Portals Heather Read online

  The hole under the bus grew larger and larger. We were working on the far side, away from the view of the double-wide.

  "I need a break," Trenton said, flopping down in the slight shade of the bus. Oskar sat beside him, and Lily put down her shovel.

  "Going on strike, eh?" I sat down as well.

  "Why can't you just mesmerize Bruce so we can get some water?" whined Trenton.

  "If someone gets real emotional, I can't always contain them," I said. "Bruce gets super angry about anyone digging out here. He says it could destabilize the junk piles."

  Lily squared her shoulders. "If we don't hydrate, we'll be skeletons under this bus soon. I'm going to do it the old-fashioned way and haul some water out here." She pushed her glasses up on her nose and stomped off toward the double-wide.

  "Bruce had better not mess with her!" said Trenton.

  We slumped in the shade, fanning ourselves with my journal.

  "If only Emmett were here," I said. "I need spirit world guidance."

  My memory of the spirit world felt like a dream by now, the mortal world's solid reality chipping away at it little by little. I felt in my jeans pocket. There—the dead rose head I'd picked in the spirit world. I studied its wispy petals, remembering. Then I blew on it. The flower fell into dust before my eyes. Just like my memories.

  Had it all really happened?

  Lily came around the corner of the bus, lugging a large bottle of water

  "Oooh! Water!" Trenton reached for the bottle. When Lily handed it over, he grunted and nearly dropped it.

  "Oof! Here, you hold it," he said to me.

  Still gazing up at the blue sky, I waved my hand. A stream of spectricity shot from my hand and levitated the water for him to drink. Trenton's mouth dropped open. He nearly choked on the water that flowed out of the bottle.

  I picked up my notebook from the sand. "I could ask Emmett," I said, hesitating.

  Lily watched me, one eyebrow raised. "Who is Emmett, exactly?"

  I gazed up at the sky, imagining Emmett's grinning face, his crazy hair, his black-and-white Victorian clothing. "The spirit who escorted me to Dead Town. He was fifteen when he died in 1900," I said, a smile creeping to my lips.

  "Yes, but what else do you know about him?" said Lily, still skeptical.

  I waved my hand around. The big water bottle pulled itself from Trenton's lips and dropped to the sand.

  "What else do I need to know?" I said. "He made me his protégée. He gave me the Ring of Esperance and he helped me defeat the Bellum. I trust him." I blushed. "Anyway, you'll meet him tonight. There's a party in our honor and you're all invited. So be ready at midnight. Don't be in your pajamas."

  Oskar and Trenton were watching me with amused faces.

  "You two lovebirds are having a reception, is that it?" Trenton burst out. "It's like you're married to him."

  I fanned my hot face. "It's just a party," I said. "Everyone in the Coterie will be there."

  "Thank you for inviting us," Oskar said politely.

  "You're welcome, Oskar." I glared at Trenton. "Why can't you be a gentleman, like your boyfriend here?"

  Now Trenton blushed.

  I dug my shovel into the sand again. This time the sand gave way, collapsing to reveal a hollow. When the dust cleared, we saw a hole, three feet deep and body-sized. We all gaped. Could it be?

  I lowered myself into the hole and poked around with my shovel, wading in the loose sand. Nothing. I lay in the hollow with closed eyes, concentrating on Valente's bones until spectricity rippled through me from head to foot. Nada.

  "I can't find anything. Although I think they were here," I said, crawling from the hole.

  "Do you sense it?" whispered Trenton, with wide eyes.

  "No. I just think it's about the right-sized hole. See where the ground's been disturbed?" I pointed. "Someone dug down from the rear side of the bus and pulled something out, leaving a hollow. That's why the dirt collapsed."

  We sat around the hollow, dangling our legs in, and I scribbled notes and sketched in my journal.

  Why did those police attack us? I wrote. Who stole Valente's bones? Why were they buried here, anyway? What malvado could be in this junkyard?

  Then I jumped.

  "What is it, Heather?" Lily peered into my notebook.

  I held it out. Below my questions, ghostly letters had formed on my page, the spidery script of the spirit world.

  I tapped the decryption wheel that now spun at the top of the page. The script morphed into words.

  "Incanting Quintessence," I muttered. "Plouton, Aletheia, Bellum, All . . ."

