He blushed again, and it brought to mind some of our good times as teenagers once more. I didn’t want to remember anything having to do with Balance of Light, but Kholt was making it really hard for me not to fall right back into our easy camaraderie. It had always been effortless with Kholt. And that was why I needed to be extra careful. He might not be here with nefarious intentions, but Lionel was a master manipulator and a psychopath. He could be using Kholt, and Kholt may never even realize it—until it was too late.
“Yeah, I may have binge-watched a bunch of seasons since I saw you last. I’m kind of obsessed now. Who would have thought I’d enjoy a paranormal reality show?”
I chuckled. “Not me. I couldn’t get you to watch ghost shows with me at all—though neither of us was allowed to do that. I always thought you denying me was weird because you loved to sneak horror and thriller books to read.”
“There’s something different about seeing it in your head and seeing it on the screen.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess I can see that. Imagine being me. I see it in my head all the time, and it’s real.”
He got quiet for a minute, and I realized what I’d said. I generally didn’t talk openly about my magic in casual settings. I never had. Back when Kholt had known me, it was a self-preservation mechanism. The fact that I had just blurted that out was a testament to how comfortable I felt with him—and in such a short time. I’d have to watch myself. I couldn’t afford to let my guard down completely.
“You’ve never really talked about the things you can do,” he said, moving closer to me. “I’d love to hear more about it, and I can’t wait to see you in action for real. Watching you on TV has been . . . well, it’s been amazing. You’re amazing.”
I felt my stomach flip at the compliment. He looked at me then, and I saw the honesty in his expression, the genuineness of it making me feel all warm inside. Maybe we could become friends again. I thought I might like that.
“Thanks, but I’m not the only amazing one. Wait until you see Dev in action for real. He’s something to behold. And Sky’s science is pretty cool, too. I love how we all balance each other. Did Dev tell you that we have a dog investigator now?”
Shifting the subject to lighter things seemed the smart move. He was getting inside all my defenses, and I was already seeing myself let go too much. It wasn’t a horrible thing, and I liked how freeing it felt, but there was always something to be said for self-preservation.
“What? A dog?” He laughed. “No. How does that work?”
“So, Dev has a gorgeous blue nose pit bull. Mystique. He and Hanlen have trained her to be sensitive to and point out electromagnetic fields, which is usually an indicator of spirit activity. And, as with all animals, she can sense ghosts before most humans can, so Myst sort of acts as our early warning system.” I shifted, taking in the look on his face and loving that he looked as excited to hear about it as I was to tell him.
“There are rules for these things.” I shrugged. “Dev sees spirits, but only if they want to be seen. I get mental pictures and can hear them, but only if they project into my head. Dakota gets feelings and can sometimes hear them and sense or smell things from beyond the veil along with her psychometry—the ability to tap into an object’s history via touch—and she does what we call automatic writing, where the spirits talk through her. But her gifts aren’t foolproof, either. It’s just nice to have so many options.”
“You guys have a great team. I was shocked when I realized how many different people you had and what everybody does,” Kholt said.
I smiled, feeling pride swell within me. “We’re the only one like that. Add in the research that Harper and Hanlen take on, and the technology that Van and Lennie create for us, and it’s no wonder we’re the top-rated show out there. And that’s all before having the benefits of an entire crew of ghosts who help.”
Now, he was just standing there, shaking his head. “I’m not sure I’ve wrapped my head around that bit yet. But I’ll try. Still, it’s all so amazing. I never thought to be so intrigued by or into it, but I am. I’m really excited about this job.”
“You should be.” I smiled, feeling a little smug, but we’d earned the accolades we’d gotten, and we’d worked really hard to get where we were. Not a lot of people could say they loved going to work every day and doing the work they did even in their off hours. I could. And I knew I was blessed.
“Do you want to see something cool?” I blurted and dug into my purse for my phone.
“Always,” he said and smiled, throwing me into the past. That was his go-to response for pretty much anything I asked him back in the day.
Do you want to sneak out with me tonight? Always. Do you want to head down to the pond with me? Always. Do you want to stay up all night watching stupid contraband movies? Always. I may be strange, but you know you love me. Always.
For some reason, that one word held a different kind of weight now. I’d never read into it before, but now that I was older and removed from the nightmare, I could look at the relationship I’d had with Kholt through a slightly different lens. I now wondered if he’d hoped there would be more than friendship between us.
Shaking off those thoughts—they weren’t things I needed to be dwelling on right now—I walked closer to him and brought up the photo I’d taken outside.
He took my phone from me when I passed it to him. “Wow, that’s cool. What am I looking at?” he asked.
“Lennie and I developed an app that can take aura photographs. I took one of the house from the drive and this is what came up. This tells me that the house itself is sensitive and tapped into the spiritual plane, which means this should be a great investigation.”
“Seriously?” He looked up at me and then returned his attention to the screen. “That’s so awesome.” He laughed. “Wait, would it work on a person?”
I smiled. “It generally works better on people. Why? Do you want me to take your picture?”
“Yes,” he said, nodding enthusiastically. “I totally do. I know nothing about this stuff, but it’s super fascinating to me. Will you do it? And tell me what it all means?”
I checked my watch. We still had some time before I expected everyone to start arriving, and this wouldn’t take too long anyway. “Sure. Why not? Go and stand in that shady area by the windows.”
He did as I asked, and I brought up the app and snapped the picture. As the software did its thing, I wondered what I’d find. Butterflies took flight in my stomach. This was very personal and could reveal a lot. Was I ready to see what Kholt’s aura had to tell me that perhaps his mouth wasn’t yet ready to say? What if he had secrets? What if everything wasn’t as it seemed?
When it was done processing, I moved to stand next to him so that he could see and wouldn’t have to look upside down. Some of what came through was expected: yellow for charisma and charm, green for his compassion, orange for creativity and sexual energy—something he exuded in spades. But what shocked me was the amount of pink and indigo in there. Pink was usually the color of passion and love. Yes, it could mean a caring person or be tied to spirituality, but having that much usually meant . . . more.