she told him. "Fae magic, old magic, and it's crawling from the basement up to Tad's hand like a cat seeking a treat." She looked at Tad, and for a moment Mercy looked more fae than he did. "It likes you, but it isn't very happy about us."
Tad smiled at her. "It'll behave itself."
The white milk glass knob on the door turned without help, and Adam liked that no better than he liked the description Mercy had given. Magic was outside his ability to sense unless it was very strong, and he did not like things that he could not perceive.
When Tad pulled his hand off the door, it opened and revealed dark wooden stairs that were even narrower and steeper than the ones they'd just come up. They twisted as they rose so they took up only the same amount of room as the narrow linen closet had, and Adam could only see four steps before they were out of view.
Tad stepped in, and Adam heard the fabric of his shirt catch on a rough spot on the wood at the top of the doorway. Asil followed, and Adam urged Mercy up as soon as the old wolf's feet disappeared from his sight.
The passage was tight, even for Mercy, and she banged a knee on a step, winced, and stopped climbing.
"Are you all right?" he asked, his hand on her ankle.
"No," she said without heat. "Not really. That was the knee I hurt in the car wreck, and there's a ghost."
"A ghost?" He knew Mercy saw ghosts, but she usually didn't tell him when she saw them. She'd once explained to him that most ghosts were only sad memories. The ones that were closer to alive were often better off if they didn't know she could perceive them. He had a feeling that there was a story there, but he hadn't pressed.
"Mmm," Mercy said. "Right in front of me. I think she's the same one that looks out of Zee's dining room window sometimes."
Adam couldn't see anything except for Mercy's back because of the stupid spiral staircase, but he'd probably not be able to see a ghost even if they were in an open room. "Can you get her to move?" he asked.
"She's a repeater, I think," Mercy replied hesitantly.
A repeater, he'd learned from her, was a ghost that she could see but who did not react to the real world at all, just did a certain action over and over again, usually in the same place and sometimes at the same time every day. More an impression than a remnant of a real person.
"What is she doing?"
"Crying." Mercy's voice sharpened a little, making her sound more like herself. "That's what she does in the window, too. I wonder if she was that much of a wet blanket in real life?"
Peripherally, Adam had been aware of Tad and Asil talking somewhere above them. But he'd been paying attention to Mercy, and so he didn't react quickly enough when Tad called out, "Mercy, what's the holdup? Get up here."
She scrambled up the stairs, heedless of the ghost. It was too late to do anything, so Adam hurried behind her. He saw nothing unusual and didn't feel so much as a shiver. He emerged right on her heels to find Mercy tight-lipped and shaky.
"Mercy, are you okay?" he asked, and she looked at him and solemnly shook her head.
"I was wrong. It wasn't a repeater." She rubbed her hands and glanced behind him. "But she can't get in here."
"Who is she?" asked Asil.
"What does it mean that she wasn't a repeater?" Adam didn't like the way Mercy looked - too pale, and there was sweat on her forehead.
"It means that she tried to hitch a ride." Mercy hugged herself and bounced on the balls of her feet.
"Who is she?" Asil asked again.
"Give us a minute," snarled Adam, though he stopped himself from looking at Asil and escalating matters further.
The other wolf's chest rumbled warningly.
"Sorry," Adam said with an effort that cost him. "Mercy. Is there anything I can do?"
She shook her head. "No. I'm okay. I've just never had that happen before. She just clung to me, and I couldn't tell her to go away." She shivered. "But Zee has this place barricaded with magic, and she couldn't follow me here."
She'd been in danger, and Adam had been right there and helpless. He had been leaving her alone because she didn't like "cuddling in public" much, and in this state, she