The ghost shakes his head and squeezes harder and harder, and my breathing slows to a trickle and then to nothing at all, and my lungs are burning, and my eyes are bulging, and everything hurts and hurts and hurts until I reach the edge of the cliff and I fall off, tumbling down into endless shadows below…
*
I gasp awake. It’s later. The room is dark, and Charity is curled up on the other side of the bed, snoring softly. My eyes go wide with terror as I flail around and search for the one comfort I have left in my life.
“Theo?” I whisper into the dark of the cavernous room. “Theo?”
The center of the bed where I laid him down is empty. Theo’s blanket is sprawled messily against the sheets. They’re still warm.
“Theo,” I gasp, panic turning my voice gravelly with fear. “Theo!”
But he’s
