“Can I get you tea or a soda, or something with protein or sugar?” Ben knew how much Erik’s psychometry took out of him, and guessed the same might be true for Alessia.
“Yes, please,” Alessia replied. “Soda is fine.” Ben hurried to bring her a cola and peanut butter crackers. She polished them off quickly.
“Do you need more?” Ben asked. “We’ve got juice and cookies too.”
Alessia shook her head. “I’m okay. I’m just glad it worked, and it looks like we saved Haley the effort.”
“Thank you,” Erik told her. “When you’re up to it, there’s another piece in the safe that I would appreciate having you look at. We know it’s haunted, but I hadn’t really thought about having magic attached too. I want Haley to look at that one as well.”
Alessia looked intrigued. “What’s the story?”
Erik and Ben took turns filling her in about Peter Randolph. Considering the tale of a potentially malicious ghost, mobsters, and murder, Alessia seemed to take it in stride.
“Not the worst I’ve run into,” she said. “You really never have a dull day, do you?”
Erik frowned. “I knew when I bought the store that it had a mission as well as a market. It seemed like a good way to use my psychometry to make a difference. At the time, I thought it would be a lot safer than my old job. That part hasn’t exactly worked out the way I planned.”
Ben could almost see Alessia thinking about their revelations. “I’m not surprised you hit it off with Monty and Haley. This is all their jam.”
“We are happy for their help and yours,” Erik assured her.
Erik retrieved the haunted window from the safe, still in its protections. He put the box on the table where Alessia still sat within the salt circle. Erik used the silver-threaded gloves to unwrap the window in its box from the protective blanket. He opened the box, but didn’t remove the window.
Ben watched as Erik added more salt to the circle around the table for extra protection.
“I only did a superficial reading when the window came in. With you here for backup, I’d like to see if I can get more of a read on it with my psychometry, and then see what magic you pick up,” Erik said
“Sounds good,” Alessia replied. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths, centering herself. Ben could usually see strong ghosts, but whatever energy tainted the window wasn’t something that was visible to him. That didn’t stop him from picking up really bad vibes.
They waited, and Ben tried not to fidget.
Erik took off the gloves and let his right hand hover above the window, palm down and fingers splayed. He didn’t touchanything. Ben split his attention between watching Erik for any sign of danger or distress and eyeing the window suspiciously in case its image moved.
“It’s old…and genuine Tiffany,” Erik replied. “I am getting glimpses of the workshop. No idea whether Tiffany himself worked on it. There’s a man. I don’t know who he is, but there’s a dark vibe about him and the book. It’s haunted, and I think there’s also magic involved.”
He paused, frowning. “I’m getting an image of a large stained glass ceiling dome. No context. I don’t know whether that’s coming from the window’s history or its last owner.”
Erik suddenly withdrew his hand as if he’d been burned and slammed the box shut.
Alessia’s face paled, and she recoiled. She made a gesture of warding. Ben and Erik exchanged a glance, silently agreeing that she had gotten even worse vibes from the window than Erik had. Erik put the gloves back on and hurried to wrap the box in the protective blanket.
“Are you okay?” Ben asked, worried.
Alessia nodded. “Yeah, but that was really dangerous. What did you two pick up from the window?”
“Seriously bad vibes,” Ben replied.
“A sense of evil.” Erik rejoined them. “I felt like something was reaching for me.” Erik had gone pale, and his eyes were wide. Ben knew the energy had to be truly evil to leave Erik shaken. “What did you see?” he asked Alessia.
“I’m not a medium, but I’m fairly certain it’s possessed by a malicious ghost,” Alessia said, seeming to slowly be regaining equanimity. “It’s not spelled, of that I’m certain, but it does carry a strong resonance of magic. I don’t know whether it’s the man you saw in the image or the prior owner or someone else, but I don’t think that can be cleansed by anything short of an exorcism, and maybe not even then. When Haley arrives, youcan ask her, but I’m afraid that one may be too much even for her.”
Erik nodded. “Thank you. I suspected as much, but it’s good to verify. I didn’t buy it for resale. I bought it to pass off to an organization that will permanently store it on magical lockdown so it can’t ever hurt anyone again.”
Ben went to the fridge and came back with small bottles of orange juice for Alessia and Erik, which they accepted gratefully and knocked back like whiskey.
“I’m sorry about that,” Erik said after they had a few moments to collect themselves.
Ben went to answer a knock at the door and returned with Haley.
