Surrender by Lee Nichols Page B

It’s just
you
.” She stood and hugged me.
    The scent of her shampoo made me smile. “I missed you, too. Are you back for good this time?”
    â€œWell …,” she said as we sat on the French-blue velvet sofa. “That’s really up to you.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” I asked. “And where’s Max?”
    â€œNeos isn’t the only evil ghost on the planet. Max really was in Tibet, just not on exchange. He’s been working with a small village to help them dispel a tenacious ghost. He’ll be here soon.” She pushed a lock of hair out of my face. “I want to hear about you.”
    I started talking. I told her about seeing the tapestry at the Knell with the image of a previous Emma who looked exactly like me. I told her about losing Martha—then losing Coby. About losing my old friend Abby, too, in a different way, and finding Natalie and Lukas, and Harry and Sara, who’d become more than friends to me. I told her about the fight at the Knell, about Nicholas and Rachel and all the leaders of the Knell who’d died. I told her about fighting wraiths and facing Neos: about beating him, too, except he never stayed beaten. He always came back, stronger than ever.
    I spoke nonstop for an hour, not quite believing how much had happened over the last few months. Or how painful it was to relive all of it, except for the good friends I’d made.
    My mother listened. She hugged me when I needed it, and she apologized when I needed that. And no, she’d never been the mom who baked cookies or went on school field trips, but maybe that wasn’t the kind of mother I’d needed. Because she hadn’t always been there for me, smoothing the way, I’d learned to make my own choices. I came from a long line of powerful ghostkeepers—I needed to trust my own strength.
    â€œAnd what about Bennett?” she asked lightly, fiddling with her earring.
    â€œI don’t know,” I answered truthfully. “I love him, and he loves me. I know that. But he’s taking Asarum because he’s determined to fight Neos with me; he doesn’t want me to have to face that alone. But it’s changing him. And what happens when Neos is finally gone? Ghostkeeping and the Knell are Bennett’s life. No matter how much I want to be with him, I can’t let him give that up.”
    She nodded briefly, as one of her legs jiggled to a twitchy beat. I forgot that’s exactly what she’d done for my dad: given up her ghostkeeping powers.
    â€œI’ve stopped, you know. Taking Asarum.” She noticed me noticing her leg and forced herself to sit still. She hadn’t stopped fidgeting since we’d sat down. “It hasn’t been easy.”
    â€œYou look better,” I said, despite the tense energy.
    She nodded. “I feel better. Would you like me to talk to Bennett?”
    â€œWould you? Not just about the Asarum. But about …”
    â€œGiving up my powers?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œI will.” She smoothed her hair. “There is a slight problem, though.”
    I frowned. “What?”
    â€œWe want you to come with us,” my father said from the doorway.
    â€œCome where?” I asked.
    â€œTo the Knell.”
    â€œWhat? Why? I thought you hated them.”
    â€œNot ‘hated’—mistrusted. They’re complacent and rigid and—” He stopped. “Well, they
were
. It’s a different story now. And Simon is brilliant, discovering the principle of reflexivity, and—”
    â€œThe what?”
    â€œThe principle of reflexivity,” he repeated. “That ghostkeeping powers work both ways. Readers like me can also imprint messages. Compellers can release compulsion, communicators can silence ghosts, and summoners can banish them.”
    I nodded. “He taught us some of that. What about dispellers?” I asked, thinking of Bennett.
    â€œThey can