Page 8

Mercury moved closer to the swell of dust. “What are you trying to tell me?”

The dust formed the outline of flames, just as it had in the coal.

“Yes, the Forever Flame is still here.”

The dust-drawn flame dissolved, becoming just a swirl of dust. It swirled and dropped again. Swirled with less speed and height, then dropped.

“I suspect that manipulating things like this is exhausting for you,” Mercury said. “Rest a moment, then try again.”

Mercury was doing his utmost not to be entirely frustrated. The Violet Giant had tried to tell him something but couldn’t. The Reluctant Recluse was trying to tell him something but couldn’t. Mercury wanted to rid his life and home of the threat looming over them all . . . but couldn’t.

He was watching for the dust to swirl again when the Scholar stepped inside. A book floated open in front of the very academic-minded ghost, a very common sight.

“I’ve been reading more about the Place of Rending,” the Scholar said.

The Place of Rending was the site of the very first ghost transfer in ancient days. The Scholar’s studies had revealed that it was somewhere near Aventine, perhaps on the actual grounds of the estate. Here, in this mysterious place, things broke that were supposed to be unbreakable.

“You told me this place is still breaking things,” Mercury said. “And you told me it was going to break me.”

The Scholar looked at him over the rim of his ghostly glasses. “It has broken all of those who were drawn here.” The book that hovered in front of him lifted and lowered quickly, as if he had held it up specifically to draw Mercury’s attention to it. “The rift draws people to it. Then it breaks them.”

“Aventine is my safe haven,” Mercury said. “I wouldn’t have believed it was bent on destroying me until now. Ghosts gaining dangerous memories of my past. Tacey getting kidnapped. The Governor finding me here. The Forever Flame snatching away Baby Blue.”

“’Tis a destructive place, just as history tells us it is,” the Scholar said.

“A fitting location for the Forever Flame to make camp,” Mercury said. “He is a destructive force.”

The Scholar nodded. “He may very well be drawn to this place because he is a destroyer. But you, Mercury Raine, were drawn here because you are a healer.”

That was not at all what Mercury would have expected to hear said about him. “A healer? I have undertaken more Transferals than likely any other person. That is a tremendous amount of rending.”

“But the ghosts who make their home with you heal while they are here. And you keep hold of the ones who would break if they were traded away from you.”

Like Zizzy. She’d asked him repeatedly from the time of his very first ghost swap to not ever trade her. Had pleaded with him not to. The pain of that broken promise seized him anew.

“It is my belief,” the Scholar said calmly, “that the power that shattered this place has been seeking out a power that could heal the chasm that was created, but it destroys them instead.”

The gathering storm.

“Granny warned me about this,” Mercury said, “but she used different imagery: a raging storm that I was in the eye of. What you have described sounds more like an earthquake, and I’m standing over the fault line.”

“You hold more secrets than you know.” The Scholar’s eyes dropped to his open book. He read out loud. “The power called upon to sever ghostly attachments left scars, rending the rock at the heart of this place of fractures.” He looked up. “I have not been able to determine if the Rending Rock is an actual rock or something more symbolic. I do suspect there is a physical wound somewhere in this area.”

“If there is a Rending Rock somewhere on the Aventine Manor estate, I need to find it.”

“You’re needing to do more than merely find it,” the Scholar said. “You need to fix it.”

“A rupture in a rock? In solid ground?” Mercury held his hands up in frustration. “That isn’t possible.”

“The impossible has been happening here for millennia. And you, Mercury Raine, are in many ways an impossible person. That you have been drawn here is not terribly surprising.” The Scholar motioned behind him. “Though the swirling dust in the absence of a draft is decidedly unexpected.”

Mercury turned, knowing what he would see. The Reluctant Recluse was making another attempt at communicating with him.

“This is the second time you’ve done this in front of someone who is not supposed to be privy to the fact that you exist,” he said to the swirl of dust. “Have you decided to risk discovery?”

The dust particles swirled around again, reforming into what looked like a line, though it didn’t hold the shape for more than a moment.

“I don’t know what any of that is supposed to mean,” Mercury said.