  I read the rest, although not aloud. Something about that little poem drew me in, something familiar in that little rhyme.

  Plouton, Aletheia, Bellum, All,

  Come together, unwrite the fall,

  Return what subdivision stole,

  Restore his memory, make All whole.

  "It's from Emmett," I said. "A poem."

  Trenton and Oskar scrambled to look.

  "Oh, it's only couplets," said Oskar. He sounded disappointed. "I thought he'd written you a sonnet or a sestina or something."

  Trenton looked up at Oskar with awe. "You know a lot about poetry! I'm impressed."

  "Doesn't everyone?" Oskar yawned. When he saw Trenton looking at him, he said, "I'm going to write a sonnet just for you." He kissed Trenton on the forehead and Trenton beamed.

  I looked back to the words in my notebook, written in a spirit's hand. It wasn't a sonnet, but these words seemed special to me all the same. I tore the paper loose from my notebook and folded it. Then I placed it carefully in my T-shirt pocket, next to my heart. I hoped they wouldn't crumble away like the rose had.

  "Why do you think he sent me this?" I asked.

  Trenton and Oskar gave each other knowing looks. Even Lily looked exasperated.

  "There's one well-known reason for sending a poem, Heather," she said.

  "Yes, and the flowers and chocolates in the spirit world are probably not so great by the time they reach the mortal world," said Trenton.

  I touched the dust in my jeans pocket. He was right about that.

  "So you think Emmett is flirting with me." Typical Trenton. "This poem isn't very romantic. I think it's a clue."

  "A clue to how much he likes you." Trenton snickered and Oskar elbowed him.

  "Tell us what you think it is," said Oskar.

  I took it from my pocket and handed it to him. "It's an answer to my question. I asked what could be doing these things in the junkyard. He's saying one of these spirit gods knows. Or maybe doesn't remember, but the memory could be restored. Or—I don't know, really. But the All is mentioned twice. Maybe the All is the culprit.

  "The All is the spirit god who disappeared," said Oskar. "That would be remarkable, if anyone heard from him."

  "Ask him what it means," said Lily. "Make him give you a straight answer."

  I tucked the paper back into my pocket. "I will," I said. "But not like this. Tonight, when we're face to face, I'll get it out of him."

  "Why not now?" Trenton wrung his hands. "I don't want to wait!"

  "Because I know how Emmett will respond," I said. "If I ask him what his riddle means, he'll give me another one to figure out."

  As I said it, I thought how strange this was. Why did I feel like I knew him so well, could calculate his moves? I'd only known him a short time, but I knew exactly what he'd say. Maybe it was the protégée-and-spirit bond guiding me. It felt deeper than that, though.

  Lily said, "You're right, Heather. Or he'll ask you for your firstborn, if he's like that spirit you contacted at the Vic séance."

  "That was him," I said gruffly.

  "Oh." Lily stared. "You made him a promise . . ."

  "Yeah and he collected," I said. "I mean he was cool about it, but he got what he wanted in the end."

  I held up my hand with the large, sparkling ring. Bonded for life. I sighed.

  "As long as I'm stuck
being the protégée of an otherworldly spirit—which will be for my whole life—we can get some good out of it," I said. "Let's find out everything we can about the spirit gods, especially the All. I have a feeling his absence is what caused the current unrest in the spirit world. Bellum's Turned Against attacked the Four and now we're getting attacked here. But no one's doing anything about it."

  "I can tell you about the spirit gods," said Oskar quickly.

  "No, not the old histories," I said. "I want to know what they've done for the spirit world lately."

  "Got it," said Oskar. "Recent events."

  "We'll be mingling with the spirits tonight," I said. "So keep your ears open and ask around. We need to find out what happened to the All—once and for all."

  Chapter Three

  Dead Boy's Party

  At the stroke of midnight, I stood ready: black gown, black ring, and a black look upon my face, waiting. I ran my fingers through the energy of Valente's portal, blending into the darkness of the bus.

  "Be ready this night," read the words in my notebook. "I shall summon only once."

  It began up in the aethersphere, in a place off the radar where no planes flew. I sensed the crackle of spectricity from this in-between space, making my scalp crawl and my skin prickle. The crackle grew. By the time it reached the mortal realm, it had become a full-blown storm. It descended upon Portales Espirituales, where the Paranormals slept. It descended upon the junkyard, where I waited. The blue lightning struck.

