XL
Penny set the pistol on the kitchen island with a soft, intentional click. She didn’t yell. She didn’t have to. She just crossed her arms and waited, which was a specific kind of psychological warfare she’d perfected by the first grade.
“Okay,” she said, eyebrows lifting. “Your forty seconds are up. Explain.”
Behind me, peppermint tea steeped in a chipped mug, its sharp, cool scent cutting through the smell of burnt toast. I eased onto a stool, my ribs screaming as Penny slid the mug toward me.
“Drink,” she commanded. “Then talk.”
The pistol sat between us, heavy and unassuming on the counter.
Penny nudged it with one finger, and something inside rattled.
Her head tilted. “Is that . . . salt?”
“Rock salt,” I said, the words tasting like dirt. “Sage. Iron filings. My dad called them deterrents.”
“A deterrent for what, Maddie?”
The truth crowded my throat.
I looked at her—really looked at her. At her red-rimmed eyes. Her trembling hands. The girl who had thought I was dead last night was still standing in my kitchen, waiting for me to hand her something real.
I couldn’t do this alone.
“You’re not going to believe me.”
Penny reached for another mug, dropping in two tea bags with surgical precision.
“Madeline,” she said evenly, “you walked up covered in blood, wearing another man’s shirt, carrying a weapon that looks like a Martha Stewart heirloom. Try me.”
I braced my hands against the cool granite.
“When you introduced me to Julian,” I asked, “did he ever ask about my dad’s work?”
Her fingers stilled around the mug.
“You mean the Varsity Team Captain for all things paranormal?”
“Yeah,” I whispered. “Him.”
A shadow shifted across her expression.
“Okay,” she said carefully. “This didn’t feel weird at the time. It only feels weird now, considering whatever nightmare you just walked out of.”
I stayed quiet, letting the silence draw the memory out.
“When Julian first transferred to Mapleton, he didn’t act like a new kid,” she said, voice lowering. “He already knew the school’s floor plans. He said his family worked in local preservation. Archives. State history. The boring stuff no one questions.”
My stomach tightened.
Cover story.
“We connected pretty fast,” Penny went on.
“Which I chalked up to coincidence. Or interest. He definitely flirted.” Her gaze drifted toward the dark window.
“But he asked about my family first. My dad. What he did. And when I mentioned he worked for the Octobers—when I mentioned you were my best friend—Julian went quiet.”
My pulse ticked under my skin.
“He thought you were dead,” she said. “Maddie, he thought you died in some accident with your mom.”
My breath caught.
“And you told him—”
“I told him you were very much alive. The postcards. I even showed him one.” Penny swallowed hard. “He looked so confused. Like I was making up an imaginary friend. It felt . . . competitive, almost. Like he was trying to prove you didn’t exist.”
My grip tightened on the edge of the stool.
“But then you came back,” she said, lifting her eyes to mine. “Final year. In the flesh. And he looked relieved. Not surprised. Relieved. Like he’d finally found the missing piece of a map he’d been studying for years.”
I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth.
The Lantern Society.
“And now,” she whispered, voice shaking, “it’s obvious. It was all a calculation. He wasn’t interested in me. He was using me to get to you.”
Guilt felt heavy on my tongue.
“Penny.” I reached across the granite and covered her hand. “Don’t. I’m only just piecing the board together myself. Heaton’s been helping me since the break-in.”
Her eyes sharpened. “And where does Heaton fit into this? Besides being the guy whose clothes you’re swimming in?”
I swallowed hard.
“He’s been helping me connect the dots. My dad’s research. The Lantern Society.” I hesitated. “Whatever my dad was chasing, someone wants to find it before we do.”
Penny’s expression shifted, fear flickering before a colder resolve snuffed it out.
“The Lantern Society,” she said. “Julian’s club.”
“I can’t explain all of it yet,” I said. “But his club isn’t playing pretend. I think they’re involved in my dad’s disappearance.”
The words cut on the way out.
“He wouldn’t stay out of reach this long unless something was wrong. I feel it, Pen. I know they did something.”
Her mouth trembled.
“Yeah,” she said, voice cracking. “I saw the boards on the front door. Ford said the police treated it like a standard break-in. I’m so sorry, Maddie. I had no idea things had gotten this . . . ”
Her gaze dropped to the pistol.
“Literal.”
Then her eyes narrowed, tracking the way I kept adjusting the hem of Heaton’s shirt.
“And when exactly were you planning on telling me about your new security detail?”
“It’s not like that.”
“Isn’t it?” Her grin widened, turning feral. “Because the tension on that front porch didn’t just have its own zip code. It had its own weather system.”
I groaned and dragged my hands over my face.
The linen smelled like rain and fresh pine, which did absolutely nothing to help me think clearly.
“Penny, please. I’ve had a very long night.”
She tapped her nails on the counter.
“Say the word and I’ll start planning the nuptials.”
“Penny.”
“What? I’m stating facts.” She shrugged. “You’re blushing like you’ve never been kissed—”
“I haven’t!”
