To my surprise, Lucas held up a hand and shook his head. “No,” he murmured, clenching his jaw. “I’ll do it.”

Again, I felt unexpectedly uncomfortable. It didn’t make sense for Lucas to have to do this when there were others who had been here much less time and had fewer strikes against them. I recalled what Marcilla had mentioned about ghouls not usually surviving more than five trips to the coffin room…

“How many times have you been to the coffin room?” I asked Lucas.

He tensed. “The memory is… hazy. But I think three or four times.”

Three or four. That meant that, at a very maximum, Lucas had two strikes left. Two strikes to last him for the rest of his existence in this place, in case our mission was unsuccessful. I could hardly believe that he was willing to offer up one of these strikes for this mission when I was offering to look for another volunteer. Then again, perhaps he didn’t know what Marcilla had known…

“A werewolf back in the pool told me that generally, ghosts don’t last longer than—”

“Five visits,” Lucas said thickly. “I know.”

“And you say that you don’t even remember exactly how many times you’ve been in there before—it could be three or four, which means that you could only have one left.”

I stared at him in astonishment, even as he looked back at me, unfazed.

“I know,” he repeated.

And that was all the explanation he offered.

“This could be suicide for you,” Kailyn added to my uncle.

He didn’t repeat that he knew again, just crossed his arms over his chest, his jaw set firmly, his eyes stubborn as ever.

Well, if he wants to risk it, that’s up to him. Heck, I would be the same way after having been through what Lucas had been through for so long. His life was already leading to death… to whatever happened to those ghosts who were thrust down into The Necropolis. He might have been stronger than the rest of his companions, but he wasn’t infallible. It was only a matter of time before he met with his end. At least here he could go out fighting for freedom.

And so it was decided. Lucas and I would attempt to cause a distraction while Kailyn fled. What kind of distraction was what we had to decide next.

Still afraid somebody would overhear us, we sank further into the darkest corner of the lake and began to mull over the challenge. We discussed and debated back and forth, but after fifteen minutes, we were no closer to any kind of conclusion.

I huffed in frustration. “Maybe we just have to improvise.”

The problem was, none of us could predict how the ghouls would react exactly. All we knew was that Lucas and I somehow had to draw their attention away from the gate all at once—just long enough for Kailyn to slip into the vortex and make it to the top without anybody noticing and flying after her.

“I guess I should wait in the same hiding place as before,” Kailyn said. “Until I sense a window of opportunity.”

“And you’d have to be fast,” Lucas muttered. “Very fast.”

I wished that we knew more about these creatures. What their weaknesses were. I wondered if there was some way to insult them, to enrage them to such an extent that they would all come shooting after me and Lucas at once, forgetting to watch the gate.

“Uh, so what are you two going to do? You’re just going to… what, whizz around? I’m not comfortable with you two improvising at all.” At this point, Kailyn looked even more uncomfortable than Lucas. I guessed it was only natural. After all, we were putting ourselves on the line for her to escape. She didn’t want us to get caught without good reason. We couldn’t waste this chance. We had to give it our best shot. Especially because this might be Lucas’s penultimate strike, maybe even his final strike…

I breathed out heavily. As ghosts, Lucas and I were extremely limited in ways we could cause a distraction. We couldn’t touch or pick anything up. All we had was our movement and our words.

“How about this…” I began, trying to order my thoughts as I spoke. “I will emerge first from the tunnel and move as far away from the whirlpool’s entrance as I can. I’ll attract their attention and lure them toward me. Hopefully, more than one ghoul will come after me.” I realized as I was speaking that Chantel and Nolan would come in handy right now. Though I doubted that he would be daring enough to try it, and certainly Chantel, who was a bag of nerves, wouldn’t be. “So,” I continued, “I will try to lead them into one corner… but if I fail to distract all of them, that’s when Lucas needs to emerge.” Lucas’ expression was doubtful. “Even if we can’t get all of them away from the whirlpool,” I went on, hoping to address his doubts, “we just need to somehow divert their attention long enough for Kailyn to slip through. What do you think?” I finished.

Lucas nodded. “All right.” Hardly much encouragement from his corner.

Kailyn looked unsure as ever, but we had been going round and round in circles and she should’ve understood by now that this was the closest we were going to get to a plan.

“Okay,” she replied in a croaky voice.

Twisting in the water, I looked toward the direction of the enclosed canal in the far corner, leading to the entrance cavern.

“Okay,” I murmured, steeling myself. “Here goes nothing…”

Ben

We traveled back through the tunnel and emerged once again on the other side. As planned, Kailyn left the water to make her way cautiously back to our former hiding place among the rocks. That left Lucas and me alone. We stayed underwater, exchanging glances, before our eyes turned upward to the speckled surface of the lake. We raised ourselves slowly and looked up at the swirling mass of water in the ceiling. The ghouls were just as present as ever.