Chapter 7

I’d made it all the way to Dinosaur Valley. But now, after squeezing under the barbed wire fence that marked the border of the state park, I was having second thoughts about venturing out to meet up with the Black Ghost on my own.

Nobody. Just us. Not safe. What was that supposed to mean?

The second human soul, the one Dixon ran through with a rack of antlers, the one bottled up safe inside me—pulsed with heat. On. Off.

“Whoa.” I sat still in the middle of the trail, hand on my chest where the soulshine had blinked. Waited.

It didn’t happen again. Maybe I imagined that flicker.

Hello? Ghost’s voice in my head almost made me jump.

I got up and brushed the trail dust off my shorts. I have to go. I shouted my thoughts down the tunnel that connected our minds. A tunnel that was starting to feel sort of dark and spooky. I’ll check in when I’m close.

Not waiting for an okay, I peeled away from him and broke our connection. I didn’t want him seeing through my eyes right now. I needed to think.

Bitey Face scampered out of the high grass and cacti, chewing on the leash attached to his ladybug backpack.

“Something’s weird about this, right?” I pulled the leash out of his beak before he chewed it in half. “He’s more worried about people seeing him than I am.”

Bitey Face stood on his toes and waved his bright blue tail. I got the feeling every word I said just sort of echoed in the empty space behind those big cow eyes.

“I know you can’t understand me but hear me out.” I looked back at the barbed wire, where just a few properties separated me from a night in front of the TV. “On one hand, he’s alone, in the woods, in the dark. And I’m getting some seriously cagey vibes.” I turned back toward the trail that led to the Paluxy River, where Ghost was waiting. A wave of guilt washed over me. “On the other hand, he’s alone, in the woods, in the dark. He’s been alive for, what, a day and a half? And I brought him back to life. He’s my responsibility. I can’t just ghost him. Pun intended.”

Bitey Face yawned. Tough crowd.

“And before you say it”—I started down the trail toward the river—“I’m not roping Mom into this. We’re in the middle of a delicate situation. I guarantee if she found out I brought not one, but two human beings back from the dead, she would go full Godzilla.” I walked into a shadowy forest of juniper trees and switched on my flashlight. The beam lit up more spiderwebs than I was okay with, but I shook off the shivers and pushed forward anyway. “And you know if this gets out, she and Dad are gonna have a nuclear argument trying to figure out what to do with me. They’re having one right now. So let’s just skip all that and get straight to the part where the problem is solved.”

 We hiked in the dark for maybe forty minutes before we crossed a dry stream bed I recognized from last summer. We were getting close.

That bottled-up soul flared hot again. On. Off.

I stopped so suddenly that Bitey went gurk on the end of the leash. “Hello?”

That glow. It was like a lightning bug. Like a signal.

Like a warning.

The hairs on my arms stood up. “Are you trying to tell me something?”

A full minute of silence went by before I heard something rustling through the fallen leaves.

I snapped my flashlight off and backed into the deep shadows of an oak tree, scary movie scream loaded. Bitey huddled between my legs, gnawing nervously on his leash.

An armadillo waddled out of the bushes.

I slapped my forehead and slumped back against the oak, feeling one hundred percent stupid. Here I was in the pitch-black woods, all riled up over hot sauce heartburn.

“You know what?” I shoved my flashlight into the side pocket of my backpack. “We’re going stealth mode.”

Over hundreds of years, the Paluxy River had carved a deep trench for itself into the ground, which meant there were plenty of cliffs and drop-offs along the bank. If I kept my flashlight off and moved quietly, I could stop on high ground and lay eyes on this guy before I introduced myself. Scope out whether he was the I have candy in my van type.

Now there was a half-decent plan. No reason to rush into this. Or psych myself out before I even got to the Paluxy.

Bitey and I walked the rest of the way on light feet. Finally, we got close enough to the river that I could hear running water and croaking frogs. But there was another sound too.

Crack. Crack. Crack. Rock on rock.

