The boy in the suit could see me, obviously, which meant he was a Seer—one who’d already had his triggering event. But how did he already know my name? The only person who could have told him about me had to be … Ruth? That didn’t make any sense, since he greeted me like one might an old friend, not some supernatural enemy.

Suddenly, I felt my defenses rise. I didn’t take too well to strangers who knew more about me than I knew about them. Blame it on past experience with a certain blond ghost.

I was just about to tell him to back off when Jillian strolled into the room, flopped unceremoniously into the chair the boy had just vacated, and then glanced up at him with an arch sort of smile.

“See, Alex?” She addressed him directly. “I told you she was annoying.”

I blinked back, stunned. Jillian had been the one to tell this boy—Alex—who I was? Not only who I was, but how I was?

Even though she’d just entered it, Jillian didn’t look the least bit surprised by this strange scene. She sprawled across the wingback chair, legs swung over an armrest and face turned up expectantly to the boy in front of me.

And … was I crazy, or did she look rapturous, too? Flirtatious, even? Like she desperately wanted this boy to pay attention to her.

Whatever Jillian may have wanted, the boy’s eyes stayed locked onto mine. Waiting for me to react to his greeting. When I didn’t, he waited for one more second, hand still hanging in the air, before he swung his body toward Joshua and offered him the introductory handshake instead.

“Sorry if I was being rude earlier,” he said. “I guess I just feel like I know you already. I’m Alexander Etienne—a friend of Annabel’s. We’re freshmen at Tulane together, and she invited me to spend Christmas break with your family.” He twitched his head sideways, acknowledging the black-haired girl in the other wingback chair. Then he extended his hand a tiny bit closer to Joshua. “Please—call me Alex.”

Joshua looked at Alex’s outstretched hand for another beat before reluctantly reaching out to shake it.

I thought he would say something defensive to this Alex person. Make some kind of denial on my behalf. Instead, he eyed the rest of room and then asked, “Okay—how many of you can see her?”

“Joshua!” I cried, taken aback by his sudden frankness.

Across the room, the brown-haired boy laughed. “Oh my God, I can totally hear her!”

“Me too!” the blonde chimed in, clapping her hands together like I’d just performed a circus trick.

I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at them. Neither of the lovebirds looked directly at me, however. They both continued to stare at Joshua, wearing a matching set of self-satisfied smiles.

The only one who didn’t seem annoyingly entertained was Annabel. Slowly, calmly, she pushed herself out of her chair and strolled over to us. She flipped back her swoosh of bangs, slipped her hands into the back pockets of her skinny-jeans, and grinned at me.

Well, she didn’t grin at me, exactly; it was more like she grinned at the place where she thought I stood. She narrowed her eyes, peering in my direction like Jillian used to do before she could see me. But unlike Jillian, Annabel looked neither pissed off nor unnerved.

Annabel tilted her head to one side, still peering. “I bet we’re freaking you out, aren’t we?”

“Yes.” Joshua and I answered simultaneously.

Annabel barked out a pleasantly dry, throaty laugh and then focused on a spot somewhere above my left shoulder. “Sorry. But we’ve been waiting for this for a while.”

“Waiting for what?” Joshua asked in disbelief.

“To meet Amelia.”

I balked. Again, another living being saying my name like an old friend. It felt surreal, and I struggled, with only moderate success, to keep my cool.

“So,” I said haltingly, “all of you can really … hear me?”

“Kind of,” said the guy with the floppy hair. “You sort of sound like you’re in another room. Or underground.” Then his hazel eyes brightened with an idea. “Like … maybe you’re buried?”

“Shut it, Drew,” Annabel snapped. At that moment she reminded me of Ruth—sharply angled face, hawklike eyes, and in obvious command of those around her. And just like Ruth’s old followers, Drew promptly shut it.

His girlfriend, however, pushed her mouth into a pretty pout. Under her breath she muttered, “I don’t see why we have to do what your cousin says.”

Annabel shot her a quick, cold smile. “You don’t have to do what I say, Hayley. You have to do what Alex says.”

Alex.

While Annabel and the others argued, Alex hadn’t moved. Hadn’t spoken. From the corner of my eye, I could still see him watching me. When he caught me looking, he ducked his head down so that our eyes were level and gave me a small, reassuring smile.

“I’m the only one who can see you,” he said softly, speaking only to me. “Everyone else can just sense where you are. And hear you, thanks to practice.”

“‘Practice’? Could someone please explain all of this to me?”

“Are we making you uncomfortable, Amelia?” he asked in that same just-to-me tone.

“Not really,” I lied. I paused, and then amended myself. “It’s just … well, you’re the first Seers I’ve met who haven’t tried to exorcise me within the first ten seconds of meeting me. Except for Joshua, of course.”

Annabel let out another raspy laugh. “And we’re not going to. Promise.”

For so long I’d wanted to hear a Seer speak those words. Now that one did, I felt a little dizzy.

I put my hand to my head. “I’m sorry, I just don’t get it.”

Annabel slipped her hands out of her pockets, folded her arms across her chest, and leaned back against one of the wings of her chair. Near the fireplace, I caught a glimpse of Jillian’s expression; she obviously wanted Alex to mimic Annabel and lean against her chair. When he didn’t, Jillian scowled heavily and then returned to chipping at her nail polish.

Either unaware of or unconcerned about her younger cousin’s angst, Annabel nodded.

“I guess we owe you both an explanation, huh?”

“That’s an understatement,” Joshua said. He moved even closer to me and wrapped his arm around my waist.

I looked up at him in surprise. He hadn’t touched me so blatantly in front of living people in … ever.

I heard a shuffle of movement as Drew and Hayley joined our makeshift circle in front of the fire. Drew draped one arm across Hayley’s thin shoulders and then the two of them settled backward, evidently ready for story time.

With her audience now prepared, Annabel nodded once more and launched into her explanation.

“I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been able to … sense weird things. I don’t think I fully understood it at the time, and maybe I’m just imagining it now, in hindsight. Growing up in the Quarter, it’s hard not to think you’ve heard something strange, or seen something out of place, every now and then. But I guess everything officially started about two months ago, right after Grandma Ruth moved in with us. I remember—it was fall break, so Drew was here eating all our food.”

“Uh, you mean partying with you on Bourbon Street,” he interjected.

Annabel rolled her eyes. “Like I said, Drew was doing his best impression of a human sponge. But on our last free night, it was raining too hard for us to go out. That’s when Grandma Ruth cornered both of us and gave us the Seer talk.”

Joshua nodded. “I got the same one when I brought Amelia home.”

“Then you don’t need me to give you the details. What might have been different from your talk, though, was Ruth’s change of heart. She told us about you and your ghost, and about how she failed to do her job with Amelia. I guess that’s when Ruth realized that her whole wait-until-their-triggering-event thing didn’t work. Now, she’s decided to tell everyone who’s ‘of age’—meaning over eighteen, I guess.”