The Passengers (Book #2)

ℑ 𝔑𝔢𝔢𝔡 𝔱𝔬 𝔗𝔞𝔩𝔨 𝔱𝔬 𝔜𝔬𝔲

"Will you go to the dance with me?" he asks. "I have a sneaking suspicion we would make an awfully good Titanic couple."

Titanic. "Wait, what?"

"The Spring Fling."

Is Sehun asking me out? Maybe he was flirting the other day. Not jokey fun flirting, but I-want-to-stick-my-tonque-in-your-mouth flirting. I reach out to touch his arm, but take my hand back.  "Don't you want to go with a date or something?"

Sehun looks out the window for a brief second, and when his eyes return to me, his smile has tension in it. "I would much rather go with you. Doesn't have to be a big deal. I just, well, I think it would be good for you to have a little fun for once. Socialize."

The flutter in my stomach turns to anxiety. Please don't do this. "I don't know. I just . . . I don't know."

Sehun pulls back to get a better look at me. "You're not going with someone else, are you?"

I wish I could laugh at that. I wish that the major problem of my life right now was too many dance invites. "It's not that. I just don't think I'm gonna go at all."

"Come on, Suzy. I know it's been a little weird at school these past few months. But you have to jump in at some point."

I slide away from him and sit up. "It's not just that." It's Zoe and the dream, Wendy's bones, and a slew of weirdness that tells me I shouldn't go anywhere near a Titanic-themed dance right now.

Sehun's eyes focus on me like he's trying to sort something out. "Well, what's it about, then?"

I pull at the edge of my comforter. Maybe I should tell Sehun what's going on. He'll hate it, but at least I won't have to hurt his feelings about the dance.

Sehun frowns. "You're acting the same way you did right after . . . Does this have anything to do with that ghost dude that left?"

My heart immediately and annoyingly starts pounding. Stop it, heart. Why should I care that Sehun brought up Joohyuk?

I stand up and step into my black slippers. "We're gonna be late to breakfast."

Sehun stands up, too. "I'm guessing by your reaction that's a yes."

"It's . . . I'm just not going to the dance. I don't want to go," I say with more frustration than I intended. Great. Now I've made it sound like it is because of Joohyuk. I turn away from his look. I hate that I'm flustered and that Sehun can see it.

"Do you still have feelings for him?"

I walk into the hall. "I really don't want to talk about this." How did we even get on this topic anyway?

"That figures." No more jokes and smiles.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You can't even look at me when you talk about this."

I move fast down the stairs, my pulse quickening. I can't explain everything to him while I'm like this. I need to calm down, think it through. "He's gone, Sehun. And he's not the reason I'm saying no to you. I'm just saying no. I don't have to give you a reason."

"Real nice, Suzy." His frustration matches mine. "I'm the closest friend you have as long as we don't talk about anything important. But the moment I ask you a personal question, you run away."

Damn him for being right. I cross the foyer and open the side door. "Sehun. . ." Wendy stands on the other side with her hand raised to knock. "Wendy?"

"I need to talk to you," Wendy says, and steps in.

Sehun looks from her to me.

"Seriously, Suzy. Alone," Wendy says.

"Right, you'll talk to her," Sehun says under his breath. He walks out the door, and it slams shut behind him.

How did that fight even happen?

"Looks like your morning is going as well as mine is," Wendy says.

"You have no idea," I say.

She walks straight for the living room and I follow. We sit down on one of the white fluffy couches, and she drops her bookbag on the coffee table, which is actually an old trunk.

"I found this on my nightstand this morning." She pulls an antique key from her pocket and holds it out to me.

I examine the metal tag. Engraved on one side is 1ST CL ST RM D33. Some of the detail is rubbed smooth. "What the . . . ?"

"It was just there staring at me when I woke up," Wendy says, looking at the key like it has some nerve.

"Could it have come from someone in your house?" Wendy shakes her head.

"Are you saying you think someone snuck in and left it in your room?"

"It wasn't there when I went to sleep. And no one got into my room overnight without me noticing. I'm a light sleeper. As in a piece of dust lands on my cheek and I bolt upright."

"So you're saying . . ." A chill runs down my back.

"I don't see another explanation." She twists a black onyx ring on her finger. "It had to be a ghost."

I look at the key. "Spirit," I correct her.

"Okay, well, I want you to teach me how to see them."

"What? No way. I just asked you to do a spell to help me not see them anymore."

"You can't just stop seeing spirits, Suzy. That isn't a door you can shut. And if one was looming over me in my sleep, which is very possibly what happened last night, I wouldn't even know it. You can see spirits. Maybe you're not interested in taking it as an opportunity. But I'll be damned if I'm not going to try. Yes, I want you to join our circle, and yes, you would make us stronger. But whether you do or you don't, you have to stop being such a baby and realize what a gift you have."

I set my jaw. "I get that you're freaked out. I am, too. But do not guilt-trip me after everything that happened."

"By 'everything that happened,' I assume you mean your stepmother trying to kill us."

I stare at her hard. "Don't do this, Wendy."

"I'm gonna do this. We've been keeping your secret about her. You deserve that for what you did for us. It goes without saying. But we don't deserve you shutting us out. You're acting like you're the only one this happened to."

I hand back the key back to her and stand up. "I really don't want to have this conversation." Which is now the second time I've said this since I woke up.

She grabs my wrist. "Look at Soojung. She couldn't deal with what happened, and she shipped herself off to some boarding school. Hiding yourself away is a made-up normal world you think you want is just the same. You can't make what Yoomi did go away no matter how much you avoid us or how much you avoid magic. And yeah, there's a price you pay for having power and keeping secrets. So stop being selfish! You can't do this alone, and neither can we."

I pull off her hand off my wrist and walk away from her. Screw school. If Murphy's Law is running the show today. I'm going back to bed.