Eternally Devoted (Frostbite 4)

After how emotional Alexander’s crossing had been, it seemed wrong how cold she’d asked the question, but I understood. Caley had no idea what happened. In all truth, I had no idea how to tell her how long Alexander had been in her body. Instead of revving her up now, since she did look exhausted, I simply nodded. “Yeah, he’s gone.”

Her eyebrows rose. “And Kipp? What of him?”

“Well…” I looked to Max and his eyes were trained on me while the phone was pressed to his ear. He gave me a little smile. Even I got that. At least, one part of this was finished. Sure, there was a lot more going on, but one step was officially checked off.

Caley returned in one piece, too.

Max ended the call and finally looked away from me, saying something to Eddie. Then he approached Zach, who stood now, and peered down at Caley.

I assumed they were talking police business, maybe about Wayde’s whereabouts. Which, at the moment, I didn’t care at all about, so I focused on Caley. “There’s a lot to tell you—”

A sudden coldness washed over my skin, clamping my mouth shut, and my heart leapt up into my throat. A ghost was approaching, that I knew without a doubt. The goose bumps trailing over my skin sent shivers down my spine. I jumped to my feet, scanning the area.

“Um, hello, tell me then,” Caley snipped.

I raised my hand, silencing her, and I turned to the swamp. “Wait.” I zeroed in onto the right side, near the tall plants. I wasn’t sure how I knew a ghost approached from that direction, but I just knew.

A firm hand wrapped around my arm and I glanced sideways, finding Max’s hard look. “What is it?”

“Ghost,” I breathed.

Part of me was elated at the thought that maybe Kipp came back to me, but the other part of me would be utterly heartbroken if he showed up now. I continued to scan the area, until suddenly, a ghost stepped out from the plants on the far left of the swamp.

My breath became trapped in my throat and I squinted, sure I couldn’t be seeing things right.

Even after a few moments, the ghost in front of me remained. I turned to Max, who continued to stare at me with a frown. “You can call off the search for Wayde.”

“Why?”

“Because his ghost is standing right next to you.”

Chapter Sixteen

Bodies scattered and jumped to the side and away from me as a loud collective gasp filled the air. Max’s head whipped to the side so fast, I almost chuckled, even if, obviously, he wouldn’t see Wayde anyway. Then his wide eyes returned to me as he asked slowly, “Wayde’s a ghost?”

I nodded, keeping my focus on Wayde as he glanced around at the others. The shock of his arrival honest-to-god left me stumped and I couldn’t withhold the snappiness to my voice. “What in the hell happened to you?”

Wayde turned to me and his eyes didn’t look like the ones I’d seen before—they weren’t dark and miserable, but were confused and afraid. “I-I-I…don’t know.” He lowered his head toward the grass beneath his feet, even if his feet weren’t touching the ground.

Only a second passed before he looked at me again. “Why can you see me?”

A sudden truth hit me tenfold—something I hadn’t seen much of lately because of Kipp and Alexander—but Wayde acted like every other normal ghos

t. He didn’t remember me, which told me he didn’t die that long ago. He hadn’t had the chance to reconcile why he was a ghost.

With that, I gave him the nudge I always did with ghosts, so he would figure out what he needed to do to cross over. “It’s my gift. Why are you a ghost?”

Wayde hesitated. “I…” His eyes slowly widened. “Killed myself.”

“You killed yourself?” I repeated more for the benefit of the others than for myself, even if I was equally as shocked.

“Christ,” Zach exhaled.

I glanced over my shoulder at him and noticed the plants by the swamp moved more than the bodies around me, and there wasn’t a breeze in the air. Everyone stared at me, completely blank-faced and statue-still.

Now, though, a memory returned with force, as if all the pieces of the puzzle came together where everything made sense. The gunshot we’d heard earlier tonight—the one that had me eating dirt, and that Zach brushed off as a hunter—could it have been Wayde? Maybe Wayde had been watching us, seen the police, and knew the end of the road had arrived.

Knowing only Wayde would hold the answers to those questions I turned to him. “Why did you kill yourself?”