Beneath An Ivy Moon (Legacy Of Magick Series, Book 4) (19 page)

“The protection magick would probably work better if we maintain body contact,” I said, and tied it on him. “Here, do mine.” Finished, I held up my right hand to him.

“Good idea,” Nathan said, knotting it tight. He took my right hand with his left. “By the power of the old ivy green,” he chanted quietly, “protected from harm and energetic attack we both shall be.”

I felt a tingle rush up from where our hands were joined. The energy was warm and ran straight to the back of my neck. “By the powers of earth, air, fire and water; Lord and Lady protect your son and daughter,” I said, adding to the protective charm.

“So mote it be,” we said together.

I nodded to him, and he gave my hand a squeeze. Without another word we stepped up into the Hall, still holding hands.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The door slammed shut behind us as soon as we cleared it. I couldn’t help but jump a little in reaction. I huffed out a breath. “
Oooh
a slamming door. How cliché,” I said to whatever was listening.

Nathan stared at me open-mouthed. “Maybe now isn’t the best time to be snarky.”

I shifted the camera strap around my neck. “Snarky is my default mode.”

“We need to keep our voices down,” Nathan warned.

“Yeah, we don’t want to get busted by campus security,” I agreed. “Come on, follow me.” My intuition was pulling towards the lounge. I psyched myself up, led him quietly down the hall and turned right.

We stopped together in the doorway. I could see the once missing walls had been reframed and new drywall was screwed in place— still waiting to be taped. The large room was empty except a metal step ladder, several rolls of the white mesh material for taping over the seams, and a few big buckets of joint compound for the drywall.

Nathan pointed with his free hand. “The empty spot over the fireplace? Is that where Victoria Crowly’s portrait used to hang?”

“Yeah,” I said, frowning at the darker rectangular shape on the wall. “I heard that the painting is in storage for now.” I stayed in the doorway and did not enter. As we stood there, the sound of weeping drifted softly through the lounge.

“Do you hear that?” Nathan asked. “The sound of a woman crying.”

“I do. Maybe it’s Victoria, crying over her sister’s death.” As soon as the words left my mouth, the ladder fell over with a loud crash. I cringed, took a step back and moved farther out into the main foyer.

Nathan moved our clasped hands so that the back of his brushed against my side. Keeping contact, he let go of my fingers and ran his arm around my waist instead. “Camera,” he breathed in my ear and gave my waist a friendly squeeze. “The last time you spoke of Melinda’s death,” his voice was louder now, and directed to the room, “a vase was knocked over.”

“That’s right,” I said, taking hold of my camera and keeping an eye out for anything else that might fall over.

“This room is where the student died?” Nathan asked as the crying continued.

“It is.” I nodded, purposefully averting my eyes away from the lounge floor.

“Where exactly did you see the entity that night? Point out where she manifested.”

“At first Cypress and I saw her by the pile of rubble. She sort of zoomed over and was right up in our faces. About where we are standing now.” My voice was husky and I cleared my throat. “After we tried to banish her, she was hovering, sort of, a little to the right of the fireplace, over Jessica’s body.”

The sound of the weeping faded and the Hall was hushed. The only thing I could hear in the quiet was my own breathing, and Nathan’s.

“I want to try something,” Nathan whispered to me.

I lifted the camera and brought the room into focus. “Go ahead.”

“Melinda,” he called loudly. As if in answer, there was a loud thump from somewhere above us.

The sound of footsteps began to echo in the empty building. I cocked my head to one side and listened. “Is someone— a physical person someone— upstairs?” I whispered, and the sound stopped.

Nathan moved back, pulling me with him further into the foyer. He seemed suddenly very interested in the main staircase. “Nothing corporeal has been up and down those stairs for a while,” he said quietly.

“Okay, I’ll play Watson to your Holmes,” I said softly. “How’d you deduce that?”

Nathan pointed. “The textbooks that were abandoned— see how the books lying on the staircase are covered in drywall dust?”

I moved closer to the steps to see for myself. “Yeah, everything has white dust on it, but there are no smudges or marks on the wooden stairs.” I framed the staircase and the books in, and took several photos. “I read that Parapsychologists sometimes sprinkle flour or powder over the floor to see if anything smudges it or disturbs it when they do investigations.”

