by Deanna Chase
“Reveal yourself!” Mom commanded.
Shit, shit, shit.
The candles flickered, and a second later the flames extinguished. The remaining five trails of smoke shot out the door. Mom barreled past me into the hallway. I followed her and the smoke down the stairs and into the kitchen. The smoke curled near the pantry and sucked its way in through the edges.
She flung open the door, and right there among the canned goods was my wedding planning book. “Finally. Thank the Goddess. I’ve been looking for this all morning.”
Just as her hands wrapped around the leather binding, a chill crept over my body. My limbs went numb, and I gasped for breath, unable to fill my lungs with the icy air.
Mom spun around, holding the book out to me. Her triumphant smile fell, and she took a step back.
“Hope?” I heard my aunt’s faint voice from somewhere far off. “What’s going on?”
Static rang in my ears. The chill crawled up my spine, down my legs, and prickled over every inch of my skin, paralyzing me in place. Then, with sudden force, my muscles spasmed as the ice raced through my veins straight to my heart. Panic screamed from the depths of my brain, but I couldn’t move. Couldn’t talk. Couldn’t even think.
The one thing I could do was feel. Foreign joy and triumph sailed to my heart, conflicting horribly with my own confused fear. Giddy elation seized me, and my numb limbs moved on their own.
Frustrated tears gathered in my eyes, the only form of protest I could muster as something, someone clumsily carried my body past Gwen to the warm snickerdoodles still cooling on the rack.
My trembling hand reached out and grabbed a cookie. Without any will from me, my hand stuffed the entire cookie in my opened mouth. A high-pitched moan of ecstasy escaped from the depths of my throat as the cinnamon sugar melted on my tongue. Involuntarily, I swallowed and licked the excess crumbs from my lips. Another satisfied groan. And then in a high, giddy voice, words tumbled from my mouth. “It’s been a hundred years since I tasted anything so delicious.” I giggled and added, “Or anything at all.”
No, no, no, I screamed, but the words went nowhere. They stayed locked away in my head.
“Jade?” Gwen prompted in a far-away voice, trembling with concern.
My mother’s eyes narrowed, and sudden fear replaced the joy filling me. My heart sped up as my mother raised her arms once again. Green energy crackled at her fingertips, her earth magic clinging to her hands in a spidery electric conduit. The magic shot out at the same time she shouted, “Release her!”
The ice melted a fraction of a second before the magic hit me right in my gut. Fire exploded through me, knocking me back with such force that I rose through the air and slammed into the nook wall. I seemed to hang there for a moment then crumpled to the floor, gasping.
“Oh, no, Jade!” My mom’s voice was clear now, no static, just a ringing from having my clock cleaned by a very powerful earth witch. “I’m so sorry, honey,” she said and kneeled beside me, checking for damage.
I tested my arms, then my legs, and rolled my neck. Everything was mine again. “I’m fine, Mom,” I said and nudged her out of the way, staring right into the face of the ghost who’d just managed to possess me. “Camille,” I said in a low, dangerous tone.
“Hello, Jade,” she said in her high, tinkling voice. “I’m so glad to see you again.”
Chapter 2
The tall, dark-haired woman floated beside me, her beaded satin ball gown flowing gracefully to her feet. I took a few steps backward, trying to escape the chill in my bones. Gwen put a protective, warm hand on my arm.
Camille, Summer House’s resident ghost, floated closer, smiling serenely.
“Stop right there!” I demanded.
The ghost reached out, her icy fingers wrapping around my wrist. I trembled, bracing myself for another possession. How was I going to keep her out? I could already feel her excitement racing up my forearm.
My magic sparked in my chest. From the depths of my inner being, a blast of heat raced toward her icy probe. The sensations joined together in some sort of mystical standoff for a few beats. I met Camille’s faded gray eyes. Our gazes locked, and I struggled to fight her hold on me. My strength faltered as my power slipped from my mental grasp. I let out a frustrated growl, and my magic fled, vanishing as her energy plunged back into me.
