Call Spirits in Your Past **Book Two**

Chapter 41 (Friday)

Ready? Ana asked.

I guess, Teremki sent.

"Let's go," Ana whispered to Ella and Ryn. "Teremki and Dragonfly are in position."

They'd agreed to split into groups, trying to get outside two different ways. Teremki and Dragonfly by flight; she, Ella, and Ryn by invisibility. Niko, Mrs. Aterak and Chamrik would try to keep everyone away, in the dining hall of the town. Playing some "real" games. Whatever that meant.

Ana grabbed the other girls' hands, creeping out of the house Ella and Ryn shared. The illusion over the front door wavered with their exit, and Ana grimaced. She had no control over that.

Leading them through the streets, Ana sped-walked across the main square and angled towards the corner of the ghost town. Invisibly, they approached the narrow strip of desert past the last of the illusory houses. Just outside the town's barrier, a slow breeze swept the ground, dust floating then abruptly coming to a halt at an invisible line.

"This isn't so bad," Ryn whispered.

As if summoned, a silhouette strolled across the street ahead of them. Ana pulled Ryn and Ella to a halt. The silhouette stopped in the intersection, just standing there.

"Oh, come on," Ana hissed. Ella tugged them to the side, down a narrower gap between houses, and the three of them broke into a jog. Ana glanced to the side, between the illusions. The figure sprinted parallel to them, flashing in and out of view between buildings. "They know where we are," Ana whispered.

Ryn pulled on Ana's arm from behind, nearly yanking it off while Ella kept running. "I'll stop him," Ryn whispered. "It's just you that needs to get out there."

Ella stopped too. "Yeah," she agreed. "We're just along for moral support."

Ana hesitated, not letting go of either of them. "Well...sort of. But--"

"We know, we know," Ryn interrupted her. "Better chance of it succeeding with all of us. But this is exactly what we're here for. Distracting the people chasing you."

Ana glanced at the desert, and shivered at the thought of getting stuck out there. "What if the barrier doesn't let me back through? Like, if it messes up my sense of direction, or something?"

Ella gripped her wrist tighter. "Then I'll stay with you. Hold onto you and pull you back inside."

"Great," Ryn whispered. And cried out in alarm.

Ana's gaze shot up to a person dropping down on them. She flashed an illusion in his face, but that didn't really do anything since he just fell right through it. But then he stopped and grunted, landing on one of Ryn's forcefields.

"Ana, stop," he said. It was Xander.

"Stop what?" she asked.

"Don't listen to him!" Ella hissed in her ear. "Let's go!" she yanked on Ana's arm, only dragging her a few centimeters.

"Don't leave, Ana," Xander wheezed. "If you did, I would have to keep you out."

"Okay," Ana replied.

"Drop him," Ximena said, stepping from a shadowed patio behind Xander. Ryn's forcefield disappeared, and Xander flopped to the ground.

Ximena sighed. "Ana, we can't have you communicating with anyone outside. We're trying to stay hidden."

Ana shook her head, thoughts going fuzzy. She was still invisible, and that was good...for some reason? "But...Asha already let them go," she muttered, thoughts sluggish.