Page 20 of Shadow Seer (Scythe Grove Academy 1)

"Oh? What happened?"

"I threw up in that bush." He points to the shrubbery in question.

"Ah. Not the best look."

"No. Tobias teased me mercilessly for weeks. I was lucky I got to hide out in the Sakura common room while he wasn't there."

"So he only started spending time there once he started dating Juliet?" I ask.

He nods. "And it was a long time coming. The two of them were dancing around one another right up until the Grove Captain competition when they finally did something about it."

"That sounds like just about every teenage relationship I've ever witnessed."

"Me too."

"You guys, over here!" Tobias calls from across the road.

"They must have found something," Mathias says.

"That quickly?"

"How many ghosts have you seen in your life?" he asks in the same understanding tone he uses to talk to me about things he knows I'm clueless about.

"A lot."

"Then that's why they've found something already."

"That makes sense." I suppose I've never really thought about ghosts as a potential job to do before, but now I think about it, that makes sense. As reapers we're supposed to help people find peace and move on.

People being ghosts.

We cross the road to join Mathias' twin.

"There's a house down here with a new ghost. Young woman in her early twenties. Juliet is seeing if the husband will talk to us," Tobias says.

"You already know she's married?" Have I missed something about how he's found out?

Tobias taps his hand. "Wedding ring."

I've never noticed details like that about ghosts before. I should pay more attention. Then again, up until Agatha, I've spent my entire life trying to avoid ghosts, not study them in great detail.

"We can go inside and interview him," Juliet says once we're in front of the small terraced house with a red door. "Why don't Tobias and I talk to the husband while the two of you try and see if the ghost will talk? If we're lucky, she'll know why she's stuck here and this will be an easy one."

"And if we're unlucky?" I ask.

"Then we'll have more work on our hands, but it isn't anything we can't handle." She flashes me a reassuring smile, one that's probably very genuine. She's one of the best reapers at the academy, she doesn't have that title by chance.

"All right, let's get on with this," Tobias says.

The inside of the house matches the outside. It's seen better days, but is clearly well cared for and kept by someone house proud. Is it the living husband or the dead wife responsible for this?

That probably isn't the kind of thing I'm ever going to find out.

We enter a medium-sized kitchen. There's a pile of dishes in the sink that answers my question about which of the two is responsible for keeping the place clean. Definitely the wife, and things have changed since she died.

A ghost hangs in the middle of the room, a sorrowful expression on her face. I suppose that makes sense if she's died recently.

"Hello, I'm Daniel," the husband says, drawing my attention to him. "Thank you for coming. I didn't realise my wife was still here."