City of Ghosts

As Cassidy races to get Lara for help, she sees the streets full of ghosts, each moving within their loop of the Veil. This is Cassidy’s longest period of time on the other side, and her vision becomes clearer the longer she stays. She notes, “I don’t feel dizzy, or foggy, or lost, or any of the other things that a living person is supposed to feel if they spend too long in the land of the dead” (212). She does feel conflicted as her body is drawn one way, but her heart tells her to go another. When they finally reach The Lane’s End, Cassidy realizes they must try to find Lara. Inside Lara’s flat, they find the ghost of her uncle, Reginald Weathershire. He tells them Lara is not home, but she told him about Cassidy. Dejected that Lara is not there to help, Cassidy decides to follow the pull in her heart that she knows connects her and her ghost-hunter friend. When Cassidy asks Mr. Weathershire why he is there, he says Lara lets him stay. Cassidy now understands why Lara did not share how she learned about the Veil, but she also understands why she allows her uncle to remain. Jacob presses her to leave, and they follow her instincts and run down the hill.

As they race through the city, Cassidy tries to explain to Jacob the connection and magnetic pull she feels toward Lara. Running as if drawn by a rope, she stops when she feels the cord grow tight, but there is nothing there. Her view is blurry and disorienting, so she pulls out her camera and uses the lens to help her focus on the surroundings. She realizes they are near Blackwell’s bookstore on the other side of the Veil. Jacob follows Cassidy inside and down the stairs to where Lara is reading in the café. Cassidy shouts her name and pushes her, but she does not respond, as the boundary of the Veil is too strong. Lara leaves the store while Cassidy continues to yell her name. Once outside, Lara responds to them angrily, but when she realizes Cassidy’s desperate state, she grows concerned.

Lara is angry with Cassidy for not heeding her warning and at Jacob for not protecting her. Cassidy tells Lara how she felt drawn to her, and Lara admits she felt it too. After she tells Lara the story of the Raven, she stares in contemplation. Jacob notices Cassidy is shivering and reminds them they need to act fast. Lara explains that the Raven intends to dig up her dead body and use Cassidy’s life force to resurrect herself. They must get to her before she places the thread in her body. Cassidy sends Lara to assure her parents she is okay, while she and Jacob make their way to the Raven’s grave in Greyfriars.

It is grey and foggy behind the Veil as Cassidy readies her camera, in case she needs to use the lens, while Jacob questions her about their plan. Cassidy postulates that the Raven is like her now, with one foot in the real world and one in the Veil, which means there might be a way to pull her back into the land of the dead. They dodge frightening ghosts as they move towards Greyfriars. Cassidy considers stopping to reap them but decides to keep moving. As a ghost reaches out and grabs Cassidy and she wrenches herself away, her camera falls to the ground. Checking to see if the lens is shattered, Cassidy catches a glimpse of herself in the mirror: She is plunged back into the icy river and feels like she is drowning all over again. Jacob quickly covers her eyes, preventing her from becoming frozen. He chants, "You’re alive, You’re alive. You’re alive” (231) and reminds her of rule number 33 of friendship: Friends do not let friends become frozen in their own reflection. Cassidy is still rattled over the memory of her accident, but Jacob reassures her that she is okay and is not going to lose her life today.

When they reach Greyfriars, a boy and a girl are standing guard at the gate, staring blankly. When they start moving toward Cassidy and Jacob, she recognizes the boy as Matthew, the lost son of the man from the cottage—the first ghost Cassidy ever reaped. Hearing shovels, she works quickly, shining the lens on Matthew and chanting the spell. When she reaches for his cord, she finds nothing, and he quickly grabs her throat. As he shoves her against the wall, Jacob rushes in and throws the boy to the ground, giving Cassidy a chance to run. Jacob quickly follows her.

Cassidy and Jacob run from the zombie-like ghosts as she tries to figure out why she could not find their cord. Before she realizes it, they are in Grassmarket, which on this side of the Veil is the execution square. Cassidy hides her face as a man is led to the gallows, but the execution is stalled as the ghosts all turn to look at Cassidy and Jacob. Several ghosts step forward and claim the Raven passed by and promised to set them free if they capture Jacob and Cassidy. Using her camera as a shield, Cassidy runs to the edge of this Veil, escaping just before the ghost crowd captures them. Time is running short: Cassidy grows colder by the minute, and they must find their way back to the graveyard. Matthew stands guard again, along with a small child; others join, encircling Jacob and Cassidy. The ghostly children begin to sing, all with the voice of the Raven.

With nowhere left to go, Cassidy flashes the camera, temporarily blinding the ghosts, and she grabs Jacob’s hand to scale the wall surrounding the graveyard. After helping Jacob grapple to the top, she scans the graveyard looking for the Raven and spots the faint blue glow of her cord in the distance. Using a tombstone as a ladder, Cassidy climbs down close enough to jump to the ground. The edges of the Veil shift, and she realizes she jumped into her loop of the afterlife. If she does not get her cord back, she will be stuck in a loop in the graveyard forever. Cassidy resolves to fight to get her life back.

