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She glanced over at Montgomery, wondering at how a dead guy could be so apathetic to his plight. Shouldn’t ghosts be moaning and wailing or something?

Zephyr weaved around Montgomery’s feet—every so often his tail or his hind leg passing through a leg where it should have rubbed against it. The cat settled finally, looking up at the man and meowed for attention until Montgomery momentarily abandoned his book to acknowledge the cat.

“I wish I could pet you, my good fellow. But alas, I am not a corporeal being.”

Willow grimaced at Montgomery. “How can you wash dishes and sit in that chair but you can’t pet a cat? It makes no sense.”

“You are asking questions I have no more ability to answer than fly to the moon. I can only guess, as everything in the universe is made of energy, the energy of inanimate objects manifests differently than in living creatures. I am still made up of energy. And after some practice, I was able to direct it to control certain types of matter.”

“Like a poltergeist,” Willow said.

“I can only presume so.”

“Great. So instead of throwing things or leaving drawers and cabinets open, I get the only poltergeist in history who’s a neat freak.”

Montgomery sniffed dismissively and returned to his book. “I like my surroundings clean and tidy.”

A sharp comeback was on the tip of Willow’s tongue but her phone rang, so she decided to pocket her witty words for later.

“Mother! Why didn’t you pick up before?”

“It took me a minute to find where I hid the phone.” Esme laughed. “It was in my cedar chest of all places.”

“Why did you hide the cell phone I bought you?”

“You know I don’t like these things. You could have just as easily used an easy mirror charm to contact me.”

Willow cringed at the memory of the broken mirror the last time she tried to use a mirror charm to summon someone. Seven years bad luck for the cracks. Only the Fates know what the consequence was for causing that mysterious black smoke.

“Just keep the phone close to you. This is important. I need your help.”

Bliss’s voice echoed from somewhere in the room Esme was in. “It’s the herb garden, isn’t it? I knew she’d kill those plants.”

“It’s not the herb garden,” Willow said, rolling her eyes. “It’s something else.”

Willow heard Esme mumble something to Bliss, then a door creaked shut.

“You can speak freely, now,” Esme said in a whisper. And even though Willow appreciated the effort, she knew her sisters had ways of eavesdropping on any phone conversation. But at this point, she didn’t really mind.

“Okay, not to alarm you or anything but… I’m being haunted.”

Esme was silent for a moment before saying, “You’re going to have to be more specific, Pumpkin.”

“I don’t know how to be more specific than that. There is a ghost in my shop, and I’m being haunted.”

“Oh. Well then. Thatissomething. Hmmm.”

“What should I do?”

“That depends,” Esme said. “You could do nothing, or you could help it move on.”

“Help it move on. Definitely that.”

“Good choice. The first thing you need to do is draw it out. A seance for instance.”

“Ewww. No. I don’t do stuff like that.”

“Alright, alright. It was only a suggestion. But if you have a haunt, as frightening as it may sound, you need to draw it into the light. Make it communicate—show itself.”