I’m so antsy, my whole shift at the flower shop. It’s beyond frustrating that Aiden and I have to go to work before the team can address our latest discovery.

We’re all dying to talk it through. Aiden texts me about it during his lunch break, and Kasey lingers at the shop, hoping we'll get a chance to kick around some theories. The opportunity never arises. I end up with a rush order for some last-minute bouquets, which means that Kasey and I barely get to exchange more than a few words.

By the time we all reassemble at the Ghost Office, the sun is starting to set, and Aiden has a theory.

“This is only a guess, but I’ve been thinking about it all day, and I think it explains everything.”

“Just tell us, dude.” I have the locket in my fingers, and I’m trying not to fidget with all the little parts and pieces. “Kasey and I couldn’t come up with anything, so. Whatever you’ve got, it’s our best bet.”

“Okay.” Aiden nods, then turns to Kasey. “You know how the Guardian Tree is your power source, which means that you can’t go a certain distance away from it?”

She scowls. “Yes. Unfortunately. Goddamnit.”

“Right, well.” Aiden runs a hand through his hair, considering his phrasing. “Jamie... I’m the one who gave you the Vision. I’m the source of your power, in a way, just like the tree is for Kasey. I mean - it’s different, because it’s not a critical bond. I could go as far away from you as physically possible, and you’d be fine.”

No, I absolutely would not be fine, I almost say.

“But my thought is,” Aiden continues, “the closer you are to me, the source of your ability, the more powerful and discerning it becomes. When we touch, it’s even more powerful, and when the connection is open... that’s when your Vision is at its height.”

I take a minute to think it over. The theory makes sense, but it falls wildly short of explaining everything.

“So - wait, I don’t get it. Why am I the only one who can see the glow around the locket?”

Kasey can’t see it. We tried that out as soon as she got back from Benton Street. We also tried having Aiden look while wearing the glasses, and that didn’t work, either. It’s literally just me.

“Okay. This is going to sound really weird, but bear with me.” Aiden grimaces, like he knows this will be hard to explain. “I hear energy. And I can see it, with help.” He taps the glasses on his face. “That’s why I can sense spectral traces, and you can’t, Jamie. A spectral trace is loose energy, not a ghost.”

“Okay…”

“Ghosts are basically gathered-up human energy, without a physical form. That’s why I can see them. And I think that Kasey’s post-death vision turned out similar to mine.” He pauses, sharp blue eyes on my face. “But you don’t see energy, you see ghosts. Are you following?”

I press my fingers to my forehead, trying to keep up. “I think so?”

“So, I think… if you can see it, but Kasey and I can’t...” Aiden points to the locket. “That glow... it must be a ghost with no energy.”

A brief, incredulous silence ensues.

“There’s a dead ghost haunting the locket?” Kasey asks, her eyes perfectly round. “I mean - well - you know what I mean!”

“Not dead, exactly. It’s probably more like the difference between a rock and a living thing, and - honestly, I don’t know for sure.” Aiden nibbles his lip. “Whatever it is, it doesn’t have its own energy. But it must be activated when it’s in the presence of someone with the ability to see it. Like Jamie, when his Vision is at its sharpest. That’s probably why it’s getting warm, it’s - ready to be seen, I think. By the only one who can.”

Both Aiden and Kasey turn to look at me.

“Um,” I say. “Okay. You’ve both lost your fucking minds, if you think I’m about to-”

“Jamie.” Kasey steps up to me, her hands hovering over my cheeks, her expression pleading. “You have to. You’re literally the only one who can do this.”

Cold apprehension rolls down my spine, raising goosebumps on my arms. Not the nice kind of goosebumps I get when Aiden traces his fingers down my cheek. These are - I don’t know. Fear bumps.

“You guys.” I try to sound calm, then give up instantly. “Are you kidding me? All we know is that this ghost isn’t Will! It doesn’t have energy? That doesn’t seem scary or insidious to either of you?”

“It’s Ariana’s locket, Jamie! I really doubt she attached something dangerous to it! She wouldn’t do that, right, Aiden?”

“Well-” Aiden blinks, drawing back. “I don’t fucking know! How well do you know your great-great-great-?”

“Okay, okay!” Kasey flaps a hand at him, then swivels back to me. “Jamie. Please.”

She does that face, the one she knows I’m terrible at saying no to. I turn desperately to Aiden.

“Babe... please don’t make me do this.”

His eyes soften, and he reaches for my hands.

