Sarah stared at them. “What are these for?”

“Iron weakens ghosts,” Lark explained, picking up one of the rings and sliding it onto her finger as she sat down. “Not bad, Sixth Sense.”

Kevin glanced at her. “Gee, thanks.”

I poked her. She poked back, though I’m sure it looked like a twitch to anyone watching. At least she didn’t poke me with the hand wearing the ring. That would have been uncomfortable.

“What have we got?” she asked.

Gage, dark hair hanging in his eyes, took a drink from his enormous cup of coffee. “Okay, so far we’ve found three potential BBGs.”

BBGs?

Lark smiled slightly. “Big bad ghosts?”

He grinned. He was cute when he smiled and got the hair out of his eyes. “Exactly. Eva Mortimer, Josiah Bent and Thomas Stark.”

“What did they do, and do they tie into any hauntings?” Lark asked.

Gage continued, “Mortimer was a nurse who apparently went nuts one night and sliced some patients up. Bent killed six young girls with a straight razor, and Stark liked to carve himself and anyone else he could hold down with a hunting knife.”

Kevin leaned forward, finger flicking over the screen of his phone. “Eva Mortimer claimed she was made to do what she’d done by the ghost of an old patient, but she didn’t say who before she slit her own throat. Nasty. She died in 1932, and a lot of people say they’ve seen her on the grounds. Some kids that broke in in the ’80s say they saw a man with a blade coming at them, but they didn’t say if it was a razor or a knife.”

Gage piped up next. “But in 1966, a girl who was admitted as a patient insisted that there was an older man hovering over her at night, and that he kept telling her he wanted to cut her up.”

Lark nodded. “The entity I encountered felt male, but I couldn’t tell for certain. It was definitely angry—and mean. Mortimer sounds more like a victim than who we’re looking for.”

“My aunt and some of her friends sneaked in about fifteen years ago,” Roxi added—she’d arrived while Lark was gone. “She said one of the other girls insisted that a ghost slashed at her with a knife, but they thought she was making it up since she didn’t have any wounds.”

Not ones that were visible to the living, at any rate.

“What happened to her?” Lark asked.

Roxi shrugged. “I don’t know.” She was lying. Or at least, there was something she wasn’t telling the rest of them. Were Lark and I the only ones who noticed? If I had to guess I’d say that one of the aunt’s friends died shortly after that trip to Haven Crest, but Roxi didn’t know if it was the one who was attacked by the ghost or not, and didn’t want to upset her friends.

Lark looked at me, and I knew she was thinking the same thing. Then she turned back to the table. “Everyone take a ring. If our ghost manifests around you and you see it, the ring will help fight it off. I have a salt-and-iron mix for you to carry, as well. Also, when we summon the ghost, you need to at least pretend you’re not afraid and that you mean no harm. Ghosts are attracted to fear and negative emotion. It makes them aggressive.”

“Like when your sister freaked out at Kevin’s,” Sarah said. “She picked up on our worry about you and Mace.”

I would have liked to manifest right then and punch her in the face. She hadn’t been worried about Lark at all.

“No,” Lark corrected her. “It was Wren’s worry for me that caused her to manifest, and you’re lucky. If it had gone the other way you’d all be in much worse shape right now.” I wished she hadn’t said that.

“Wait.” Gage put his phone down. “You’re saying your sister is dangerous?” And that was exactly why I wished Lark hadn’t said it.

Lark frowned at him. “She’s a ghost. You don’t need to be afraid of her, but her power is something you should remember and respect.”

He shook his head, long hair brushing against his face as he looked in my direction. “Glad you’re on our side, badass ghost girl.”

I laughed. Lark smiled.

“So, what’s the plan?” Mace asked, bringing everyone back on track.

I could tell from the way Lark looked at him that she was surprised by his gruff tone. “We go to Kevin’s, summon the ghost, find out what we’re up against, and then we go to Haven Crest, I find the remains and destroy them. That’s the simple version.”

“Why do we even need to summon him?” Sarah asked. “Isn’t that just asking to be attacked again?”

“It’s the only way to be sure we have the right ghost,” Lark said. “It will come out for all of you.”

“But it came out for just you and Mace, didn’t it?”

“But I didn’t see it. With all of you there I think it will be forced to manifest.”

Mace put his arm around his girlfriend. “You don’t have to do it.”

“Yeah, she does,” Lark announced. “You got into this together, you stay in it together.”

“What difference does it make if one of us doesn’t hold hands around a table?” Mace demanded. He and Lark glared at each other. If this was one of those soap operas my mother liked to watch, they’d kiss.

“You think Ben or Roxi or Gage want to do this?” my sister asked. “If Sarah doesn’t have to do it, no one has to, and then it will end up me and Wren looking for a ghost-needle in a fucking ghost-haystack. And I’ll be in the Haven Crest graveyard digging up and burning all three graves just in case. That’s if I’m lucky.”