Cassidy and Jacob find the Raven in Red sitting on a tombstone holding the blue thread. Using the viewfinder of her camera, Cassidy can see entranced children digging up the Raven’s grave on the other side of the Veil. The gates to the graveyard are padlocked, and Cassidy can hear a knocking sound from inside the church. She asks Jacob to create a distraction while she moves closer to the Raven. He shouts at the woman, and as she moves closer to Jacob, Cassidy slips into the freshly dug grave and inside the coffin with the Raven’s bones. When the Raven opens the coffin, Cassidy grabs her blue cord and holds on tightly. Cassidy reaches for her camera, but the Raven grabs it first and throws it to the ground, smashing the lens into shards. The Raven violently yanks Cassidy out of the tomb, and Jacob rushes to her side as she examines her shattered camera.

Cassidy squares off against the Raven: The blue cord is ripped, and they each hold one half of it. As the Raven lunges for Cassidy, Lara appears, flashing her mirror pendant, but the ghost looks away and moves to attack Lara. Jacob and Cassidy catch her as she jumps out of the Raven’s grasp. Just as she is about to attack the children, they see Findley on the other side of the Veil restraining the Raven and shouting, “Back, ye wicked spirit!” (255). Lara says he insisted on following her to Greyfriars after she told him the truth about what happened. Suddenly, the Raven crosses the Veil, throwing Findley back onto the ground. She tries to draw the children to her with her enchanting voice, but Cassidy, Lara, and Findley prepare to fight her. When she begins to sing, children flood into the graveyard and encircle Jacob and Lara as the Raven lunges for Cassidy.

The Raven chases Cassidy around the tombstones as Jacob and Lara fight off the wraith children. Lara’s mirror is useless against them because the Raven stole their cords. When Cassidy spies the broken shards of her lens, she jumps to grab a piece just as the Raven catches her ankle. The broken glass cuts her palm, but she holds on as the Raven pulls her to her feet and begins to choke her. Cassidy raises the lens piece, showing the Raven her reflection. As the ghost freezes, Cassidy reaches into her cloak and grasps the cord in her chest, a thick black rope made from all the children’s stolen lives. When she yanks it free, the Raven and the rope dissolve, along with the ghost children. Cassidy retrieves her broken cord from the pile of dust and unites it with her half, watching as the two pieces rejoin and leave only a small line behind.

When she places the cord back into her chest, she feels the life flow back into her body and flashes back to the moment Jacob pulled her from the river. Cassidy, Lara, and Jacob emerge out of the Veil. As Cassidy retrieves her broken camera, they see the boys who were digging the grave and Findley rubbing his bruised head. Police sirens wail in the background, and they know they are in serious trouble.

Cassidy’s parents collect her, Lara, and Findley from the police station, and she is given a minor charge of vandalism. She tries to tell them the story of what happened, but she is not certain they believe all of it. Her father says she is grounded for life. Two days later, when the documentary filming is finished, Cassidy’s father takes her to Bellamy’s Photo Store to have the camera film developed while her mom packs. Cassidy’s vintage camera impresses the shopkeeper, and he offers to replace the broken lens. The repair is free since there is a scratch on the replacement lens, but Cassidy is overjoyed that her beloved camera is repaired. When she looks at the new lens, she thinks she can see her chest glowing. Seeing that there is one last picture on the roll, the shopkeeper snaps a photo of Cassidy near the window as Jacob stands near her in the sunlight. The photos will be ready to pick up the next day.

Cassidy and her parents celebrate their last night in Edinburgh by watching the rough documentary footage with Findley. Cassidy has not seen Lara since the incident in Greyfriar’s, and Findley says he has no memory of what happened. However, when they say goodbye, she thanks him, and he tells her she has a mark on her now and must be careful. The next, day as Cassidy helps wrangle Grim into his crate, her mom notices the scratch on her palm. She thinks it is from the cat, and Cassidy brushes her off, saying she is fine.

Lara finds Cassidy just before they leave and reminds her that she must set Jacob free. Cassidy reveals that she knows Lara keeps her uncle here; Lara defends herself by saying, “He’s not like the others […]” (279). Cassidy says that is also true of Jacob, but Lara argues that it is not the same: Her uncle is still in the Veil, but Jacob is moving about the land of the living. Lara warns Cassidy that Jacob is using her to pull him over to this side of the Veil. Staying here allows him to grow stronger and more dangerous. Cassidy promises she will be careful, but she intends to keep him here for now. Lara gifts her the mirror pendant necklace, and Cassidy thanks her for helping. The girls exchange email addresses so they can stay in touch, and Lara reminds Cassidy to carefully guard her cord. Cassidy catches one last glimpse of the castle as they leave the Royal Mile. As the family makes one last stop to pick up Cassidy’s film, she flips through the photos and is reminded of all she experienced in Edinburgh. The photos from behind the Veil show only strange shadows and smudges, but the photo that the shopkeeper took shows the vague outline of a boy. As she looks at the photo with Jacob sitting next to her, he reads her mind and tells her the day he saved her from the river, she saved him too. They give each other a ghost five, and she can almost feel his touch. She remembers Lara’s words about him gaining strength the longer he stays on this side, but she pushes the thought aside as they exit the cab to board their flight for their next adventure.