by Amy Boyles
Roman placed a hand over his heart in mock shock. “Say it isn’t so. Will you in fact really do me the honor of an answer?”
“I guess you’ve waited long enough.”
He raked his fingers through his hair. “Darlin’, any answer you give is better than waiting in limbo.” He tugged me forward. “Come on, let’s get you back to the room.”
When we arrived, Milly, Grandma, Reid, Sera and Nan stood around a table looking at something.
“Roman,” Milly said, “we’re not ready yet. Can you buy us one more hour?”
He nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”
He kissed my hand and left. Sera pumped her eyebrows at me. “A kiss on the hand?”
“Yeah,” I said sheepishly. “I promised him an answer on the whole marriage thing by the end of today.”
Grandma clapped her hands. “Dylan, that’s wonderful! I’m so happy for you. Let me know when my great-grandchildren are going to arrive. I can’t wait to play with them.”
Suddenly my heart fluttered up into my throat. “Yes, well, um, I told him I’d give him an answer.”
“Do you have an answer?” Sera said.
I raked my fingers across my forehead. “No, not really. I mean, not yet I don’t. I want to have an answer, but I don’t have one at this moment. But I’m thinking I should have an answer soon.”
My breath heaved. My head swirled as I became light-headed. I sat down weakly in a chair and threw my head between my knees. I gulped down several deep breaths while my body calmed.
“Wow,” Reid said. “Talk about a panic attack.”
“I’m not having a panic attack. That wasn’t a panic attack,” I said.
“Then what was it?” Sera said.
I slowly lifted my head and brushed hair from my face. “It was a come-to-the-light moment. That’s all.”
Sera and Reid exchanged glances. “Panic attack,” they said in unison.
I had nothing to throw at them, though I wished I had. “Can we please get back to the task at hand?”
Grandma clapped her hands behind her back. “Yes, well, Dylan, before you say ‘yes’ to Roman, we have a Wyrm to call out and an elf to catch.”
“Whoa. Who says I’m saying yes?”
Milly snorted. “Well, what other answer are you going to give him?”
I scoffed. “I don’t know.”
Milly thumbed her nose. “Then you should’ve told him you needed more time instead of promising an answer. If you’re just going to say no, perhaps you need to think about it a little longer.”
“It’s just a big decision. For the rest of my life.”
Milly shrugged. “Whatever, toots. If you can’t recognize a good thing when it’s standing right in front of you, then you’ve got bigger problems than I ever thought.”
I flared out my hands. “Can we please not focus on me and instead focus on the project? And maybe the reason why I’m not telling y’all anything is because I’ve got my own things to do, my own life to live, and for once I want to share it in private with a man—not with the five of y’all hanging around.”
Reid and Sera laughed. “Yeah, right. Come on, Dylan,” Sera said. “Whatever. It’s fine. We don’t care what you tell Roman.”
Angst twisted my gut. “You don’t?”
Sera frowned. “Of course we do. We love him and don’t want him to go away. Anyhow, let’s get this plan together to catch this Wyrm dude—if in fact that’s the case.”
“So are we catching Wyrm?” I said.
Grandma nodded. “The more your grandmother Milly and I have been thinking about it, the more we realized that what’s been going on may have more to do with Wyrm being active than an elf working a counterspell. The amount of disruption in our magic plus the fact that this person is always one step ahead leads me to believe that it is Wyrm behind all these shenanigans more than it is the elf. Just because, well you know—ghost and stuff. Can be anywhere at anytime. So, we must go after the fiend.”
“Okay,” I said. “How exactly do you plan on capturing him?”
Milly tapped a hand on the table. “Come here and see this.”
I crossed over. Spread across the lacquered brown surface was a map of the mansion. “Why do you have a map?”
“Because we’re going into battle, Dylan,” Nan said. “And when there’s a battle, you’ve got to have a map.”
Sera elbowed me. “Obviously.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, we’ve got a map. What’s the plan?”
