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out loud.
    To my surprise, Marie squeezed Tyler’s hand, her expression turning thoughtful.
    “You have power, so you must be the medium I heard about.”
    Tyler’s beam was instant. “ You’ve heard of me ?”
    She pulled her hand free. “I make it my business to know about anyone who can successfully summon spirits.”
    If he’d won the lottery, I didn’t think Tyler could look any happier. Bones, however, got right down to business.
    “Do you need anything before you proceed, Majestic?”
    She cast a glance around the parlor, pausing at the urn Tyler placed on the coffee table.
    “Does this contain your uncle’s ashes?”
    At my nod, Marie let out a light snort. “Then this will be simple.”
    She went over and sat on the couch closest to the urn. Bones and I remained where we were, but Tyler began to unload his suitcase.
    “Here, Madame,” he said, pulling out his Ouija board.
    She gave it a dismissive glance before reaching into the urn. “That’s not necessary.”
    As soon as her fingers touched the ashes, an icy current tore through the room, as sudden and sharp as if we’d been dropped into the center of a blizzard. Before I even had a chance to shiver, my uncle stood in the center of the room, materialized enough for me to see that his gray hair was tousled, as if he’d been yanked so hard from wherever he was that it mussed his trademark style.
    “What the hell?” he demanded of Marie. Then he saw me, Bones, and Tyler.
    “Not this again,” Don muttered, starting to fade at the edges.
    One moment, Marie was sitting on the couch with nothing more than silk furnishings surrounding her. The next, she was haloed by shadows that let out bone-splitting howls as they converged upon my uncle. I didn’t see her draw the blood that was the catalyst for summoning the Remnants, but that’s why she had a needle concealed in her ring. One small puncture was all she needed to wield her deadliest weapon.
    The power the Remnants emanated ripped across my skin, making me take an instinctive step backward. I barely heard Tyler’s gasp over my uncle’s shouts as those diaphanous forms began slicing through him as though they were steel, and he was liquid.
    “There.” Marie’s voice changed, the Southern drawl replaced with an eerie echo that sounded like thousands of people speaking at once. “Ask your questions. He’s not going anywhere with them holding him.”
    I spoke through the shock at what she’d done.
    “Call them off. This isn’t what we wanted.”
    Marie’s brow rose. “How else did you think I’d secure your uncle? Ask him nicely to stay put?”
    “We didn’t tell you to torture him!” I burst out, guilt slamming into me at the fresh set of screams from my uncle.
    “I made a bargain to ensure that this ghost answered your questions, and I always keep my word. The longer you wait to ask them, Reaper, the longer your uncle suffers.”
    Further argument would be useless. Now the only person who could stop this was Don. I gave my uncle a pleading look as I approached.
    “Tell us what you know about Madigan. Please.”
    His body bowed and shuddered as those forms pitilessly continued to rip through him. Bones glanced away, his mouth tightening. How well he knew what my uncle was going through.
    “How could you do this to me, Cat?”
    The anguished accusation tore at my heart. I didn’t mean to! was too useless to utter. Besides, though this wasn’t what I’d wanted, Don had admitted to condemning Tate and the others to certain death. If he’d only told us the truth, none of this would be happening.
    “That doesn’t matter,” I forced myself to say. “Answer the question, or the Remnants will keep ripping into you until there’s nothing left but ectoplasm.”
    That was a lie. You couldn’t kill what was already dead, as I’d often lamented while going after Kramer, but Don didn’t know that.
    “Then I’ll die,” he rasped, the words broken from pain. “Better . . . that