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The couple flinched in sync, and a smidge of satisfaction swept past Evan’s chest. Skeptical rich folks were the reason he was more comfortable taking small cases. These people had money but no faith, time but no patience.

After tying the talismans, Mr. Greene turned to Evan, his eyes sunken behind the glasses. “Do wehaveto go inside too?”

His wife stuck to his side. “We could just wait here.”

“No,” Handing the backpack to Aaron, Evan took out dried Noctis, glancing at his ring. It had turned muddy brown. “Staying outside is barely safer than inside. And if you’re attacked here while I’m not around…”

Leaving the sentence and the couple hanging at the gate, Evan stepped into the boundary.

One step, and the temperature dropped like a pin, somehow chillier than before. Confirming that, Aaron grunted, his breath turning into a white cloud before his face.

Evan walked up the short flight of curved stairs, spinning the bundle of Noctis between his fingers. Dry leaves scattered out of his way with each step. He’d not been this close to the mansion before, but a strange familiarity in the air propelled him forward, like hedidknow the place.

The rest quietly followed after him.

As soon as Evan stepped onto the porch, a gust of wind whipped past his side, blowing his bangs out of his face. A warning.

Okay Evan, don’t die.

Evan’s lashes lowered, fingertips brushing together as a blue spark crackled to life between them.

As he summoned his spiritual energy, light coursed through his veins, setting alight the skin of his fingers, then spreading upward, covering the entirety of his right hand in a soft blue radiance.

The ring warmed against his finger, gleaming black against his glowing skin. For foreign eyes, it looked like an LED had switched on inside his palm.

With the light barrier gloved over his right hand as protection, Evan pushed the massive wooden door open. It groaned into submission.

“I-Is his hand g-glowing?” Mrs. Greene whisper-yelled behind them. Her husband blabbered back something incoherent.

“Stay close, everyone,” Aaron’s voice dropped to a serious tone, Evan’s backpack dangling from his right hand, the other…holding onto the belt of Evan’s long coat. Evan glared at him, and Aaron smiled back sweetly. “Just keeping a close eye on you.”

Biting his tongue over a few unpleasant retorts, Evan waved the dried Noctis at Aaron, and he lit the end.

The Noctis was a flower that only bloomed under the full moon. When dried and burnt, it released a cleansing white mist that could dispel negative energies and repel spirits.

The lot made their way to the center of the huge hall, stopping near two staircases that swirled up leading to the first floor. Old furniture was draped in dust-laced white cloths, cobwebs latched onto every corner. The walls seemed to have been of a light shade once upon a time, but the color had faded into greys and browns now. The tall windows were smudged with something black, restricting light inside.

However, the eerie interior was nothing compared to the dark energy wafting like black smoke from the floors and walls. Some floorboards groaned ominously on the first floor.

As Evan’s eyes trailed up, another gust of breeze grazed past his boots, fluttering his coat. Second warning.

His temple throbbed, and more spiritual energy flowed into his palm with force, brightening the blue glow.

Leave before I send you where you belong.

Just like that, the ball of breeze—or spirit—disappeared.

One of the first things Evan had learned in the book ofExorcism and Spiritualitywas that malevolent spirits fed off of fear and doubt, two of the strongest emotions humans possessed.Notbeing afraid in front of something sinister and invisible would be impossible for a normal person. So insteadof forcing himself to not feel those two emotions, Evan replaced them with another stronger emotion: anger.

If he voiced out his immense distaste of something with enough fury to suppress his fear, it was sure to leave him alone.

“Evan?” Aaron’s voice seemed distant even though he was right beside Evan, like an invisible curtain had befallen between them. The heaviness in the air was drowning out their voices. If they lost sight of each other, it wouldn’t be long before someone went missing.

“Stay close to me,” Evan murmured. With senses on alert, the glow on his hand radiated brighter as he circled the dried Noctis overhead, cleansing the dense air. “Don’t touch anything.”

His voice too was muffled to his ears.

The couple behind huddled together, Mr. Greene’s sunken eyes ready to disappear into his eye sockets and Mrs. Greene’s trembling fingers clawing at her husband’s arm.