Free Token of Darkness by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes Page A

would have made that connection, but maybe she was a family member of someone involved? Hell, for all he knew she was a guilty brake mechanic, who blamed herself for the way Cooper’s car handled in the accident. The only thing he was
sure
of was that it would be too much of a coincidence if Cooper’s ghost wasn’t somehow connected to Cooper’s near-death experience.
    Well, there was one thing more to do.
    He picked up the phone, and called the le Coire estate.
    “Hello?” Brent wasn’t surprised to hear a stranger’s voice. So many people went to Ryan, either to work with him or to learn from him, that Ryan rarely bothered to answer his own phone.
    “Hi,” he replied. He was pretty sure he was talking to a secretary, but for all he knew he could be talking to some kind of super-mystic. “This is Brent Maresh.”
    “I remember you,” the voice on the other end said. “Everything all right?”
    “For me, yes,” Brent answered. “But I have a friend who has been having some weird things happen to him, which Ithink Ryan might be able to help with. Or at least might be interested in. Could I talk to him, and see if he would mind if we came by?”
    “I think he’s working with someone right now, but I can pass on a message. When were you thinking of coming over?”
    “Tomorrow morning, if that’s all right.”
    “Mmm. Probably. What’s the guy’s name?”
    “Cooper Blake,” Brent replied, though he doubted that detail would matter to Ryan. He wasn’t the type to bias his judgment of someone’s power by doing much background research.
    “I’ll let le Coire know.”
    The line went dead before Brent could say good-bye.
    What next?
    He could call some friends and make plans, but he didn’t feel the urge. He didn’t have a lot of close friends these days; he had pushed most of them away in his search for some peace and silence before his hospitalization, and hadn’t dared make many new ones since. If he hadn’t met Delilah in such intriguing circumstances, he probably wouldn’t have even let her into his life.
    He grabbed his keys, and had just reached his car when the dream from earlier came washing back. He stayed there, one hand on the driver’s-side door handle, until the memories had peaked and fallen, and then he forced himself to get into the car. He refused to be stuck with Cooper’s issues.
    It took more willpower than it should have to turn the car on, and take it out of the driveway, but by the time he reached the town center it was like his body had remembered that the accident hadn’t actually happened to him. The fear and phantasmal pain faded.
    To test his recovery, he merged onto the highway, and was gratified to learn that his body didn’t panic. He still drove carefully—Cooper’s memories remained, and would probably be vivid for a while—but he had successfully sloughed off the imprint of terror that he had picked up from Cooper.

C ooper just barely made it through the school day. He found his way home and ate dinner, then faced his room again.
    He hadn’t seen Samantha in almost twenty-four hours. In the entire time he had known her, she had never been gone so long.
    Might she be
gone
, for real? If this was over, he didn’t need Brent’s help … but then what? Should he try to go back to his friends and pretend she had never existed?
    He wasn’t sure he could handle never knowing who she had been. Didn’t he owe it to her to learn that? People shouldn’t just be able to disappear without anyone noticing.
    He tried to fall sleep, but anxiety kept him up. He stared at the shadows in the corners as they crept up, andwondered if they had at last … No, he couldn’t think that way. She couldn’t be
gone
.
    He wasn’t ready for her to be gone, damn it. It was selfish of him, but maybe he was a selfish guy. If there was a possibility she had moved on to where she needed to be, he knew he should be
happy
for her, but instead he felt empty. She couldn’t just be there