Page 38 of Never Been Witched (Starfall Point #3)

Edison pinched the bridge of his nose. “You are the person that I have chosen.”

“Yeah, and you knew what you were getting into,” she countered.

“Yep,” Edison let the last “p” sound hang between them, before he started snickering. “Yes, I did.”

“You OK, bud?” Ben asked Josh. “This is normally the kind of thing you find hilarious.”

Josh didn’t answer. He was frowning, his head cocked to the right. “Does anyone hear that? Like a rattling noise?”

“No, but you hear everything before we do,” Mina told him. “That could be an old engine driving down a road on the mainland.”

“I think it has to be ghost-related for me to hear it before you,” Josh mused, still looking a little confused.

The shadow was approaching the fence line, moving with purpose now, but not toward them. It was moving to the right of the house, toward the shared property line with Ben’s house, toward the folly.

Riley took the ring from Caroline and studied it. She turned to look through the open front door. “Victoria? Any comment?”

Victoria didn’t materialize, but Samuel appeared almost immediately.

He was translucent…well, more translucent than usual ghosts.

Across the square, the lurking silver shadow that had been following them was still walking toward the house.

But Samuel was…right next to Caroline, silently staring at the ring in her hand.

“What the shit?” Josh yelled at the newly arrived ghost. “Give us some warning, man!”

“What is happening?” Riley demanded, her eyes wide as she peered back and forth between the new spectral arrivals.

“You mean this guy, or the weird silvery ghost fog walking toward us?” Mina asked, shrugging. “Yeah, sometimes I see it walking through the yard at night.”

“And how long has this been happening?” Riley asked, suddenly far more sober.

“Since we got here and we started seeing ghosts?” Mina said, nodding at Samuel. “This is the first time I’ve seen this new guy, though.”

“We’ve talked about you not sharing information with us in a timely manner!” Caroline exclaimed, watching the still distant, not-quite-fully-formed ghost shape.

“I thought it was just one of the many ghosts on the island!” Mina cried. “You said the house was warded, so the current ghosts can’t leave and new ones can’t just walk in!”

Josh nodded. “Otherwise, chaos. If we reported every time we saw a ghost stranger, we would be on the phone with you all day.”

“Well, I don’t love hearing that,” Ben grumbled as the approaching form seemed to gain legs and arms.

“Dude, have you been stalker-lurking around the house this whole time?” Josh asked Samuel, who looked vaguely offended and shook his head.

“I don’t want to interrupt this terrifying existential crisis I’m having as a result of that information, but that body shape…

It’s a lot like the figure in the hallway chasing Victoria,” Collin commented, nodding at the approaching second ghost, who was still sort of formless and smoky.

“Wait, I thought you just said the property was warded for ghosts.”

“The wards keep the ghosts in the house ,” Riley told him. “There’s nothing to keep them off the lot. It’s not like an invisible pet-proof fence.”

“Can we get back to Samuel?” Collin asked. “The man is standing right here.”

“I’m sorry,” Riley said, turning back to Samuel. Alice stepped closer to examine the ring and Samuel became even more transparent. Riley frowned. “Um, Alice, take a step back.”

Samuel’s form became more solid.

Alice took a step toward him. Samuel became more transparent.

Alice’s mouth dropped open. “What the hell?”

Alice walked back to the gate and Samuel became more visible.

“I have a theory,” Riley said. “You’ve become really good at establishing, let’s say, ‘space bubbles’ for yourself recently. What if that includes the ghosts? You’re near an object and you’re unconsciously casting a sort of bubble around it. The ghost becomes less visible.”

“I can’t tell if that’s a good thing or not,” Alice muttered.

Suddenly, they all heard a rattling sound from the area of the folly.

Josh frowned. “What the fu—”

“Nope.” Ben held up a hand. “Just because everybody else does it, doesn’t mean you can.”

Suddenly, Victoria materialized at the open door and yelled, “ Samuel! ”

For the first time since their “screaming introduction,” Victoria looked truly happy.

She slapped her hands against the invisible barrier as if she could dismantle a centuries-old magical ward through the power of will.

Samuel rushed forward, flinging himself at the mystical wall that kept him out of Shaddow House.

He beat on the glass with his fists, not making a sound.

Alice noticed the wounds on his fingers, the way his nails seemed to be ripped, if not missing; the blackened blood seeping into the cuffs of his shirt.

“Samuel!” Victoria shouted. “Please! Please let me out. I just want to touch him. Please!”

