I could tell Jessica was pissed off, straight away. Fortunately, it didn't appear to be directed at us. She was facing Skull and for a moment, she seemed not to be able to see where she was, or who was watching. I put a hand to the silver necklace around my neck and watched her lips. Between the two, I could understand what she was screaming at Skull. It appeared he had been avoiding her since the last time we had seen them both, back at the hospital.

I wasn't exactly sure why Lockwood's sister needed to be with Skull, or why he would be running from her, but I didn't have time for that.

Lockwood 's manner was rigid as if he was frozen. I felt for him. It could not be easy seeing his sister again. But I also knew that he needed to deal with this in his own way.

Besides, I had a job to do.

"Jessica." I called softly.

At my call, Jessica Lockwood's ghost stopped mid-sentence and turned slowly around. There was a steely glare in her eyes at the interruption, until she spotted Lockwood. Then the look softened and I saw her raise her hand slowly towards him, as if desperate for the familial touch.

Behind me I heard Kipps whistle in awe and Holly take a deep breath. I was used to close contact with spirits, my companions always kept them at arms' length. The idea of asking a ghost for assistance was still new to them.

Then Jessica turned her gaze to me and there was a stern look in her eyes as though I'd disappointed her – again.

"I'm so sorry Jessica." I told her. "I know you don't want me to give Anthony pain by calling you, but he's agreed to this. It's important. We wanted to talk to you. It's about your source."

I reached behind my neck and released the catch for the silver necklace, and it fell away into my palm. It looked like nothing, insignificant. Yet, I'd thrown it at spirits to save us in the past and it was Lockwood's gift to Jessica – and then his first gift to me.

Of course, it was Jessica's source!

Jessica's eyes dropped to the small pile of silver. Then they looked up at me. There was a question.

"We didn't know you were tethered to silver, Jess."

No, not me. It was Lockwood who was speaking. She turned her head to look at him. He swallowed.

"You must be in such pain."

Lockwood was staring intently at Jessica and I wanted to avert my own gaze. The pain in both sets of eyes meant I had to turn away. It just happened that I turned to look at Skull.

And what I saw surprised me.

The grey, ethereal figure I had grown used to seeing in recent times was still there. Tall, thin, and dressed in clothes which could have done with being a size or two bigger. Older than Lockwood by five years or so. The youth he had been had travelled a harder path than Jessica's brother, I knew, but usually that world-weariness was hidden by his stupid sardonic visage. Tonight, Skull's face had lost its ever-present dry humour as if he'd been reminded of something deeply unpleasant, painful even.

"She is." He said simply in reply to Lockwood's statement "I find it hard to even be in the same room as that necklace, and I had decades confined to a silver glass jar." There was an emotion in his voice which I had never heard before.

I frowned. "Why didn't you tell me Jessica was in pain?"

"What was the point?" He said in a resigned tone. "It's not like you guys can do anything about it." He shrugged. "Other than take the necklace to the furnace – with all the associated consequences. Besides I didn't understand exactly what was going on until after I was freed. Between the cloaking effect of the necklace and my silver glass jar, I could barely sense Jessica at all. I knew there was something in that room. If you remember, I told you there was. But I couldn't tell what it was. I certainly couldn't tell Jessica was a Type three spirit."

"When did you realise?" I asked.

Skull was being uncharacteristically honest right now. It was unnerving. Clearly the situation was worse than we had thought. That didn't mean I was going to shy away from the difficult questions.

"As soon as the glass jar was broken, I was overwhelmed with sensations. Suddenly I could really sense Ezekiel, and the wave of power from Marissa was distracting. And yet, underneath there was something else. A third source of spectral disturbance." He sniffed. "I thought it was you for a bit. Then I realised that it was the necklace you wore. But before I could do anything, before I could say anything, it all kicked off and we had more serious stuff on our hands. The next time I saw, felt Jessica, we were both…on the other side."

I stared at him. "You can see each other on the other side?" I asked.

He nodded, and the sadness in his eyes was devastating. This sardonic youth who I had not believed had ever shed a tear over someone else was…

I snapped out of it.

