Dec threw himself back on the bed with a strangled sound.
“Hi,” I said and smiled an apology at Dec. “I am here.”
“Yes,” Tristan said, “I can see that. I was just wondering if maybe we might go down to the music room. I’d very much like to hear my Prelude played on this piano again.”
I felt a lightness in my chest. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined playing my signature piece for its composer. “Yes, of course,” I said, standing. “Of course.” Then I remembered what Tristan had interrupted. “I mean, if Dec does not mind.”
Dec glared at Tristan and said through gritted teeth, “Why in the world would I mind?”
* * *
I had been interviewed approximately 137 times. Had any of those reporters asked what I thought it would feel like to play the Unfinished Prelude for the music’s composer, I would have laughed self-consciously and skirted the question. The composer was unknown and dead after all, so the concept was not one worth addressing.
But now. Now as I played this strange, brilliant piano with Tristan sitting next to me, I discovered it was both the most nerve racking and amazing thing I had ever experienced.
As I played, Tristan alternately beamed, hummed, and once clapped with joy at my interpretation. Often, he stopped to give me suggestions on the phrasing of a particular section.
I could not remember being more in love with music than I was in that moment. The music, like my joy, filled me. Seduced me. Oh, what bliss it would have brought Dmitry.
I rode the wave of notes until next to me, barely loud enough to be heard over the piano, Tristan whispered, “I think I’m dying.”
Chapter 41
Russ
“So, how do I get you and Alex together without destroying Dec’s piano?” I asked. It was after 2:00 a.m., and my eyes were wrecked from reading the book I’d grabbed from Eaton Hall: The History of Curses and Hexes. Nowhere in it had I found a “cure” for a disappearing cursed boy. Instead, I’d found Ian sitting in my desk chair, thumbing through a book about possessed cats Dec had bought me as a joke.
Ian put the book down and smiled a slow, sly smile that made it completely clear what he was thinking.
“No,” I said, unable to open my mouth out of a clench. “I’m not letting you possess me.”
Ian shrugged. “Suit yourself. But I know Alex; that kid never gives up.”
I wondered, for the millionth time, how I’d gotten myself into this mess. If I said no, I was all but giving Alex permission to continue to find new and more annoying ways to irritate Dec by trying to get at his piano. And if I said yes…
“Look, Griffin,” Ian said, moving to the bed. “I get that it’s your first time. I promise to be gentle.”
“It isn’t…” I realized too late what I’d walked into. “My first possession. Yeah. I’ve been doing all of this to avoid crap like that.”
“But at least your first time would be with someone who cared about you,” Ian said and winked.
I put my head in my hands. I needed to stop before this got worse. “Okay. Start over. You can’t simply haunt Alex because…?”
“Because I may have lost my life, but I haven’t lost my mind. There’s a certain give-and-take in a haunting, you know. I need some…distance from him. A barrier, for lack of a better word.”
“And you want me to be that barrier?” I asked, knowing the answer. “Never mind. So why can’t we do this like a normal séance? You know, where Alex asks me questions and you give me the answers to relay?”
Ian smirked. “Okay, sure. And who are you going to get to sit in with you? Hampton sure as shit won’t help you. Legally you need an adult, but then you’d be indebted to the Guild instead of the other way around. There are no specific rules for possessions. Of course, you could always just let Alex shoot you up again, but I’m not sure I’d advise that. Plus, you run the risk of him deciding that turning you in is the best option.”
“And we can’t just sit and talk because…?”
Ian leaned forward, all doe eyes. “Oh, we could. I mean, if Alex gets wind of the fact that you can see me, he might be here every day asking you for something, but sure, if that’s what you want. But really, I knew this would happen. I told him exactly how to contact me. I just didn’t expect that damned instrument to put up such a fight. And I didn’t expect him to lose my car.”
I waited for an alternative idea, but none came. “Have you done it before?”
“Possessed anyone?”
“Yeah.”
“You mean, like a person?” Ian cocked his head in an oddly familiar way that made me suspicious as well as slightly nauseous.
“What do you mean ‘like a person’? What the hell else would you possess?”
Ian narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. “What’s the quote? ‘Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.’ It really is, you know. Dark.”
It was impossible. But it was also Ian Mackenzie, which immediately rendered every fucked-up thing possible. “Garmer. You possessed your dog.”
“It seemed like it would be a good way to keep an eye on things, but dogs’ minds really are dark,” Ian said. “I didn’t try to take a bite out of you or anything, did I? It’s kind of hard to get your bearings in there.”
I leaned back on the bed and fixated on an errant cobweb in the corner of the ceiling. It was a small gift that Ian didn’t remember being so affectionate as a dog. And it was a good sign that neither Ian nor Garmer seemed harmed by the experience. That didn’t mean that I was itching to try it.
“How much harder can it be with a person?” Ian asked, obviously trying to be reassuring. “Look at all the stupid people who have ended up as ghosts and pulled it off.”
I couldn’t believe we were actually discussing this, that I was actually considering it. “Do you even know how that would work?”
“Sure.” Ian grinned. “When a mommy ghost and a daddy ghost love each other very much…”
I didn’t want to give Ian the satisfaction of laughing, but I couldn’t help it. “So am I stuck with you now? I mean, can anyone I contact show up whenever they want?”
Ian crossed his legs languidly and ran a hand through his long, perfect hair. Vanity apparently didn’t die. “Hate to break it to you, but, yeah; maybe this drug somehow makes you more susceptible to those you contact. And I’m kinda strong willed.”