My stomach flipped.Oh, fate, you’re a sneaky witch. Of course, there’d be ghosts.
“Found it,” I said, pulling open the drawer and curling my fingers around a thick folder.
I cracked open the file. A swirl of mint and old parchment rose from the pages. “Okay,” I said, skimming the header. “Silverpine Inn, sounds cozy.”
Sage leaned closer to the camera, her eyes narrowing. “Silverpine? That’s case 128?”
“You know it?” I flipped through the report, pages rustling. “Looks like it started as a routine case, a single spirit haunting a historic inn, wreaking havoc on the guests. Every December, it would reawaken, and then disappear again at midnight on Christmas Eve.”
“Sounds ominous to me,” Leo said.
Sage nodded. “It is. If I remember the rumors, early agents kept missing the deadline. One ran screaming through the snow, and another claimed nightmares for weeks. Eventually,it got a reputation for chewing up agents and spitting them out.”
“Comforting,” I muttered, turning another page. “Ah, look. They even kept a list of the casualties.”
Sage snarled. “Val…”
“I mean, terrorized agents,” I corrected. “There were no actual deaths beyond their extinguished holiday spirit.”
Sage rolled her eyes; the call freezing at that exact moment. I smirked and kept reading, my heart speeding up the further I went.
A few years after the failed attempts, the Agency made it worse by offering a prize. They dangled an enchanted key that can fix any magical mistake.
I glanced up, jaw dropping as the words flashed like neon lights in my mind.
Sage unfroze. “You read about the key, didn’t you?”
“It’s real?”
“Real enough to cause trouble. That year…” She rubbed an eyebrow, trying to remember.
I filled in the details, flipping to the last page. “It looks like an agent slipped on the stairs running from a poltergeist prank. Broken leg, moderate concussion with a touch of amnesia. She spent a few days in the hospital. There are some notes from Legal. They buried the whole thing.”
“No one’s touched that case in years,” Sage said.
“Until now.”
“Val,” Sage said, voice softening. “You’re terrified of ghosts.”
“I know, and it’s your fault. Sometimes, I still sleep with the light on.”
“Then don’t do this. The case couldbe dangerous.”
“I agree,” Leo added. “Don’t go looking for trouble. Stick to something easy.”
“It’s not that simple. The key could solve my Grant problem. I know how to be careful.”
Sage cocked her head. “Last year you fell into a hole chasing a magical waterfall.”
I waved a hand. “Unrelated.”
The call glitched again, her next words stuttering as she argued with Leo. I traced the folder’s edge, feeling the faint hum of magic under my fingertips. Everyone else tried to banish the ghost. Maybe it doesn’t want to be banished. Maybe it wants something else. With or without my magic, I always excelled at finding the heart of things.
“The key’s still an active reward,” I said when Sage and Leo became clear again.
She threw up her hands. “You’re going for it, aren’t you? You think you’ll get the key, and then poof, no more mystical marriage trap.”
“Maybe I’ll get my magic back,” I murmured.