"What do you mean, there's nothing we can do?" I demanded. "There must be some way that we can free Jessica from the necklace."

Skull blew out a fake breath. "I'm sorry Lucy. Jessica is tied to that necklace for eternity – unless you put it through the furnace, and I really wouldn't do that. It's one thing to put a Type One or Type Two through a furnace. Putting a Type three through that torture." He shrugged. "Let's just say there's no guarantee you would destroy the spirit, and if you don't, then you will have just pissed off a very powerful being."

"What exactly are you?" I asked. "George says you're some kind of Jinn or something, and that Ezekiel is a div."

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

I snorted. "Given you died in a sewer, I don't want to even think about what you smell like."

Skull's eyes widened. "Unfair! Particularly coming from someone who has only a passing acquaintance with a bar of soap."

"I use shower gel. You know, it's a modern invention which your ancient ass is more than aware of. Just because your generation felt the need to bathe in carbolic soap…"

"Lucy."

It was Holly. I glanced at her and she nodded towards Lockwood. Pale and vaguely sick-looking, he was standing still staring at Jessica. She, likewise, was floating in front of him. The sight of the pair of them tore at my heart. I stepped closer to Lockwood's sister.

"What can we do, Jessica? How can we help?" As I spoke, I reached for Lockwood's hand and squeezed it.

She broke her gaze and looked at me. Her mouth began to move. I lifted the necklace in my free hand and focussed on listening.

"Thomas is right." Jessica's voice said softly. "There is little you can do."

I repeated her words to the rest of the room, even as my eyes widened. "Thomas?" I flicked my eyes sideways to Skull.

He shrugged.

"Your name is Thomas?"

"You'd know it is, if you'd paid attention, Lucy." Skull told me. "You've seen my grave."

I translated for the non-listeners.

"When? When have I seen your grave?"

"What was left of me was buried near to Bickerstaff. They couldn't find my skull, though. It's why there's a skull carved on my head stone."

I thought back to the night we exhumed Bickerstaff's grave all those years ago. To the moment when I'd heard the disembodied voice calling my name and remembered the events in our basement. There had been a grave near to Bickerstaff. Pain and confusion had pushed the sight from my mind until now.

"My name is beside the point, however." Skull said. "We were talking about Jessica."

I faced Lockwood's sister again. "George says you might be able to transfer from one source to another." I told her. "If we find you an alternative source. Something else important to you."

Jessica shook her head. "It's a good thought, but it could cost a life and I won't have that on my conscience."

I repeated this, but I must have looked confused because Jessica elaborated.

"To move between sources, I would need to pass into a living human. To use them as a physical conduit. To do that I would need to ghost touch them. It can stop their heart so it would mean almost certain death."

I repeated this to Lockwood. With barely a pause he nodded to Jessica. "It's worth the risk." He told her. "I'll do it. Keep it in the family."

I gasped and as I looked around the room, everyone else with half a brain was looking horrified. Except Lockwood - and George, who met my eyes with an experienced look of resignation.

Lockwood gave me a weak smile.

"Over my fucking dead body!" I exclaimed, dropping his hand. I stared at him. "You're back on the suicide missions again, aren't you? Nothing about us has changed anything!"

"Lucy, that's not true!" He protested. "I'm not…"

"If one of us is going to die attempting this, I'll do it." I told him. "I'm used to being a conduit. I'm used to close contact with the dead."

Inwardly I was petrified, but there was no way I was letting Lockwood do this.

Lockwood was livid. "What the hell, Lucy? How is that any better than me doing it? Now who's being suicidal!"

He began a long diatribe of complaint about how I put myself at risk too much and was so busy worrying about other people I never looked after myself. To which I responded there was nothing wrong with caring about others and wanting to save them. It was the whole doing it for no good reason which I objected to. Lockwood countered with, "I'm sorry, but I think saving my sister is more than 'no good reason'."

To which I clearly had to deny that was my intent.

Before we could get really into it, however, George roared at both of us.

