Some are blobs—kind of like when we saw Kanim. From what I can tell, the longer they’ve been dead, the more I can see of them.”
“And the ghost that thinks I need David? Can you see her?”
“No. She’s a blur, not even a blob yet. She started making sounds a few days ago, and yesterday was the first time I could string the words together. But I’ve figured out enough to know that she’s worried about you and wants you to leave.”
“How do you even know you can trust the voices, Claire? What if this person is somehow working with Okeus?”
“I just know that we can. Call it instinct.”
I headed for the kitchen and started opening cabinets to make sure they were empty. “Well, then you must be happy that David and I are heading to Chapel Hill for the weekend.”
“Relieved.” She leaned her hands on the bar. “Then you can find somewhere else to live when you get back.”
A movement in the open front door caught my attention.
“Why are we looking for somewhere else to live?” David asked.
I bugged my eyes at Claire in warning, then turned to face David. “What are you doing here?”
“I missed you.” He moved toward me with a mischievous grin. “I wondered what was taking you so long, and then I saw the empty bottles on the porch.”