“Gran’s cottage might be tiny, and the furniture old and battered, but she ran a tight ship. As long as everything is in its right place, there’s plenty of room, she liked to say.”

“The girl lies by the black canal, her face turned upwards to the sky like a stargazer. But she will never see the stars again. Her eyes have been torn out. The rain fills the empty sockets until they brim over, spilling bloody tears down her cold white cheeks.”

“Callum swallowed, his throat dry. He didn’t want to think about what that something might be.Ahead, through the trees, he could just see a pinprick of light. Home.”

“Callum didn’t need a lifetime’s experience of seeing ghosts to know that the creature was not of this world.For a long moment, he stared at the phantom. What was it? And why was it following him?”

“It hungers, always.It takes shape after shape as its own, and each body it puts on is as hungry as the last.”

“His face was a little anxious around the eyes, with a crease of worry between the eyebrows—but it was just a face. A normal face. Nothing to give away the fact that he was a freak who saw ghosts around every corner.”

“When I got inside, I just sort of stood there. There’s nothing stranger than the smell of someone else’s house. The scent goes right to your stomach. Mary’s house smelled like lemon furniture polish and oatmeal cookies and logs in a fireplace. For some reason it made me want to curl up in the fetal position. I could have slept right there on their kitchen table.”