I carry the stuffed rabbit over to them. “Will this work?”
“It should,” Irina says, placing the rabbit in the middle of the floor. “It must be important to her if shestillsleeps with it.” She presses her lips together a moment before continuing, “Okay, now we need to sit in a circle and link our hands.”
“Kind of like a circle of protection?” Nils asks her.
Irina nods. “Which means no matter what, we can’t let go until the spirit is gone. Otherwise, one of us could get possessed.”
I let loose a short laugh. What has my life become?
“We definitely don’t want that,” Nils says, but he’s deadly serious as he scans the page. “Wait, it says here we also need a dark space. Do you have any candles?”
“Of course.” Irina sets some candles on the floor around us and starts lighting them one by one. “Bring the notebook over, Nils. Oh, and Edith, can you get the lights?”
I flip off the overhead light, and the dorm room disappears into darkness. Candlelight illuminates Nils’s and Irina’s faces as they sit on the floor.
Once I join them, Irina holds out her palms. “Ready?”
Nils takes one hand while I take her other, and then he holds out his other palm to me, waiting. All I can think of is how he helped me hide my claws earlier.
I place my hand in his.
“Okay,” Irina says. “Now we try to make contact. My aunt didn’t exactly specifyhow, so… here goes nothing.” The candlelight dances in her glasses as she raises her voice. “Emilía, it’s me. Are you still here? Can you hear us?”
Nils and Irina are waiting, breathless.
Rain drums against the window and thunder rumbles in the distance.
Seconds draw out into minutes.
Nothing happens.
This obviously isn’t working.
“It was worth a try, I guess.” I shake my head and start to pull away—
Nils stops me, refusing to let go of my hand. “Did you see that?”
One of the candles wavers, the flame leaping over our heads beforereturning to a normal height. I swallow, glancing between Nils and Irina. Their eyes shine in the dark, reflecting the candlelight.
“It could just be a coincidence,” I say weakly. I’ve never believed in ghosts. Then again, I never believed in berserkir or seiðr until recently, either.
“Emilía, are you here with us?” Irina asks.
Everything is quiet.
“Yes,” someone whispers behind me. I jump, immediately whipping my head around, but no one is there. My whole body goes cold at once. That sounded like Emilía’s voice.
Nils squeezes my hand. “Oh shit.”
“I can’t believe it’s actually working,” Irina says, her eyes wide as saucers.
“You both heard that too?” I ask in disbelief.
Irina nods slowly.
“So she’s ready to talk then?” Nils asks.
“Yes,” Emilía whispers.