Milly thumped her cane on the floor. “The plan is that Hazel and I will conjure a spell to draw Wyrm out. You’ll be pretending to be his wife, Dylan. When he sees you, he’ll be distracted, hopefully enough that then Hazel and I can trap him.”
Nan clapped me on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Dylan. I’ll be nearby, ready to destroy the spirit if I need to.”
“You can’t destroy the spirit,” Reid said. “From what I gather from the ghost book I’ve been reading, you need to convince him to go into the light.”
“Okay, well, the light or trapping. It doesn’t matter to me which we do,” I said.
“Trapping,” Milly said.
I pressed my fingers into the table. “But how do you plan on trapping Wyrm? You won’t have the needle.”
Grandma’s eyes twinkled. “In fact, I think we will. Once we call him here, whoever’s been holding him will follow. They’ll be so confused as to what’s going on, they’ll want to know why the spirit is leaving on its own. Essentially we’ll be trapping two in one—Wyrm and the murderer.”
“Okay, well, all that sounds great in theory, but is it going to work?” I said.
Milly snorted. “There’s only one way to find out. Girls, prepare the table.”
A second later Reid and Sera whisked the map from the slick surface. They grabbed a small cauldron that basically seemed to appear out of nowhere because I hadn’t seen it before. They heaved it onto the table.
“A little of your hair, please, Dylan,” Grandma said.
I clutched my brown tresses. “What? Why would you need my hair?”
“Why, to call Wyrm, of course,” she said. “We need something of yours that will help bind him, bring him out, make him think his beloved is still alive.”
I frowned at her. “You’re not actually going to call on his dead wife’s spirit, are you?”
Grandma thrust a hand over her heart. “Dylan, why would you ever suggest such a thing?”
“Because you’re a bit batty and I wouldn’t put it past you. I mean, you created a whole hill of rice just to catch an elf.”
“Dylan, won’t you trust me?” she said.
I nearly laughed but managed to stifle it behind my fist. “Sure. I’ll trust you. Just don’t get me killed.”
“I’ll do my best not to,” Grandma said.
“I don’t think I’d have much confidence in that,” Reid shot out.
I threw her a dirty look but said nothing.
Grandma pushed up her sleeves and raised her hands in the air. She took the fake needle and gestured for me to come forward. When I did, she sheared off a sliver of my tendrils.
Don’t ask me how she did that with a needle. Some questions are better left unasked, I’ve learned.
Milly spat into the cauldron. Grandma threw in the hair.
The grandmothers chanted in unison. “Bring forth the sprit that we seek—Agatha Craps.”
Green mist swirled in the cauldron. A stream of blue spiraled from the core, entwining with the emerald color. The magic coiled up to the ceiling and then shot out, straight toward me.
My breath hitched as the magic careened into me. It knocked me onto the floor.
Then the world went black.
SEVENTEEN
When I woke up, my head was heavy, as if a bowling ball had been sutured to my skull. I blinked my eyes open. Everything seemed slow, like I was watching the world through a bubble.
Grandma stood in front of me, her hands gripping my shoulders tightly.
“Dylan, are you there?”
I shook my head, trying to break free from the film that seemed to cover me. “Yeah,” I said. But my voice sounded dreamy, as if it was a world away.
Milly leaned down and thrust her snarled nose in my face. “She’s all right. The girl’s fine. Looks like the hard part is over.”
The hard part?
Sera broke through and lifted me to my feet. “She doesn’t look okay.”
Nan came over. She raised one of my eyelids and shone a light in it. I pulled away. “She’s okay. Her pupils are dilating.”
“What’s going on?” I said, pushing everyone from me. I needed to breathe, and to do that, I needed space.
“Dylan, dear,” Grandma said, “it seems our spell didn’t quite work the way we wanted it to.”
I staggered to the table and gripped the edge. The overwhelming feeling of being underwater was one I couldn’t shake. “What do you mean?”
“What I mean is, we were trying to summon Wyrm’s wife and bind her here. It seems she’s done a bit more than show up.”
