Ormsby Island was just like that house in Edinburgh, only on a grander scale.

But something had changed. Ever since Jessica and Eddie and Uncle Paul’s friends and that weird woman Nina came onto the island, things were different. Jason was just beginning to sense a new intent, though he had no way of confirming exactly what it could be.

“What are they saying?” he asked his sister.

Alice pushed her hair behind her ears. “They’re all talking at once. It’s hard to make out. But their voices are stronger. It’s not just the Last Kids. There are other ones too. A lot of them. They keep saying the bad man.”

“Who’s the bad man?” Jason’s heartbeat quickened.

“I don’t know. They want us to see the bad man. Come and see the bad man.” Alice grabbed her head. “It hurts. They hurt. I can feel their hurt.”

Jason shouted, “Stop hurting my sister! You’re being mean.”

Alice held out her hands, “Wait, I can’t hear you when you talk at the same time. We want to help you. Do you still want to be our friends?”

Jason got down on one knee beside Alice. He placed his hand in hers. She was trembling.

“Please, do what Alice says. Talk one at a time.”

She scrunched her eyes shut. “They won’t listen.”

Her hand tightened around his own.

“If you don’t stop, we’ll leave,” Jason said. It was strange, talking to the air and trees, knowing the place was filled with the specters of the Last Kids.

What if Alice was imagining all of it? What if she had made up the boy in Edinburgh? The thought of his sister being a liar, or worse, crazy, scared him.

Alice suddenly screamed, a high-pitched screech that startled him so much, he let go of her hand and fell onto his side.

A cyclone of wind stirred in the center of the clearing, picking up tufts of browned grass, twigs and pebbles of blackened dirt. Alice clasped her hands over her ears, shrieking until her voice began to falter.

The cyclone approached them. Jason jammed his hands under Alice’s armpits and dragged her away, the back of her heels carving two irregular trails in the dirt. He tried to back into the small opening in the brush. It would be hard navigating through the narrow tunnel, but he had to get clear of the eddying mass of air and earth.

Alice was ripped from his grip.

One moment he could feel the heat from under her arms, hear her screams. The next, she was gone, pulled into the cyclone as if she weighed no more than a blade of grass.

“Alice!”

He couldn’t see her, couldn’t hear her, but he knew she was there, hidden in the eye of the swirling storm. This was no act of nature. The Last Kids were doing this to her, to them.

“You’re going to hurt her! Stop it! I hate you! I hate all of you! Let her go!”

The edge of the cyclone tugged at him, drawing him nearer. He reached out, grabbing desiccated branches from the bushes behind him. They broke off in his hands. The ground burned the exposed part of his side where his shirt had ridden up as he was dragged into the center of the clearing and up, up, up into the whirling, heedless cyclone.

Everything had become a frenzy.

The boy and the girl weren’t listening. They needed to see!

Frustration swelled to a torrent.

You must see! See the bad man! Stay away from the bad man!

Alice and Jason struggled against their tempest. They needed to understand. They needed to be properly afraid.

They had to listen, and see…and feel.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Eddie watched with great amusement as Jessica duct taped slices of bologna over the lenses of any camera that was in the same room as them. Mitch and Rusty had been busy this morning. It looked as if every corner of the first floor was wired for audio and video. He could hear them shuffling overhead as they presumably did the same on the second floor.

She was thoughtful enough to remove the bologna as they left a room.

“You getting a kick out of this?” he asked as they sat in the main dining room.

“Not really. In fact, I hate it. I hate myself for getting stuck out here. I hate every single thing about this place.”

“Just focus on the kids. You know as well as I do that everything happens for a reason.”

He hoped the reason wasn’t so he could re-master his abilities. He felt more in control of himself today than he had been in years. Because of his renewed psychic vitality, he was aware that the house was completely devoid of EB activity. It was a little unsettling.

Where are they?

“I guess we should go out and find them. It might be fun to play tag or something for a while. At least we’ll get some exercise,” Jessica said, pushing away from the table.

“Or you can stay here and help us,” Nina said, sauntering into the room wearing a long black dress and thick, knitted shawl.

“You’re a psychic,” Jessica said. “Read my mind.”

Nina stepped in her path, blocking her exit.

“Not your smartest move,” Jessica said, her jaw clenched.

“I don’t understand why we have to be on opposing sides here,” Nina said. “From what I can see, this is a case of the living versus the dead. Whether you like it or not, we’re on the same team.”

Jessica stepped back.

“That’s your problem. You think you can come in here, rile things up and leave when you have enough to titillate the masses. There’s no war to be had here. This is a place of tragedy. Sometimes it’s best to leave the dead in peace.”

Jessica angled her body to sneak around Nina without coming in contact with her. When Nina tried to block her again, Eddie pushed outward with his mind, sliding Nina back a good two feet until her ass came to rest against a dining room chair. The woman looked to him as if he’d just made a demon appear in the room.

Jessica walked away, oblivious to Eddie’s intervention.

“How did you do that?” Nina asked. Her hands gripped the sides of the chair for support.

“Just be glad it wasn’t Jessica shoving you aside. By nature, I’m a pacifist.” He paused. “We aren’t of the same nature.”

He left Nina in shock.

She doesn’t know as much as she thinks she does. Good. Keep her wondering.

The icy prick of tiny needles jabbed at the base of his skull. She was trying to pry inside his mind. He shut her out forcefully enough to cause her to grunt.

And stay the heck out!

Jessica took a deep, relatively warm breath when they went outside. She wished she’d brought a heavy jacket so being in the house wasn’t so bone chilling. Then again, who would think you’d need anything more than a T-shirt in the South Carolina summer?

She and Eddie went behind the house, expecting to hear Alice and Jason playing nearby. Only the rattle of leaves blowing in the wind greeted them.

“You think they’re back to skipping stones?” she asked.

“It’s what I’d be doing if I was a kid. Boys tend to obsess on anything that involves throwing stuff until they think they’re the best at it. We like to become legends in our own minds.”

Jessica laughed. After the tension with Nina, it felt good. They traipsed through the underbrush, searching for the spot they’d eaten at the night before. She listened for the sound of rocks plinking into the water. They found the spot, but not the children.

“Wanna try the dock next?” she said. Eddie shrugged and followed.

When the docks turned up empty, she began to worry.

“They’re somewhere,” Eddie said. “We just have to think like kids.”

“What if they went in the water and a riptide or something took them under?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think there are riptides in the harbor.” Closing his eyes for a moment, he said, “I can feel them. And yes, they’re very much alive.”

She nudged him in the side with her elbow. “Can’t you do one of your mind tricks where you latch onto them or something? I once described you as a human GPS to Angela.”