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Logan shook his head. “You weren’t here. You didn’t see what we saw.”
“He might be right,” Kara jumped in. “The woman… she interacted with me. Like she could see me. Like she knew I was there.”
“So it wasn’t residual…” Jeremy appeared lost in thought.
“No, definitely not. Maybe Logan’s right. Maybe she was trying to get our attention, to specifically show us that room.”
The wind picked up outside. The snow swirled, as the window on the other side of the room rattled noisily.
“Okay,” said Jeremy. “Let’s assume you’re right. She wanted you to find the candle. Now what?”
They sat in silence for a moment, listening to the howl of the storm. The room was cold… drafty. Kara was beginning to regret her decision to sleep there alone.
Suddenly she had a thought.
“What if whatever ritual Rudolph Northrop came here to perform never got finished?”
Jeremy shifted on the bed. Kara was hyper-aware of his thigh pressing against hers. Her eyes shifted upward. So apparently was Logan.
“What if we could find out what he was doing,” she went on quickly, “and where he was doing it. And—”
“—and finish the ceremony!”
Jeremy’s voice had that excited, eureka moment that Kara loved so much about him. She’d witnessed it many times before, back when the two of them were exploring the Manor together. Back when almost everything they did was a fun adventure.
Logan scratched his chin. “Alright, I’ll bite,” he said. “How would we go about doing that?”
Jeremy pointed into his phone, being careful not to tap the screen. “Look: the book, the candle, the bell, the scrying crystal. They’re laid out evenly across the table. All of them important. All of them necessary.” He reached up and adjusted his glasses. “We already have the first two. If we can locate the second two, and if we figure out exactly what ritual he was performing, maybe we could finish what he started.”
It was logical, methodical thinking. Classic Jeremy. But it was also reaching.
“Hang on,” Logan jumped in. “I thought we decided that whatever this guy Northrop did on the winter solstice caused more spiritual activity.”
“We could be right about both,” offered Jeremy. “Northrop comes here and he’s the real deal — has actual spiritual powers. Only he screws things up. He doesn’t finish his ceremony, or does it all wrong. Instead of making things safer for the Averoigne, he makes them more dangerous.”
Silence. More thinking.
“So we finish his ceremony and make it safe again?” asked Kara.
“Sure.”
“Or we finish his ceremony and a portal to hell gets torn open,” Logan offered. “Swallows us all.”
Kara laughed inwardly. That would suck.
“We’d need to find out what’s in the book,” she countered. “And specifically which ritual he was performing.” She looked over at Logan. “Any more word from Xiomara?”
“Not yet.”
“Then our next step is the third floor,” Kara said.
Logan nodded. “I’ve already asked around. Jonathan’s shift doesn’t start until later tonight. I think he cleans the hotel while the guests are asleep. They offered to wake him for me, but…”
“No,” Kara said. “This is even better.”
Jeremy looked confused. “Better? Why?”
“Because we can meet up with him later for the key, then explore the upper floor when it’s the most active — at night.”