I smoothed the crease forming between my eyes. “What?”
Milly cleared her throat. “It seems the lady has taken a shine to you.”
“What do you mean?”
Sera handed me a mirror. When I looked into it, I gasped.
Hovering over my body was a ghostly figure. She had long, flowing hair that seemed to quiver under an unseen wind. She wore a long nightdress and had simple yet beautiful features.
“Who is that?”
The best way to explain what it looked like was that the ghostly figure was attached to me, floating in front of me. I moved to touch my face, and she did the same; I spoke, and her mouth moved.
It was freaky.
A shiver raced up my spine. “Okay, how are you going to get rid of her?” I said.
“We’ve got a plan,” Grandma said. “Don’t you fear.”
But I did, I did fear quite a bit.
“So what does this mean?” I said.
Grandma worried her hands. “It means—well, I’m not sure what it means. But don’t fret, Dylan; we’ll make all of this work out perfectly. One way or another, you will come out of this alive.”
I bolted from the chair. “Alive? I always thought I would come out alive. Why wouldn’t I come out alive?”
I started to hyperventilate, gasping for air. My breaths came short, shallow. I could feel my body heating up and sweat beginning to sprinkle my forehead.
This was bad. This was very bad. My grandmothers were only supposed to do something that would bring back the dead wife. Somehow I was involved. And now I might die.
“Hold your horses, toots,” Millie said. “No one is going to die. All we have to do is use you as a beacon, and when Wyrm comes to find you, we’ll have him and the murderer.”
I rubbed my forehead, trying to think all this through. “If it was nighttime, that would be perfect. But it’s daytime; the mansion is full of guests. They’re all milling about waiting to leave. How are we going to call this spirit without causing a huge commotion?”
“You know,” Reid said. “I think y’all are thinking about this too much. We need to make this simple. Where is the one place that nobody’s going to be right now?”
We all stared at each other blankly. Sera shrugged. “Where?”
Reid smacked her lips like she was the smartest person on the planet. “The woods. No one is going to be out there. So that’s where we go. That way we don’t draw attention from all the people in the mansion, plus we get the ghost. It’s open and shut. Easy-peasy lemon squeezy.”
You know, sometimes the nineteen-year-old had a good idea.
“What about Roman?” I said.
Milly placed both hands on her cane. “He’s still working on the crowd. We need to hurry. We don’t have time to wait for him. We must go to the forest.”
I gnawed my bottom lip for a moment. I wanted to wait for him, but really what could a man with a gun do against a spirit. “Okay. Seems as feasible as anything else we’ve got. I say we do it. But you’re gonna have to cover me in some kind of cloak. I can’t go around with a ghost glued to my face.”
Grandma tousled her hair with her fingers. “Don’t you worry about it, Dylan. I’ve got just the thing for you.”
After all that had happened in the last day, I was afraid to ask what that might be. So I decided to keep my mouth shut and just do as they said.
So we headed out toward the woods, me in some kind of cloak that Grandma had put together. Everyone hovered around me. The sun was shining high in the sky. Rays of light splintered down onto the trees in front of us.
“Well, we know the murderer has been here before. So at least that’s one thing in our favor,” Sera said.
“I’ve got my broadsword,” Nan said. “I’m ready. I’m ready for whatever may come.”
She jabbed the air with her blade. Nan pivoted her feet front and back and side to side as if ready to take on some sort of formidable foe.
“Nan, I’m glad you’re here,” I said. “Out of all of us, I think you make the most sense in this group with bringing your sword.”
“I like to think so, Dylan,” she said proudly.
The dreamy feeling from earlier was starting to wane, but I could still feel the ghost’s presence as she filtered through my body. I couldn’t hear her thoughts, but I could feel her emotions. I sensed she was afraid, questioning where she was. But there was nothing she could do about it, obviously. Unfortunately we were in the same boats in that regard. I couldn’t do anything about her, and she couldn’t do anything about me.