  I floated upward, amid blue light and black shadows, through the swirling and humming portal. Up, up, through the dark tunnel, not spinning this time, but rising. Perhaps the ring gave me better control. I made out his features near the top. Emmett's black-and-white form, flickering like a bad TV picture, in his stuffy Victorian suit and high collar. He took my arm as I glided from the portal, and we stood together. I smiled nervously, and he beamed back, such a brilliant smile that I blushed, glowing blue. That smile! Had he been this handsome before? He'd slicked his hair down so the curls hardly showed, but those same deep black eyes gazed into mine, searching and unafraid. My stomach started to tingle in the most unnerving way, my knees quivered, and I had to turn and pretend to admire the scenery.

  Around us stretched a vast floor, patterned in concentric rings of black and white. We stood near the center of a cavernous ballroom, with rafters so high, they disappeared into the gloom. I heard flittering bats, then a squee-yip. Above us, the bat-Chi's, Sybil and Elvira, flapped their leathery wings. When the two flying Chihuahuas saw me, they flew into my arms and licked my face, before flying off again.

  Emmett drew me across the room, floating me in circles just above the floor, like we were dancing.

  "You look beautiful tonight, my little protégée," he said.

  I was glowing from head to toe. I still had sand in my hair from digging in the junkyard, and Trenton was probably right about my baggy spirit world garb, but I felt light and beautiful as he danced me through the air.

  "I'm glad to see you," I whispered. "I was beginning to fear that none of it really happened."

  "It's wonderful to see you, too. Your friends are here," he whispered back. I rubbed my ear, because his whisper tickled.

  He spun me around, then caught me, so quickly that it took my breath away. Then he led me to an overwhelmed, but well-dressed, Trenton, who stood shaking in his tux and dress shoes. Beside him stood a casually dressed, very alert Oskar, and a sleepy Lily in a floral nightgown.

  "I told her to be dressed!" I said. How embarrassing.

  Emmett grinned. "It often happens. No one will notice—half the guests are wearing sheets anyway." He gave a ghostly cackle that made me jump.

  We watched the first few guests drift around the room. If not actually clothed in sheets, they certainly had a filmy, vaporous appearance.

  I beckoned the Paranormals. At my summons, all three lifted off the floor and floated to me.

  "Heather, what the—!" said Trenton, gasping. But Oskar smiled as he viewed the murky space. He put his hands into his pockets and nodded his approval.

  Lily had finally woken up fully, and she goggled here and there, speechless, clutching Trenton's arm.

  "You're perfectly safe. Because you're friends of mine," I said.

  "And mine! Any friend of my little protégée is a friend of mine." Emmett extended his hand to Lily. "Allow me to introduce myself. Emmett Groswald Cornelius St. Claire Marie-Claude Juan Rodriguez Lysander Tippetarius Zetian O'Toole Carlisle Fitzhugh. Please call me Emmett."

  Lily took his hand, recoiling when it slid through hers and didn't quite firm up. Gritting her teeth, she said, "Lily Benavidez. It's nice to meet you. You must be the ghost who gave Heather the ring."

  "Indeed, it is I. Although ghost isn't the proper term for me at this juncture, since I gave up haunting long ago. Spirit is the more appropriate term," said Emmett, bowing his head to her.

  Emmett then extended his hand to Oskar, who shook it easily.

  "Pleasure to meet you," said Oskar. "Oskar Ottokar Chandler. Quite a place you've got here."

  Emmett beamed. "What a lovely manner. So refreshing to meet someone who doesn't lose it completely upon encountering the spirit world."

  Emmett shook Trenton's hand heartily, until Trenton's teeth rattled and his whole body shuddered.

  "So sorry. I don't always get that right," said Emmett.

  "Well . . . my arm is still attached, so there's no harm done," said Trenton. "I'm Trenton Minch." He eyed Emmett up and down, then went "Mmm-hmm!" and winked at me.

  "They'll be a dance after refreshments are served," said Emmett. "Please excuse me, as I have to greet other guests. But feel free to eat, drink, dance—enjoy yourselves! As my guests, I really must insist you have a good time."

