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As far as the setup for this summoning went, well, it was pretty much the same as Cain’s summoning. The white candle on the table was almost as thick as my wrist, and the ‘Piercing the Veil’oil filled the room with its soft floral scent. It was way better than I’d feared the first time I’d used it. I’d thought it would be all petrichor and grave dirt, not faint lilies and jasmine.
The anchor object was missing, but then, we weren’t expecting Magda to stick around long. So, there was no need for anything to keep her tied to it.
I twisted Cain’s class ring around on my finger absently. The ring was the object he was actually bound to, so I could take it off whenever I wanted a little alone time. Dead or not, I wasn’t dragging a copper into the shower with me.
When Ms. Erepto was settled, I reached out. “Please, take my hands.”
After a brief hesitation, she did. Her hands were surprisingly strong, and a little on the cool side. Each nail had been buffed and shaped into a perfect oval and painted with a faint opalescence.
I let my head fall back slightly, my finally growing out hair draping down over my shoulders.
“Magda Erepto,” I breathed towards the ceiling. “We call you forth.”
People talk about the veil between worlds, like it’s a sheet stretched out between us and the great beyond. For me, it’s not that rigid. Instead, it flows like water. Sometimes shallow and fast, sometimes drowning deep. I don’t know if everyone experiences it differently, or if it was just because I’d been a ghost myself, though I’d never crossed over to see what was on the other side of the vast, black ocean.
Bailey had taught me the words to say, back when I’d done a summoning for the first time. I spoke the words then, casting them out to sea like a glittering silver fish hook, searching for one spirit among multitudes.
I felt Cain paying attention, a feeling of almost horrified fascination bubbling up from somewhere deep inside. He was uneasy, but he was trying to hide it from me. In the future, I’d have to remember to take the ring off before I went knocking on the door of the great beyond, looking for ghosts. There was no reason for him to be here, other than I’d gotten used to having him with me.
I could almost feel Ms. Erepto’s impatience through her grip on my hands. A drop of sweat beaded at my temple, threatening to roll down the side of my face. I did not want to think about how she, and Mr. Howard, would react if I couldn’t get a grab on Magda’s spirit.
Just as my voice was starting to get hoarse, when the candles had burned down a good inch, I felt a little shiver through the veil, like something had taken the bait on the end of my hook.
Acting fast, I grabbed hold with my power and my will, and slowly but surely, I started drawing the spirit forth.
I buckled myself in for a real scrap. Cain had been a confused mess, and he’d fought me every inch of the way. I’d almost lost him a couple times, and I’d been terrified I wouldn’t be able to find him again.
Reeling Magda in was almost suspiciously easy, though. Once I had a hold of her, she slid through the veil cleanly and quietly, her presence flooding the room.
The candles blazed up, the only source of light in the room. There, hovering close to the ceiling, a misty figure was taking shape. She was obviously an older woman, her white hair done up in a style similar to her granddaughter’s. She wore a sensible dress, the collar way up to her chin. Magda looked serious, the lines at the corners of her eyes and around her mouth carved into a severe expression.
I heard Sophia inhale sharply.
I gave her hands what I hoped was a reassuring squeeze. “Magda Erepto, will you speak with us?”
The apparition’s eyes opened, and she took a good look around the room.
It was odd. I didn’t know spirits could change. Maybe cause I’d only seen ghosts who got stuck, like me, and were trapped however they’d looked at the moment they’d plowed up the daisies.
But as she hovered there, Magda Erepto’s appearance began to shift.
Her face smoothed out, her hair darkened. A lively look crept over her face as her dress faded from steel gray to something lighter, almost pastel, though I couldn’t tell what color it was in the dim light. She did a little spin then, hems flaring, suddenly looking like a teenager instead of an aged matriarch. And that’s exactly what had happened—she’d reverted to the way she’d looked and felt when she was much, much younger.
And then, with a saucy wink that had my mouth dropping open, she dove through the wall and was gone.
Chapter Three
Sophia and I both sat there for a long moment, staring like mugs, like we were waiting for the spirit to come back.
But that spirit? Well, she’d well and truly flown the coop. I couldn’t feel her presence anywhere in the building anymore. Eventually, the candles flickered out and plunged the room into true dark, broken only by the faint sunlight managing to peek in through the drapes.
Sophia turned to me, her eyes a little too bright in the dark room. “Where is she?”
I stared at the wall, like that could make Magda reappear. “Uh…” Hmm, how to put this... “Well, I think she might have... left.”
The chair scraped against the floor as Sophia stood up. “Youlostmygrandmother?”
“Now, hold on a second, here.”
