“I came here with only one purpose in mind, and that purpose was given to me by your grandmother,” Jess said. “I needed to pass along that book. It took me a little while to find you—no one in this town is very forthcoming to outsiders, but I assume you already know that. Regardless, though, I found you and delivered your book. Mission accomplished.”
“But that was two days ago,” I said, momentarily distracted from my own insecurities. “So why are you still here? When you left my house, you made it sound like you were on the way out of town.”
“Do you remember when I mentioned those places in the world where the veil between the worlds is thin?” Jess asked, waiting for both Nova and me to nod. “Well, Sedgwick Cove is one of those places. TheDurupinen keep track of those places—you can imagine why that would be important for us, seeing as we’re supposed to be guarding them. But the thing is, we have no record of this place on our map. It’s like it’s been hidden or something.”
“How do you know?” I asked. “That Sedgwick Cove is one of those places?”
“I can feel it,” Jess said. “The same way I imagine you can feel traces of witchcraft. I realized I had to stay, to investigate and figure out what was going on. And so I have. I got a room here at this bed and breakfast, and then I started snooping around.”
“And that led you to the Playhouse,” I said, starting to feel at last that this story was starting to make some sense.
“That’s right,” Jess said. “But the Playhouse was heavily guarded, and so I knew I wouldn’t be able to get near the place. Why is it being guarded, by the way? Do you know? It doesn’t even look like it’s open.”
Nova and I traded a glance. We were getting into territory that meant a serious breach of secrecy. No one outside of Sedgwick Cove knew about the deep magic, and it was too dangerous to speak about it to an outsider, even I knew that. I cleared my throat.
“It isn’t open. It’s a summer theater. But there was an incident there a couple of months ago,” I said, deciding on just a bit of the truth. “It was the site of some dark magic. The town has been… investigating it ever since.”
Jess narrowed her eyes. She knew I wasn’t telling her everything, but she seemed to decide that was okay, for the time being. She went on, “Well, like I said, I had to try to see why I was drawn to that Playhouse. So, I… well, I engaged in my own version of spellcasting so that I could perform my own investigation.”
“And that meant killing yourself?” Nova asked, hoisting a single, skeptical eyebrow.
Jess smirked. “Not exactly. You see, the Durupinen have individual gifts—strengths that help them interact with the spirit world. For example, my sister is a Caller—she can actually summon spirits and exercise control over their actions.”
I felt my eyes grow wide. “You mean she can… control spirits?” Even with my level of magical ignorance, that sounded malevolent. Perhaps my skepticism showed on my face, because Jess raised a cautionary hand.
“I know it sounds bad, but my sister Hannah is the gentlest soul you’ll ever meet. Now that she fully understands her power, she only uses it in the most dire of circumstances, and then only for good. She’s just one example. Some Durupinen are Empaths—they feel the emotions of spirits as though the emotions are their own.”
“What about you?” I asked.
Jess gave a rueful laugh. “Me? Oh, I’m multi-talented. To begin with, I’m a Muse. That means that spirits use my artistic abilities to communicate. I drew your face several times, Wren Vesper, before I was able to fully connect with your grandmother.”
The thought of my face in a stranger’s sketchbook made me want to shudder, but it also triggered a thought. “Bea…” I began.
Jess was already nodding. “I know she’s not a Durupinen, but our gifts are almost identical. I would be fascinated to find out more about how her abilities work, but of course there’s been no time for that yet. I was in a bit of an emergency situation.”
“So being a Muse wasn’t the reason you wound up as a ghost?”
“Nope. That would be my other gift. Like I said, multi-talented,” Jess said, flipping her hair sarcastically. “I’m also a Walker. That means I can use a Casting to leave my body and travel around in spirit form.”
“How?” I asked, fascinated in spite of myself.
“With one of these,” Jess answered, raising her left wrist to reveal several intricately knotted bracelets nested there.
“Oh!” I gasped, and reached into my pocket, pulling out the broken bracelet I’d found beside her body in the woods. “I found this sort of pinned under your arm when I found you in the woods.”
Nova leaned over so that she could look more closely. I hadn’t had much time to examine it before, but now as my eyes took in the complexities of the knotwork and the braiding, a creeping sensation began to wriggle its way over my skin. Different though our magic was, even I knew those bracelets were anything but ordinary.
After allowing us to gawk at her bracelets for another moment, Jess went on. “That one is cut through, because severing it is part of the Casting that allows me to leave my body. Once I escaped my body, I was able to roam freely without detection—or at least, withoutcompletedetection. There was definitely one woman down there at the Playhouse who sensed my presence.”
“That would be Xiomara, Bea’s grandmother,” I explained. “She’s the most powerful spirit witch in Sedgwick Cove. She’s helping me to develop my own abilities.” I fought the urge to add how badly that particular bit of training was going.
“I was lucky to evade her detection,” Jess said. “Being a true Walker is a very rare ability. Other Durupinen who have attempted to cultivate it have typically descended into madness. It’s a skill that can be much more curse than blessing, and I use it as infrequently as possible.”
“But why?” Nova asked, her voice a bit breathless. “It sounds incredible, to be totally free of the confines of your body!”
Jess’ smile was a little too knowing. “Yeah, that’s the problem. Those who try it often lose their connection to their bodies, and desire instead to roam the world in their spirit form. That’s when the madness sets in.”
“And you don’t? I mean, you haven’t…” My voice trailed away as I struggled to find a polite way to ask my question. I mean, is there a polite way to ask someone if they’re nuts?
