Evangeline was staring. A lot. If her eyes got any wider, they would pop out of her skull.

"Um, is she okay?" Logan whispered to me. Though he was trying to handle this whole thing with dignity, I could tell he was getting uncomfortable.

"Yeah, uh..." I mumbled, pressing my lips together. "She's just a bit... surprised you know."

Though I would say shocked was more appropriate. I'd given her the Cliffs notes version of events on our way down to the warehouse, but despite soaking up every word I said with enthusiasm, I didn't think she took it that seriously. After all, an undead zombie Reaper was totally impossible according to our cosmic rules.

Boy did her demeanor change when we arrived and she actually saw Logan.

-Can Revenants go into shock?

"Right," Logan swallowed hard, lowering his gaze. "So um... Violet said that you can help? With the... uh... notebook problem?"

I jerked back when Evangeline took a few steps toward us, her stride purposeful. Her slanted eyes narrowed as she got into Logan's face. Those dark black slits held his gaze for a solid 5 minutes, her brows creased in concentration. To make things weirder she actually jabbed a finger into his chest, as if she was poking gutted roadkill she'd found on some highway.

"Holy shit. He can talk."

I blinked at her. "Uh, what?"

"And he's articulate too. Are you getting any cravings? Any sudden urges to consume brains?"

Logan's brows shot up. "Uh, I don't think I've gone Night of the Living Dead."

"Yet," she added, taking a step back. Logan's muscles relaxed as she finally exited his personal space.

"I'm guessing you've never seen anything like this before?"

She puckered her lips. "You think?"

I clenched my jaw. "Right, so I suppose you have no idea what to do either?"

She blinked at me.

"Yeah, I do actually," in a heartbeat, she'd whirled on her heel and bolted for the exit. "See ya!"

My mouth dropped open. "Seriously?"

When she didn't stop, I shot a look to an exasperated Logan.

"Stay here," I said and rushed after her.

"Hey! What the hell Evangeline?"

She speed-walked over to her bike and quickly mounted it, her gray robes rustling.

"Sorry Violet, but there's nothing I can do. You're on your own."

"Are you kidding me? This stuff is your job!"

The way her eyes assaulted me made me pause.

"Ah, no, no, no, this ain't my job. This isn't even close to my job. This isn't even supposed to exist!"

I snorted, placing my hands on my hips. "That's why I called you! Aren't you always saying how you're all for crazy, unexpected challenges?"

"Challenges?" She shifted in her seat so that her upper body was facing me. "Okay. A hive of pissed-off poltergeists is a challenge. A three-hundred-year-old ghost of a psycho serial killer is a challenge. That? That is a serious problem."

"And?! You guys are supposed to fix problems, that's the whole point of your order."

Her brows rose so high they almost touched her widow's peak.

"Yeah, ghost problems, not zombie Reaper problems," she paused, releasing an exasperated sigh. "Look, I have no idea how this happened or why, but I do know that you sure as hell can't deal with this on your own. Call Kevin—you really need his help with this one."

I deadpanned. "Did you just tell me to call my boss? You?"

-Jesus, what is this, opposite week?

Dead people becoming zombies, Evangeline telling me to trust the authorities. If there was anyone more antiestablishment than Mason, it was her.

Evangeline shook her head. "Yeah, I know, I can't believe it either. But I know when to admit that something is way above my pay grade and that I need someone more qualified to help. And this... this is one of those times. Sorry, little Violet."

"Evangeline! Come on!"

"What Violet, what? What do you want me to do with the guy? Trap him and drag him to the In-between? That's gonna be a problem seeing as how he still has a body."

I paused, my mind reeling. Somehow, through the gale of thoughts, an idea managed to break through.

"No, I know you can't do that. And I wasn't asking you to corral him like some sheep."

She snorted, frustration coloring her pale skin a cotton pink. I couldn't remember a time when I'd seen her upset—she was always grinning, always on the verge of laughing. Seriousness looked wrong on her somehow.

"Then what?" She demanded.

"When we'd found Logan at the Morgue, he was kinda out of it. Crying, talking nonsense, that jazz. But during his tangents, he mentioned visiting a cold and dark place."

Her rosebud lips knitted into a tight line. "He went to the In-between? But that's literally impossible. Reapers don't go to the In-between."

"I know, that's what we said. I tried asking him about it later when he was more coherent, but he said he didn't remember it. Everything from that time at the Morgue was a total blank for him."

Strands of inky black hair brushed against her long lashes when she shook her head.

