“We need to seal the salt line,” Prudence yells, and I vaguely wonder if she’s seeing this too, or if it’s just Aiden and I witnessing this strange memory.
“This is important,” I tell her, mesmerized by the haunting scene before me.
These witches are trying to show me something, something that’s going to help me figure out my little poltergeist issue in the bookstore.
Hopefully.
The air temperature plummets further and I shiver, pressing as close as I can to Aiden.
The chanting swells to a crescendo, the lines drawn on the floor pulsing with power that sinks into my skin.
It doesn’t feel right, though, and I grit my teeth at the sensation.This circle lacks that golden pulse of energy I felt when I dumped the salt at the doorways—it feels oily, wrong, and instead of gold, it glows a sick pale green that makes me think of pea soup.
Which is gross.“I hate peas,” I whisper.
Aiden gives me a sidelong glance.“What?!”
I shrug, trying to concentrate on what the ghost witches are doing.They have power, a lot of it, and even though I’ve somehow tapped into mine, this feels different.More like the power of the ocean during a storm compared to opening up the plug when I drain the bathtub.
It’s an exponential difference.
Their ghost hair floats around their heads, their eyes unfocused and eerie, the sickly light emanating from the circle draining the whole apartment of color.The image flickers like static on an old black and white television, a sense of foreboding making my own hair stand on end.
The chanting stops, the room falling silent, and the witches glance at each other, fear and concern wrinkling their foreheads.
Whatever they’re doing, it doesn’t look like it’s turning out how they’d planned.
I swallow hard against a lump of fear in my throat.
“It didn’t work,” one of the witches snaps, her eyes wild.All color’s been leeched from their faces, their clothes, and I shift, uncomfortable and unsure.“It was supposed to cast the protection spell, send all those poor children’s trapped souls on, and we should have felt the effects by?—”
She keels over, dropping to the ground, and all around her, all at once in a great thud that shakes the floor, the rest of the coven does, too.
The light from the circle drawn on the floor expands, crawling over them, growing stronger with each new witch it spreads across.
“It’s taking something from them,” I mutter.Part of me really wants to get closer.It’s a tiny part, though, and my rational brain keeps me rooted to the spot—and to Aiden’s side.
“What do you mean, it?”he asks, his voice low.
“Whatever they…” I gesture wildly to the circle thing on the floor, “I don’t know, summoned, spelled, did—it is draining them.Look at it, can’t you tell?”
“You mean how it’s growing brighter?”
I nod emphatically.“Exactly.I think it killed them, whatever spell they cast—ooooh.”
A horrible thought occurs to me, and I turn my head slowly towards Aiden.“Do you think they’re the ghosts?The ones trapped in the bookstore?”
“I’m not sure how you expect me to have any idea about this, but I will say that you do seem to have ghosts in your house right now.”His voice is steady, and there’s an amused tilt to his lips that makes me feel better.
Stronger.
If Aiden, who flatly refused to believe in ghosts only a few hours ago, can smile in the face of this absolute shit show… it makes me feel like I can figure this out.
Like it’s going to be okay.
My ears pop, and from the way Aiden moves his mouth, I assume his do too.
The temperature rises, so quickly that it makes the tip of my nose and my fingers tingle slightly as they warm.