"Will you both SHUT UP!"

Holly jumped. Kipps looked bemused. The Skull raised his eyes to the ceiling.

There was silence.

George didn't often raise his voice like that. If anything, I had expected Holly or Kipps to interject.

Everyone (living and dead) had turned to look at him.

"There is no point in arguing about this. Or at least not until we've talked about my idea. Because, you know, believe it or not, I have one!" He looked at us expectantly. "And arguing never solved anything. It just muddies the waters."

Lockwood took a deep breath.

I took a deep breath.

As usual, it was Lockwood who recovered his calm first.

"Sorry George. You were saying?" His eyes flashed to mine, and I saw pain rather than anger. My own ire evaporated. I stepped closer to him and slipped my hand into his again. He laced his fingers in mine.

"Jessica is right. The whole point of sources is the emotional connection the spirit has to the object. Most of the time – all of the time – the spirit is permanently attached to the source until the source is destroyed. But MY theory is if the attachment to the source is because of a third entity or person, then the draw for the spirit is different. Jessica is tied to the necklace because of Lockwood's love for her. It's her connection to him. If Lockwood was to hold the necklace, Jessica could move from it to Lockwood. A form of Osmosis, I suppose."

"NO!" I found myself shouting. I'd seen what had happened when Annabel entered Fairfax's body. That was not going to happen to Lockwood.

"Lucy, wait." George told me. "Let me finish."

Lockwood put his arm around my waist and drew me to him. "Let's hear him out." He murmured. I expected a sly comment from the Skull about the show of affection, but he was silent, probably just as keen as Lockwood to hear what George was proposing.

And that surprised me.

Why?

George removed his glasses, rubbed them on his shirt and then after replacing them, scratched his head.

"The idea is that Lockwood holds the two sources in his hands. One either side. Old source in one hand, new source on the other. Jessica then moves from one source, through Lockwood's body to the other source."

Jessica's eyes widened. "Absolutely not! I'd kill him. It would stop his heart."

"Jessica says that would stop his heart. It would kill him. She won't do it." I informed George, smugly.

George turned to Jessica. "Stop his heart, possibly yes. Kill him, not necessarily."

I pulled myself from Lockwood's arms and went to sit down. Suddenly I felt lightheaded and nauseous. Lockwood barely noticed my going. He was too focused on George and what he was saying.

And Lockwood was a quick learner.

"So, if we prepare for my heart stopping, then the damage is minimal." He concluded. "Let's do it!"

Kipps looked sick. His face had taken on a pale shade of green. Holly, surprisingly, having recovered from her earlier shock, merely looked thoughtful. George turned to her.

"Your advanced first aid course," He began. "They taught you how to respond to ghost touch?"

Holly nodded. "Yes. The issue in most instances with ghost touch is the speed at which you can get medical attention – when you get that life-saving injection of adrenaline and the cryoprotectant. Since it inevitably happens in an active haunting, bringing in the necessary equipment and treatment is almost impossible until the ghost is contained." She paused and I could see the cogs turning. "However, you're talking about deliberately ghost touching Lockwood in a controlled environment with an amenable spectre. The unpredictable becomes a bit more predictable."

"Exactly! But it's more than that. Lockwood has been ghost touched before and (with proper medical care) survived it. That is why I think he is right, and it should be him rather than Lucy. Sorry Luce. I know how hard this is."

"Hard! You're asking me to sit and watch while you experiment on Lockwood. Do you really expect me to agree to that? Would you experiment on Flo?"

"It's not experimenting on me, Lucy. It's saving Jessica, and I have to give that a go."

To my surprise, Jessica moved around the room and stood behind me.

"I'm with you on this, Lucy." She said firmly. "I won't put Anthony at risk.

I sat back on the sofa. "Jessica says she refuses to put Lockwood at risk, she won't do it."

Kipps frowned through his glasses. "We only have your word for that, Lucy." Then he flinched as Jessica darted towards him.

I quirked an eyebrow. "Still think I'm lying, Quill?"