The words flew out before I could stop them.
My face went supernova.
Under my sternum, the tether didn’t just thrum. It stalled, then raced, a frantic Morse code of embarrassment.
He felt that.
I knew he felt that.
Oh, God.
Across the counter, Penny froze.
Her teasing grin didn’t fade so much as collapse into stunned, wide-eyed silence.
“Wait,” she whispered. “What?”
The heat was in my ears now, a physical throb.
“I mean—I don’t know what we are. Or if I’m just . . . someone who keeps almost dying in front of him and he’s . . . obligated.”
“Oh, my God!” Her hands flew to her cheeks. “You’re in so much trouble. He’s going to be the first, isn’t he?”
I dropped my forehead onto the granite with a dull, pathetic thud.
“Please stop talking. Forever.”
“Nope,” she said brightly. “This is the only joy I have left in this nightmare.”
Despite the ache in my ribs and the ancient society apparently hunting me, a helpless laugh slipped out.
Then Penny’s gaze dropped to the weapon between us, and the humor hardened.
She reached for the pistol, weighing it in her hand.
“All right,” she said. “Fun’s over. I have a very expensive-looking firearm and a complete lack of self-control. Point me at the problem.”
“You—what?”
She leaned across the counter until we were eye-to-eye.
“What. Do. You. Need?”
She swept a hand toward the weapon, my bruises, the boarded windows.
“We are past the ‘call the cops’ phase and well into the ‘occult warfare’ phase.” Her voice dropped. “Put me in, Coach.”
“You’re not going to run for the hills?”
“Nope.” She popped the p. “The decision’s made. I’m in. I’ve already mentally archived Julian as a to-be-destroyed variable.” Her eyes sharpened. “Now. What’s our first move?”
Something in my chest loosened.
“Okay,” I said, exhaling. “Follow me.”
I pushed off the counter and immediately regretted it. Pain flared white-hot through my side, and I caught the railing hard enough to make my knuckles ache.
Penny’s playful expression vanished.
“Where?”
“The lab,” I managed.
She inhaled so sharply it could have powered a turbine.
“The lab? The inner sanctum? The reason your house is haunted and your childhood was—respectfully—a little cursed?”
“Yes.” My hand found the cold iron bolt. “The very one.”
The basement door creaked open, and we descended into the dark. With every step, the air cooled, the soft morning scent of peppermint and toast giving way to wet stone, rusted pipes, and old electricity. At the bottom, the corridor narrowed.
I pressed my palm to the keypad.
It crackled.
Groaned.
Then clicked.
The door slid open with a hydraulic sigh.
Penny stepped inside as if crossing the threshold of a cathedral.
“Holy—”
She blinked, pupils blown wide.
“This is like NASA. If NASA had a ghost problem.”
The lab stretched beneath the estate in a labyrinth of metal shelves, labeled jars, glass chambers, and instruments my father had collected from the fringes of the world. Penny turned, awe and horror warring across her face.
“Maddie,” she whispered. “This is terrifying. But also . . . kind of beautiful?”
Then her focus snapped back.
“So. Heaton.”
A knot tightened in my stomach.
“It’s complicated.”
“So am I.” She leaned against the edge of a workbench, eyes fixed on mine. “Give me something.”
My lips parted.
I could tell her.
About the bond. About how Heaton felt less like a person now and more like gravity. About the fact that he was a ghost, that our souls were tied together, that he could feel every violent flutter of my intention.
But the tether answered with a slow, disapproving frost.
“I want to,” I whispered. “I really do.”
Penny’s expression softened.
“Then start with what you can.”
I nodded, fingers finding the hem of the oversized shirt.
“He’s the reason I’m breathing today. He kept me alive last night.”
Penny nodded once.
“Points for him. Keep going.”
“And he’s . . . different. Tied to all of this somehow.”
She didn’t push.
She watched me only with a fierce, protective focus that made me feel seen for the first time in weeks.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Whenever you’re ready for the rest, I’m here.”
The silence settled gently between us.
Then her eyes dropped to Heaton’s shirt, and a small, wicked smile returned to her mouth.
“And for the record? I love this for you.”
I laughed despite myself, then winced.
Penny leaned back against the workbench, shoulders dropping.
“Meanwhile,” she sighed, inspecting her chipped manicure, “Cupid missed my address entirely. My human serotonin dispenser bolted out of the party with a mermaid.”
I stepped forward and wrapped her in a careful hug, mindful of my ribs.
She folded into me, trembling once.
“Forget him,” I said. “His loss.”
She hugged me tighter.
“It’s fine. Because now I get to channel all my honor-roll rage into helping you untangle this supernatural dumpster fire.”
She pulled back, eyes bright.
“And when we’re done? Those Lantern freaks aren’t going to know what hit them.”
A slow, steady smile pulled at my mouth.
“Good,” I said. “Because we’re just getting started.”
For the first time since my life cracked wide open, I didn’t feel like a victim.
I had Penny.
I had the lab.
And we were going to tear the Lantern Society apart—
piece by cursed piece.