I ducked into the brush, pushing Bitey down low beside me. We crept to the edge of the steep slope and looked down on the river.

A man sat hunched in the shadows on the opposite bank, striking two stones together. He paused to hold the rock in his left hand up to the moonlight, I guess inspecting his work.

I couldn’t quite see him, but that had to be Ghost.

“What is he doing?” I whispered.

Bitey nibbled the leash pinned between his paws.

“Hey.” I pulled it out of his mouth. It was actually fraying a bit. “Knock it off.”

I refocused on Ghost and opened our connection carefully, hoping he couldn’t sense me moving in his mind.

Through his eyes, I saw what was in his hand. It almost looked like an Indian arrowhead, but the size of a hunting knife. Besides having some serious weight, it was butcher-sharp where he’d flaked off the edges.

Back in my own body, a chill rolled down my neck.

I backed out of his brain as quick and quiet as possible.

He didn’t look up from his work. I don’t think he felt me.

I touched the spot on my chest where the other human soul was bottled. If my passenger wanted to weigh in, now was the ti—

A twinge of heat seared in my chest. It felt like somebody used my heart to put out a cigarette.

I dropped on all fours. My vision whited out.

And suddenly I was sitting on a beach, surrounded by bare footprints too big to be mine. The burn in my chest had turned cool in a snap. A bonfire crackled in the sand where Bitey was huddled just a split second ago.

A full moon hung high over my head, surrounded by more stars than I’d ever seen. The sky was so clear it looked like a picture from NASA.

With all those stars shining down, I could make out some mountains across the ocean—and at the bottom of those mountains, on what must’ve been the faraway coast, another light. A small, orange light. Another fire on the other side of the sea.

It blinked. Like a lightning bug. Like a signal.

Like a warning.

I snapped awake with a gasp. My cheek was smashed into the dirt and woodchips and my hands were clutched over my heart. The pain in my chest had floored me.

What was that? A message? From the soul still stuck inside me? What was it even supposed to mean?

I pulled the leash wrapped around my wrist and found a loose end, completely chewed through.

“Bitey.” I whispered his name like a swear word. I’d kill him if he wasn’t already a jillion years past dead.

I looked down the slope. Bitey Face stood on my side of the river, lapping up water on the bank.

Ghost stood on the opposite side of the Paluxy, still as a bird dog. Watching. He held his stone knife at his hip like a six shooter. Ready to draw.

The human soul inside me scorched in my center. Not again.

A flash of white blinded me from the inside out.

And then I was flat on my back on the not-quite-real beach. Crashing waves and rushing blood thundered in my ears.

Ghost loomed over me, shoulders bristling with fur and feathers, his knee crushing the air out of my chest. He raised a sharp stone over his head.

Another blinding flash.

I snapped back into reality. It was like waking up from a nightmare.

One word burned through every vein in my body, my passenger’s soul at the center.

Run.

I stood straight up.

Bitey waded into the water and tilted his head at Ghost.

Ghost raised his arrowhead, knife, whatever it was, and slunk into the river with surprising speed and silence.

I grabbed for Bitey’s magic leash—the tin cans and string that connected our feelings—and yanked it as hard as I could.

Down on the riverbank, Bitey Face collapsed into a pile of black clay and bottle caps. The ladybug backpack dropped. His soulshine snapped back into me like a rubber band.

“Oh my gosh.” I looked down at myself, mouth open. “I did it.”

I just withdrew a dinosaur.

Ghost snapped his laser stare in my direction.

I clapped my hand over my mouth and hunkered down. But I’d withdrawn Bitey. I bet I could take Ghost too.

I squeezed my eyes shut, rolled my shoulders, and grabbed Ghost’s magic line with invisible hands. Our connection snapped tight.

Down by the river, he let loose an angry scream. It echoed around the hills.

I dug my fingers into the dirt and pulled hard on the magic string. But it wouldn’t break like Bitey’s.

Ghost was on the other end. Pulling back.