Through blurry vision, I spotted Gwen and Mom hovering, my mom’s hands sparking with magic. I shook my head frantically, afraid she’d blast me across the room again. I wasn’t sure what was worse—the ghost or the concussion.
Intangible thoughts formed in my mind. Revenge. Death. A woman holding a limp child, tears falling on the little girl’s angelic face. A deep terror seized my heart as I realized none of these thoughts were mine. They were Camille’s. She was invading not only my body but my mind.
Hate slithered like tendrils along my subconscious, latching into my heart, body, and soul. I vibrated with it. Somewhere deep inside, I recoiled from the horror washing through me. “Lizzie,” I said, my voice high-pitched and definitely not my own as I focused on the memory of the beloved girl.
“Eximo!” The powerful voice penetrated the gray haze of my world. An anguished cry ripped from my throat, and I crumpled to the floor as my limbs went from frozen to numb to blazing hot. The gray faded. Cream tiles stretched out in front of me. Three frantic voices filled the kitchen, their words streaming into my awareness in snippets. Possessed. Ghost. Black magic. Bea.
Firm hands clasped my shoulders, making me flinch. My muscles screamed in protest, my nerve endings alive like a hot wire. I curled into a fetal position, rocking back and forth, trying to shake the awful sensation.
“Stand back.”
“Mom?” I whispered. Was that her?
Something soft as velvet inched over my skin, soothing the fire burning beneath the surface. I opened my eyes, blinking to see through the early afternoon sun streaming in from a nearby window. After a moment, her green eyes came into focus. “Mom?” I said again.
“It’s okay now, Jade. You’re fine. Everything’s going to be just fine.” She sat beside me, one hand on my shoulder, the other caressing my hair back away from my face.
“What happened?” My thoughts were unfocused. A child was hurt. Someone needed help. I scrambled to sit up.
“Take it easy, shortcake,” Mom soothed. “It’s all over now.”
“But…” Lizzie. She needed me. I had to get to her.
A loud banging, like a door slamming into a wall, sounded from across the room. Someone else hovered over me. A sheet of blond hair fell into my view.
“Jade,” the woman said. “What was that? What happened?” I recognized her voice. Lailah. Ice-blue eyes narrowed as her intense gaze tried to command my focus.
“Lizzie,” I repeated. “She’s hurt.”
“Who’s Lizzie?” Mom asked quietly.
“Jade.” Lailah gently took one arm, pulling me to my feet. “Who did this to you?”
I stared at her through glassy eyes.
“She was possessed,” my mother said, her voice echoing in the distance. “A ghost.”
Lailah let out a shaky breath. “Okay, let’s get her off the floor and settled somewhere comfortable.”
The pair of them lifted and half-dragged me, my head spinning and eyes unfocused. I vaguely recognized the smell of leather as they settled me on what must have been a couch. Pyper and Gwen whispered behind us, but my mind couldn’t focus. All I saw were the wide, pleading blue eyes of the helpless child.
I buried my head into one of the cool cushions as grief sprang up from the depths of my tattered soul, and I had to choke back a sob, unable to control the foreign emotions.
“Hurry,” Lailah commanded. Footsteps shuffled around me. Then a warmth settled deep in my bones, and it was as if a veil lifted. The room came into focus, bright with natural light.
I sat up, glancing around at the worried faces of Mom, Gwen, Pyper, Lailah, and even Kat. When had K
at shown up? “What happened?” I asked, wiping away tears I hadn’t known I’d shed.
Frowning, Lailah sat beside me. “A ghost possessed you.”
I closed my eyes and shivered. How had she done that? I jerked and stood on wobbly legs, frantically searching for the ghost. “I know that much. Is she still here? Where is she?”
“No, sweetheart.” Gwen guided me back down onto the couch. “Lailah banished her.”
Kat moved to stand beside me, putting a light hand on my shoulder. After all these years as best friends, my body responded to her intentions without me even reaching for my magic. I glanced up at her gratefully as her tingling energy flowed into me, shoring up my strength.
