“I’m glad you’re so sure of yourself,” I said. That hadn’t always been the case. Marcy had struggled with her confidence in crafting spells for a long time. “Nothing like a wishy-washy witch to make you second-guess their abilities.” A tingly sensation flooded over my body, followed by warmth and, surprisingly, the smell of popcorn. I wrinkled my nose. “Am I supposed to reek like I work behind the counter at a movie theater?”
“Quiet, you,” she shushed. “Can’t you see I’m working here?” She muttered a few more things. “And, yes”—she opened one eye—“the smell of butter is standard. It’s the buttery goodness that allows us to track you.”
I laughed out loud. “The buttery goodness? Somehow I don’t think so.”
Both eyes popped open. “Okay, fine, so I threw in a drama charm by accident,” she said. “These spells are tricky. One wrong word inflection and it’s an entirely different recipe. If you feel like quoting Shakespeare, don’t blame me.” I arched an eyebrow. “Well, I guess you can blame me, but don’t be mad.” After a few more moments, she announced, “I’m done. How do you feel?”
“Fine?” I posed it as a question. “Am I supposed to feel any different?”
“No,” she said. “But I felt like I should ask anyway. Any obsessive urges to quote Shakespeare?”
“Get thee to a nunnery,” I intoned in my best English accent, joking. Hamlet was all I had—and maybe a little Romeo and Juliet. “What light through yonder window breaks—”
“Okay, enough, funny girl.” Marcy couldn’t help but laugh. “It must not have been that powerful of a charm, if that’s all you got. That, and I put a Band-Aid over it, so your sonnet-oration urges should be in check.”
“Happy fun time is over,” Ray grumbled from my right. “Time to get to work. I’m going to position myself outside the piling below. I saw some strange windows set in the stone. I wonder what the hell they used this place for. Strangest bridge I’ve ever seen.” He shook his head. “If I need to get in, I’ll break a window. Somebody yell if there’s an issue, but I’ll likely hear her first.”
Rourke nodded. “Good. I’m staying by the door, along with Kayla and Marcy. Tyler and Irish, I want you to continue scanning the bridge. I want to know if there’s anybody here who’s not supposed to be. Nick and Lucas, you stand outside the shop and make sure nobody interferes. If the owner comes back, keep them occupied.”
Everyone agreed.
“I’ll put a ‘there’s nothing to look at here’ spell ten feet around this spot,” Marcy said, indicating where we stood. “If I make it any larger, people will start to arc in a circle around us and it will look funny.”
I turned to Kayla. “Whenever you’re ready,” I said. “Do you need to sit down?”
She barely refrained from giving me the stink eye. “No. I’m fine right here.”
I nodded. I had no idea what I was going to find down there, but Danny had better be in one piece. Rourke took my hand, and I leaned over to give him a kiss. “I’m going to be okay,” I murmured into his lips. “My wolf is on high alert, and she’s not antsy at all. That’s a good sign. She’s in charge of supernatural threats. If Enid was down there, we’d feel it.”
He nodded, but said nothing. His tension radiated outward. He was poised to strike someone or something.
“Okay, I’m ready,” Kayla announced.
“That was quick.” I glanced over Rourke’s shoulder.
“They weren’t buried,” she said. “So that made it easier. Oh, and expect there to be some ghosts down there. Many of these people died a harsh death, some from starvation, but many from murder. Souls tend to linger when death is violent. Just a fair warning.” She smiled and winked. I found myself enjoying this side of Kayla. It was one we hadn’t seen before. “If you’re sensitive to otherworldly beings, you will likely perceive them.”
Great. I totally was.
Ghosts were not my favorite by a long shot, but they’d been an asset to me in the past. “Unfortunately, I am sensitive. I found that out the hard way crawling around in Eudoxia’s backyard. But none of those ghosts were malicious,” I said. “Should I expect different today?”
She shook her head. “No, on the whole, ghosts are very passive beings. They are simply stuck in limbo, most of them not even realizing they’re dead. If I inhabit a body with a soul attached, I can help them cross over. But other ghosts won’t pay any attention to me.”
“Got it,” I said. “So any ghosts who talk to me are not coming from the bodies you’re reanimating.”
“Yep, that’s it exactly,” she answered cheerily. A happy necromancer. Who knew? “It makes it less macabre that way.”
I set my hand on the deadbolt. “I’m going to have to disagree with you there, but I catch your drift.” I slid the long latch out of the holes, and the door popped open without any impediment. “Okay, I’m going in.”
Rourke growled, “If you’re down there any longer than necessary, I’m coming in after you.”
“Define longer than necessary,” I said as I placed a foot over the threshold.
“Fifteen minutes,” he deadpanned.
“How about forty-five?” I negotiated.
“Fine,” he said. “But not a minute over.”