I gritted my teeth and jacked up my power. His force of will was more like a force of nature. But this wasn’t about real-life strength. This was magic. I could take him.

His wildcat shriek turned into a roar that rang through the trees. He buckled down.

It was full on tug of war. The rope between us shook, stretched, creaked, until it felt like something inside me was tearing.

I opened my mouth in a silent scream. It only took a few more seconds of ripping before I had to call it. I dropped the rope.

My magic swirled down like a dust devil. All that sharp pain melted away.

I sat in the dirt, breathing hard, my whole body slick with sweat.

Dang. This guy really wanted to live.

Up up up. I couldn’t tell if that voice belonged to me or my passenger. Didn’t matter. It pushed me to my feet and chased me through the trees.

I leapt fallen logs and crashed through branches. Thorny vines clawed my bare legs. Didn’t care. Ghost had to be across the river and up the hill by now, gaining on my extra-short stride every second.

Rocks. The screaming thought jolted through my whole body. It seemed young. Male. Definitely not me.

Then I noticed what that voice meant. I was coming up on a rock formation full of deep cracks.

I softball slid to safety under an overhang and wedged myself good and deep, until I was packed in so tight, I could hardly breathe.

Wait.

A daddy long legs crawled across my arm. Normally that would’ve sent me into blast off, but right now I didn’t even consider shaking it off. I just focused on controlling my breath.

I saw Ghost before I heard him, just a shadow running through the woods. Even on a carpet of dry leaves his footfalls hardly made a sound.

I hid my face in my arms, half-afraid the whites of my eyes would give me away in the dark.

He blew past my hiding spot.

After a long moment, I shifted to crawl out from my hole. I could run the opposite direction, cross the river, maybe make it to the ranger’s station—

Wait. The voice in my head all but grabbed me by the wrist.

I paused. Laid back down on my belly. Whoever my passenger was, he hadn’t steered me wrong so far. Who are you? Who is this guy? What’s his problem?

Silence. He seemed confused.

Forget it. This had crossed the line into a life-or-death situation. I needed help.

I worked my phone out of my shorts pocket and opened my contacts. Only hesitated a second before tapping Mom.

The phone wouldn’t even ring.

 No bars. Crud. Don’t know what I expected in the middle of a state park.

No light, said the voice in my head.

Good call. I clicked the screen off and shoved my phone back into my pocket. That memory I saw. The beach. I pictured the bonfires on opposite sides of the sea. Is that yours?

I think.

You don’t remember?

Not yet. Trying.

Ghost’s shadow whipped through the trees again. He stopped in the distance. Adjusted his grip on that super sharp rock.

I pressed down into the dirt. He must’ve been listening for me.

“Help,” he shouted. The out-loud English caught me off guard. The word came out sort of awkward, like he was parroting what he knew it ought to sound like. His voice cracked with a twinge of pain. But he was standing right in front of me, perfectly fine. “Help, it hurts.”

My stomach knotted. Was that faker was trying to lure me out?

Nice try, creep, but that was a whopping heck no. I was good under my rock.

He waited there for another minute before he took off back in the direction of the Paluxy.

Up up up. The voice in my head didn’t miss a beat. Run.

I broke cover and ran as fast and far as I could in the direction of the park border.

By the time I reached the barbed wire on the other side of Dinosaur Valley my full-tilt sprint had turned into a trudge. I flopped on my stomach, careful of cacti, and scooted under the fence.

It wasn’t until I was on the other side that I realized how thirsty I was. How my whole body ached. How scratched up my legs were from thrashing through thorns.

“Wowee.” Nice and slow, I eased back into the grass. If I was a car all my warning lights would be blinking right now. “Ah. Ow.”

I stared up at the constellations, taking a second to catch my breath.

The stars are wrong, said the voice inside me. He’d been quiet for so long I almost forgot he was there.

“Who are you?” I asked.

He thought for a long time. Not sure.

That dream of his, or memory, clipped through my brain. The beach. Ghost. The knife.

“I think we better figure that out.”