Ghost Silk (Ghost Perfume, Book 2) | ✔

3 - Promise me - Part 8 (Michael)

After she proved she was herself and repeated as well as she could remember her conversation with the revenants, I thought I knew who she had met today.

"Describe them again?" I asked.

"Ilium looks barely older than a kid. Slender, blond, sweet-faced, soft-spoken. He died in his pajamas ... Astor, he's a mean-looking -" she interrupted herself with a shake of her head, "a clever-looking man in a suit."

Yes, I knew them and they knew me.

Years ago, they came to petition us to let them back into the material world.

For ghosts, they'd been unusually alert and authoritative; of course, back then we hadn't known that when the Wischet died, they retained as ghosts those threading abilities that were echoes of the priests' abilities. We hadn't known anything. We merely thought that these ghosts were the same as all the others, and we turned them away. When they acted difficult, we bound them in silver and threw them out with force.

Gabriel gave me a worried look. Alexander's beer froze at his mouth.

I tried to remember who had been with me that day the revenants came to us. My memory of the visit was hazy; I'd put the whole thing out of my mind as soon as it was over. Now I wished I hadn't. I'd been in the courtyard of our summer palace ... Hera had been there, arguing with me about a proposed change in the tax structures ... Alexander too?

One word from these revenants to Rose, and the charade would come crumbling down.

No.

I would not allow it.

My plans would work out. There was no alternative. And no one would stand in the way.

I tugged on a curl of her hair. "Repeat for me the orders you gave them?"

When she did, I added one more order for them. "For safety. To keep you a secret."

She was always eager to obey me. "I'll go tell them right now."

She disappeared into the living room.

"They know you?" Lukas hissed.

"Shh."

We listened as she said, "Jackal, Astor, Ilium. Don't convey, hint, or suggest in any manner, to anyone, any information that you learn or infer here today, except whatever information I explicitly allow you to communicate. And don't convey, hint, or suggest in any manner to anyone, that there's information you learn or infer here today that you're being forced to keep secret."

That would seal their mouths against Rose's ear.

Alexander finally took a long swallow from the bottle.

One day you'll forgive me, Rose.

I walked out into the living room, smiling. "Would you introduce us?"

Rose was delighted. It delighted her every time we interacted with ghosts. I didn't do it enough, I rebuked myself.

I sat beside her on the couch, crossing my ankle over my knee and looking in the direction that she looked. Alexander sat on her other side.

Gabriel and Lukas came to stand behind us.

Rose pet the mastiffs at our feet. "Ilium, Astor, Jackal, this is Michael, Gabriel, Alexander, and Lukas. Michael and Alexander were with me in that clearing with the Inezchet. They were wearing a mask like I was ... Guys, meet my new friends. Jackal you kind of know already."

"Michael Alistair," I said. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"We're delighted," Gabriel said mildly. I eyed his hand on her shoulder.