  Trenton nudged me and whispered loudly into my ear. "He's cute. I say go for it."

  "Shh!" I put a finger over my lips. Emmett was standing right there, and I suspected he could hear better than a mortal could, especially in the spirit world.

  "True, he's dead," whispered Trenton. "But he dances, and he's really into you, Heather Despair. How often do you think that's going to happen?"

  I growled at him. Luckily, Oskar took Trenton's arm and led him away, saying "Let's get some punch, sweetness. It isn't every day you're invited to a party in the afterlife."

  Lily lingered behind and said, "Sorry about wearing my nightgown to your party, Emmett."

  "Nonsense. It's a lovely floral gown," said Emmett, so graciously that Lily beamed. After she followed Trenton and Oskar to the punch table, Emmett took my arm and led me around the perimeter of the room. "So, my little protégée. If you would do me the great honor of assisting me in greeting guests."

  "Oh, unnaturally," I said, trying to get the lingo right.

  He smiled at me fondly. Trenton might be right—Emmett was into me. My stomach fluttered again.

  "And then, if you would save me at least one dance. I cannot get enough," said Emmett, scooping a misty liquid from the punch bowl, "of dancing." He offered me a glass of the misty drink. "Eco-vino? I hear it's quite potent among the living."

  Cautiously, I sipped it. Sweet, tart, but not a hint of alcohol. "It's only grape juice," I scoffed.

  There was a clamor behind us which grew to a roar of voices, howls, creaks, and groans. We spun around. The darkened wall at the far end of the ballroom seemed to bubble, then through it burst spirits, apparitions, specters, wraiths, spooks, and phantoms . . . and maybe the odd shade. Hard to tell, there were so many. They spun and floated and whirled, wisping in and out, their mingled glows lighting up the room. I raised a hand in greeting.

  Emmett unrolled a scroll and eyed it. "Half-past midnight in ecto-time. They're all perfectly late." He nodded with satisfaction and tucked his scroll into his left elbow.

  They converged around us, laughing and cheering and hailing us with open arms. I shook so many slimy hands, I could hardly remember who I had greeted.

  "Let
up on the ectoplasm," said Emmett, giving me his handkerchief. "She's my protégée now. We've got the spectricity under control."

  Esoterica bowed before me, his long beard brushing the floor. He took my hand in his perfectly dry palm. "It is true," he announced to the crowd. "She has been brought to heel."

  "Hey," I said. "I chose to take the ring." He made it sound like I was Emmett's out-of-control pet.

  Columbia lowered before me next, taking my hand between her thumb and forefinger. She glared at me with abject hatred. Then she dropped my hand and flew away, without a word.

  "I don't think she likes me," I whispered to Emmett.

  "Never mind." He held his nose high, like something smelled. "Nothing she can do about it."

  Then Pan was shaking my hand up and down, from his tiny, floating throne. Did he take that thing everywhere? "Congrat—congrat—congratulations and best wishes!" he shouted in glee. "What will you name the children?"

  "Children?" I backed away. "What children?"

  But he had gone buzzing off to greet someone else. Emmett grinned weakly. "He must think it's a baby shower."

  Pastoria came up next, the old, wheezing spirit with the thin manifestation.

  "Oh, it's you!" I said before he could speak. "Listen, Emmett and I are not a couple, and this is not a wedding reception. I'm his protégée. We're working together." At least I could set one of them straight. I nodded at the old spirit, very sure of myself.

  He laughed, wheezing so hard that he made a gasping noise. Then he laughed some more. "Is that so? How about a toast then? To the happy couple!"

  Emmett immediately lifted his glass high. "To my new protégée, Heather Desperate Despair. May our union last a thousand years!"

  The spirit crowd cheered heartily. They commenced with a lot of noisy clinking and drinking.

  I clinked my glass to Emmett's and drank, but . . . a thousand years?

  "Have you a toast prepared?" he asked, watching me curiously. "The spirit Coterie often expects these formalities."

  I gulped. "I've never toasted before."

  "Never mind," said Emmett, with a rather superior smile. "You can borrow one of mine."

  "No, I—I can manage." I held up my glass, too. "To my spirit guide. Emmett Fitzhugh. I'll leave out the rest of your name, if you don't mind. May we have a fruitful working partnership."