George sighed. "Jessica, please will you hear me out? I really think it is do-able."

Holly was now on alert. "You are thinking that we do it, and if Lockwood's heart fails, we restart it?"

"In essence, yes. It's a bit more than that, but that's the plan."

"Far too risky." I stated. "Ghost touch freezes the tissue. The cryoprotectant is only administered after the ghost touch. What if Jessica accidentally freezes something vital and we can't bring Lockwood back?"

George turned to Jessica. "How much would you sense as you pass through a living human?" He asked.

It was Skull who replied. "She hasn't got a clue. Jessica is too virtuous. She's never ghost touched anyone. If she had done, Lockwood wouldn't be here, and we wouldn't be in this mess." There was a harsh tone to his voice.

I glared at him.

"And you and I would never have met. You'd be stuck in your jar with no one to talk to for the whole of eternity, or until someone else with my skills came along. Think about that." I snapped. Then I gave a quick summary of the exchange to the rest of the room.

"Jess?" Lockwood asked gently.

"He's right." Jessica spoke towards Lockwood, though he relied on me to 'hear'. "I've never ghost touched anyone."

Skull blew a fake breath from his mouth and "pushed away" from the wall where he had been "leaning". Sometimes it was easy to forget he was insubstantial and…well…dead. He did a good job of acting like he was still mortal.

"You are generally aware of what you are doing when you ghost touch someone." He told her. "The trick is to do it quickly, so you don't feel the specifics."

"Have you ghost touched anyone?" I asked him.

"Just the once." He admitted. "Fortunately, he was immediately contained and his source destroyed. Because Karim is right, by the way. I was listening. Type threes beget Type threes. He will have taken a copy of my abilities. 'Clone' is the wrong word, though. It's not exact."

Lockwood grinned at me after I'd explained what Skull had said. "Think about that, Lucy. If Jessica does kill me, you'll have a third Type three in the house and you and I can chat to each other."

I looked at him in horror. "Not fucking happening! You are staying the right side of mortality where I can keep an eye on you, talk to you and…" my voice trailed away.

Skull was equally pissed off with Lockwood, though for different reasons. "Hey! Lucy only has one Type three and that's me! Get your own listener!"

Jessica raised an eyebrow. "Lucy's my listener too. What about me, Thomas?"

"You're female. You don't count." He sniped.

I repeated that to the others and every female in the room glared at him.

"I didn't mean it like that!" he protested. "I meant…"

"You meant you don't like the idea of sharing Lucy with Anthony on the same spectral plane." Jessica told him. "You're jealous of my brother." Her voice sounded hurt, which was a bit…strange.

George fiddled with his glasses again. "We are running out of time, guys."

Lockwood sat up straight. "Right, George. We need specifics. How exactly do you see this working?"

"OK. We wait until Jessica is at her weakest, so in about an hour, just before dawn. Lockwood holds the two sources in his hands. The original source in his right hand, the new source in his left. Jessica quickly, but carefully, moves from the first source to the second – I'll show her the safest route. Lockwood, I think you should lie down for this. As soon as Jessica is in the second source, either Lockwood will throw it to one side or Lucy will take it. That last bit would happen if Lockwood is unconscious. Then the rest of the responsibility lies with Holly and me. We are responsible for bringing Lockwood back. Holly will have the post-ghost touch adrenaline injection ready and waiting. Kipps will have a night ambulance on speed dial."

I stood up and left the room at that point. I couldn't listen anymore. I took myself off to the attic and laid down on my bed, staring at the ceiling. The people downstairs were the closest thing I had to family, - were my family - and I couldn't believe they were planning something so… reckless. It made me feel sick and I wanted nothing to do with it.

After a short while, there was a light tapping at my bedroom door and George's head appeared through the bannisters. I turned away from him.

"You're pissed off with me." He said simply, coming up the stairs anyway.

"Nope. That's an understatement. I'm catatonic with rage." I replied in a dangerously steady voice. "Right now, I could quite happily call DEPRAC and report the lot of you."

He sighed and stepped into my room.

