Chapter 6

On my way to the lit-up barn, I crossed a meadow twinkling with lightning bugs, a sleeping bag under one arm and a backpack over my shoulder.

You wouldn’t know it looking at my flip flops, athletic shorts, and tank top. But I was psyched up for a secret mission.

Tonight, I was going into Dinosaur Valley State Park to hunt down my Big Mistake. To find the human soul I never meant to summon.

No clue what I’d do once we were face-to-face. That all depended on whether he was cool. Until I scoped out the situation, this expedition was more recon than rescue.

I rolled one of the big barn doors open a crack.

Years ago, Grandpa John kept a couple of horses in here, but now the stables weren’t good for much except storage. Gardening tools, covered furniture, dusty riding tack, and a humungous tractor wheel crowded the main aisle, and boxes of photos and keepsakes were stacked in the hayloft.

Mom sat on an old flower-print couch, guarding Bitey Face. We’d found a ladybug-shaped baby backpack with a leash from my preschool days, and the straps fit around his little arms just right.

Bitey gnawed the leash, lashing his bright blue tail.

“Get that outta your mouth.” Mom grinned, pulled the leash out of Bitey’s beak, and patted his side. She seemed to like him a lot more now that he was out of the house. “Bad dinosaurs get the ladybug.”

I stepped into the barn and heaved the rolling door shut. “I can’t believe he’s still here.”

Not. I’d been sneaking Bitey Face snacks all day to reset his magic timer. Keeping him alive until bedtime gave me an excuse to camp in the barn. This way I wouldn’t have to sneak away from the house tonight.

I shook my sleeping bag out on the couch.

Mom reached to unzip my backpack. “What’s in here?”

“Snacks.” I rotated away from her. “And a couple volumes of Sailor Moon.”

I wish. More like a full water bottle, a flashlight, and tennis shoes. I’d packed for a serious night hike.

With a pretend yawn, I wiggled into the sleeping bag.

Bitey Face crawled up on my stomach and rested his head on my shoulder. Our breaths synced.

Mom switched on a fan to get a cool breeze going and sat on the arm of the sofa. “Comfy?”

“Yeah.” I glanced down at Bitey Face, who was nodding off. “Sorry. For wrecking the house. And for all of this.”

“It was an accident.” Mom smoothed my curls back and smooched my forehead. “Accidents happen.”

I look up into her eyes. “Am I a bad mage?”

“You’re a powerful mage.” She stroked my hair. “And a good kid.”

The weight of all my combined lies and screwups from the past two days pressed down on my chest. I wished that was true.

But with her smiling down at me like that, how could I tell her that I’d broken the one and only rule in Slumber family magic? That I’d yanked two souls straight out of the great beyond? That one was still out there, confused, naked, and alone?

Mom said goodnight, turned off all the lights except the caged bulb over the doors, and left for the house.

I lay in the shadows, listening to crickets and watching moths flutter around the rafters. My connection with Bitey felt like mostly white noise. I’d been riding his emotional waves since noon, and now that he was snoring quietly, I could finally focus.

With a deep breath of sweet, dusty air, I shut my eyes and felt around for the line that would lead me to my Black Ghost. If the lost soul was out there somewhere, if he was alive, he had to be connected to me.

Just when I started to drift to sleep, my mind bumped into something warm. Something alive.

I wanted to jerk away from it. But instead, I took hold of that string and followed it through the dark.

The rope led me to some kind of wall—but not a brick wall. Thin. Like plastic wrap.

I pushed through it, broke into the smell of green plants, and hit a second layer. I pushed through that too, into the sound of running water and chirping frogs. I reached deeper, further, until finally I broke through the final layer into clear moonlight.

I was standing in the middle of a river. Staring at a bank of chalk rocks. Sorting through stones.

No. Not me. This was him—my Black Ghost.

The goosebumps on my real-life body felt far away.

This couldn’t be real. Was I a passenger in his head? Was I seeing what he saw?

I tried to pay attention and search for landmarks, but I had no control over what I was looking at. Ghost was mostly focused on picking through the rocks.

He lifted a big brown one and tossed it a couple times, testing the weight.

Was this all he’d been doing this whole time?

Ghost straightened up and looked down the river, scanning the white chalk banks and heavy, rustling oak trees.

I noticed a shadow under the water. A dinnerplate-sized track the shape of a bird’s foot was stamped in the smooth river floor.

Oh my gosh—the Dinosaur Valley track site. Grandpa brought me here last summer. We’d waded up the Paluxy to see the dinosaur footprints preserved in the riverbed.

I knew exactly where Ghost was. This was super close to where the trails crossed the river.

The hairs on his neck prickled. And that’s when I felt it.

His stare.

Not that he could see me. But he knew I was watching. And I couldn’t see his face, but I knew he was watching me back.

I rushed backward, flying through the layers of his mind, and slammed back into my own body.

I lay in the dark, frozen, almost afraid he could hear me breathing.

He couldn’t follow me. Right?

Just then something reached through our channel. Reached into me. Reached so deep through my brain that instinctively, I stopped it. Every door in my head slammed shut and all the deadbolts clicked.

