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She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “Are all ghosts this dramatic or just you?”

“I have never met another untethered spirit. Do you think we all gather on weekends to discuss the latest haunting methods?”

“No. Because you are a curmudgeon and don’t play nicely with others.”

Montgomery felt there was no other way to convince this woman that he was actually stuck in the building. He couldn’t even go out into the alley.

“Open the door,” he said. “Invite me to leave. Maybe, by some strange turn of luck, it will work this time.”

Willow didn’t need to be told twice. She was all too eager to send him away. If only it was that easy.

She flung the door open and swooshed her arm to the side. “Do I need to say special words?”

And she was the one callinghimdramatic.

“Do you know Latin?” he said, more teasing than anything.

“A little Sanskrit, will that do?”

“Just tell me I’m not wanted or something like that.”

“With pleasure.” Willow closed her eyes intently, raising her palms above her head, and when she spoke, it was a performance worthy of the Globe Theatre. She began to chant in an over-the-top olde English cadence.

“Oh spirit, oh spirit. Thou art not welcome here.”

“Is the English accent really necessary?”

“Shhh. I’m trying to concentrate.” She cleared her throat and continued in the same fashion. “I cast thee from these lands. Leave us, and never return.”

The woman was off her rocker. She had to be. And yet, he found her exceedingly fascinating.

After a pregnant pause, she opened one eye and repeated between her teeth, “Leave us, and never return.”

“Oh, now?”

“Yes. Sheesh.”

“I wasn’t sure if you were done.”

And so, with determination to make this work at last, he stepped through the threshold, and like every time he had attempted it in the past, was shot backwards with an invisible force, and landed ten feet away on his backside.

Willow, of course, laughed.

“You reallyarestuck here. Sam Wheat could travel all over the city but you can’t.”

“Sam Wheat?” Montgomery picked himself off the floor.

“It’s from a movie calledGhost.Esme loves it. Correction—Esme loves Patrick Swayze.Dirty dancing, Point Break, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar…”

“Let me get this straight. You’re basing all your assumptions about ghosts… from a movie?”

“In my defense, I thought you were just being stubborn.”

It was his turn to laugh now.

“I hate to say I told you so but… Actually, I rather like saying I told you so.”

He laughed maniacally in his best ghost imitation, which woke Zephyr, who’d been napping in the bookshelves. The cat yawned and stretched, then hopped down to purr at Montgomery’s feet.