"And what do you think would happen if you did that?"

"Barnes would come and arrest you. Jessica's source would get destroyed. Lockwood would live." I sighed and sat up. "Of course, he'd hate me for the rest of his life, but it would be worth it, because I hadn't been part of a stupid experiment which would have KILLED MY BOYFRIEND!"

George sat down on the end of my bed. "And what do you think would happen if I refused to help him?" He asked softly. "Do you think he would just go, 'oh of course, George, you're totally right. It's completely reckless and stupid'?"

I said nothing.

"Of course not!" George continued. "Lockwood is Lockwood."

"Anthony Bloody-minded Lockwood." I corrected bitterly. Our eyes met. "He's so fucking stubborn. It's annoying."

George laughed. "It takes one to know one…And yet you fell in love with him. We both know he has some redeeming qualities. I wouldn't be his best friend if not and of course, you're probably going to spend the rest of his life with him."

I winced. "I'd prefer it if 'the rest of his life' wasn't just the next 45 minutes." I noted.

"So would I. But I've spent longer thinking about this than you, Luce. Lockwood's plans screw up when he doesn't involve us in the planning. When there isn't any planning. It's not just him coming up with a hare-brained scheme…"

"…It's all of us." I finished.

"If it helps, Holly has already made some really good suggestions about how we can make it safer. She's pointed out that there isn't any reason for Jessica to go wholly into Lockwood's body. The two sources are small enough to be held in one hand. Jessica should be able to pass between the two without going into Lockwood's chest area or anywhere else with vital organs."

"Not his sword hand." I commented absently. George frowned.

"No of course not. One of Holly's other suggestions was that we use a tourniquet to prevent any travelling of the paralysis. I'm not convinced that will work, but we can try it. Finally, she has suggested that we give Lockwood a sedative to slow his heart rate down, to reduce the risk of a heart attack brought on by shock, slow his circulation, and that we give him a partial dose of the cryoprotectant serum before we attempt the whole thing. It's got an organic anti-freeze in it which the body processes naturally. It's safe enough to have without being ghost touched first. You know at one point they suggested agents were given jabs before every case, but that would affect their ability to do their job. On balance, Lucy, I don't think it's quite as dangerous as it first sounds."

"What about Jessica?" I asked. "She's not too happy about it either."

A soft glow appeared in the corner of my room.

"They can't tell how I feel, remember?" Jessica said. "They need you to speak for me."

I regarded Lockwood's sister carefully. "Please tell me you and I are on the same page still." I told her.

She pulled a face. "We both know my brother." She told me. "He's going to keep going until he comes up with a solution. George is right that we need to stay in his planning loop before he does something stupid."

"How painful is it? Being inside a silver source." I asked.

Jessica's eyes closed and a flash of emotion crossed her face. "Like the worst toothache you've ever had except it's every nerve in your body." She confirmed. "I don't have any nerves, of course, so it's all pain to my essence. It's hard to explain beyond that. But like any other chronic pain, it clouds your thoughts and what feelings I have left. It's also masking who I am."

I frowned. "You mean what kind of ghost you are?"

She nodded her head.

"Do we need to worry what you'll do to us when you're moved into your new source?" I asked, unable to keep the concern out of my voice.

"Only if Anthony dies."

We gave Jessica time to think about it. Skull took her off somewhere to discuss it.

While they were gone, George left me, and Lockwood crept sheepishly into my room. I might have forgiven George a little. Lockwood was another matter.

"Close the door." I ordered him. "I'm going to do a lot of shouting and I'd rather the others didn't hear it."

Lockwood did as he was told. As he walked back up the steps to join me, I sensed the weariness in his every step.

He didn't let me start.

"You do realise that I'm stuck between the two people I love most, don't you?" He told me. "You and my sister. If you don't support me in this, you are making me choose."

I snorted. "Your sister and I are on the same page, Lockwood. She doesn't want this anymore than I do."

"Of course not. Because you keep reminding her how dangerous it is. If you supported it, she'd be happier about it."

