Languish by Alyxandra Harvey

We stumbled into the iron fence, the gate rattling loudly. Colin didn’t react like the spirits had; he didn’t even pause.
    Iron wasn’t working.
    â€œI’m too strong for that,” he drawled, caging me. His hand closed slowly and deliberately around the iron rail.
    â€œYou’re not Colin,” I said, steadily. “You’re Rob.”
    He clenched his jaw. “I was a lot of things,” he said darkly. “Until Marie.”
    His thumbs dug into my arms, painfully. He was too close,too big, too wild.
    But I was accustomed to stories of earls with too much money and too little responsibility. Like my father, who refused to acknowledge me. For all he knew or cared, I was shivering in rags, sifting through the stinking mud of the Thames with the mudlarks for buttons and broken baubles to sell.
    â€œYou are just a spoiled child,” I snapped back. “Losing yourself in your own pain, blind to others. Your mother needed you, you prat. She still misses you. And Marie
died.
”
    â€œThen why can’t I find her?” he asked, his voice breaking. “Why do lovers insist on walking past my grave, holding hands? Why do you get your kisses with the gardener right over my bones and I can never find my Marie?”
    â€œMaybe you don’t deserve her,” I returned calmly.
    He started as if I’d slapped him.
    â€œStill, she’s waiting for you,” I whispered, catching sight of a hazy glow coalescing into the shape of a girl. She looked both annoyed and happy. “Can’t you see her? She’s been waiting for so long. Just as long as you have.”
    â€œStop that,” he snapped, his voice no longer familiar. “I know what you’re doing. You and that old Lady Jasper, always closing me back into my grave. Turning the others against me so I was trapped, even when the lads came for luck with their sweethearts.”
    â€œHow many other lovers have you tried to break apart?”
    â€œI was only searching for Marie.”
    â€œYou couldn’t see her because you were too obsessed with your own pain. And you won’t see her now, not until you leaveColin’s body. He can’t see ghosts.”
    There was just enough salt caught in the petals of the rose brooch on my dress. I twisted away, letting my hair fall forward to block me. He let me, since there was nowhere for me to go. The black fence blocked all hope of retreat.
    I had no intention of retreating.
    Not while Colin needed saving.
    I tucked the salt grains inside my lower lip and then turned back, pretending to be frightened, to gasp after bewildered breath. Colin was so near, his breath touched my cheek. I didn’t move, only looked at him with wide eyes.
    â€œI’ll stay,” he said, his eyes flickering. “We’ll find Marie, and she and I will finally be together. I was only waiting for the right couple to visit my grave.” He kissed me again, urgently.
    I smiled against his mouth as the salt dissolved.
    He jerked back as if he’d been prodded with the tip of a sword. At the same time, Marie drifted closer, reaching out glowing, trembling fingers to touch Rob’s shoulder. Light poured out of her, like the moon caught in a mirror. It flashed off the black iron, off the stones, my tin rose, and finally, right through Colin. He slumped against the fence, gasping. We stared at each other. “Bollocks.” He panted, his Irish accent thick as leaves on the summer solstice.
    I grinned, only a little hysterically. “I missed you.”
    Beside us, Rob floated over the grass, pale as pollen. Marie drifted away, pulling him by the hand. He was smiling. The light flashed once, burning into my head, and then we were left alone in the soft blue light of a summer night.
    â€œWhen I promised to haunt you,” Colin murmured, “this wasn’t what I meant.”
    I touched his face, trailing over his cheekbones. “I know. How do you