“I’m going for a walk,” I announced to the room, and the two beings occupying it wisely didn’t question my sudden change.
As I walked through the halls of the mansion aimlessly, I tried to empty my mind and be like the ghosts around me, drifting through the world. I didn’t know what to do about the murders right now, and I wanted to see Selene again but didn’t know what to do about that, either. Neither of us needed this flimsy friendship to turn into anything more than what it was, and the more time I spent with her, the higher percentage of that happening would occur. She was smart and a smart-ass. She was fun to be around, talk to, and yeah she wasn’t my typical type of woman, but she was stunning.
Despite wanting to be alone, I shuffled my deck of cards all the way to Madam Tully’s room in the basement. A candelabra waited on a shelf at the bottom of the stairs with a light for me. There wasn’t any electricity down here.
Like the rest of the house, the basement was not normal. It was just as artfully decorated with no amount of cash spared. Artwork and curtains hung from the ceiling to the floor with lush carpets that could use a good vacuum. The whole place was stuck in the early 1800s, including some of its inhabitants. Although, most ghosts didn’t wander down here, since the lack of light reminded them of being underground in a grave or in a coffin. I also heard from Rudy that Madam Tully made them uncomfortable. She was a witch who married into the family and had originally warned her husband about the repercussions of not doing as he was born to do. Some of the ghosts believed she could have done more to stop the curse, but I didn’t. We only had control of ourselves in this life. What other people did was not our fault.
“Prince of Souls, why so sad and full of woe?”
I rolled my eyes as I pushed the intricately carved wooden door to see the witch’s ghostly head inside a crystal ball.
“I hate it when you try to rhyme. It makes you sound crazy.”
The ancient souls say the mansion was built on sacred ground and was a hub of wild magic fought over for many years. Many deaths occurred. Madam Tully’s room was a place of worship to that wild magic. She had an altar and plants that were still alive despite never seeing sunlight and I doubted she had watered them in over a century. Two elegant high back seats sat by a table in the front with a deck of tarot cards and a crystal ball more for show than functional, and the walls were lined with various symbols, statues, and crystals of every color imaginable.
“Crazy I may be, but there is more than what you see.”
I sat down in the only chair that wasn’t dusty, since my ass was in it more frequently than not.
“I’ve got a lot going on in my head,” I admitted, relaxing for a little bit. I couldn’t talk to anyone else, even my ghostly family. Mom and Dad were still all about each other and liked to take vacations around the cemetery to get out of the house. Everyone else did whatever they wanted, not caring about the living except for my performers. Even with them, I felt they humored me because I said I would take them into the afterlife once the curse was broken.
Madam Tully liked my company and was always there if I needed to vent or get advice. She knew about the future but would never tell specifics.
“What’s going on?” She gave up the theatrics and pulled herself out of the crystal ball to sit in the chair opposite of me.
“I’m cursed, and people are dying at my show.” I didn’t mention Selene because I didn’t think there was anything to tell.
Madam Tully arched her eyebrow and pursed her lips. Her hair was straight, and she was a healthy woman when alive, with womanly curves and proud of it. When she first married, she had been about Selene’s size but she was unhappy, later in their marriage she embraced who she truly was and let her inner goddess come out. I envied her acceptance of herself most days. She kept it real while everyone else played it safe.
“You sure the curse will end with me?” Even if my deal with my performers turned out to be nothing, I had no heir to continue the line of gatekeepers.
“It will, that much is clear, but there is still so much that needs to be done. Something has changed in the Earth. Souls are slipping out of places they should not be, gaining abilities they are not allowed to have.”
“What do you mean?”
One side of her lips tilted upward as she raised her hand toward a glass coated in dust and webs.
I didn’t understand what she was trying to demonstrate until her fingers connected with the glass, and it tumbled toward the ground, shattering into little crystal pieces all over the floor.
“Impossible.” I couldn’t take my eyes away from the broken glass shimmering in the candlelight. I hadn’t given her the ability to touch the glass, to move it. I’d always been very careful in the house to keep my powers contained to me. If she was able to do that, then . . .
“My dear Jude, impossible has now entered the realm of possible.”
Chapter Thirteen
Selene
Despite two people being killed at Jude’s last two shows, the tickets were sold out for tonight’s performance. Due to the added hype, people wanted to be there. Conspiracy theories circulated about the murders being part of the show. Either the murders weren’t real or he helped the girls escape horrible lives by faking their deaths with his magic. Everyone wanted to see what was going to happen next.
This time I was not here for fun or to watch Jude on the stage. Undercover police agents were scattered in the crowd as well as unmasked Hero Society members. All of us were here to hopefully catch the killer.
I hadn’t heard from Jude besides shooting him an email that I would be there shortly. He already knew about the undercover cops. Soon after, ten tickets popped into my inbox from him, along with his number that I put into my phone immediately. Now all we could do was wait and keep our eyes open. The show was going to start in about eighteen minutes, and I prayed no one got hurt tonight.
“Excuse me, Ms. Constance. Mr. Mallory wants to see you backstage.” A stagehand with a headset over his blond hair looked at me with an impatient brown-eyed stare.
I nodded and stood. This person didn’t look like the description of the killer Trixie had given, and her ghost glared to determine if he was the one. She gave me a shake of the head before drifting off to maybe catch a glimpse of the person somewhere else in the crowd.
There was chaos backstage with the ghost performers getting ready. They looked more real close up, and I was tempted to reach out and touch them. They still had that shimmering blue glow to them, but they looked more solid, like my hand wouldn’t go through them.