“I’m not gonna make you do anything you don’t want to do. I would do it myself, if I could, but - whatever this is, it must be very, very faint, if you can’t see it without our connection open. Even if I had the ability to see it… the glasses wouldn’t be powerful enough to help me.”

“So-” I don’t even want to say it out loud. “Me interacting with this ghost, that’s the only way to help Will?”

Aiden opens his mouth, then closes it again, biting back what he was going to say. But I know Aiden pretty well by now, and I immediately understand what this means. He doesn’t want to answer, because he doesn’t want to pressure me into this.

Which means that the answer is yes.

I suppress an anguished sound. “What exactly do I have to do?”

“I think…” Aiden levels his blue gaze on the locket. “The longer our connection is open, the better your Vision. So I’d guess that we just have to open the connection, and wait.”

Oh, god. I really, really don’t want to do this. I don’t know what it means, to be a ghost without energy. What even is that?

Whatever it is, I’ll be alone in facing it down.

I look at Aiden, who gently squeezes my fingers.

“We’ll be right here with you,” he says. “I won’t let anything bad happen to you. I promise.”

~~~~

We have no idea how long this will take, so Aiden and I grab two pillows from the loft. We put them on the floor, then settle down onto them, leaning our backs against the charred Ghost Office walls. Kasey sits at my side, casting me a grateful look. I actually wish she wouldn’t. It’s making me more nervous.

Aiden slips his hand into mine and opens the connection.

I’m right here. It’s okay.

Okay.

You’ll be fine.

Okay.

Jamie. It’s going to be alright. All we have to do now is wait. That’s easier than robbing a museum, isn’t it?

Well. When you put it like that.

The sunlight is starting to fade, turning a rosy color. It’s pretty, and a nice distraction, but I close my eyes. If I keep them open, they’ll only go right back to the locket in my hand.

I don’t think that Ariana would intentionally harm a would-be rescuer of Will. But maybe this ghost thing is a defense. A safeguard, like the trick latch that we still can’t get open.

The locket starts to warm up.

Thinking about it isn’t helping, so I focus instead on the connection between myself and Aiden.

I’ve had a lot of time to get over the way it feels, but it’s more like I can never get enough. I love timing my heartbeat to Aiden’s heartbeat, my breathing to his breathing. Though we’re sitting in patient silence outwardly, every now and then he uses his inside voice to say some little thing to me. It helps more than I can express, but I don’t have to. He can feel the way it soothes my fragged nerves, calming me down.

I listen to his pulse, feel the breath and warmth of him. Let myself get lost in it, until I sort of forget what we’re doing.

So, it comes as a shock when I open my eyes again and find it pitch black in the Ghost Office.

Night has fallen, the lights are off, and Aiden hasn’t made any of his magical fireflies. The depth of the darkness is startling. It makes almost no difference whether my eyes are closed or open. I can only discern the faintest outline of Aiden at my side.

Then I turn and look at Kasey.

Aiden was right about our connection enhancing my Vision. I can see her so clearly.

It’s not like she’s normally drained of all her coloring, or completely transparent. But she is a little fuzzy around the edges, slightly opaque. The colors of both her body and her clothing are faded, as if left too long in bleaching sunlight.

Right now, though… you would think she was alive again, if she wasn’t glowing.

She notices me looking and takes in a sharp, excited breath.

“Is it time?” she whispers.

Aiden hears her. He opens his eyes, watching me.

I expected to be terrified, but after hours of having the connection open, I’m feeling strangely grounded. Now that my fear has fallen away, curiosity is taking its place.

Slowly, I unfold my fingers. The locket glitters against my palm. I use my thumb to flick it open, so that I don’t have to let go of Aiden’s fingers.

White-blue light shines up from the otherwise bare interior surface. I force myself to stare directly into it.

As if it was only waiting for someone to look, the light pours out from the locket, flowing like water, spilling down onto the floor.

Like something melting in reverse, it rises up and gathers together.

It forms into the shape of a woman.

~~~~

She stands in the dead center of the Ghost Office, motionless.

Forgetting myself, I drop Aiden’s hand. The connection snaps closed, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Apparently I’m charged up enough to see without his help.

The fear comes rushing back in one singular, overwhelming wave. My instinct is to hold perfectly still, so that I don’t attract the attention of whatever this thing is, but - that’s not going to work. We need answers.

I get to my feet, my heart hammering. I hear the others stand up behind me, but no one says a word.

I venture one step forward, to take a better look at the fourth presence in the room.

She has no face, no defining characteristics. I can’t even make out the details of her clothes, beyond a floor-length dress. She’s only the vaguest concept of a woman, formed from white-blue light. Glowing from within, like an ember.

