Olivia and I were in the kitchen, having a late breakfast, when Darius came in.

“Jacky wants to see us all in his study,” he said.

“Jacky’s home?” I asked.

“He got home early this morning.”

Olivia stood up. I cast a sad eye over my cooling omelet, but considering how rarely Jacky asked to talk to us, I wasn’t going to try to put him off.

Besides, it’s not like trying to put off death ever worked.

As Olivia and I walked toward the door, Darius said, “You too, Igor.”

Igor’s misshapen eyebrows rose halfway up his forehead, but he took off his apron and laid it on the kitchen island.

Jacky was coming down the front stairs with Conrad as we crossed through the front hall. Jacob was there too, standing by the Christmas tree.

Sometimes, when John went off to entertain himself, Anna would follow him while Jacob waited for me to finish eating. I think he didn’t want me to get lonely.

When he saw me, he came over.

I put out my hand. He couldn’t actually take it, but it showed him he was welcome.

As he came up to my side, Jacky stopped beside him.

“I’m sorry, Master Jacob,” Noctis said, “but I’d rather you didn’t come with us.”

Oh.

I had gotten too used to the idea that I was the only person they could understand. The ghosts could hear the others, but the only thing they could follow was the tone. I didn’t mind. It made things easier. The others never had to worry if the children were around. I was the only one who had to be careful if I didn’t want them overhearing something.

But Jacky could see the children, and they’d be able to understand every word he said.

Jacob shrank as he stared up at Noctis. I knew Jacky, and I knew he meant well, but when you’re a six-foot skeleton in a suit, all you have to do is stand there and people think you’re looming.

I got down on one knee and held my hand over the chill of Jacob’s shoulder. I put my face close to his so he’d have to focus on me.

“Sorry, bub. I forgot he could see you.”

“Is something going on?” Jacob asked.

“Boring adult stuff. Where’s Anna and John?”

“In the library.”

“Then can you go spy on Kappa for me?”

“Is he stealing ornaments again?”

“You’ll have to check his nest.”

Jacob let out his signature dramatic sigh. Never was a ghost so put-upon. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Thank you, Jacob,” I called as he left.

When I stood up, I saw that Jacky had waited for me. He stared at me with his empty eye sockets.

I stared back. “What?”

“His name is Jan.”

“Uh…”

“The youngest boy. His name is Jan.”

“Isn’t that what I said?”

“You said John, as most Americans would, with a hard ‘j’ sound. His name is Jan, with a softer ‘y-j’ sound and an ‘h’ undertone.”

I tried it: “Jan?”

Jacky inclined his skull. “Better.” He turned and continued toward his study.

I trailed after him. “If I’ve been saying it wrong this whole time, why didn’t they correct me?”

“They’ve probably been hearing you say it as Jan, just as you heard them say it as John. It’s clear you have the gift of understanding, but it may take some time for you to understand its subtleties.”

“You’re saying my brain interpreted it into John?”

“Something like that.”

“But if they heard me saying it correctly, does it matter if I’m saying it wrong?”

“Names are important, Emerra. The simplest act of kindness is to say a person’s name correctly.”

“How come you heard it correctly, but I didn’t?”

“My guess is that you heard his name as a word, while I heard his name as a name.”

“Huh?”

“I’ve noticed that, most of the time, humans tend to see other humans as a group—some kind of nebulous mass—while I see every creature as an individual. Names are never words to me. They’re labels that apply to that specific person. You’ll have to learn to listen carefully.”

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“I’ve tried that,” I grumbled. “It makes my head hurt.”

Iset was waiting for us outside his study.

As we got closer, I said, “Jacky, if you have the gift of understanding, why do you keep messing up all your metaphors?”

He stopped. “My metaphors? There’s nothing wrong with my metaphors.”

Iset said, “I think she means your idioms.”

“Oh.” Jacky turned to me. “Really, Emerra?” He sounded so disappointed.

“Look, the dude who doesn’t know the difference between a ‘pastry stroll’ and a ‘cake walk’ doesn’t get to make fun of my English.”

“It’s probably because the gift doesn’t come into effect when I’m talking to you.”

“You’re actually speaking English?”

“He’s certainly trying to,” Iset said.

Jacky said, “When I made this home my primary residence, I decided to make English my primary language. In hindsight, that might have been a mistake.” As he turned the knob and pushed the door open, I heard him mutter, “French was so much easier.”

We all went into the room. Iset and I stood back with the others.

As Jacky walked over to his desk, he said, “I apologize for interrupting your morning, but I promise to make this quick.” He sat down in his chair, put his elbows on his desk, and interlaced his finger bones. “I have met and talked with our guests.”

My shoulders tightened, and I felt a flutter in my stomach.

I don’t think I was the only one feeling the tension. Darius leaned forward in his chair. Conrad crossed his arms.

“I’ve decided to let them stay,” Jacky said.

I let out my breath and smiled, but not everyone’s reaction was so positive.

“Mr. Noctis—”

“I’ve heard your objections, Darius, and I’ve considered them, but there’s no malice in those children.”

“Even so—”

“You may remember, this isn’t the first time I’ve welcomed a being into my home against the advice of others.”

The vampire clamped his mouth shut.

“What about Emerra?” Conrad said.

I rounded on him. “What about me? I don’t want them to go!”

I don’t normally go around trying to stare down a wolfman that’s more than twice my size, but I didn’t think it was his place to object for me. He could flatten his ears all he wanted—I was pissed.

Before we could decide who won the staring contest, Jacky interrupted.