We reached an open spot near where we’d found the burned-up tiny dragons.
“Okay, so now what we do?” I gazed at the questioning look on my grandmother’s face and cringed. “You have no idea, do you?”
Grandma clasped her hands tightly on my shoulders. “Dylan, of course I know what I’m doing. I always know what I’m doing.”
“Yeah, as much as any monkey I’ve ever seen,” Reid said.
Sera snickered.
I shook my head. “Okay, y’all, arguing isn’t going to get us anywhere. Grandma, Milly, do what you need to so that we can all get out of here.”
Grandma and Milly motioned for us to make a circle. We did.
“Not you, Dylan,” Milly said. “You get in the center.”
Nan shifted to the rear. “I am ready to attack anybody who wants you. Don’t you worry, Dylan; I’m here to save you.”
I stood in the center of the small circle, quietly praying that this would not be the end of me. Because let’s face it, I was half an inch away from being possessed by a dead woman and another half an inch away from meeting some sort of evil spirit—if in fact it was the same evil spirit that we thought.
I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes. Grandma and Milly started to hum. At first it was a slight sound, but then the sound became a vibration that wafted against my body. It beamed into my chest and seemed to encircle me, take me over, wrapped me up in warm, soothing blankets.
In that tiniest fraction of a moment I felt peace. Peace that everything was clear. I knew where I was supposed to be headed in life, and I knew what was going to come next. Very much unlike the crazy train my life normally was.
As the humming increased, I began to sense something else, something darker, something much more dangerous. It was like a shroud covering me, making the air hot, stifling.
From behind me, Sera gasped. I opened my eyes.
A ghostly figure floated among the trees. Long hair streamed from the man’s head, and his clothes whipped in a wind that could only have been fueled by the spirits.
“Wyrm,” I whispered.
Heaviness filled my heart. But it wasn’t my heart; it was his wife’s heart. Emotions of longing and sadness welled inside me. But not really inside me—it was inside her, within Agatha. It was as if I, Dylan, were being pushed out of my head, and she was taking over.
I tried desperately to regain control of my body from this creature, but I couldn’t.
“That’s him,” Grandma said. “Now eliminate him.”
Grandma pointed her fingers at the spirit of Wyrm and shot a stream of magic into him. Her power encircled the spirit. Milly thrust her hands up as well, releasing another spray of magic. Seriously, they looked like ghostbusters minus the guns.
Wyrm writhed and wiggled. He thrust his head back and screamed. The cry was like an arrow to my core. I shuddered and collapsed on the ground.
I felt an overwhelming surge of agony. I wanted to reach out and help him. I wanted to do everything I could to stop the pain that was overtaking him.
Clearly I was not in my right mind.
I reached out of the circle and thrust my hands up toward the spirit. Using my magic, I pushed away all the other magic that my grandmothers were thrusting on him. I was fighting fire with fire. And doing so unwillingly.
“Dylan,” Grandma screeched. “What are you doing?”
Anger bubbled in my gut. I turned to her and Milly. An overwhelming sense of injustice and an unidentifiable hatred racked my body.
I turned my hands toward them and thrust the rest of my magic at my grandmothers.
They dived to either side. Deep down I prayed no one had broken anything, like a hip, but in reality it was the last thing I cared about. Sera and Reid ran to their rescues while I turned to the spirit.
“Agatha,” he whispered.
Wyrm looked like any other ghost, I suppose. Very transparent, but I could feel his energy—it was dark, almost sinister, and yet it felt like a hole had been ripped in his heart when he’d lost his wife.
The expression on his face when he looked at me/Agatha was one of total and utter elation. The anger that had been twisting his face vanished, and a cool serenity seemed to fill him. It didn’t exactly calm the angst and the anger I felt still bubbled under the surface, but I could tell he longed for her. A deep and almost eternal love consumed them both.
He reached for me.
And against all better sense and judgment, I said, “Wyrm, I’ve been waiting a lifetime to be with you. Take me from this place.”