Deception by Lee Nichols

Author:Lee Nichols
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: 2010-03-02T23:00:00+00:00

Sadly, my punishment didn’t end with detention. After I explained what had happened with the ghost jocks at school, Martha decided it was unsafe for me to roam the streets without learning more control.

“You have to admit, it’s kinda cool I can do all that,” I said with a grin.

“Into the ballroom, missy,” she said repressively.

I don’t know why, but I couldn’t say no to her. Maybe because my mother wasn’t exactly motherly and Martha was like a sweet grandma who always offered wise, loving words and cookies warm from the oven (even if she compelled someone else to bake them). Plus, she’d been Bennett’s nanny, and I was certain she held the secret to figuring him out.

It was all so Karate Kid—minus the headband—as I practiced in the middle of the ballroom. Martha drilled me in summoning, communicating, and, despite my reluctance, compelling. It was one thing, getting even with the ghost jocks, but I was uncomfortable compelling Nicholas, who’d offered himself as a test subject. It was easier to just ask him to do things. But I did learn how to dampen my reaction to ghosts and to protect myself from the frostbite of physical contact—which were useful. After an hour and a half, Martha suggested a hot chocolate break.

We sat in the kitchen, and she said, “The Knell isn’t going to believe this. Believe you.”

“Who’s Nell?”

“The Knell, with a K. They’re the … the CIA of the ghostkeeping world.”

“You mean they eavesdrop on our phone calls?”

“They track the identities of ghosts—their appearances and abilities. And their crimes.”

“Crimes? Like ghasts, you mean?”

Martha sipped her cocoa. “Mm. When they hear what you can do, they’ll want to recruit you.”

“Recruit me? I’m still in high school.”

“You’re uniquely talented, Emma. Communicating is rare enough, but you …”

“Can do all of it.” Summon, communicate, and compel.

She nodded. “As far as we know. You haven’t dispelled yet.”

“And I’m not about to try.” I was willing to do a lot for Martha, but not that.

She’d urged me to practice on a strange ghost I’d summoned, but I couldn’t be as blasé about ghosts as she and Bennett were. They treated them like second-class citizens, but they were still people, right? I mean, dead people were people, too.

I wouldn’t dispel any of them without good cause. Or even with good cause. The man in the brown suit wanted me to dispel him, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

We practiced for another hour before Martha again brought up the Knell.

“I don’t want to meet them,” I said. “I’ve got enough problems.” I was barely surviving Thatcher and missing my parents. I didn’t want to get involved in fighting off ghasts or whatever they did. I only wanted to be with the house ghosts.

“But you already have,” Martha said. “Bennett is a member.”

“Are you?”

She got a distant look on her face. “Not anymore.”

I would’ve questioned her further, but Anatole rang the bell for dinner. As Martha refused to talk business at meals, I had to leave it for another time.

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