Touch by Michelle Sagara Read Free Book Online

Nathan as well. There was no balance
     in that. She could see Nathan. The fact that he was dead and she wasn’t wouldn’t matter.
     Not yet.
    Maybe not ever. Emma’s dad had told her that it took two years for the dead to find
     their way back to their old homes and old lives. Allison knew Emma. Emma would wait.
    The wind was loud beyond the windows, but Emma would be here soon; Allison headed
     downstairs to get ready.
    She was worried. She hadn’t told Chase she was worried, because he wouldn’t understand,
     and it would only make his suspicions more unreasonable.
    * * *
    Petal came to the door, dragging Emma behind him; he’d never been clear on the concept
     of leashes. When he approached a door from the outside, he wagged his stump and bounced
     up and down, but he didn’t bark. Allison wasn’t Michael; she didn’t have a ready supply
     of doggie snacks in the house. Petal liked her anyway.
    Emma, dressed for the cold, looked nervous. Nervous but happy.
    It was a kind of happy Allison recognized, although she hadn’t seen it for four months.
     She stepped outside, closed the door at her back, and smiled as they headed down the
     driveway.
    I haven’t noticed she’s spending a lot of time with you
.
    Allison had noticed. Seeing Emma’s expression, seeing the way her gaze slid to her
     right—Allison was on her left and Petal, as always, was in the lead—she knew why.
     She knew exactly why. It wasn’t the first time she had come second to Nathan.
    But she also knew it hadn’t been two years.
    Chase was already suspicious. The old man—Ernest, if she remembered correctly—was
     suspicious. If Nathan was here only four months after his death, what did that say
     about Emma?
    She bit her lip. It said nothing bad about Emma. Necromancers used some essential
     part of the dead—Allison hesitated to say “soul”—for power. There was no way Emma
     would do that to Nathan. Even if she knew how, and she didn’t, Nathan would never
     become that source.
    But he was here. He was here, by her side, and he shouldn’t be.
    Well, where should he be
? she thought, in some disgust. Emma was happy. It was the troubled happy of early
     love—anxiety mixed with euphoria. Allison braced herself for Emma’s news, and was
     surprised when Nathan’s name wasn’t the first thing out of her mouth.
    “I don’t understand my mother.”
    “My mother gave me a lecture about wearing warm clothing in November. In front of
     a guest.”
    Emma laughed. “It’s different when someone else’s mother does it.”
    It always was. Mercy Hall could worry at Emma like a pit bull, and Allison never found
     it embarrassing. Mercy Hall could worry about Allison, and she still didn’t take it
     personally.
    Petal took offense at a raccoon, which diverted Emma’s attention. But she had something
     to say, and she came back to it, slightly sideways. “Have you talked to your parents?”
    Allison was certain her eyes looked liked they were about to fall out of her face.
    Emma laughed. “I’ll take that as a no.”
    “My mother would never let me out of the house again. Ever. Why? Have you?”
    The reply took longer. “I tried to talk to my mother. About my dad.” She glanced at
     Allison. “She saw him, Ally. We all saw him, the first time.”
    “What did she say?”
    “The first time? That she had an early morning meeting.”
    Mercy Hall was so not a morning person.
    “The second time, that she had work to do. It was after dinner. The third time she
     came right out and said she didn’t want to talk about it because she had nothing to
     say.”
    “She didn’t ask you about . . .”
    “Being able to see the dead? No. She asked me nothing. And I don’t understand. I don’t
     understand why.”
    Conversations with Chase went straight downhill. Sometimes they started at a very
     steep incline. Conversations with Emma were different. They went off the map. But
     not all terrain off-map was safe. It’s not that