Call Spirits in Your Past **Book Two**

Chapter 35 (Thursday)

Ryn's forcefield surrounded the walls of Ana's cottage-bedroom, barring the door shut and muffling any sounds that might leave. Sitting by Ryn in the middle of the floor, Ella glowed a pale blue, illuminating everyone in an approximation of ghosts.

"I don't trust him," Chamrik said from the bed.

Ana glanced up. "Who are we talking about this time?" She felt a tiny bit like one of those princesses in a fairy tale, plucking petals off a flower--he loves me, he loves me not, nonsense. But more like a "do we trust them, do we trust them not?" game of life or death.

"Verspri," Chamrik muttered.

Ana met Teremki's gaze. Why did we think explaining he blew the school up was a good idea?

"It's not like Verspri was working with Coach Blanco," Teremki said.

"And...how do any of us know that?" Chamrik asked.

"Because," Teremki said, but stopped. Um, he sent her.

"Because Verspri was captured with us, and he was with us basically the entire time--"

"So?" Chamrik interrupted. "Maybe he was hiding it from you."

"I'm sorry," Ana said sarcastically, "but I don't think Verspri's a criminal mastermind."

"You don't know that," he said.

"Just give it a rest," Niko sighed. "Verspri's not even here right now." Ana silently thanked him. "Asha and Xander are here though," he uncrossed his legs, peering through the window behind him. "It's them we have to worry about if we want Ana and Teremki to make it outside the town's defenses."

Chamrik grumbled, bouncing on Dryda's bed--which she hadn't slept in for practically a week.

"Surely we can ask Mrs. Aterak for help," Ella said, "even if her brother is the one in charge of all the games."

Ryn snorted. "I find it hard to believe they're even related."

"We can't get to Mrs. Aterak without Ghost being around," Teremki reminded them. "So that option is basically out the window."

That made Niko glance at the window again. "So," he whispered, "I say we just do it ourselves."

"That's," Ella hesitated. "Great? But what if Mrs. Aterak knows how to distract Asha and Xander for us? And she probably knows how the town's defenses work better than we do. Plus we don't even know where exactly the defenses are."

"We only need me or Teremki outside long enough to contact Dryda and Kwayo," Ana said, rubbing her palms over the wood floor. "We don't need to know where, we just have to stop walking when our telepathy starts working."

Chamrik raised an eyebrow at her. "You make it sound so easy."

"What's so important that you need to tell them right now?" Ryn asked.

Ana grimaced.

Teremki shrugged. "Nothing, technically. But we have no idea if they need to tell us something. Xander does think Asha sent our classmates away permanently, and we have no clue if they're in danger."

Or worse, Ana thought.

"What do we do about the fact that Asha probably wants to send us away too?" Ryn asked.

Niko added, "and what about the fact that sending us away makes no sense?"

All eyes in the room fell on him. "What?" Chamrik asked.

"It makes no sense," Niko repeated. "We already know this place exists. Sending us away doesn't do anything, except create the risk of us leading even more people here."