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on the horse—letting him ride in front of her, holding the reins. In so many other ways he had taken a backseat to her, the least she could do was allow him the dignity of deciding where their travels would take them.
    â€œI have an idea where we should go,” Mikey said. “It’s not too far from here.”
    Allie had learned that being a finder was mostly about luck, and keen skills of observation. Some finders were hearse-chasers. That is to say, they lingered around the dying, hoping they might drop something in Everlost while crossing to the other side. But the best finds were always made quite by accident, and the best trades were made by being shrewd but honest. Even now the horse’s makeshift saddlebag was full of crossed items—a crystal doorknob, an empty picture frame, a well-worn teddy bear. In Everlost all these things were treasures.
    But locating and trading crossed objects was only part of a finder’s job. Their real mystique came from their stories— because while most Afterlights stayed put, finders traveled. They saw more, heard more than others, and spread the tales wherever they went. This is exactly the reason why Allie had decided to become one. When Allie first arrived in Everlost, she had heard tales of monsters and miracles, terror and salvation—but now she had some measure of control over the tales being told. She could spread the word that Mary was the real monster of Everlost and try to set people straight about Nick.
    A chocolate ogre? Hah! Nick didn’t have an ogreish bone in his body, so to speak. The problem was, Mary wasfar better at spreading her misinformation. It was much easier for other Afterlights to believe that beauty and virtue went hand in hand.
    However, tales of Allie the Outcast were being spread far and wide too. Not all of them were true, of course, but she was developing quite a reputation as Everlost’s loose cannon. That got her a certain amount of respect. She could grow used to that.
    In fact, she already had.
    Cape May: population 4034 in winter, and at least ten times that in the summer. It’s the farthest south you can go in New Jersey. Everything after that is water.
    Allie stood in front of the town’s quaint WELCOME sign, frozen by the sight of it.
    â€œYou’re sinking,” said Mikey, who was still on the horse. Shiloh the horse, having grown accustomed to the strange texture of the living world, kept pulling its hooves out of the ground with a sucking sound, as if it were slowly prancing in place. Allie on the other hand, was already in the ground to her knees.
    She reached up, and Mikey helped her out of the ground. “That’s it, isn’t it?” Mikey asked. “Cape May? I remember you said you lived in Cape May.”
    â€œYes.” With all their wanderings, Allie had lost her sense of direction. She had no idea they were this close to her home.
    â€œIt’s what you wanted, isn’t it? To go home?”
    â€œYes … from the very beginning.”
    Mikey hopped off the horse and stood beside her. “Backon my ship, I used to watch you look out to shore. You had such a longing to go home. You don’t know how close I came to taking you there, even then.”
    Allie smirked. “And you called yourself a monster.”
    Mikey was suitably insulted. “I was an excellent monster! The one true monster of Everlost!”
    â€œâ€˜Hear your name and tremble.’ “
    Mikey looked away. “No one trembles anymore.”
    Allie was mad at herself for mocking him. He didn’t deserve that. She touched his face gently. To look at him now, you’d never guess that the fair skinned, blue-eyed boy was once the terrifying McGill, but every once in a while Allie could still see a bit of the beast in him. It was there in the shortness of his temper, and the clumsiness of his hands, as if they were still claws. It was there in the way he approached the