“Exactly,” Nathan said as I lowered my camera. “The floor in the foyer and the lounge itself has footprints— ours, and the workmen’s. But the drywall dust on the stairs is unmarked.”

The sound of footsteps above us started up again. I held my breath and waited. But as before, they faded away. I shuddered in reaction.

Nathan pulled me closer so I was snugged up tight against his side. “Let’s go back for a closer study of the lounge,” he suggested.

I balked. “You go ahead, I’m staying out here in the foyer.”

“Are you okay being back in your dorm?” he asked.

I nodded, but stayed where I was. “It’s sad to see the spot where Jessica died.”

“Are you
sensing
anything?”

“Not with my psychic abilities, no. I’m not an empath like my twin,” I said. “Holly would be able to pick up on any lingering emotions in the room, not me.”

Nathan’s eyes popped wide. “God, you have a twin? There are
two
of you?”

“Holly is my
fraternal
twin,” I said, rolling my eyes at him. “She’s older than me by five minutes.” When he continued to stare I elbowed him in the ribs. “Relax, there’s only one of me, Pogue.”

Nathan stood, frowning down at me. “And your mother named you two Holly and Ivy?”

“We were born on the Winter Solstice. She’d always said it seemed appropriate.”

“Why haven’t I met your sister? No one in your family ever spoke of a twin. Where is she?”

I sighed. “She abjured her Craft and moved away to the other side of the state to go to school, two years ago.”

“Why would she give up her Craft?”

“Long story short?” I stepped away from him, no longer wanting his arm around my waist. “A few weeks before my mother died, Holly lost control of her magick. And it was pretty bad.”

“She used her powers to harm?” Nathan’s voice was soft as he stepped closer to me, his expression intense.

“Yes, she did,” I said, dragging a hand through my hair. “Not that she wasn’t provoked... but yeah, she attacked another girl with her powers.”

Nathan reached out and rested his hand on my shoulder. He stayed silent, waiting for me to continue.

“She was working on making amends and gaining better control of her magick, when our mom died,” I said.

“Did that set her over the edge? Was she worse after your mother’s death?” Nathan’s question sounded unemotional, as if we were casually discussing the weather.

“No, actually it shut her down. She stopped practicing altogether.” I took a breath and tried to steady myself. “Then my sister moved away and went to another school clear across the state. These days, Holly finds excuses not to come home. She rarely talks to us anymore. I haven’t seen my twin since last year.”

“Ivy, I have two sisters. They both live in Massachusetts with their families,” Nathan said. “I don’t see them for months at a time now that I’m going to school here. We’re still a family no matter where we live.” He patted my shoulder. “Don’t you think you’re overreacting?”

“You don’t understand,” I said, my voice rising along with my frustration. “Holly was my other half— I grew up learning magick with her! We practiced together. When my sister abjured her Craft, she basically cut off half of my magick!”

“You were dependent on her.” He stared down at me, almost in a clinical way, and that
really
pissed me off.

“Thanks for that brilliant insight, Captain Obvious,” I snapped, jerking my shoulder out from under his hand. “I was, and still
am
dependent on her!”

Nathan held up his hands, placating. “Easy, keep your voice down.”

I suddenly remembered where we were, skulking around in an off-limits, haunted and historic building. I closed my eyes, trying to compose myself. “Truth is? My magick
sucks
without my twin by my side.”

“Why would you think that?”

I growled in frustration. “Because...” I flung a hand out towards the lounge, and a roll of drywall tape shot towards me. I snatched it out of the air and waved it in his face. “Despite my telekinesis, my spell casting still works best when I work
with
another practitioner.”

“The amount of control you have over your telekinetic ability is impressive,” Nathan said in a serious tone. “Being able to manipulate inanimate objects is rare.”

I set the tape down on the floor. “Yeah it’s a swell party trick,” I groused, pointing at the roll and then aiming my finger towards the lounge. The tape rolled away, curving into the lounge. It came to a neat stop next to a five gallon bucket of compound.

“Ivy,” Nathan said, “most Witches would give anything to be able to do what you dismiss as a ‘swell party trick’.”