"What are you saying?" She paused, realization slowly making her widen her eyes. "An Echo. You think it was a Final Echo."

I nodded vigorously. The idea had been at the back of my mind since we'd brought Logan from the Kowalskis, but in my nervous haste, I hadn't really had time to properly consider it. Apart from the additional info Reapers collected about the recently deceased, another thing that was cataloged were their final thoughts, or Echoes as they were called. The Calvary was the one who did this bit of post-mortem work, which was surprising, seeing as how their jobs were limited to ghost hunting, not anything occurring prior. But they were weirdly insistent on these—why I didn't know. I personally never saw the point of storing the last thing that went through someone's mind right before they died. Until now obviously.

The only small problem was...

"Wait, wait, Echoes are thoughts ghosts had right before they died, not after. Small chance your zombie boy's Echo is gonna have his adventures in the In-between," Evangeline rightfully pointed out, making me sigh.

"I know, but Logan's case is special—could be that some of his memories from the In-between bled into the Echo. Especially if he wasn't even dead when he entered it."

She balked. "That is literally impossible. The living can't go to the In-between."

"Yeah, well, people can't become zombies either, yet here we are," I paused, wound up. "Look, even if there isn't any memory of the In-between in his Echo, there may still be something useful there that could help me fix this. I'll bet that whatever went wrong with him didn't start when he died. There might be something that happened right before he died that could explain why he ended up like this."

Evangeline blew the loose strands of hair out of her eyes, her thumb resting on her chin.

"Okay, okay, makes sense. What do you want me to do?"

I stared at her in silence. It took her a full minute to realize where this was going.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"You're the only one who can do it!"

She pressed her fingers to her temples, massaging them vigorously.

"You want me to break into the Citadel, and steal your zombie boy's Echo for you?"

"I would do it myself, but you know I can't."

Evangeline deadpanned, making me wish I didn't need her in this scenario. But I had no other choice. The Calvary stronghold, or city, or whatever it was, was located in the In-between—yeah, the actual poltergeist realm, as if things couldn't be any weirder for them. How that worked I had no clue, since no Reaper could actually set foot there, seeing as how the dark energy would trap us on the other side. But according to rumors, this was the place where they made their ghost-busting gear, stored the data they gathered from our annual Death Reports, and the Echoes they received from the recently deceased.

"Holy shit Violet. I thought Mason was the crazy one, but it looks like you might be losing it too," Evangeline blew a breath. "The Citadel is guarded. You can't just walk into whatever room you want and take stuff—especially not the Archives. I would need like ten different permission slips to even get close to the Echo room, much less take a Final Thought from one."

"I know. Like I said, that's why I called you, specifically. I knew this was the sort of challenge you would be up for," I regarded the way her eyes narrowed. "And it doesn't even involve any kind of cosmically impossible stunts, like fixing Logan does!"

"No, just an easy raid on one of the most heavily guarded places ever. In the In-between no less."

I closed my eyes, balling my fists. "Please? I have nothing else. No other way to fix this mess. This is my last chance."

Evangeline bit her lip, her gaze locked with mine. Her coal-black eyes gleamed like freshly spilled ink under the streetlight, a sharp contrast to her snow-white skin. There was obvious compassion lurking in there—compassion that mirrored my own. Though she was someone who could rival Mason in the recklessness department, she didn't have his selfish streak, not really. She couldn't bear to be so callous.

I knew she'd spent years in foster care, abused and neglected, treated like the token Asian adoptee lucky enough to be 'saved' by good white parents. Helping the underdog was her Kryptonite—and in that respect, she was more like me.

Shutting her eyes, she let out an exasperated breath. "I'm not promising anything."

Relief slammed into me like a freight truck and I just about hugged her. "Thank you."

"No, don't really. I have no idea whether I'll be able to get into the Archives, much less get the Echo and smuggle it out. Christ, it'll be a miracle if I don't end up imprisoned."

"Still, you agreed to help. That's more than enough."

"I still think you should tell Kevin. I know the guy sucks, but in this case, I think you might need him."

I drummed my fingers nervously against my thigh, recalling the most recent encounter with my boss.

"Yeah, if you'd seen how he'd chewed us out today, you wouldn't be so quick to get us to go to him. He's made it abundantly clear that he is not ready to forgive Mason another screwup. Especially not one as big as this."

Evangeline sighed and started her bike, the engine roaring like a raging lion. Concern creased her forehead, as she shot me a look.

"Let's hope you made the right choice."

* * *

Another update, F I N A L L Y.

Comment your thoughts on what you think Evangeline will find!

With Love, Thea :)