Samuel turned to them, panicked. He seemed to draw breath he didn’t need, and made a hoarse croaking noise.

“Umm…not to interrupt this upsetting scene, but have we ever seen that before?” Josh pointed toward the fence. They turned and watched a far less transparent version of a thin, tall man stride through the fence. He was moving toward the folly with purpose.

“Alice, do you think you can control the bubble thing?” Caroline asked.

“I don’t know,” Alice said, shaking her head.

She pictured a microclimate surrounding herself, a force field that protected her from the awful energy of her grandparents, the less genial spirits of the house, Clark’s malevolence—and she drew it into herself, as if she didn’t need it for now.

She wasn’t alone. She didn’t need the same level of protection.

The approaching guest took on the silver-opacity appearance of most of the Shaddow House ghosts—an older man with a severe expression, wearing the Edwardian version of a power suit. Samuel made another croaking noise, as if he was trying to clear years of cobwebs from his throat.

They looked at Plover, who shook his head. “I don’t recall that ghost ever making an appearance before. How odd.”

“You bastard!” Samuel suddenly yelled, his voice still gravelly. He chased the older man, screaming at him. But the thin ghost paid him no mind. It was as if Samuel wasn’t even there. “I saw you! After you killed me, I saw what you did to her! You murdering sonofabitch! How could you hurt her?”

“What is going on?” Edison asked.

“Stanford?” Victoria’s brow wrinkled as she watched the man’s progress across the yard. “What is Stanford doing here?”

Stanford didn’t appear to hear Samuel’s screams. He just kneeled at the base of the folly and appeared to be digging. Victoria watched his crouched figure, an expression of horror dragging at her features.

“Why isn’t he listening to me?” Samuel demanded. Stanford stood, laying hands on the wall of the folly, and appeared to be whispering to himself. Samuel yelled directly into Stanford’s hazed face. “Answer me!”

“He’s not there. He’s an echo,” Alice told Samuel. “It’s like a movie…er, a photograph. You can’t get a photograph to talk back to you.”

“Samuel?” Victoria whispered. Samuel’s head snapped up and he drifted back toward the door.

“I followed him…into the basement. I knew it was wrong, whatever Stanford was doing. There was no reason for him to spend so much time in the basement. And he had mortar on his shoes. Stanford never laid a brick in his life. Why would he be putting up masonry in the basement? He was standing by the wine cellar, in front of a freshly laid brick wall, cleaning up tools. He never cleaned anything. And then I saw your handkerchief on the floor, in the corner, dirty and…and there were red spots on it. Your mother embroidered that for you. I knew you wouldn’t have thrown it on the floor. ”

She looked up, her lip quivering. “I knew… I knew what he did… He saw it, in my face. And it was like an entirely different person wearing his face. He’d always been so unaffected, distant, but he was so angry.

He didn’t even try to explain. He just seemed annoyed that he had another mess to clean up.

He chased me up the stairs. He tried to grab my dress from behind, but he caught my necklace instead.

My stupid skirts kept getting in the way, and he caught me by the hair…

I’d never felt anything like it. So much pain, and the world was spinning, and then everything stopped. I stopped.”

“He threw you down the stairs,” Samuel said. “I saw the whole thing. I couldn’t save you. I’m so sorry.”

Because Samuel hadn’t killed Victoria. Stanford, who had played the poor, sad fiancé when she was found, had done it.

Alice was deeply ashamed. Honestly, she’d seen enough true-crime shows that she should have seen this coming.

The spouse-slash-fiancé who mourned a little too much always did it.

Stanford had killed poor Victoria with Samuel’s blood still metaphorically fresh on his hands.

Unaware of the emotional chaos he’d left in his wake, Stanford’s echo turned away from the folly and walked unsteadily toward Main Square.

“Take him inside, Riley,” Alice whispered. “Please.”

Riley nodded and carried the ring through the door.

Alice felt the tingle of the Shaddow House magic accepting Samuel’s place in the house.

Samuel rushed through the door and threw his arms around Victoria, who sobbed into his neck.

No beating heart could have stayed cold at the sight of them in each other’s arms again, gazing into each other’s faces for the sheer relief of it.

The reddened skin faded from Victoria’s neck and the dried blood seemed to seep back into Samuel’s fingertips.

It was as if being together was undoing the emotional and physical damage that their deaths had wrought.

Alice’s brow rose. Well, that was new.