“Hello?” My voice is shaking. I can’t help it.

No response. Deep quiet spreads through the Ghost Office, filling the room like smoke. A moment passes, then another, and - she moves.

She takes a step forward, reaching for me with one shimmering hand.

I gasp, then instinctively take a stumbling step back, nearly crashing into Aiden. But the woman doesn’t come closer. She stops, and I realize that she’s not reaching for me, she’s - holding something out.

I decide to try again. “Hello... can you hear me?”

She gives no indication that she can, but maybe she can’t speak.

“What is that?” My voice sounds so lonely, in the dark silence of the Ghost Office. I can feel both Aiden and Kasey watching me closely.

If the woman means to answer my question, she doesn’t show it. Haltingly, I take a step closer, to see what she’s holding out.

It’s just as undetailed as the woman, but the shape makes it clear. It’s the exact same, only hers is formed purely from light.

It’s the ghost twin to the same locket currently clasped in my hand.

As I watch, the woman looks down, then presses her thumb into the phantom locket’s side. The lid pops open. She lifts it, like she’s showing me. She points to something on the locket’s interior surface.

The secret latch.

As I watch, she adjusts, now holding the locket flat on one palm, facing up. She lifts her other hand, and hovers it over the locket’s surface.

She makes a slow, deliberate turning motion with her fingers. The latch twists, two times to the left. She stops, then turns her fingers the other way. The latch twists four times to the right. She turns her fingers again, and the latch moves one more time to the left.

She makes a pulling motion with her fingers, and the latch pops up.

I wait for her to open the compartment, but she stops and looks over her shoulder, listening to something. I can’t hear what she hears, but I startle as she suddenly opens her mouth and speaks.

“Be along in a moment, Finch.”

She has a soft, steady voice, and it’s - surprisingly filled with warmth and intimacy. Like she’s talking to someone she loves.

I nearly drop to the floor as she looks right at me and says: “Let’s see, did that work?”

She makes a quick, dismissive gesture with her hand, and disappears.

I stare, breathless, then look down at the locket in my hands. The moment my eyes land on the white-blue glow, she reappears.

I watch the whole thing play out again. Then again, to make sure.

It happens the same, every time. Nothing different. She says and does the exact same things, in the exact same way. She doesn’t hear or see me. Even when she asks her question at the end, it’s not really for me. She happened to look at me the first time, but when I test out stepping to the side, her gaze doesn’t follow.

I watch it over and over, until I know what happens by heart.

When I snap the locket closed, the white-blue light, and the ghost, are gone.

Aiden hesitates, then lets a tiny orb of light lift from his palm, casting the three of us into a dim golden glow.

“Jamie?” he murmurs. “What did you see?”

I can’t believe what I’m about to say.

“I think I saw Ariana, and... I think she showed me how to open the locket.”

~~~~

We huddle just outside of the Ghost Office. It’s cold, but I want some air, and no one objects.

“That’s why it has no human energy,” Aiden says, when I’m done explaining. “It’s not the ghost of a person. It’s the ghost of a moment.”

“So, to clarify,” Kasey cuts in, “Ariana is not a ghost?”

Aiden shakes his head.

“No. Then we would be able to see her, too, Kasey, because she would have her own energy. This is more like - a captured minute of time.” Again, he looks impressed. “I had no idea you could do that. And then link it to a physical thing? I mean - how did Ariana-? Jesus, it must have been hard.”

“Open the locket,” Kasey urges. “Let’s do it right now.”

Aiden frowns. “But the latch doesn’t turn.”

“Ariana turned it with magic,” I put in. “I think it’ll only turn with magic. She never even touched the latch.”

Kasey turns to Aiden. “Can you do it?”

“I…” He hesitates, rubbing his arm. “I’m afraid to explode it, like the pocket watch. We only have one conduit left, and we need it to give the watch back to ourselves. If we destroy the locket, and whatever’s inside… that’s it.”

It’s a frightening thought, and we all take a minute to absorb it.

“What if we practice?” Kasey asks. “Like how we used the jars, before we made the glasses work? We’ll find something bigger for you to turn, and let you get it down.”

Aiden considers.

“No harm in that,” he finally says. His blue gaze flickers to me, waiting for my opinion.

I don’t say anything. I’m still processing what I just saw, what just happened.

Aiden seems to realize that, because he gently winds an arm around my shoulder, drawing me close.

Around us, the wind strips moonlit autumn leaves from the trees, whisking them away. They disappear one by one, swallowed up by the dark.

Vanishing, like so many ghosts.