Before I’d known I was a witch, I’d always considered this unusual gift of energy transfers as part of my empath ability, probably because it happened to come with a heavy dose of the other person’s emotions. This time, I didn’t get any of Kat’s calm, only a vague restorative current that stopped my trembling at once. Now I knew how other people felt when I transferred energy to them, except I missed Kat’s steady emotional energy. I could use it right about then.
“That’s not all.” Lailah paced, her footsteps muffled by the fleur-de-lis–patterned area rug. She stopped, placing her hands on her hips. “I felt it happen.”
I leaned back against the sofa, studying her, a little stunned. Lailah was an angel. She saved souls, could see auras, and wield spells. She wasn’t a psychic or an empath. She shouldn’t have been able to feel what was going on with me.
“Whoa,” Pyper said in a hushed tone. “Is it the angel connection?”
Lailah nodded, a lock of her honey-blond hair falling from her hastily tied bun. She tucked it back and sat in a chair across from me. She leaned forward, eyes worried. “The binding should’ve faded by now.”
Two months ago, Lailah had asked to step in and be assigned as my guardian angel. The request had been granted, but only with the condition that her fate was tied to mine. When the angel council awarded my soul to the ex-demon Meri, Lailah had felt my soul split right in two as if it had been her own.
“I thought that was temporary,” I said. “I mean, you haven’t felt anything else, right?”
Heat crept up my neck, and I knew I must be blazing red. Please, Goddess, don’t let her be privy to my private life with Kane. The intensity of our love life was enough to spontaneously combust on its own. If there was still a link between Lailah and me…I shook my head, dislodging the thought. I didn’t even want to go there.
Lailah’s lips twitched as she fought back a smile. “No. I haven’t. Your love life is safe from me.”
I sucked in a relieved breath.
All the amusement vanished from her face. “But I did feel Camille possess you. That means she’s very dangerous and incredibly powerful.” She pulled out her phone, tapped a few times, and put the phone to her ear. “We need to talk to Bea.”
Again? Every time something went wrong, the first thing we did was call my mentor, the former New Orleans coven leader. You’d think we could at least discuss the issue first.
Lailah scowled and put the phone down. “No answer.”
“She’s at her shop,” I said. Bea owned The Herbal Connection, a supply store specializing in witchcraft.
“I know.” Lailah sent me an irritated glare. “I just came from there.”
My mom moved to sit next to me, and she placed a hand on my knee, a subtle way of keeping me silent. She trained her gaze on Lailah. “Tell us what you experienced.”
The angel dropped her gaze to her hands, visibly contemplating what she wanted to say.
“Spit it out.” Irritation rang in my voice.
“Jade,” Mom warned.
“No, Jade’s right,” Pyper agreed from behind me. “Lailah knows more than she’s letting on.” She stalked to Lailah’s side and gave her an unfriendly smile. “Maybe you’d like to fill us in before things turn ugly.”
A bubble of laughter rose in my throat. Pyper never pulled punches. It was one of the things I loved most about her. But I swallowed the chuckle. There was no sense in pissing off Lailah when she had information we needed. Not to mention we’d finally become friends after a rocky start. She’d tell me, eventually.
Lailah didn’t even acknowledge Pyper’s request. Instead, she stood and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her peasant skirt. “What happened right before the ghost appeared?”
Mom’s hand flew to her throat. “Oh, dear. I’m afraid I must have summoned her by accident.”
“Camille?” Lailah asked.
I nodded.
“Is this the first time you’ve seen her since the party?”
“Yes.”
Lailah held out a hand to me.
I stared at it quizzically and then quirked an eyebrow.
She gave a terse jerk of her head. I suppressed a sigh and took her hand. She yanked me to my feet and pulled me toward the door. “We’ve got to get you out of here.”
She had me halfway to the front door before I managed to grab the stairwell railing and yank my hand out of hers. “I can’t leave now. The caterers are on their way. There’s food to sample and decisions to be made.”
“Jade.” Lailah placed her balled fists on her hips. “It’s too dangerous. The ghost was banished but not to another dimension. She’s strong. She could come back at any time.”
