I laughed and told her to wait there. On my way to retrieve Daniel, I stopped to snag two flutes of champagne from a passing server. He met me at the edge of the dance floor.
“Your presence has been requested,” I said.
He grinned and let me lead him over. Alice’s grandmother stood as we approached, her posture as erect as a general’s. She put out her hands, and Daniel took them with the reverence of a man handling a priceless artifact.
The two of them started to dance, and every person on the floor took a step back to watch. Daniel spun her with the kind of gentle strength you only saw in old movies, and the grandmother laughed, a rich, wild sound that turned every head in the room. Even Alice, who had been deep in conversation with the officiant, stopped to watch. Tears pricked her eyes, and she dabbed at them with the back of her hand.
After a while, Henry found me again. He offered his arm. “Want to show these people how it’s done?”
I curtsied and let him lead me out. We waltzed for a while, our movements not so much elegant as stubbornly enthusiastic, and I thought about all the weddings we’d been to as kids, the ones where our parents would dance and dance until the only people left on the floor were them.
When the song ended, Henry pulled me into a hug. “You saved my life,” he said, and I thought he meant it in the big, cosmic sense. “And you saved Alice’s, too.”
“Someone had to,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said, looking around the room. “But it’s weird. I think you saved yourself, too. You’re happy, Em. Really happy.”
I was. I could feel it, under the layers of memories and the old scars that liked to flare up in bad weather. I squeezed his hand.
“You’re not so bad at this either,” I said.
He grinned. “I had a good teacher.”
Eventually the night started to wind down. The open bar ran out of craft beer, and someone’s toddler had a meltdown near the gift table, which signaled the start of the exodus. Henry and Alice left first, heading out in a car plastered with “Just Married” decals and, inexplicably, a dozen rubber ducks.
Beth and Wade found us near the doors. Beth had her shoes in one hand and a slice of carrot cake in the other.
“Would you guys be mad if I asked for a ride home?” she said. “Wade’s car is at the office, and I don’t want to ask the three rideshare cars in town to pick us up when they’re already so busy.”
“I’m the designated driver,” Daniel said. “I even had them stamp my hand at the bar.”
Beth cackled. “Responsible, and hot. Emma, how did you score this one?”
“Hypnosis,” I said. “And bear claws.”
“Gross,” said Beth, but she looked happy.
We herded ourselves into Daniel’s car. Beth and Wade took the back, squished together like teenagers on a field trip. Wade sang along to the radio, and Beth told a story about a client who’d tried to pay for a psychic reading with bitcoin and old pizza coupons.
As we neared the turn for their office, Beth leaned forward, suddenly urgent. “Wait, can we stop at the shop? I left the files for a case there, and I’ll never remember if I don’t get them now.”
Daniel nodded, and we pulled up outside the small brick building that housed Beth’s business. I’d seen it a thousandtimes, but tonight something was different. The windows glowed with a strange, pulsing light, and shadows slid across the frosted glass.
Daniel and I shared a look, then got out. Beth stumbled behind us, barefoot and still holding her cake. Wade followed, unsteady but alert.
“What is that?” Beth whispered, her voice suddenly sober.
I peered in through the window. The light inside shimmered and moved, like water running across polished stone. It wasn’t any kind of electricity I recognized, and I’d seen more than my fair share of haunted offices.
Daniel stepped in front of me, protective in that way I mostly found endearing.
“Stay behind me,” he said, and I rolled my eyes, but did as told.
We opened the door and the light spilled out, warm and inviting, but with an edge that made the hairs on my arms rise. I thought about all the things I’d seen in Mystic Hollow: ghosts and wraiths and things that didn’t have names. And then I thought about Daniel, and Beth, and my brother off somewhere with his bride.
We stepped inside, ready for whatever waited.
TWENTY-TWO
