“They wouldn’t be so enthusiastic if they knew the whole truth about where I take you, and why. Let’s not disillusion them yet.” Balthazar went to the window to study the gargoyle. Icicles dangled from its stone wings. “He looks cold out there.”
“I ought to knit him a scarf or something.” I curled up on the window seat and touched two fingertips to the cold glass.
“You even take pity on creatures made of stone.” Balthazar settled next to me on the window seat, with one arm around my shoulders and his leg alongside mine.
I glanced up at him, uncertain. He said, “If your parents came in—”
“I know. We should look—comfortable.”
“Exactly.” Balthazar watched me hesitate, a small, knowing smile on his face. “You feel like I’m taking advantage of the situation.”
“It’s not that. I know you wouldn’t.”
“You’re wrong. I would.” He leaned closer to me, so that our faces nearly touched. “You’re as much in love with Lucas Ross as you ever were, and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it. That doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy being this close to you.”
I couldn’t seem to concentrate. For some reason I couldn’t look away from his mouth. He had a square jaw and a fine fuzz of stubble. “It just seems risky, I guess.”
“The only one taking a risk here is me, if I get too attached to you.
It’s not risky for you, as long as you’re not confused either.”
“I’m not.”
“Of course you aren’t.” A small smile played on Balthazar’s lips.
I pushed myself up from the window seat. My knees were shaky.
Balthazar stayed put, though the smile never left his face. I blathered,
“So, I guess you’re, uh, in a good mood these days. Like, you seem cheerful—not goofy cheerful or anything, just cheerful.”
“Yeah, I’m good.”
I sat on the edge of my bed, so we were a few feet apart. Now I could focus. “You were having a tough time after Riverton,” I said. “Have you made more progress than you’ve told me?”
“No—when I find Charity, I’ll tell you immediately. The sooner we can call off Black Cross, the better.” He leaned back against the window frame. The gargoyle was visible as a shadow behind him, like a devil on his shoulder. “But I’m learning to accept that it’s not going to happen overnight. I’ve been without her for thirty-five years; I can make it a couple months more.”
“You make it sound like you’re the one who needs her, instead of the other way around.”
Balthazar considered that for a few moments. “I guess I always need someone to take care of.”
That came close to dangerous ground. Quickly I changed the subject to something I’d been weighing whether or not to discuss with him for some time. “If I share a confidence that somebody else has told me—
something really personal, really private—because I honestly think you might know something helpful, will you promise to keep the secret? And never, ever let on that you know?”
“Of course.” He sighed heavily. “Is this about Lucas?”
“No. It’s about Raquel.” There, on Christmas Eve, whispering so that my parents couldn’t possibly overhear a word, I told Balthazar what Raquel had revealed about the wraith that had terrorized her for so long.
He wasn’t as shocked as I had been. “What did you think the wraiths were, Bianca? Cute and friendly, like Casper the ghost and his pals?” Then he frowned. “Are there still Casper cartoons?”
“They had a movie,” I said absently. “But isn’t that—I mean, that ghost isn’t just turning things blue or making ice appear. It’s a—well, it’s a ra**st.”
“Even human mythology is familiar with the incubi, Bianca. Some female wraiths sexually attack sleeping men; they’re called succubi.
Wraiths don’t have bodies, so they come up with every way they can to violate the bodies of others. Possession, sexual assault, hauntings—all part of the same pattern.”
I shuddered. “It’s just so scary. There are so many ghosts in the world—I mean, there have to be millions, Balthazar. If they’re all capable of that—”
“Wait a second. There aren’t millions of wraiths. They’re fairly rare.
Rarer than vampires, that’s for certain.”
“That’s not possible. Almost all the human kids here grew up in haunted houses.”
“What? You’re kidding.”
“Vic figured it out. Ghosts in almost all their homes. For that to be true, there would have to be hundreds and thousands of haunted houses…” My voice trailed off as I realized that wasn’t the only possibility.
Either there were tons of haunted houses in the world, so that any group of people my age might have grown up in them—or it was just a coincidence that so many of them had ended up here—or this was the answer Lucas and I had been seeking all along. This was the reason Mrs.
Bethany allowed human students to come to Evernight Academy. Not just any human students could attend; only the ones connected to the wraiths got through the doors.
“Mrs. Bethany’s looking for wraiths,” I whispered.
“What?”
I explained to Balthazar as best I could, my words tumbling over each other in my excitement. “This has to be it. Once the students come here, she has a link to the homes and families that lasts for years. If she needed to get into any of these students’ houses, she could probably do it.”