“You know what’s going to be dangerous?” I raised my voice, almost yelling. “If one more person tries to thwart my wedding planning.” Narrowing my eyes, I pinned her with a stare. “Do you have any idea how hard it was to find vendors willing to squeeze us in at this late date and during Mardi Gras? As it is, these people are only accommodating us because their grandparents were friends of Kane’s family. I can’t leave. I won’t.”
Lailah tensed and her nostrils flared. Actually flared. It didn’t take my empath ability to realize just how pissed she was. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth, no doubt ready to tell me off. But then her gaze shifted to the stairwell, and her face went white. All the anger that had rushed to her cheeks disappeared in that second.
“What is it?” I whispered, almost afraid to follow her gaze. I turned my head but was pushed from behind as Mom yelled, “Move!”
I pitched forward and slammed into Lailah, who thankfully saw me coming and half caught me in her outstretched hands.
Behind me, Mom chanted a spell in Latin, her power pulsing with enough magic it sparked my own. I tried to turn back to her, but this time Kat caught my other arm, and she and Lailah dragged me out of the gorgeous plantation house.
“Stop! Let go.” I flailed, trying to twist and turn, but neither gave an inch. Once we were outside, I expected them to drop their hold. They didn’t. Instead, they marched me to Kane’s car and shoved me into the passenger seat.
“Hey. Watch it,” I said when my head grazed the top of the doorframe.
“Sorry,” Kat said. “This is for your own good.”
I would’ve stood, but both of them were blocking me in the car. It took all my willpower not to kick either of them in the shins. “What the hell was that?”
“The ghost, Jade,” Kat said, her eyes wide with disbelief. “She was coming back down the stairs, and with every inch, she was getting more and more solid. It’s like you were feeding her energy.”
“That’s exactly what’s happening,” Lailah said, backing off and pacing once more.
Then Pyper ran out of the house. “Lailah, Hope needs you!”
Lailah looked me dead in the eye. “Stay!” She nodded at Kat. “Sit on her if you have to.”
“Will do.” Kat shifted to stand directly in front of me, only moving when Pyper appeared.
“Oh, my God. That was freaky.” Pyper sat on the grass in front of my feet and pulled out her phone.
I snatched it from her. “No one’s calling anyone until I get some answers. What’s going on in there?”
Kat held her hands palms up. “I don’t know. All
I’m doing is keeping you away from the ghost.”
Pyper reached for her phone and scowled when I wouldn’t give it back. “Well, I don’t know either. It sounded like Hope was trying to bind her or banish her. I’m not sure. But damn, wasn’t that weird how she almost looked alive? Except her eyes.” Pyper shuddered and gazed at me. “Life with you around is never dull.”
Her phone buzzed and instead of answering it, I turned it off.
“Hey!”
“Whoever it is, you can call them back.”
“What if it was Kane?” Pyper held out her hand as if her question solved everything.
“Again, you can call him back.”
She pursed her lips and shook her head. I was trying to figure out if she was getting angry or if she was amused. It was impossible for me to tell.
“He’s going to be pissed, you know.” This time she smiled. A genuine one. “When he finds out you’re playing with ghosts again.”
“I’m not playing with anyone.” I scowled, wishing I could shove the key in the ignition and drive off, leaving my pain-in-the-ass friends behind. But the caterers were coming. I couldn’t stand them up. “Move, I think they need my help.”
“I don’t think so.” Kat shifted aside, revealing Lailah, Gwen, and my mom moving toward us.
I climbed out of the car and sidestepped Pyper. “What happened? Is she gone?”
Mom and Gwen nodded, but Lailah shook her head.
“Oh, Lailah, no,” Mom said. “Really?”
“I’m afraid so.” Lailah turned to me. “I’m sorry. The ghost is somehow connected to the house. We tried to banish her from the premises, but even though I could feel the spell working, it failed in the end.”
“All right.” I took a calming breath. “I’ve lived with a ghost before. It can’t be that bad.” A tremor ran through me as I remembered the dull, lifeless little girl in my arms. “Other than possession, I mean. Is there a way to guard against that?”
“Sure,” Mom said. “There are spells and wards. We can whip something up.”