at me. “Next time you come to visit, don’t forget to bring Ira, too.”
“I won’t,” I said, grinning as Finn shot me a questioning look. We entered the lift, and he was still staring at me, waiting for an explanation.
“When I went back in, I found Rebecca combing Ira’s hair with a bright pink comb.”
Finn’s eyes crinkled with mirth. “I’m sad I missed that.”
Ira gave another of his low grunts, and Finn and I burst out laughing.
***
When we got back to the house, Delilah and Rita were in the kitchen, both staring at a glass jar they’d placed on the table. Inside the jar was what appeared to be some kind of black and grey swirling mist.
“What you got there?” Finn questioned, pulling up a chair.
“Not sure exactly,” Rita replied. “Dee and I took a boat out to Ridley Island, but there was nothing much to find except for empty, barren land. Then on the way home, I came across this little fella hovering by a shop doorway.” Rita had taken to calling Delilah ‘Dee’. I was surprised Delilah hadn’t told her off about it yet.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Rita continued. “But I’ve heard of strange entities like this drifting through from other realms. We watched it for a couple of minutes, and it seemed to be seeping into the people who came in and out of the shop, little by little. It was a good thing I had my spell kit with me, so I could trap it in this jar. I think it must be some kind of energy that got through when Theodore came back from hell. From the way it was seeping into people, I’d say this is what caused the riot you experienced. It’s making humans go doo-lally somehow.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Finn said, leaning in to study the jar. He jerked back when the mist suddenly slammed against the glass right where his eyes had been focused, as though it sensed him looking at it.
Rita chuckled. “Hey, Finn, I think it just gave you the finger.”
Finn smirked. “I think you might be right.”
I rubbed my arms, feeling a chill. Something inside of me was revolted by my proximity to the jar. It was like my magic, the same magic that presented me with the pages of the unknown book, was urging me to stay away from it.
“You need to get it out of here,” I said, eyeing Rita. “It makes me feel odd, kind of like I’m sick with fear. I’ve got goosebumps. Look,” I pulled up my sleeve to show her my arm.
“Yeah, I’m getting that feeling, too. Maybe not as strongly as you are though,” Rita replied. “But I can’t just let it go. I need to get rid of it responsibly, and until I figure out how to do that, we’ve got to keep it in the jar.”
“How about I lock it in the shed out back?” Finn suggested, nodding in the direction of the little wooden building behind the garden. “I’ve got a big padlock that I can put on the door to make sure nobody gets inside.”
“Yes, we should do that. Do it now.” My eyes locked on the mist, which was swirling violently inside the jar as though taunting me, struggling to break free of its glass prison. I could almost feel it urging me to open the lid.
Yeah, fat chance of that happening.
“We can do that later. I want to show it to Ethan first,” Delilah said.
I glanced up at the clock. “But it’s only lunchtime, and Ethan won’t be up for hours. I can’t sit in the house for that long with it here. I’m seriously repelled by it. I feel like I might be sick.” How was it affecting me so intensely? My stomach turned just looking at it.
“Amanda’s upstairs packing the last of her things to go home. Why don’t you go help her? It’ll get you out of the house for a couple of hours and will give me time to study this thing in more detail,” Rita suggested.
“Oh, I completely forgot she was going home today. Yeah, okay, I’ll do that.”
I felt skittish as I hurried upstairs to Amanda. I helped her with her bags, and we got a taxi to her parents’ place. I didn’t even realise Ira had tagged along until I felt him slide into the back seat next to me. It was a tight squeeze, but I didn’t mind. Truth be told, I liked having him