Rima gasped.
“Aeliana?” Felix asked, looking confused.
“Leah,” Rufus said. “I’d hoped you’d have brought our dear sister with you. Please pass on our regards to her – and our niece.”
“Wait, Leah?” Rima asked in shock. “Leah is your sister?”
Kasper was surprised, to say the least. Why had Leah never mentioned this?
Rufus continued, “Well. Sister by marriage. We haven’t seen her in far too long. She shouldn’t feel like she can’t pop in for a visit. I’m sure we can find a way past what Claudia did.” His eyebrow twitched.
Leah was related to Rufus and Vini? Really?
“What Claudia did,” Felix repeated. Kasper looked at him out of the corner of his eye, confused.
“Don’t tell me she hasn’t told you. Aren’t you all a family now?” When none of them responded, he laughed. “Well. I suppose Leah has complicated ideas about what being a family means. You know how it is with brothers, Felix. Have a little sympathy.”
Felix grimaced. Kasper didn’t know what they were talking about, but he couldn’t stand here and do nothing. They had to stop Harriet. He wanted to offer up his power, but since Oscar’s death, he knew first-hand why the Tricksters should never be trusted with it.
Kasper was too afraid to think of any other ways to help. His fear got in the way of everything, eating away at him and hurting the people around him. He wanted to tear that feeling out of his chest, so he could be useful for once. Greg got on just fine without his worry, didn’t he?
Kasper suddenly knew what he had to do. He spoke up, interrupting Felix’s increasingly frantic attempts at negotiation. “I want to talk to Rufus alone.”
Felix started. “What? Kasper, no!”
“I know what I’m doing. I promise.”
He touched Felix’s wrist, but he just looked hard at him, not moving an inch.
“Felix, let him talk.” Rima tugged him outside, leaving Kasper alone.
Utterly defenceless now, Kasper looked straight at Rufus.
“So, Mr Jedynak. What do you want to say to us? Have you changed your mind about giving up your power? There is a chance you’d survive it, you know.”
Vini crept closer to Kasper, slow and smooth. He pressed his back against the wood of the door, focusing on the thought of Felix waiting for him on the other side, centimetres away.
“I’m not giving you my power. That is non-negotiable. But I’ll give you my fear. I know you took Greg’s worry. I want you to do that to me too.”
Rufus blinked. He took an eager, hungry step forwards. “Your fear? All of it?”
“I know you can feel it. I’m terrified, all the time. I hate it. I want to be able to fight without terror freezing me in place. Please. Take it.”
“You understand that you’ll be different, afterwards. It’s not something that ever comes back. Being fearless will impair your judgement.”
Kasper would survive. Felix could tell him when he was doing something stupid, just like he did now. “I understand. Do it.”
Rufus cradled Kasper’s jaw in his hand, breathing in deeply. “Last chance, Mr Jedynak. Do you want this?”
Kasper closed his eyes, tilting his head back. He was absolutely, bone-deep terrified. And he wanted to be rid of it. “Take it. Take it all.”
When the pins and needles started, Kasper had to hold back a scream. He’d made a mistake – Rufus wasn’t going to stop at taking his fear; he was going to take all of Kasper’s energy, he was going to destroy him, and Harriet would run wild for ever, and she would kill Felix and Rima and Leah and Claudia, and—
The fear dropped away, immediately and completely. He felt calm. Confident.
He reached up and pulled the hand off his neck, pushing him away.
“That’s enough,” he said. “You’ve got it all.”
Rufus was glowing. “Oh,” he cooed. “You were so afraid. How delicious.”
Kasper raised an eyebrow. “Great. Glad to be of service.”
Rufus had taken enough of his spirit from him that he was weaker than he’d ever been. And he had no back-up now, with Felix and Rima waiting in the corridor.
None of that stopped him from pushing Rufus so that he tripped backwards, falling into his brother.
“Now, get the eyelid, yeah?” Kasper said, hard.
Rufus licked his lips. “I suggest that you call your friends back in, before you embarrass yourself.”
Chapter 19
FELIX
Felix was trying to listen through the basement door when Kasper stepped out, grinning. “Guys, the eyelid is so gross and gooey! You have to see it!”
Felix blinked at him. “What?”
Kasper rolled his eyes, bouncing up and down on his heels. “Come see!”
Throwing a bemused glance at Rima, Felix followed Kasper back into the basement. The lightning barrier glowed and then turned into darkness.
Rufus and Vini were leaning back against the pool table, smirking. Felix looked at Kasper, who was arranging his hair in the reflection of the door handle. What was happening?
“It’s all yours,” Rufus said, gesturing to an eyelid on the pool table. Behind it, some ghosts were having a wrestling match that seemed to involve tentacles of some kind. Or, rather, Felix hoped that it was a wrestling match. He grimaced and looked away.
“Thanks?” Felix said, looking searchingly at Kasper. Was this a trick? Were they going to get eaten if they went close enough to pick it up?
Rima was staring fixedly at the leering Tricksters.
“So why does Harriet have white hair like yours?” Kasper said, wandering over to Rufus. He hopped up onto the pool table to sit next to the Trickster.
Kasper had been so terrified he was almost frothing at the mouth earlier. Why was he engaging the Tricksters in casual conversation now?
Rufus looked at Kasper out of the corner of his eye. “Harriet’s hair is white from energy overload.”
“What, because she took energy from all those Shells?” Kasper leant forward and picked a stray thread off the shirt Rufus was wearing. It was like he was drunk.
Felix’s heart rate tripled. What was Kasper playing at? He was going to get himself destroyed.
“It happens when there’s too much energy for one spirit to contain,” Rufus explained.
“That’s horrifying!” Kasper said, sounding delighted. “Please continue.”
“That’s really the whole explanation,” Rufus said.
Kasper nodded. “Well, it suits you guys, and I honestly can’t imagine you without white hair, but Harriet looked better before. What colour was your hair before, by the way?”
“It was brown!” Vini said. “Mine was kind of light brown, like honey, and Rufus had chocolate-coloured hair, and Fabian had—”
“Vini,” Rufus said, in a “that’s enough” kind of way.
Felix should probably do something about this conversation, but he could only gape at them. Rima wrinkled her nose at him in confusion. At least she agreed that none of this was normal.
“So you can taste fear, right?” Kasper asked next. “Can you tell what people are most afraid of?”
Rufus nodded. He seemed amused, in a patient sort of way. Felix didn’t want his patience to run out. “I suppose. Fear has a different taste depending on what type it is – success, romance, obligation, spiders, you know. For most people, the thing they’re most afraid of is themselves. Like you, for instance.”