of the gentlemanly sort, though not necessary because I was the safest person on earth. Since thousands of magical people would defend me with their lives and none would dare harm me. While it felt like there was a subtext of darkness embedded in that reassurance, I did feel safer in Hallow Hill than ever before.
From a purely emotional standpoint, that item appeared at the top of the plus column.
I said good night and closed the door behind me, but my newborn compulsion niggled at me saying what would be the harm in stepping over and checking on Romeo. I told myself there’s nothing wrong with bonding with cars. Men do it all the time.
The night was so quiet it felt like I could be the only person in the world. The garage door responded immediately to the opener that hung from my keychain. The roller engaged on its track and the lights came on.
Romeo looked just as showroom shiny and fresh as the last time I’d performed this ritual the day before.
“Romeo?”
A muffled, “Yes, madam?”
I found that I was becoming accustomed to being called madam, Magistrate, Judge, and the like.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, madam.”
And then in what was clearly the most irrational moment since I’d arrived in England, I said, “We’ll go for a drive tomorrow afternoon, okay?’’ It wasn’t a lie. I would either be headed back to the airport or I’d be going on a little outing to check out the environs, give a little perspective to ‘home’.
“I will be here.”
“Good to know.”
The garage door came down behind me as I turned back to my front door, but something caused me to stop in my tracks. I’d heard something, but couldn’t discern what it was until after the door lift ceased its grinding noise. When the door met the concrete with a little scrape, all was quiet again.
Except for a sound that could only be called wailing. It was coming from down the hill in the direction of the river below. On impulse I started down the cobblestone lane, almost wishing that Keir Culain hadn’t gone already.
With every step the wailing became louder, and so mournful that it elicited a visceral reaction. The sorrow in that voice made tears prick even though I didn’t know who it was or why they were so sad.
Four houses down the hill, I reached the peak of crescendo but couldn’t find the source. The tone was too pure to be originating indoors. I looked around, turned in a circle then looked up and there, above the rooftops a figure hovered like a ghost. Or a nightmare.
When it turned toward me, I’d like to say the reason why I didn’t move was because I didn’t want to run. But the truth was that I was so frightened I was frozen in place.
The specter began to slowly move in my direction.
It had the characteristics usually associated with a phantom in that it appeared filmy. Yet I couldn’t see through it as would be expected of a form that isn’t solid. It appeared to be a young, tall, lithe female wearing a long gown of diaphanous green with skirts and sleeves that fluttered even though the breeze had quieted at sunset and there was no wind.
I’d been too frightened to notice that the wailing had stopped. The creature had trained a hundred percent of its focus on me and was drifting slowly down in my direction while maintaining an upright posture, as if standing on something solid.
As she grew closer, I thought my heart would stop beating from fright, but I remained quite alive, quite conscious, and quite unable to move.
When she was just a few yards overhead, the necklace she was wearing caught the light of the streetlamp and projected a prism of colors like a rainbow. The aquamarine. My eyes jerked to the face of the spirit. Heart-shaped, like Maggie’s probably was when she was young. Or in the true form of her second nature. Even if those things were wild speculation, the eyes were unmistakable.
She came to rest on the street a few yards away, said nothing, and made no move to engage. I stared at her. She stared at me. She was elegant, graceful, and ethereal. In some ways the opposite of the Maggie I was coming to know. She lifted her head as if she’d heard my thought and then she was gone in a flash, like a creature who could move almost faster than the eye could see.