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Seeing it made my blood run cold. Was I dreaming again? I pinched myself hard and gasped as my fingernails dug into my skin, nearly drawing blood. So I wasn’t dreaming after all. And now my nightmare had come to life!
I watched the door cautiously, but unlike in my dream, the knob didn’t turn. Still, I had a sense that the thing behind it was waiting…but waiting for what?
“This is no good—we need to get out of here,” I told Sebastian. “Come on—let’s go downstairs.”
Casting a baleful eye over his shoulder at the black door, Sebastian made a hissing sound and followed me down the stairs.
Over a bowl of instant oatmeal for me and a can of tuna for Sebastian, I tried to decide what to do. I looked through the Grimoire again, hoping to see some kind of spell I could work to keep the evil spirit that lurked behind the door at bay.
The best thing I could find was the banishment spell I had seen the very first time I opened the Grimoire. I was sure that if it worked to banish spirits, one of my ancestors would have used it already to get rid of Milas James. But since I couldn’t find anything else, I decided to try it. After all, I was supposed to be the chosen one—the “Natural Witch”—so maybe it would work for me even if it hadn’t worked for anyone else in my family.
I read through the spell and noted that it called for “candles three of honeycomb stained black.” Where could I get those?
I went through the cabinets and the pantry but didn’t find anything. I looked in the greenhouse room where the plants were thriving but though there were jars and jars of dried herbs, I didn’t find a single black candle. Finally I decided I would have to go into town to find some.
“Maybe Goody Albright will have some—she’s a witch, too,” I told Sebastian who had finished his tuna and was weaving around my legs.
I went back upstairs to get a shower and make myself presentable. I had a quick look and yes, the hallway still ended in a corner and the black door was still there. At least it was still shut, but just seeing it made me nervous and jumpy.
I took the fastest shower possible—seriously, just in and out—because being naked with the black door so close made me feel vulnerable. I got dressed while keeping an eye on my bedroom door, which was locked, to make sure nothing tried to get in. Then I threw on some yoga pants and a long-sleeved t-shirt as well as one of the nice warm cardigans from my closet.
I chose the gray one again—the one I was sure my Grandma had worn. It made me feel better and less jumpy. After all, she had lived in this house too. She must have seen the door but she had stayed here.
But what if the door only appears when Milas James is about ready to come out of it? whispered a scared little voice in my head. What if he’s going to try and get to Rath?
Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry about the big Orc, at least for the moment. He had a rare business trip out of town—he had left yesterday after lunch to service a friend and fellow Creature’s computer system. This Creature—a Kraken I thought it was—lived in the human world. Just yesterday Rath had been at my place, showing me his “human suit” and grumbling about how itchy the charm that generated it was.
The charm itself looked like a little black bug about as big as my fingernail. It clung to the hair at the top of the big Orc’s head and generated a magical field that made him look human. Well, mostly human, anyway. He was still seven feet tall and extremely muscular, but the disguise changed his green skin to brown and his golden eyes to ebony. His long black hair stayed the same, which made him look like a professional wrestler, I thought.
The main thing was, though, that he was outside the magical bubble that contained Hidden Hollow and thus, hopefully, far enough from the black door so that the spirit of Milas James couldn’t hurt him.
“How long will you be gone?” I’d asked him as I watched him parade around in his “human suit.”
“Knowing what a mess his equipment gets in, probably a couple of days at least,” he’d told me. “Will you miss me?”
“You know I will.” I had kissed him and then the kissing led to other things…
Of course, all that was before he left and I found the stuck-together pages in my Grandma’s Grimoire, which led to finding out the truth about the family curse.
Now I was extremely glad that Rath was out of town for a while. I didn’t want him anywhere near the creepy black door and the evil that lay behind it.
“I don’t want you anywhere near that door either,” I said to Sebastian as I prepared to go out. “Why don’t you spend some time outside while I go get the things I need to work that banishment spell—okay?”
He mewed agreeably and I left him sunning himself on the front porch and locked the door securely behind me.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
“So you finally found out about the family curse!” Goody Albright put down her teacup—she insisted on having tea on her sun porch with me every time I came to see her—and stared at me with sharp, interested eyes. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t tell you before, but I was bound by a secrecy spell. Isn’t it simply dreadful?”
“It’s horrible,” I said bluntly. “And I’m scared to death! That black door is sitting in the house like some kind of sleeping monster waiting to wake up and kill everyone in its path!”
“Oh no, my dear—the spirit of Milas James would only be able to kill your Heartmate—if you had one.” She leaned forward across the table. “Do you?”
“I don’t know,” I said miserably. “I think so, but I’m not exactly sure what a Heartmate is.”
Goody Albright widened her eyes dramatically.
“Why, it’s the one you’re meant to be with, of course! The one true love of your life!”