“As Emerra is their primary contact, I believe her opinion should carry the most weight. She wants to help them, and considering the decay of their memory, she may be the only one who can. There you have it.” He turned his eye sockets to me. “I understand from Anna that you’ve already started dreaming?”

I nodded.

“Good. The sooner we can untangle them, the better.”

“Can you help?” Olivia asked.

“I’m afraid not. The children aren’t alive and haven’t been alive for a very long time. I have no influence over them. You’ve already been of more use to them than I will be.”

“Me?”

“The magic circle.” He paused, then said to Igor, “Please tell Mrs. Park to leave it up until we’ve solved this problem.”

“Yes, sir,” Igor said.

Darius unglued his lips enough to say, “We never learned how they got in.”

“You’ve checked the wards and protections?” Jacky said. “They’re all intact?”

“Yes, but—”

“Then it doesn’t matter how they got in. This world is a big place full of very strange things. We may never find out how they did it. Every reasonable precaution has been taken to keep the house safe. That’s enough. Besides, don’t you have Christmas things to do? The trees are lovely, and I’ve seen the slaughtered greenery along the stairs, but I thought there was more to it than that.”

Iset said, “We’ve been a little preoccupied.”

“If life doesn’t stop for death, then I don’t think Christmas has any right to be stalled by a few ghosts.”

“All right, Jacky.”

“Is that everything, Mr. Noctis?” Igor asked.

“Yes. Thank you.”

Igor turned to go. Olivia and I followed him. I didn’t know about her, but I wanted to finish my breakfast.

When we were in the hall, I checked to make sure no one was behind us, then said to Olivia, “Hey, why are Darius and Conrad so against having the ghosts around?”

Olivia scowled. “I don’t know.”

Well! One of the children could have used a single ghostly finger to knock me over. Olivia, my Olivia Lauren Sofie Emma Tara Grace Oliversen, didn’t know something? Call the gods! It’s an emergency.

Igor sniffed out a pompous little “ha.”

“You know something, Igor?” I asked.

“Well, they’re ghosts, aren’t they? They’re not natural.”

“Nobody in this house is natural.”

“Ah, but we’re supernatural, not unnatural.”

“And that makes a difference?”

“Certainly.”

I looked over at Olivia, to see if she was following what he was saying any better than I was. When she saw my glance, she rolled her eyes.

Mrs. Park was in the kitchen when we got there.

“Oh, there you all are,” she said.

“Good morning, Mrs. Park,” I said.

Olivia and I sat down at the table.

“Where were you? I don’t know that I’ve ever seen the kitchen without you in it, Ingvar.”

“Mr. Noctis wanted to talk to us,” Igor said.

“Oh.”

I could tell from her expression, there was a mighty battle raging between Mrs. Park’s good manners and her curiosity. Good manners won the day.

Instead of asking us what he’d wanted to talk about, she said, “Does he need to see me?”

“No,” Igor said, “but he did want me to tell you to leave the chalk on the drawing room floor. For now.”

She tutted and waved a hand at him. “Please. I know better than to bother a magic circle when I see one.” As she walked over to the door, she said, “Don’t break a magic circle. Be careful when you stand between two mirrors. Never dance in a fairy ring.”

When she was gone, Olivia leaned over and muttered to me, “That’s all she knows. Fairies aren’t real.”

Igor overheard her. “No,” he said, “I have to believe in fairies.”

“You believe in fairies?” Olivia said.

“Who else will take her away?”

I grinned. “Oh, she would love that.”

“Yeah,” Olivia said, “until they danced her to death.”

“Those are elves,” Igor said. “You can’t go mixing up nonexistent creatures all willy-nilly like that.”

“Igor, say ‘willy-nilly’ for me again.” I put my fork down. “Wait! Let me get my phone out.”

The only thing he said for my recording app was “no.”

Mrs. Park came back in the room. “Emerra, have you watered the trees yet today? I’d like to get started on the front hall.”

I groaned as I stood up. I was never going to finish my omelet. “I’ll go get Kappa.”

Kappa didn’t mind crawling under the big tree to water it for us. The only problem was trying to coax him out again. Jacob was standing beside me, Mrs. Park was behind me, and I was on my belly, half under the tree, trying to negotiate down to a single can of tuna, when Darius walked by.

“Good morning, Mrs. Park.”

“Good morning, Darius.”

“Is Kappa giving you trouble, Emerra?”

“He’s about to get a faceful of Swiffer juice if he doesn’t get out of there,” I said.

“Two cans!” Kappa yelled.

“One! And that’s only if you help me with the other trees.”

“Three trees, three cans!”

“Kappa, that number is not supposed to go back up.”

Darius said, “How are things in town, Mrs. Park. Did they get everything cleaned up?”

I heard her sigh. “Oh, you know. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. We barely finished cleaning up from the windstorm, and now someone’s gone and ransacked the grocery store.”

I turned to my side and moved out from under the tree so I could look up at Mrs. Park.

The word that had caught my attention had also caught Darius’s attention.

“Ransacked?” His brow furrowed. “That seems a bit odd. What happened?”

“I went in this morning. Almost a third of the store had been destroyed. The shelves were knocked over, food was everywhere—but the worst hit was the meat department.”

“How so?”

“Most of it was gone.”

“As in?”

“Eaten, we think. I got a glimpse before they shooed me away. The deputy was there. All kinds of goo was on the floor, along with the plastic and foam the meat comes in, but the meat was gone. Mrs. Hicks says it was some big animal, but I’ve never heard of an animal breaking in before.”

“You think it was a person?” I said.

“Well…now that you say it,” Mrs. Park mused, “it doesn’t sound like something a normal person would do.”

“No,” Darius muttered, “it doesn’t.”