I grimaced. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I hope it comes off with a little soap and water. I liked myself fine when this all started, and I hope to keep some of that girl with me when this all comes to an end.”

“So what are we going to tell Val?” Skyla asked.

“Tell him the ghost didn’t know anything useful. We can tell him that she saw Tori using the sword, but she didn’t know where she went with it.”

Skyla agreed to my suggestion, and after I helped her remove all traces of her séance, we parted ways outside the library. My thoughts centered on my bed, and my body craved a few hours’ sleep to make up for all we’d lost during the night. Val had left by the time I came back to my room, and I was relieved. I peeled off my clothes and fell into bed, too tired to find pajamas.

Chapter Nineteen

Unable to ignore the persistent sunlight beaming in my face, I gave up and got out of bed. The lacy draperies over the windows did little to shield the light, and since most of the Valkyries rose at dawn, the possibility that a guest might like to sleep in likely never crossed their minds.

I showered, dressed, and went to find Skyla. She wasn’t in her room, and her bed looked as though she had never lain in it. Maybe military types made their beds every morning, but something told me Skyla had never gone to bed after we left the library, even though she had looked exhausted. I found her in the kitchen, drinking coffee with Val, of all people.

Dark circles shadowed her eyes, the result of a night without sleep. I sank into a chair next to her and gathered her hands into mine. “Skyla, what’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been up all night.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I couldn’t sleep. I’ve been thinking about Embla and my mother and what it all means.”

I shifted my attention to Val, who had shaved and changed his clothes. “You look rested.”

“Don’t let it fool you,” he said. “I spent the rest of the night searching the grounds for any sign of a lead in case things didn’t pan out with Skyla’s séance.”

“Did you find anything useful?”

“I followed a trail of burnt ground for a while. It led away from the house, north, but it faded out and disappeared where the highway cut through.”

“Tori hitched a ride?”

“Or had someone waiting for her.”

Since Skyla wanted to keep our conversation with Ariel mum, I had little else to say on the matter of Tori’s disappearance. I changed the subject by going to the refrigerator and digging out a carton of eggs. “Anyone want something to eat?”

“I’ll take something,” Skyla said through a yawn. She laid her head on her arms.

“Why not go to bed if you’re so tired?” Val asked.

The coffee pot had enough left to pour another few cups, so I made one for Val and another for Skyla. She grabbed it from me and sucked down a huge gulp before answering. “No time to sleep.”

“So,” Val said, “did you learn something last night after all?”

Skyla frowned into her coffee. “I talked to a ghost, all right. But she mostly mumbled unintelligible things.”

“Maybe you need more practice,” he said.

“Practice doing what?” asked one of the Valkyries, who shuffled into the kitchen, frowning, her gaze locked on the empty coffee pot. It was Embla, and Skyla and I both froze. “Sword fighting? I expected to see you in the gym this morning, Skyla, but you didn’t show.”

“I-I had a late night,” Skyla said. “I didn’t feel like it today.”

“You’ve got to take better care of yourself. If you want to be at your best, to be the kind of warrior we need you to be, you can’t stay up all night talking to ghosts.”

Skyla gurgled something nonsensical before stuttering, “How-how did you know?”

“It’s my library,” Embla said. “I know everything that happens inside its walls.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“At first I wasn’t sure what you were up to, but I decided if it was something important enough for you to steal into my room, hide under my bed, root through my things, and take my spare key, then it was something that didn’t require my interference.”

Blood drained from my face. “Do you have hidden cameras?”

Embla smiled and shook her head. “No. Just a good sense of when things go amiss in the room I’ve lived in for twenty years. You smell like a summer day, Solina. After all that smoke and soot, you were like an air freshener. Also, I haven’t cleaned under my bed since the fire, but there was a large patch absent of dust and soot in the vague size and shape of a young woman.”

I blushed with mortification. “Well there goes my CIA application after all.” All that sneaking around for nothing. Why couldn’t I just sink into the floor and disappear?

Embla turned to Skyla again. “I suppose Ariel wasn’t the only ghost you were thinking about last night either, was it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your mother.”

Skyla’s face slackened, and her mouth fell open. “What are you saying?”

“Solina found the evidence, didn’t she? A picture of you as a sweet, young girl. I know each of those photographs as a mother knows her children’s names, and I know when one goes missing. It seems you’ve learned more than you bargained for in your search for that key.”

“Why do you have those pictures?” Skyla asked.

Embla shrugged. “Because. Your mother was my sister, and I am your aunt.”

The room went silent and airless as a vacuum.

“M-my mother was an only child,” Skyla said after overcoming her shock.

“It would seem that way, but no, she was my little sister. We had an older sister, too, but she died as a baby. Your mother never knew her.”

I saw a similarity in their looks—matching eye shape and bone structure. They shared the same distinct chin and jaw lines. Embla’s skin tone was darker and cooler, and her black curls were tighter and a little coarser. Skyla’s Puerto Rican genes added amber tones to her skin and lightened her hair color several shades, but their genetic relationship was obvious once it was pointed out.

“My mother never mentioned you,” Skyla said.

“She wouldn’t. It’s the side effect of leaving the Aerie.”

“My mother was a stay-at-home mom. She was on the PTA and baked cookies for fundraisers. What do you mean she left the Aerie?”