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“Into the reading room?”
Belle nodded. “It would be far easier than trying to summon her, and no protection circle we could create on the fly would ever be as strong as the spells that now protect this place.”
I frowned. “It would mean creating a temporary doorway through the magic to allow her entry—”
“Yes, but the ‘can do no harm’ rule would remain intact and unaltered.”
Yes, but opening a doorway also meant we’d be vulnerable to attack in those few vital minutes between disengagement and realignment if there happened to be other White Ladies in the area. But she was right—this building was the one place we’d be utterly safe. “You think she’ll go for it?”
“If she wants to talk to us, she will.”
I glanced past her to our ghost and explained what we were going to do. “We promise no harm will come to you within our walls unless you attempt to attack us. This is the only way we’ll communicate with you, now that we’re aware just how powerful a witch you are.”
For several seconds, she didn’t respond. The wind stirred the insubstantial swaths of her gown, blowing them around her form like a foaming wave. Then she made a sharp ‘whatever’ gesture with her hand and nodded a third time.
“Give us ten minutes.” I pushed away from the railing and headed inside, Belle on my heels. “You’ll need to weave the temporary exception through the current spell threads—you’ve a better feel for her than me.”
“That’s if what I’m feeling is real. There’s no guarantee with a magic-capable spirit.”
I glanced back as we clattered down the stairs. “That’s sounds like you’ve been reading up on them.”
“A little. While I really do doubt she intends either of us harm, there’re enough stories out there to emphasize the need for caution.”
“And here I was thinking magic-capable spirits were a rarity.” I strode into the reading room and began shifting chairs away from the center of the room.
“They are, but witches and spirits have been interacting for eons. That’s plenty of time for deceptions to happen.”
“I’m gathering most ended badly?”
“Very.”
“Fabulous.”
Her smile flashed, though it didn’t do much to dispel the tension crinkling the corners of her eyes. “We’ll be fine in here.”
We probably would, but that didn’t make what we were about to do any less dangerous. I helped Belle move the table, then rolled up the rug to reveal the spell work etched into the floor. We sat in the middle of it all and shuffled forward until our knees touched. Then, after taking a deep breath to center my energy, I narrowed my gaze and carefully began disengaging—but not deactivating—the multistrand spell layers that shielded this place. Holding them tightly in one hand to prevent unravelling, I slowly and carefully pried away the threads that dealt with the more ghostly end of things and then glanced at Belle. “Your turn.”
She immediately began to spell. Her magic wove through the existing strands, setting perimeters and adding time restraints. If, for any reason, we were rendered unconscious, the White Lady still had a limited time frame within our walls before the rest of the threads slammed down and evicted her.
Of course, if we were rendered unconscious and she did intend us harm, those time restraints probably wouldn’t save us.
Once Belle had finished, I reconnected the main spells. As the full hum of power once again flowed around us, I said, “How do you want to proceed?”
She hesitated. “The same way as we usually do for a hostile spirit. Me talking, you monitoring.”
I searched her face for a second, seeing both her fear and determination. “If you’d rather not do this—”
“We need to find out what her link to both the shifters and the flesh stripper is, and this is the only way we can do it.”
“Maybe, but your safety is more important—”
“Which is why you’re going to forcibly disconnect us the minute she—in any way—attempts a takeover.”
“What if she’s more powerful than either of us?”
“That’s totally possible, but there’s no way she could be more powerful than the wild magic that now inhabits you.”
I wasn’t entirely sure the wild magic could be called upon in such a situation, but who really knew? There were already a whole lot of things happening that shouldn’t be possible.
