chain around his neck and rings of silver, jet and obsidian on his fingers. I looked down at the smooth wooden floor, and realized that a large circle had been worked into the design of the wood itself. That circle was overlaid with salt and charcoal. Large pillar candles burned at the four quarters of the circle, and the smell of freshly-smudged sage filled the room.
Inside the circle, I saw the items Teag and I had supplied to Sorren. Harry’s dirty, worn backpack looked forlorn, and Jonathan’s carabiner held the keys to the beat-up motorcycle that was his pride and joy.
Higgins closed the doors after us, remaining on the inside of the room. He threw a heavy bolt, and then ran his hand down the opening between the two doors, murmuring under his breath as a golden glow sealed the doors shut. When he turned back to us, he no longer looked the part of a butler. Higgins stood taller, straighter, chin raised, and he met my gaze with a smirk as if he had anticipated my surprise.
“Let’s join the circle, shall we?” he said. He led Teag and me over to where Sorren already stood on the outskirts of the warded circle. As we followed him, I noticed that Higgins wore an Indian talwar sword on his belt, and a kila, a three-sided dagger, as well, an excellent weapon for fighting demons.
Someone – maybe Higgins – had brought in the duffel bag from Teag’s car that contained our weapons. That meant Donnelly expected trouble, and we were expected to be more than bystanders. Teag and I were already wearing the protective vests Teag had made with magic woven into them. Now, we grabbed the rest of our gear and went to stand in between the candles at the cross-quarters.
“Take hands and make a circle,” Donnelly said. I looked to Teag on one side and Sorren on the other. We couldn’t reach each other and remain outside the circle.
That’s when I noticed the ghosts. Some of them slipped out of the shadows and the corners of the room, while others stepped down from their portraits. A few just appeared out of the air, gone one moment, present the next. I recognized many of the faces from the paintings in the other rooms, explorers whose luck had run out, or who chose not to leave the society when their time was up.
Donnelly’s magic made them nearly solid, and the ghosts stepped up to the outside of the wardings to take our hands. The man on my right was dressed like a Spanish conquistador, while the man on my left had the look of a French fur trader. The ghosts came from every century, including a few I recognized from TV specials when I was a kid. Women explorers too, the unsung heroines of history, pioneers and traders, seafarers, aviators, and astronauts. Just a few of the Briggs Society’s members, coming at the Colonel’s call to venture once more into the unknown.
To my surprise, the ghosts’ hands felt cold and solid to the touch. I did not squeeze because I did not want to know what would happen. When the circle of our bodies was complete, Donnelly murmured words of power, and a cold incandescent barrier leaped up where the circle was marked on the floor, separating Donnelly from us.
Donnelly took out a dagger from his belt and put three slashes cross-wise on his left wrist. He shook his bleeding wrist, casting a spatter of blood within the warded circle.
“Jonathan, by your connection to this object, I call your spirit to this place and bind it to my will.”
Another shake. “Harry, by your connection to your possession, I call your spirit to this place and bind it to my will.”
A third shake. “So I have willed it. So mote it be!”
The curtain of power flared and I looked away, since I dared not break the connection of the circle to raise an arm that would shield my face. The power rippled and gleamed with an iridescent light. Donnelly’s figure glowed and as he spoke the words of summoning, he became a larger, more commanding presence, someone to be reckoned with.
When the glare faded and I looked again, two new figures stood within the circle. The ghosts around the perimeter had grown solid enough that if I had not known they were specters, I would not have guessed it. I strained for a better look through the shimmering warding, and recognized Jonathan, the