"Happy is not the adjective either Jessica or I would use, Anthony." I stressed his first name, knowing I was talking for two people.

He ignored the comment. "In the meantime, I'm forced to look at my sister and know how much pain she is in. Knowing there is something I could do to stop that pain. For fuck's sake, Lucy! I couldn't save her life, and now you don't want me to stop her eternal pain."

I glared at him. "That's so unfair!" I objected. "You have no right to make it me who is the bad guy! All I'm guilty of is loving you." My anger lost its power as my voice broke and trailed away. As I turned my head away from looking at Lockwood, I saw him close his eyes.

In a heartbeat, he had stepped close to me and I was in his arms.

"I know, sweetheart. I remind myself every day, every hour, every minute, just exactly how lucky I am. I can't believe you took the time to see past all my crap to actually want to be with me. You take my breath away…frequently."

I turned my head to look up at him. "It's the same for me." I murmured. Then I swallowed. "Except, now you tell me you want to jeopardise all that we've built. That the stupid death wish phase which I thought we'd got past is now back."

There was silence for a second.

"I will sacrifice anything and everything to stay with you. To be with you. To live with you - Including Jessica." Lockwood said very quietly, but so carefully I heard every syllable. "You will come first."

My eyes widened.

"I'm asking you not to make it a choice. I'm asking you to understand why I want to do this. This is not some misguided death wish. I want to live, Lucy. In my heart I want nothing more than to spend the rest of our lives together – and for the first time since I was six, I want that life to be long, happy, normal. I want adulthood. I want a home. I want a family. I want our family. I want us more than you will ever know or understand."

My heart soared so high I felt dizzy. Then came the huge plummet to earth. I felt hot tears on my cheeks. I hit him on the arm.

"Joking about becoming a Type three did not help matters, Lockwood."

He lifted his thumb and brushed the tears away.

"Not my finest comeback." He confirmed with a wry smile. "I love you, Lucy. I have never felt anything like this for anyone else and I will never love anyone else as much as I love you. So now you see how important helping Jessica is to me. What I'm prepared to risk."

The cold fear crept down my spine, because now I knew he had said the only words which would ever make me support his actions.

I swallowed. "If you die," I told him. "I will never forgive you. And since I'm just as likely to jump in the fucking coffin with you, you'll be hearing just exactly how pissed off I am for the whole of eternity."

His arms tightened on me as he understood I was giving him my consent.

"Thank you. Just so you know, I have a Will now. You and George get pretty much everything to do with the business. Holly and Kipps are looked after too." He breathed in. "You alone get Portland Row, Luce. With lifetime rights for George. You'll always have a roof over your head. Everything I have is yours." He looked at me intently then. "Everything."

I tilted my head to one side.

"Someone else can have it all. I hope you made the coffin a big one. I'm still coming with you."

I could tell Jessica thought I'd betrayed her. I could also tell that Skull had been talking long and fast. She didn't look as determined as before. We eyed each other warily.

"Surely it's worth trying." I commented.

Jessica snorted.

"I lost my parents at a young age. I lost my life. And now you think my little brother should be sacrificed too."

I shook my head. "That's not how it works, Jessica. Anthony is not 6 anymore. He's not 9 either. He's an adult. This is his decision. I might not like what he's decided, but he's asked me to respect it. He knows the consequences and," I muttered. "So do I. Do I want to keep him safe? Of course, I do! He is my life. But I won't make him choose between us."

Skull hovered next to us. "Besides, Jess. Worst case scenario, the four of us get to spend eternity together."

Jessica's pale eyes widened and for a moment I was taken back to the angry sight of Annabel Ward. I really hoped Jessica didn't finish this evening pissed off at me. I did not fancy going the way of Fairfax. Skull looked a little unsure of himself.

"That was a joke." He commented. "You know, for people with a sense of humour."

I chuckled. "Keep digging, Thomas. You've got a lot to learn about women."

I guess you can tell what I'm going to say. Lockwood had worn all of us down and we had decided to go ahead with it.

We were going to deliberately ghost touch Lockwood.