I hugged the sleeping bag up around my chin, breathing hard. After a long, quiet, scary moment, I heard something.

You.

One thought. One word. But it wasn’t mine.

Ghost just talked. In my head.

I stared at the ceiling. What could I say? Should I say anything?

Are you there?

That was straight-up English. It didn’t sound like his second language, exactly, but it did sound like it took a lot of work to find the right words. Like maybe he just picked the language up a second ago, in the corners of my brain I shut off.

I am looking for you. His voice was surprisingly quiet. Gentle, even. Almost like he was worried he might scare me off.

I swallowed. Pushed a thought down our private line. I’m looking for you too.

I do not know where I am. A feeling close to worry put a wobble in his words.

That’s okay. I do. I sat up, startling Bitey out of sleep. “Let’s go.” I dug into my backpack for my shoes and wrestled them onto my feet. Stay put. I’m coming.

Quiet as possible, I unrolled the barn door.

The windows to the ranch house were open, shining with warm light. The front door was propped open to let evening breeze in through the screen.

I paused. This was getting kind of serious. Maybe it was time to get some backup.

Mom paced in front of the screen door, holding her phone to her ear. “The kitchen is a wreck. But she’s fine. We handled it.” I didn’t need caller ID to know she was talking to Dad. Nobody else could make her raise her voice like that.

Since my parents split up, they both seemed happier and calmer—unless they had to call each other. And they only ever called each other to talk about me.

 “Oh, like she’d be safer at your place,” Mom scoffed. “You know what’s under Dallas? Mammoth bones. And shark teeth. You want sharks?”

There was a long pause. I leaned in to listen.

“I don’t know, Cal.” Mom sighed and turned away from the door. “Sometimes I wish it was just boys and bad report cards.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat.

On second thought, Mom had a lot going on. Maybe it’d be easier to figure this out by myself.

When her shadow disappeared from the doorway, I walked Bitey Face through the pasture, toward the fence that marked the border of our property. Lightning bugs danced around us, showing the way.

Coming? Ghost’s voice in my head startled me. The word held a tiny sting of urgency. Was that fear?

I ducked under our neighbor’s fence. Coming. Heck with recon. This was officially a search and rescue mission.

My stomach was all wriggly and weird. I couldn’t believe this. I was having a full-blown psychic conversation. Could Grandpa do this?

You’re probably wondering what’s going on, I said.

I did wonder. He was doing a great job of keeping it together for a guy who hadn’t had a pulse since—who knew? A thousand-something years ago?

I owed him an explanation. But wow. Where to start? So, I’m magic. You know magic?

I know magic. There was a little bit of a smile in his tone, an unspoken duh.

Right. Well, I brought you back from the dead. But not on purpose. I paused. I’m really sorry.

He left me crashing through tall prairie grass for several long seconds of silence.

I know that’s a lot to take in, I said. Are you okay?

It took a little longer for him to reply. Thinking.

So, I couldn’t hear all his private thoughts. Hopefully that worked both ways.

Scared? I asked.

All he said was, Come soon.

Once I was safely out of eyeshot of the neighbors’ house, my speed-walk through the empty field turned into jogging. Bitey weaved along behind me.

“Holy cow,” I huffed. “This is happening.”

I really, really, really didn’t want to tell Mom about this. But now that this guy was here, whoever he was, poofing him seemed, uh—ethically gray.

Maybe we could work out a plan for him to just show up on our porch? Bet twenty bucks Mom’s bleeding heart would take over from there.

This plan had some holes. But a little workshopping and it might just take off. Leaving him on my doorstep like an abandoned baby at a fire station sure would solve all my problems—without getting me grounded for the rest of my natural days. Or worse, banned from using my magic until I graduated college.

I hopped another fence and shushed through the tall grass, keeping a tight hold on Bitey Face’s leash. We sneaked around the back of a mobile home and stopped at a barbed wire fence. On the other side, a dirt path ran along the fence line.

This was the border of the park. I opened the Dinosaur Valley map on my phone to check my location. Sure enough, here it was. The Cedar Brake Outer Loop. From here, I could take Denio Trail to the river.

We’ll figure out what to do once we find each other, I said, lifting the barbed wire and bending under the fence. I’m gonna get you some help.

No. He came back hard and fast. No others.

“No others?” I stopped in the middle of barbed wire limbo. Why?

He blew straight past my ask. Is anyone with you?

That was a really specific question. And smack out of the blue.

I crawled through the barbed wire and sat in the middle of the trail, weighing my options.

Was I being paranoid, traveling under the cover of darkness to meet a strange man in the woods? Maybe. But something about that question tripped my warning light.

I glanced at Bitey Face, who snapped his beak down on a lightning bug. When he opened his mouth, the inside was glowing.

Was anyone with me?

Yeah. I went with my instincts on this one. I got somebody. He came up to my knee and weighed about as much as a sack of flour, but those details were need-to-know.

Please, Ghost said. Nobody. Just us.

Why? I asked again.

Another long silence. Not safe.