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“There are more than twenty ghosts at Aventine Manor. It is about time this house was well and truly haunted.” Mercury Raine looked over the bevy of translucent faces, smiling inwardly at the excitement he saw there. And he was filled with pride at the determination he saw there as well. “Intruders have driven Tacey and me into hiding.” He motioned to the only other non-ghost in the room, the lady he cared more about than any other person in all the world. “The consequences of either of us being apprehended would be catastrophic. But that doesn’t mean we intend to surrender this house without a fight.”

“And we won’t surrender you, no matter how long we have to do battle with them,” the Quiet Queen declared with her usual regal assurance. “Tell us your plan, and we will see that it is done.”

“The Forever Flame arrived here in the company of the one-time governor of Moor Cross Home for Orphans and a woman we know only as ‘Mrs. Brand.’ Having lived under his thumb until I was thirteen, I know for a fact that the Governor—that is the only name I have for him—does not have any ghostly attachments. That means Mrs. Brand is the one to whom the Forever Flame is attached.”

“We need to drive them from Aventine.” Tacey nodded her understanding.

“And make them hesitant to return.” Mercury knew he likely couldn’t prevent their return entirely, but delaying that would be extremely beneficial. “Those of you who can move objects, do so. Constantly. As long as they’re here, they should live in a state of frustration. Shoes should disappear. Doors should close and lock without warning. Windows should rattle. Furniture should be moved to inconvenient places.”

“We’re to drive them mad?” Testy Tolver seemed particularly pleased at the possibility.

“Yes, but subtly enough that they don’t simply burn Aventine to the ground out of pure rage.”

“Why not lock them in the dungeon tunnels as we’ve done with the others?” Gary the Green asked.

Mercury had pondered that himself. “Because we would have to lure the Forever Flame into the Entrapment Room in order to eliminate the threat he poses, and I do not think we could manage that. He knows more than he should, and I suspect he would realize he was being lured and wouldn’t fall into our trap.”

“And allowing him to know of the dungeon tunnels as well as how to find them would be dangerous,” Tacey added.

“Precisely.”

The Forever Flame was more dangerous than either of the people he had arrived with, which was saying something. The Governor had the ability to destroy everything Mercury had built for himself, and perhaps even have him hanged.

“Preventing the Forever Flame from discovering the dungeon tunnels presents a difficulty.” Rum Nicky seldom left the kitchen, but he’d done so then, joining the other ghosts in this well-hidden, secret room at the top of a seemingly inaccessible tower of the house. “I have to open the hidden door to the dungeon tunnels every time I take food down there. The Forever Flame might spot me doing so.”

That was a difficulty. The vengeful ghost had sent a string of bounty hunters to Aventine Manor in pursuit of Mercury. They’d been rounded up and locked into rooms in the tunnels. Rum Nicky was making certain they were fed.

“And I can’t fully look after them without doing the same,” Wallaby said.

Mercury rubbed at his face, thinking furiously. If they left the passageway closed in order to keep the Forever Flame from discovering it, the prisoners inside would starve. But opening it repeatedly throughout the day to provide them with all they needed would risk revealing one of Aventine’s best defenses to its greatest enemy.

“We need to let them out,” Mercury said.

“They came here hunting you,” Gary the Green reminded him, though Mercury had certainly not forgotten.

“And at least some of them will likely continue to do so.” He pushed out a breath. “I’m a criminal; I will acknowledge that. But I am not a murderer. They need to be released.” He looked over at a few of his ghosts. “Rum Nicky, Wallaby, Testy Tolver, Gary the Green. Can you four herd the prisoners out of the tunnels? Leave all the torches extinguished in the tunnels and the dungeon so they would struggle to lead anyone else back there if they decided to try.”

He received four nods of agreement.

“First, track down Holly Hock and Snaffle and have them wait outside the entrance nearest the dungeon to help herd our prisoners off the grounds.”

“The prisoners will likely return,” the Cream Canary pointed out.

“I know.” The best he could do was delay their reunion with the vicious ghost who’d hired them in the first place. “See to your hauntings. We’ll reassess as needed.”

But none of the ghosts left. They all watched him, uncertainty in their expressions.

It was Captain Capitate, his ghostly head tucked under his arm, who spoke. “Is it true?”

“Is what true?” Mercury asked.

“That Baby Blue has been—” His face scrunched in thought. “Taken?”

Mercury breathed through the painful emotion that seized him. He needed to stay calm and focused. He had no hope of defeating his cold and calculating enemy otherwise. But Baby Blue was gone. And Mercury didn’t know how or where or what could be done to get him back.

“The Forever Flame has done something to him,” Mercury acknowledged, “but I don’t know what. He’s been severed from me. Taken somewhere.”