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"Are you going to start with the house rules again?"

"Celeste…” I growled warningly.

"All right, all right!" She held up both hands in a “don’t shoot” gesture. "I'll be careful. I promise."

I sighed. I had a feeling that before this woman was through with me, I would have lost every scrap of patience I possessed and yet she was so lovely I couldn’t be aggravated with her for long.

"Come along, then," I told her. "And bring whatever it is you need for the spell."

“Got it right here.”

She held out her bag and basket and followed me down the long corridor that led towards the back of the house. Bartleby came with us, of course, though I would have preferred to leave him behind. The last thing I needed was that interfering feline making sarcastic comments while I showed Celeste the most private part of my home.

The entrance to the basement was hidden behind a heavy wooden door at the end of the servants' passage. I had not used the staircase myself in many years, since it was far easier for me to simply drift through the floors, but I knew Celeste would have to walk down.

I opened the door and gestured for her to precede me.

"Oh, wow," she murmured, peering down the steep stone steps. "That's a little creepy."

"It is a basement, woman. What were you expecting?” I asked. “A brightly lit shopping mall?"

"Well, some lights would be nice," she retorted.

I snapped my fingers and the old-fashioned gas lamps along the staircase flared to life, casting a warm golden glow over the worn stone steps.

"There. Is that satisfactory?"

She nodded graciously.

"Much better. Thank you."

She smiled at me and began descending the stairs, one hand resting lightly on the iron railing. I followed close behind, watching to make certain that she didn't slip. The steps were old and rather uneven, and she was wearing those little black shoes which looked much too flimsy for such a place.

When we reached the bottom, I led her through a series of low-ceilinged rooms that had once been used for storing wine and provisions. There were still rows of dusty bottles in one of them, though I doubted the wine was any good after all these years.

Finally, we came to what appeared to be a blank stone wall.

"Well, this is a dead end," Celeste remarked, looking around. "Unless we're supposed to crawl through the wall or something."

"Hardly." I reached out and placed my palm against a particular stone near the middle of the wall. "This is the entrance to the oldest part of Blackthorn Manor. It was here long before the house was built above it."

As I pressed my hand against the stone, a series of ancient runes began to glow with a faint silver light. Then there was a deep rumbling sound and the wall itself began to move.

Celeste gave a startled little cry and took a step backwards.

"Oh my God! That's a secret door!"

"Very observant," I remarked dryly.

She put a hand on her hip.

"Well, excuse me! I've never actually seen a secret door before! Unless you count the ones in movies."

I had no idea what kind of moving pictures she was talking about, but I didn't bother asking. Instead, I waited for the great stone slab to finish sliding aside, revealing a wide staircase that descended into darkness.

Cold air rushed up from below, carrying with it the faint smell of damp stone and something else—something old and strange that was difficult to describe. It was the scent of magic, ancient and powerful, which had been woven into the very foundations of the earth.

I could feel it even in my spectral state.