“The tourists aren’t going to stop coming,” Mira said, waving off his genuine concern. “What about Sorrel-Weed?”

Nate made a noise in the back of his throat like a laugh, while one corner of his mouth pulled into a frown as he looked up on the looming structure. “The ghosts in that house are too angry to ever go completely silent. However, Scott, the owner, says things have recently been limited to the carriage house.”

“Should you try talking to them, considering they’re still active?” I suggested.

“Nah,” he replied, turning his gaze back to me. “It’s like I said. Too angry. You go up there, you’re just going to get something thrown at your head.”

“What about over at Colonial Park?” Mira asked. Nate hesitated, looking down at the ground as a frown deepened on his young face. “It’s still on the tour and it would only take a few seconds,” Mira continued. “We just want to see if anyone will tell you what’s got them so upset.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Nate replied in a low voice, his gaze drifting back over toward Sorrel-Weed at the sound of approaching footsteps. “Why are you so interested anyway?”

“A girl was recently murdered and we’re looking into it,” I said, causing Nate’s gaze to snap back to me.

“And you think a ghost did it?” he demanded in hushed tones.

“No, but they may know who did,” Mira said, grabbing my arm and pulling me back onto the trolley. We resumed our seats as the rest of the tourists jumped onto the trolley.

Watch what you say! Mira said in my brain as soon as we were settled. He doesn’t know what I am, doesn’t know my place within Savannah. You may find this hard to believe, but there are some people who still think I’m a normal human being.

You’re right. I snickered. I do find it hard to believe. A human that believes another human can see and talk to ghosts?

Okay, so maybe he thinks I’m a slightly eccentric human, but still human.

I laughed softly as the trolley pulled away from the curb and Nate resumed his dark monologue about the city. Mira settled against me. Her hunger was still evident as it beat against me, but underlying that red haze was a feeling of contentment.

We trundled along for another few blocks before the trolley driver stopped next to the Colonial Park Cemetery. We got off the trolley and followed the rest of the tourist herd down the ornate brick sidewalk to the side of the cemetery so that everyone could stare through the iron bars at the thick blackness that blanketed the graves. Out of habit, I completed a quick scan of the region, sending my powers out from my body to sweep over the tombstones until they reached the opposite wall.

“Anything?” Mira whispered, undoubtedly feeling the wave of energy wash from me.

“Nothing.” And that’s what had me concerned. While it made perfect sense for the naturi to be trying to sabotage the nightwalkers through the murder of Abigail Bradford, it didn’t make any sense for the ghosts of Savannah to be upset by their presence.

We waited until Nate finished with his tale of duels and Civil War soldiers bunking down with the dead in the middle of winter before we approached him. Most of the tourists had begun to head back to the trolley while Nate stood at the fence, one hand gripping a black cast-iron bar.

“Nate?” Mira asked, laying a hand on his shoulder.

“There’s a couple out there. Slowly coming over to me. They’re…scared. Something has been hanging around the cemetery. Ghosts have disappeared.”

“Can they tell you what it is?”

“What’s happening?” Nate asked the darkness. “Who’s with you?”

We all waited in silence for nearly a minute before Nate finally frowned and shook his head as he turned away from the bars. “They don’t know. Something they’ve never seen before. It’s killing them, which doesn’t make any sense. I don’t know how you can kill a ghost, but they’re upset and keeping low.”

“Were they upset like this back in September?” I asked as we followed him back to the trolley.

“Nope,” he said, looking over his shoulder at me. “This only started in the past week or so.”

I turned to find Mira standing a few feet away from me, staring through the bars into the cemetery. Her voice was low, just above a whisper. I stared at her a moment, straining to hear what she was saying, when I realized she was singing. Walking over, I discovered that she was singing what sounded like a lullaby in Greek. Her right hand was continuously moving through the empty air as if she were petting something.

“Mira,” I said, trying to grab her attention.

The nightwalker looked down at the swath of air that her hand was moving through and she smiled before starting the lullaby over again, oblivious to the world around her.

“Mira!” I said a little louder as I grabbed her left arm. She jumped, her head snapping up as she stopped singing. She blinked and looked around as if she was seeing the cemetery for the first time. She then looked down at the open air where her right hand hovered, a look of confusion crossing her face.

“Where did she go?” she asked, looking around her.

“Who?”

“I—” Mira started, and then shook her head. I released her arm and took a step backward, giving her some room as I could once again feel a wave of cold energy washing off of her. She was using her powers as she possibly searched for something or worked some other kind of nightwalker magic. Pressing the fingers of her right hand to her forehead, Mira clenched her eyes shut and drew in a sharp intake of air through her nose. “It’s nothing. It was nothing.”

Mira turned and started to board the trolley, but I grabbed her arm, stopping her. “Do we need to talk to Nate anymore?”

“No,” she replied, arching one brow at me.

“Then let’s walk back to the car. I need to think,” I suggested. Mira simply nodded and took her foot off the first step of the trolley. She gave Nate a brief hug and then turned back toward the cemetery while I shook the ghost talker’s hand. He hadn’t provided us with much information, but it was enough to confirm a dark idea already implanted in my head.

Mira waited until the trolley had rumbled away and we had walked more than a block in silence before she finally spoke up. “You don’t think it’s the naturi, do you?” she ventured.

“If it was the naturi, the ghosts would have been upset back in September when the city was crawling with them. There are fewer naturi in the city now and yet the ghosts are upset. Something else has moved into the region.” I zipped my jacket up a little higher and shoved my hands into my pockets as we walked along the dark street back toward the riverfront.

“Do you also have a theory as to what?” Mira inquired.

I stared down at my companion in silence, knowing she wasn’t going to like what I had to say. I wasn’t particularly pleased with it myself. “Ghosts are nothing more than bodiless spirits. Souls,” I said slowly, but it was more than enough. Mira came to an abrupt halt just as we were about to cross an empty street and jerked her head up to look at me with wide, horror-filled eyes.

“You can’t possibly think…?” she gasped. “It’s impossible. How could a…a…a bori escape?” she said, whispering the last two words as if the mention of the creature would summon it to our side. A bori was the only creature dependent upon soul energy. It was using the ghosts in the city somehow.

“I don’t know. The naturi escaped,” I replied, taking a step to cross the street, which helped to jolt Mira from her own paralysis.

“But some naturi were already out, working to free the others. There are no other bori here. They were all caged centuries ago.”

I frowned at that bit of logic. “You can’t be sure of that,” I grumbled. “My mother found a way to make a deal with one of them after they had already been exiled.”