I felt a ripple of air roll over me. It blew hard at my back, and my hair shot into my face. I shoved it out of my eyes and spun around to see where the draft was coming from. “What the hell?” I said, watching as Nathan’s hair waved away from his face.

Nathan reached out, winding an arm around my waist. “Here we go,” he said in a grim tone of voice, squinting up the dark stairs. “We should stay together,” he said, and pulled me tight along his right side.

I shivered at the sudden cold. “What’s happening?”

“The barometric pressure dropped,” Nathan said out of the corner of his mouth.

“Show time?” I asked, half thrilled— half terrified.

“Get your camera ready,” he said as footsteps sounded loudly, again. “It’s coming down the stairs.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” I quickly tucked my left foot around his right. I leaned my shoulder against him so that we maintained even more body contact, leaving my hands free.

“Good idea,” Nathan said. Keeping his eyes on the staircase, he lifted his arm over my head and dug his cell phone out of his pocket. He switched the phone over to video record and aimed it up the steps.

We stood hip to thigh. “Will you share energy with me if necessary?” I whispered, raising up my camera as well, and focusing towards the second floor landing.

“Of course,” he said, and I felt his body stiffen in surprise. “There she is.”

I don’t know what I expected, but seeing a wispy, black and white version of Victoria Crowly floating on the second floor landing— through my viewfinder— was
not
it. “Shit.” I managed to snap a few pictures, and I lowered the camera so I could see her with my own eyes.

Victoria Crowly’s ghost seemed almost illuminated. I could see her face, arms and upper body, but the rest of her sort of disappeared from the knees down. Her brows were lowered, her mouth was set in harsh, and unyielding lines. Her hair was styled as in her portrait, and I could see a lace collar and cameo at her throat. That little smile on her face that had always creeped me out from the painting was gone— and replaced by a scowl.

Nathan’s breath left him in a rush. “Wow,” he murmured as the spirit moved farther down the stairs.

I saw a soft glow out of the corner of my eye and glanced over to see that Nathan’s triquetra circle was gleaming. The pentagram amulet around my neck was also shining with a soft white light, but that wasn’t all. The bands of ivy encircling our wrists were both illuminated too. “Our protective amulets and the charmed ivy are reacting to the ghost,” I whispered. “Nathan, they’re glowing brighter the nearer the ghost gets to us.”

“That’s close enough,” Nathan said. He shoved his phone at me. I grabbed it right before he rolled his wrists and pushed out with his hands in one smooth gesture. I felt a thud in my chest as he manipulated the energy around us. A ring of blue light shimmered to life across the dusty tile floor, circling clockwise around our feet. “Stay in the protective circle,” Nathan warned me.

“Witches!” Victoria seemed to pause. “Get out of my house!” she hissed.

“This isn’t your house,” I said in a shaking voice. I handed Nathan back his phone. “Not anymore.” I tried to sound brave, and raised my camera to take a few more pictures.

“Crowly Hall is a dormitory,” Nathan said, lifting the phone up again so he could continue to record. “The school you started is a university now.”

A spectral wind continued to flutter my hair back from my face, as the ghost floated to the bottom of the stairs.
That’s not good,
I thought, letting my camera rest against my chest.
If we’re in a magick circle the wind— or whatever it was— shouldn’t be able to touch us.
Concentrating, I took a deep breath and lifted my right foot a few inches. I stomped my foot down, and pushed out with my own power. The circle blew out a tiny bit wider, only a few more inches, but it became a deeper shade of blue.

Nathan leaned in closer along my side. “Nice job,” he said appreciatively.

“I’m just glad it worked,” I said. That ‘wind’ still seemed to make Victoria Crowly’s hair and clothes flutter... But now, safe within the strengthened boundaries of our protective circle, it was calm.

“Victoria.” Nathan’s voice sounded composed and reasonable. “Why are you still here? Are you looking for Melinda?”

“Melinda.” Victoria’s voice echoed through the foyer. “Where is Melinda?”

“She’s gone,” Nathan said.

“But Prudence was here,” I said, deliberately. “Do you remember Prudence?”

The ghost whipped her head around and made a horrible face at me. “Oh
shit
,” I said, as her face seemed to stretch down, and her mouth became impossibly long.