Sisters Of Salt And Iron

“This is extraordinary,” Noah remarked, his head slowly turning from side to side as he took everything in. “There aren’t any chaperones. In my day this amount of young men would never be allowed to socialize with these young ladies without supervision. It would be ruinous for the females, their very virtue called into question.”

I loved the way he spoke, the words he used and how they rolled off his tongue. I held his arm as we followed after my sister. “Are you telling me that you never managed to sneak off with a girl at a party?” I teased. “Never stole a secret kiss?”

He smiled coyly. “Maybe once. Or twice.” The smile faded. “But still, had we been caught, there would have been serious consequences.”

“Would you be grounded?” Our parents had subjected Lark to such a punishment once for insisting I was real despite all their attempts to make her say otherwise. We were ten at the time.

“Grounded?” he repeated. “I’m not familiar with the term. No, we would have been forced to marry. I would have been duty-bound as a gentleman to save her reputation.”

Married! I tried to think of Lark having to marry Ben because they’d been caught making out in his car. My sister would probably rather have her reputation ruined than be forced to do anything—even if it was something she might enjoy.

“Did that happen a lot?” I asked, swerving to avoid walking through a girl wearing a ridiculously skimpy costume. She shivered as I passed. I resisted the urge to run a finger down her spine just to watch her do it again.

“Occasionally.” He nodded at the girl. “I remember when women wore more clothing than that to go swimming. The world has changed so much since my death.”

There was a sadness to his voice that made me want to hug him. I squeezed his arm instead, drawing another one of his smiles. “Do not worry yourself about me, Miss Wren. It happens to all of us eventually—whether we be living or spirit.”

We crossed the threshold into the corridor where my sister paced. She was halfway down the length of the hall when she stopped, back stiffening. I didn’t know how she sensed us, but she did. She always did. She pivoted sharply on her high heels and stomped toward me.

“She looks ill-tempered,” Noah remarked.

Lark shot him a glare. “And you look like a butler.”

I don’t know which surprised him more—the insult or the fact that she had heard what he’d said. Noah had said he’d heard of me before, so I assumed he knew about Lark as well, but he obviously didn’t know as much as I’d thought.

“She can see me?” he asked, incredulous.

“Even when it’s not Halloween, Mr. Darcy,” Lark retorted.

I frowned at her. “Don’t be rude.”

She looked as though she could cheerfully punch me. What was wrong with her? She needed to get over it, and quickly.

“Noah’s my friend,” I informed my sister. “I asked him at the last moment to come with me so I can talk and dance with someone who isn’t you. Someone who can see me. Someone I can touch.”

Lark’s expression could only be described as annoyed contrition. She wasn’t happy about the situation, and I knew part of that was because she distrusted any ghost that wasn’t me. I couldn’t blame her—she had an awfully violent history with many of my kind—but Noah wasn’t like that.

“You should have told me,” she said. “What if someone sees the two of you? It’s too close to Halloween for surprises.”

“What if someone does see us?” I asked. “You’ve spent most of your life trying to prove that I’m real.”

She looked surprised at the question. “Because I don’t know what people would do to us if they figured it out.”

People could be such...douche bags. “They can’t do anything. Not to me.” The words felt hard in my mouth, but they slid out anyway. “And I don’t care if someone sees me. I’m not afraid of a bunch of teenagers.”

My sister stared at me. I didn’t like the suspicion in her gaze. I hadn’t meant to upset her, but I was through behaving as though I was something to be ashamed of. Tugging Noah with me, I turned around. “Let’s go dance.”

“Hey, Lark,” Roxi cried from further up the corridor. “Smile!”

A flash went off, and for a second all the world was sharp and bright. The eyes of the dead don’t need to physically respond to light or dark, so the light didn’t blind Noah or myself like it had Lark.

Roxi stared in my direction, her eyes wide.

“Something wrong, Rox?” Lark asked.

The dark-haired girl shook her head. “No. I thought I saw something, that’s all.” She shook her head, and her normally cheerful expression returned.

In the next room the music for “Thriller” began to play. I pulled Noah out into the small group dancing in the middle of the living room, leaving Lark behind. She could be as upset as she wanted. I was going to have fun, and if my sister didn’t like it she could...well, she could just not like it all she wanted.

I spotted Kevin talking to Ben and Gage. Was it wrong of me to wish he could see me with Noah? I wanted him to know I wasn’t crying over him. That I didn’t miss him, because I didn’t.

“This music is strange,” Noah remarked. He gestured to the small group around us. “Is this what qualifies as dancing these days?”

I laughed. He looked horrified. “Just move to the music,” I instructed, raising my arms over my head and moving the rest of me to the beat. “Do what feels right.”

He was awkward, and a little stiff, but the best part of being a ghost meant that very few people could see you make a fool of yourself.

But this was Halloween week, and I’d forgotten what that meant. I bumped into a girl—and felt it. She didn’t go through me. And when she turned around, she looked surprised not to see someone there. I moved away. Maybe dancing wasn’t such a good idea after all.

“I’m sorry about my sister,” I said to Noah as we drifted away from the dancing.

He shrugged. “She’s very protective of you. I cannot fault her for that.”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t need protection. I’m supposed to be the scary one.”

“Scary?” He frowned. “Is that what she thinks of you?” The look he shot my sister was one of indignation. Thankfully, Lark was paying attention to something Ben was saying and not my date.

My date. I never thought I’d call someone my date. Never thought I’d ever meet a boy who was a ghost like me.

“No,” I said, putting my hand on his arm. “Lark doesn’t think I’m scary at all.” That was a lie. There were times when I knew my sister found me terrifying, but she loved me anyway. I never understood why I was so frightening until I saw Lark in my world. Sometimes people didn’t have to be hideous or monstrous to be frightening. In fact, simply looking “not right” could be disturbing enough.

Noah relaxed. “Good.” He turned to me with a soft smile. “I cannot imagine anyone thinking you anything but perfect.”

“Oh.” That was the only word I could remember at that moment. He was so handsome, and so tall, and so saying everything I wanted to hear. Lark would tell me he was too good to be true. That I shouldn’t trust him.

Sometimes, my sister didn’t know what she was talking about.

“Are you having fun?” Noah asked. “Do you want to stay? Or can I steal you away?”

I glanced around the room. I was having fun—sort of. As much fun as a dead girl could have in a room full of people who couldn’t see her. But then my gaze fell on Kevin.

He was staring straight at me. Or rather, he was staring at Noah. With the veil between worlds thinning, his abilities as a medium were magnified. My wish that he could see me there with another boy had just come true.

He looked like someone had punched him in the throat. I had hoped for regret, not pain. The satisfaction I had thought I’d feel wilted under an emotion I couldn’t quite identify.

I turned away, facing Noah, who thankfully hadn’t realized we had an audience. It wasn’t too difficult to smile at him. “Let’s go,” I said. “This isn’t as fun as I thought it would be.”

Noah took my hand, and then we were gone, back to the grounds of Haven Crest where we talked and danced to our own music for hours. And I concentrated all of my attention on the boy I could have, rather than the one who could never be mine.